I have a 67 malibu and am getting ready to pick a shop to have the sheetmetal work done. I have stripped about half the car using aircraft stripper and have uncovered some rust. The rear window channel is completely gone. ( i bought a replacement panel) There is a 3 inch area on the driver side fender just behind the wheel that is rusted all the way through, and when I took out the windshield there is quite abit of rust all the way around it and on the top of the dash where it meets the window. The lower corners, 1 upper corner and a few spots across the bottom are completely rusted thru.

I know its all but impossible to give a time gauge without seeing the car, but given what I said what would be a reasonalble guesstimate on hours needed for repair. The reason I am asking is I got one guy who told me probably about 40 hours. (this is without seeing the car) That seems pretty high to me especially since its $75 dollars an hour. At 40 hours thats $3000 just to fix some rust. that doesn't include any body work or alignment.

If that estimate is right and its gonna cost me about $3000 just for sheetmetal work, I don't know if its even worth restoring. Keep in mind besides the back window the rust is not that bad, the floor pans have already been replaced, and the trunk pan has no rust. Trunk pan might lso be a replacement not sure though.

Any thoughts on this are appreciated.

Thanks
Greg

It takes a lot longer than you would think. I'm not an expert, but I did most of the metal work on my 72 and have done all of it on the 70 so far and it takes hour upon hour to fool with that stuff. I have at least a full day in each rear window corner repair. I had several days in each quarter on my 72. I have at least two days in each car's trunk pans.

Its worth taking an auto body course. My dad and I took a course at a near by collage. They taught us how to weld, grind, sand, use filler and much more. It cost like 300 dollars but thats better than paying around 3000 for rust repair that can be done yourself. It takes time but its fun and very rewarding in the end.

I restored another car that was similar and ended up with 228 hours in it. This was for body rust and paint work (believe me the paint and body wasn't much of it). Fortunatlty the guy worked at a rate way below the rate you have been quoted. Of course the body shop was out in the sticks and he was happy to get the work and I was happy not to repair the rust! If you do this, you need to check on them every couple of weeks to make sure you are getting what you are paying for. And not some bondo patch job! I stopped in about every 2 weeks and took photo's. Every thing went as planned all the rust was cut out. 10 years later the car is still in good shape and no sign's of rust coming out!

If he can fix that much rust and do it right in only 40 hours, pay him he is worth it.
Everytime you/I start to work on a project it will always be more work and more rust than originaly thought.

I have stripped about half the car using aircraft stripper and have uncovered some rust.You have stripped the car to metal and plan to have some one else do the metal work, and you have not found a shop?

Working on these old cars is not most shops priority.

I suggest getting some experience on spraying metal etch and epoxy primer yourself, or you will find out how fast metal rusts!

Originally posted by 540cutlaSS:
If he can fix that much rust and do it right in only 40 hours, pay him he is worth it.
Everytime you/I start to work on a project it will always be more work and more rust than originaly thought. So if its normal to spend $3000 on rust repair alone, is it even worth it for a Malibu. I am not doing it to make money and have no plans of selling when I am finished but I also don't want to spend $40 K on a car that is going to be a driver.

Originally posted by DG:

I suggest getting some experience on spraying metal etch and epoxy primer yourself, or you will find out how fast metal rusts! I live in California and the car is in the garage. Its been about 3 weeks now with half the car down to metal and no rust has appeared yet. Should I be concerned that rust will start to appear?

Thanks
Greg

Well, the surface will oxidize as soon as it's exposed. Your climate is better than mine (Ohio).

A cheap coat of primer is small insurance.

You will get what you pay for is my point. It sounds to me like if you are going to do what you have discribed above that you are doing a full out restore. Even if you do all the work yourself you could have years of time in it and atleast $20K in it. So if he can fix all your rust and in only 40 hours it is money well spent. You will be way ahead of the game. For you to try and fix it could take a very long time. I have seen so many pepole get frustrated and give up on the car. Fixing rust on the car has to be the worst part of a resto so if you can have it done right then you get to start out with the "fun Stuff" and you will enjoy the process of restoring much more. Again IMO it would be mony well spent. Good luck.