I debating on maybe restoring my 69 or dumping my car for one thats in maybe in better shape. Only concern I have is that I would have to put out probably more than double what my car is worth now, and I'll still need to paint whatever I get. So maybe I should hang-on to what I have. :confused:

Question is, what is the approx. cost -labor only- to hang new quarters, door skins, and front
fenders, and some small misc patches here and there. No painting, just doing the metal work.

I'm gonna try to locate parts myself. I know that there is many different variables that will affect the price, but I know somebody cab give me a ballpark.

Thanks

My take on the subject is HOW long have you owned the car? If you owned the thing for any length of time you KNOW what has been done to the car as in engine,tranny and body. You KNOW that your car wasnt slammed hard in the side years ago fixed to look good insted of fixed RIGHT.

Even tho that car with shiny new paint looks good, is it really good?? Primer and bondo can do wonders. You buy that sweet looking ride and now 2 years later the paint is flaking off or rust showing were they just slapped the mud to the rust spots instead of fixing right. Now what did you gain, NOTHING you LOST!!!

Give you an idea, to install quarters taking from my old mitchell crash books dating back from the early 50's to late early 80's. It pays 13.2 hrs to hang a 1/4panel a door skin is 5.0 hrs.

Now knowing from working on these cars the best repair when doing quarters is also installing new outer wheelwells as well and probably trunk exts. The wheelwell is 2.5 the ext is .5.

Now also take in mind these are writing back in 1969 when cars didnt have rust to fight and whatnot so the times will be higher, plus it was with all GM parts not repro not need some tweaking or reworking either.

So basically to find out how much add up all those man hrs and times that by the shop labor rate. My shop is at 46 bucks a hour and 24 I believe on paint time...Eric

I knew nothing about hanging fenders, quaters, & doors but i had no problem redoing my front clip. I need to shim it a bit better *not perfectly straight*. But all it is is bolts and threaded holes that hold on the fenders. It took me one whole day with help to take off my old fenders and put on the new ones, and it took about 3 hours of shiming to get them pretty straight. Will probably have to pay a body guy for about 2 hours to straighten them up.

Like he said if you do it yourself you know it will be done right, also its a WHOLE lot cheaper, most body shops range from $40-$60 an hour. I replaced every bolt in the front end with Stainless Steel bolts so i would not run into an issue of getting the bolts out @ a later time & they will always look nice.

The inner fender wells were welded to the car though but i didn't replace those since i was able to bend them back into shape.

In my experiences give the front clip a try it really isn't to difficult (the hardest part is getting it straight and that wouldn't take an experienced body guy to long to get right.

Doors & quarters have no idea since i haven't tackled those yet.