Earl Scheib out of business???

I bought a Sunbeam Alpine in 1971 to make a couple box on resale. I took it to Earl"s and specifically told them to not paint the wheels ( I knew what they do, spray the whole tire and rim and put tire black on the painted tire). They, as you guessed, painted them, I had to put new tires on the car. I was pissed to say the least, never went back after that.

 

If you prepped it yourself, taped it, sanded it, prepped the door jambs and rubbed it down with some pre cleano, you could get a nice job, you could have them put a little additive in the paint to make it gloss better, and if you paid a $20 tribute to the shop manager and the painter you could get a very respectable paint job for under $300.00.

 

"You can choose from 8 of our fabulous colors....We have black, white, and six shades of grey!" "Oh yeah...and whaterver color RED we have today...."

 

Your not wrong Steve. I am still amazed it was only 400 bucks and hasn't even been buffed back. I have seen people pay alot more for alot worse!

 

The text below was taken from http://www.earlscheib.com/?aspxerrorpath=/PaintServices.aspx


Effective July 16, 2010, Earl Scheib, Inc. has ceased operations nationwide. Each store is now independently owned and operated by a person unaffiliated with Earl Scheib, Inc. Based on this change, customer warranties of Earl Scheib, Inc. will no longer be able to be honored at these stores or by Earl Scheib, Inc. We truly apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, however we believe the independent owners and operators will continue to provide the same great service that Earl Scheib, Inc. offered for almost 80 years.

 

I had 2 VDubs painted there in jr college..not bad..not great.. Could not
Beat the price...

 

but now who will we joke about? I remember those commercials very well, I remember a buddy bringing in a rust bucket, this was up north, painted the rust, dirt, salt, bugs, and everything else that didn't come off quick. but it was CHEAP!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtjdHaMeiiQ

 

I just talked to him, and Earl is pretty disgusted about the whole thing...

 

from reading all the consumer complaints on them, I can see why they closed, you could get away with doing a crappy job maby 20 years ago, but people are smarter now and they realize what they are getting, also with the new types of finishes on cars, and corrosion protection, you can't just spray from a drum and go anymore. The EPA regulations and other fees probably made it so they couldn't make a profit anyway. They were fine for spraying a beater or a simple repaint, but what people want today has changed so much they became dinosaurs. they were operating in the same basic way they were in the 70's, and you just can't keep up that way.

 

You are absolutely right. I was an assistant manager at a shop in Walnut Hills, a suburb of Cincinnati, in the early 70's. $19.95 for a base group of colors, $29.95 for some deluxe colors. If you did your own prep, and spread a little money around, you could get a reasonable job if you could stand the colors. We even had spray on vinyl tops with adhesive strips that looked like raised seams. Our painter was arrested and taken to jail one morning, so I had to paint that day. I'd never painted a complete car, but I thought this was a great chance to practice. Within a couple days, I had it figured out. We had pre-reduced, pre-measured cans of enamel [about 3 quarts] and it went on very nicely. Lack of prep was the problem. It was a blast though - none of the usual prep a painter is responsible for, just another car and can of paint every 20 minutes. We had a beautiful infra-red bake tunnel that the car entered as soon as it left the booth. Trouble was we didn't use it - the electricity cost too much. If we had actually done what Mr. Earl Scheib [he was always addressed as Mr.] wanted us to do, the product would have been OK, but our prep people were paid by the piece, while they were supposed to be paid by the hour. They were only concerned with units per day. We never hired another painter. At a Friday night sales meeting in Detroit, I went over my supervisor's head, and complained about having to do both jobs. I was fired Monday morning, and never received my final check. Earl Scheib left the Cincinnati market long ago. They must have done a better job in other markets.

 

Didn't even wait for the paint to dry first either.

 

We had a couple of here on L.I., Freeport and I believe Patchogue. I knew one guy that sent his cars there for paint and they all came out good. He took the $59 deal and found out who was going to paint the car and tipped him $10 up front. This was 1977 or so. He'd do all the bodywork, remove the trim, headlights and mask the car enough so it could be driven. Scheib would mask the windows and take it from there. The cars always looked good after.

My dad picked up a '59 Parkwood wagon in about 1964 or so. The paint was done over and I found the can of touch-up paint that Scheib would give out in the glove box.

Bob

 

Really? You talk to dead people?

 

Sad to hear,my refrigerator magnet has held up great though...

 

I had a friend witha red '65 Impala. Took it ti Earl and had it painted bright blue. Didn't pop for the door jambs. Looked soooo bad. But they would paint over bugs and dirt for free.

 

Like a lot of us who started rodding in the '60s, I took my car to Earl Scheib for the $29.95 special ("no ups, no extras") after I took off as much of the trim as possible, masked most things that I could and still drive the car and prep the bodywork. The finished job was usually pretty good for the money, and if I found a run or some other major flaw, the Scheib boys were pretty good at sorting it out - yes, they would actually fix stuff back then when asked to; I wonder how many of their customers did.

Then my brother and I got a top-of-the-range Sharp paint gun in 1970 and realised we could do a significantly better job for not much more cash.

 

In the late 50's my dad had our '49 Cadillac painted at that shop on Valley Blvd. All I know is the fire engine red paint still looked good 15 years later.

 

His son would bring a blown hemi 57 Fury out to Kevins burger.

 

I wondered what ever happened to him.
That car was cool. It had a very nice Candy Apple Red paint job.
We kinda did a little stop light racing one night leaving Kevins Burgers.

 

I can see a new trend here ,now that they are a part of automotive history!!

"Earl Scheib barn finds!" or "Earl Scheib Patina"

better yet
"Earl Scheib Faux Patina" [ at least most of us are capable of doing this at home ]

 

Earl Scheib Patina, 100 different colors of red over rust?

 

Does it work for ya? (dilligaf..)

* BTW Good thread folks, sounds like fun, I like the 'brick in the pickup' bed story.

 

Not Earl Scheib but Fact O Bake is where I got my sub $150 paint job on my 70 Riviera in 1981. They did a darn good job but completely forgot to paint the valance under the rear bumper, I took it back and they did it. It looked good for the next three years until I smashed it into a telephone pole.

 

Jerkoff still owes me $250.

I loved my $300 painjob that cost me $600 in repairs and pealed off in 3 months.

They painted my radiator to the point it didnt cool and had to be acid bathed. My Chrome headers were burnt paint when I got it back, and they didnt even open the tire carrier before painting. How have they been in business all these years?

 

That's too bad. I worked for the one in Springfield for a couple weeks in '08 I think it was. I learned all kinds of ways to NOT prep and paint a car. Had a horrible vent system in the spray room.

 

my turn

 

had a 60 something corvair re-painted white there for $29.95. paint peeled off within a couple of months