Well after being put off for four months I found a guy local to paint the chevelle. He said 4 to 6 weeks and after waiting months and hearing " your next in line" I think I can handle that. It is going to cost 3500.00 including paint all PPG base and clear and that will include wetsand and polish. Plus all the jams have to be done. From the work I have seen that he has done I like the price.

$3500.00 sounds more then reasonable to me if you like his work.

Good luck. I hear "2 or 3 more weeks" all the time. Just keeps going on and on. At least I see progress every month or two when I visit.
Herbie

Must be the universial answer samething I hear.:confused:

one question guys. why do all these shops say it will take months to do your car? i mean i can understand there are other cars and it takes time but are there that many cars other than yours? and why do they take so long?

The guy doing mine works at home so I guess he just works when he wants to. The other guy did about 8 cars after he was going to start mine. My car has been there a week now and he is making good progress.

My 4 to 6 weeks turned into 11 months and 22 days. Never again! Ill learn to paint before I go through that again.

i just finished a 67 chevelle for a customer,and he brought it in in late spring and he just got it today,i had over 200 hrs in the car,i do other jobs as they come in ,the 67 is fill work only,so thats how a 200hr job can take 2 seasons,and i think alot of shops do the same,but i never say it will be done at any givin day,nor would i quote a price, hour rate on old cars,

He came and got my car on a trailer 02/01/06 and said about 2 months to completion. Still there! Works on his own cars, others that are small jobs, and also mechanic work. Doing a really good job but it is real frustrating when he gets on a roll and gets me all reved up and then drops me like a hammer. oh well.
Herb

I have had a good feeling about this until now. :mad:

I've been thinking about this a lot and anything more than a couple of weeks is simply unnacceptable. I don't get it, must be an "industry standard." When I do my car, I think since I have minimal body work (filling trim holes) I will just have a pro do the body work and take the car to Maaco. Sounds crazy I know but I would go nuts sitting around for months on end getting the run-around.

I've been thinking about this a lot and anything more than a couple of weeks is simply unnacceptable.
The above post said he had 200 hours in the car.Thats about average.So a couple of weeks would require a shop dedicating 100 hours a week to your car. Good luck on that. I just did a 65 Mustang and had 350 hrs on it. I've been involved in restorations with hours into the thousands. If you can do it quicker have at it.

The above post said he had 200 hours in the car.Thats about average.So a couple of weeks would require a shop dedicating 100 hours a week to your car. Good luck on that. I just did a 65 Mustang and had 350 hrs on it. I've been involved in restorations with hours into the thousands. If you can do it quicker have at it.

You're right I'm sure. But if I had no body work other than sanding, then I just don't get why a car should sit in the shop for weeks on end with little or no activity, unless that is disclosed prior to the customer. I admit I am new to owning a classic so maybe I have some eye opening coming to me. :beers:

I am sure its not worth a crap but I had two copies of a written agreement saying everything to be done and the price and timeline. We both signed the copies. Like I said it may not be worth anymore than the paper its written on.

Just a word from the shop side. We don't give exact times for completion. Too many variables. The same problems you run into in your home shop on a car pop up in a professional shop. We just have experience on our side. A shop has to have more than one car going at a time and they have to try to keep ALL of their customers happy. We've had customers who were financially capable of walking in and writing a check for the complete hourly capacity of the entire shop to work on their car until it is finished. That would make him real happy and all of the others real mad. It sort of boils down to supply and demand. Presumably, one chooses the best shop that one can afford. If the customer feels he is getting a raw deal from the shop, he has the option of pulling the car out of the shop and finding either a lower or higher shop. If a shop is the only game in town the advantage is to him. And finally, depending on the financial arrangements of a given shop, for every car that isn't being worked on enough to suit the customer, there is likely to be a car setting there waiting on the bill to be paid to proceed to the next step. It's balancing act. You can't make everybody happy all of the time. The best you can do is try to keep them from coming with torches and pitchforks late at night.

Thats very true.Most guys are looking for a deal on a paint job.So that great price you got may very well put you down the pecking order when there are higher(and faster) paying jobs in the shop.

My car has been in for paint since Late Sept early Oct. Was told I will have it in Nov. Now its ready for paint, was going to be painted firday, than this weekend, now its Monday. It is for sure ready. They have been blocking the hell out of it all week. Got to be straight as an arrow.
This Painter was also painting out of his house. Been watching his paint jobs for a year before I turned my car over to him. Now has a shop with Paint Booth and temp control, and prices for his Paint jobs now start at $7000, mine was the last $4500 paint job. Of course when the paint went down to metal and the rust that was found, caused an $800 increase, which I can fully understand because that was still a deal from what I saw:sad:....Marina Blue-white stripes monday..:hurray:

mine's been in a for a month now and hopefully :rolleyes: will be out in a month. checked on it the other day and the body work is getting there. ive been keeping myself busy maxing out my credit card on everything going back in her :D

I went to visit it today and took a couple of pics. Its been in for two weeks now.

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/data/500/medium/HPIM0480.JPG

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/data/500/medium/HPIM0481.JPG

Looks like a guide coat. They'll be blocking next I bet.

He said this was the second blocking so far. The car will be black so he said its going to be super straight.

Well six weeks past but the car is coming along good. Everything is painted except the body and it will be painted this weekend. The fenders, trunk and the doors are super straight hopefully the body will be as well.

Well taking 3-4 months sounds good to me. Most of you must not never tried to do your own body work. Unfortuanly i thing paying someone to do the great part of you car is a little different the best thing you should do is just go out and buy someone's chevelle because its not like you put your own work into it. And doing the paint and body is the biggest part. But im on my 4th month on my 71 Chevelle with blocking right now. But this is at my house in my heated tint garage thing i bought with lights in it and it has taken me this long to get to blocking and another month before i paint due to waiting for the right weather. But it hard and trust me he cannot just stop and do your car only it about multitasking in body work.

Took me two years of working on and off on the Firebird to get it painted. And this was an "easy" project, to start with. Ended up with new quarter patch panels, some door patching, front fender patches, etc., and a lot of hammer and dolly work on the passenger's fender, as it had hit something and kinked it right over the middle of the wheelwell, both side and top. I kept telling myself it'll be worth it to not take shortcuts, and that couldn't have held truer. It came out beautiful, with the help of some quality hammers and dollies, a good longboard, and a lot of patience. Took all the filler out of it twice to rework it before I was satisfied with it. Only has a skim coat now. :yes: Definitely a learning experience, and I'm feeling a lot more confident about getting the El Camino fixed up right now. It's been in bodywork hell for 12 years now. I expect to be hitting it hard by the summer, since the Firebird will be done and cruising. :hurray:

me and my dad put new quarters and rear window panel in so its not like we haven't done anything. I had help for a while doing body work but he kept putting me off so I found someone to do the painting. Its been 15 years since I painted a car so this one wasn't going to be my test subject.

The car took a little longer but its worth it. I took a couple of pics today of the progress.

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/data/500/medium/car22.jpg
http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/data/500/medium/car11.jpg

Good luck. I hear "2 or 3 more weeks" all the time. Just keeps going on and on. At least I see progress every month or two when I visit.
Herbie

Sounds very familiar! Mines been in the shop 5 months.. Promised to be off the frame this week.. 100 days to CB.... I'm going crazy waiting. I need to learn to do body work and paint myself then I'll be the one procrastinating!

Good looking car Gonracin!

Its been almost three months and I am going to pick it up this weekend. I have so many new parts in the shop it will be nice to be able to start putting them on.

That paint job really looks good, you can see the reflections in it, like a mirror,:thumbsup: Eventually I will be where you are at now, question, how are you going to protect it from getting scratched or bumped while your putting the interior in it.

Rob

I have some sheets to cover it with and then some moving blankets on the sheets. I'll still have to be very careful getting the seats in.

Sounds good.

Fellas, I can see both sides of this situation. Depending on the car, the shop, the season, and the tech working on it, well.... the variables are infinate! I worked full time at the shop I'm currently at for 2+ years. I am a valued tech there, but I went back to school for awhile. I am now back at the shop working "part time", 6-7 hours a day. I am extra help, but I know how to do this things and don't need babysitted, so I was fortunate enough to get the task of a total frame off resto of a 64 GTO of my neighbor's. While I usually put in 40-50 hours a week on the car, sometimes more or less, I did have to take a couple weeks out and do collision work just to keep up with business that month (winter fender benders, a mass of deer hits, etc). This is especially true in smallish shops like the one I work at. All in all, for the ridiculous panel replacements, fabbing, and attention to detail, I have been working on this car for a good couple of months and am just now finishing up sheetmetal work and getting ready to take the car off the rotisserie and putting back on the frame to begin the actual bodywork. The shop should make decent progress on it most of the time, but don't expect too much. Unless you are paying their hourly charges weekly or biweekly, or paid for it up front, then remember... they have to be moving jobs through to keep the lights on and the techs paid, regardless of your car. If you pay them at delivery, on a 5,000 or 10k job, then you are having that shop front 10k for how long? How long can you personally front 10k for someone for?

That said sometimes it is ridiculous, I agree. Just remember, these are bolt up things, and there is no way to tell what will come up and how long they will take. As long as it is a relatively timely manner and you are pleased with the result, be happy. After all, would you rather pay 5k and wait 2 weeks for a mediocre paint job, or pay 5k and wait 2 months for a quality paint job? I know I could wait.