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On the good advice of Craig some moons ago, I started shopping around for some restoration crews that might be interested in helping me out to get the ute body restored. That was a short-lived project. The first shop I went to said $6000 - but it turns out that was the cost just to gut it. Another $15k for the job - rotisserie and all. I was too afraid to knock on another door.
Had I been on a chair, I would have been too dizzy to get back on after falling off. As a green horn when it comes to cars, have I led the painter up the wrong path? $15k would get me a show stopper, nudie calendar quality type of car. I am interested in a daily driver (easy kms), and getting the condition right (inside and out) so that one day I can pass it on to the next generation. There isn't any rust just in case anyone was going to ask. Pls send help. Puddes

I'm in the same boat.

Some of the quotes I've been getting have been mind boggling, though apparently that's the going rate nowadays.

Your better off looking for some dude that works from home that does this sort of thing in his spare time, though the problem with that is the quality might not be there, plus don't expect to see your car for some time.

In hindsight I wished I'd bought a car that needed little to no bodywork. I'm loathe to drop close to 10 grand to make the car look a little bit better than what it does now.

This is the reason that allot of people have a go at doing up their own cars for the first time, and learn it isn't as easy as one would like to think it would be (ME) . But learn as we go and end up having a great time achieving what most people would call a far from professional job .
Either you pay or have a go yourself, good luck with your choice , Trev .

This is one time you get what you pay for! A cheap job is just that. But if you want something to last you are going to pay for it. You just need to find the right person for the job. Prices will vary, but if they are happy to show you current/finished projects use this as a guide as to what you'll get. I did with one of my cars and 12 years later it still looks like new, 'cept I'm not the lucky owner anymore.

Or your other choice is a TAFE course in beating and spraying, then buy all the tools you'll need for the job. Hire a booth if your really serious or make a temporary one and you'll soon see the costs of professionals aren't so bad..... Mind you I did mine, but it wasn't the first one I'vedone and I have mates who know what they are doing to go to for tips.

Like Devilrod said, it pays to look at other work the people may have done, and to ask around.

I know of a few well known restorers/beaters who have quite a few not so happy customers. Remember, a turd wil always float to the top, so if someone has done a few crappy jobs, people will know

Devilrod wrote: Prices will vary, but if they are happy to show you current/finished projects use this as a guide as to what you'll get.

this is the best way, went shoppin round with the boss, for his latest and the first thing the bloke said was, mate i know what type of job you want, come in next week and have a look at the job were doin and make ur mind up if you want to use us, we might not be the cheapest but were pretty competitive and the best,
and thats were the car is now

Agree with the others a good job costs, and its really just the labour involved. To do yourself will cost $1000-1500 in materials plus all the spay gear if not allready owned .$500-$1000 for sandblasting, which is money well spent. And anywhere from 6 monthes to 2/3 years of weekends in the shed ... makes 15g sound cheap

matchew wrote: this is the best way, went shoppin round with the boss, for his latest and the first thing the bloke said was, mate i know what type of job you want, come in next week and have a look at the job were doin and make ur mind up if you want to use us, we might not be the cheapest but were pretty competitive and the best,
and thats were the car is now

The guys that painted my old FC said exactly that! As Gary will attest to the paint is still like it was done yeterday. Its a hard call to make but in the end if you're planning on keeping the car for a long time and can afford to pay someone else to do it. Do it!

Some crash shops don't want "resto" work, Crash Repairs is a massive cash cow and easy earner for a lot of them. They might have to do some real work or show real skill to do a resto and will put a price on that is ridiculous so that you will go away, if you persist then they'll make a killing anyway.
I've seen a few jobs like this now and the owners are usually unhappy with the end result as there is no "heart" in the work.

Yep, for a lot of them now it's bolt off,bolt on and paint and out the door it goes.

All part of the disposible mentality society we live in today .

i'll strip it for $3,000 i've just saved you $3,000 it's getting cheaper

go to a few panel shops and find a 3rd year aprentice that will
do you a cash job from home same result at half the cost

stinky wrote:Some crash shops don't want "resto" work, Crash Repairs is a massive cash cow and easy earner for a lot of them. They might have to do some real work or show real skill to do a resto and will put a price on that is ridiculous so that you will go away, if you persist then they'll make a killing anyway.
I've seen a few jobs like this now and the owners are usually unhappy with the end result as there is no "heart" in the work.

To start with ask any panel beater how much of a "Cashcow" insurance work is. Insurance companies have the guts cut out of everything, they only pay something like $35 an hour for labour. How many of you run a workshop/power/phone/net/pay wages for $35 an hour?

Panelwork (Real panelwork) is a skill and only learned through years of expirence. Spend anything from 500 to 1500 hours rebuilding a complete car will cost big money. Any car will take more work than you think, there is always more rust, more dints, than appears. Why do you think matt black paint jobs are trendy? You can do a quick tech course on how to glue metal together (Weld) and bash panels out, if your dedicated you might be able to do you own car.

The result is usually "For sale! unfinished project, done all the hard work by pulling it into 100,000 pieces. Have half paint stripped it 5 years ago and has been outside ever since, only needs assembly/panel and paint. This is a genuine sale, these classics don't come up often, be quick"

Playing around with old bomb cars is for the love of it. If you want a good machine buy the best you can find. If you get a rusty wreck it will cost you to completely do it up @$12,000 panel and paint, @$5,000 interior, @$6000 mechanical and you will have a car you can sell for around $7,000 if your lucky. Sure you see stupid prices but how many actually sell?

Have a think about what is actually involved, if you think it's so easy, do it yourself.

Oldfart wrote:If you get a rusty wreck it will cost you to completely do it up @$12,000 panel and paint, @$5,000 interior, @$6000 mechanical and you will have a car you can sell for around $7,000 if your lucky. Sure you see stupid prices but how many actually sell?

actually alot, not for what was probably spent but alot more than $7,000

seems we've put a panelbeater/painters nose out of joint i know quite a few and NONE of them are interested in doing resto type work on older cars sure they'll take on a respay on a commodore or such still fairly easy work
i have a mate that's a beater he'll do work on my cars mainly as a favor and i know another guy that works from home not cheap but nowhere near shop prices and the jobs as good if not better, and we've just got onto a painter mates rates couple hundred to put paint on 2pak in a booth
flat paint is lazy but there are some amognst us that just like it also

well, i'm of two minds on this. it reallly depends on what your wanting in the end. are you after a show stopper that you just wait for a phonecall to come and pick up, which any little scratch, stonechip ect will bring a tear to you eye after you've spent a lot of money getting it to a professional panelshop finish.
or spend the money on getting the tools needed (and maybe the training, tafe ect) enjoy building it yourself (and probably hate it too at times) and learn along the way. some aspects you may need to outsource for (my case is interior as i'm hopeless with it) but most of it you can give it a go yourself, if a weld isn't right, break out the angle grinder and have another go.
this is just my opinion, for me i would rather have a "ordinary" ek, but be able to say i did as much of it as i could myself, rather than work a job i hate to pay someone else to restore my car and me still know nothing about bodywork, painting ect as before i started.
my 2c, luke.