Hey everyone, I know this is not going to be anything firm and prices are different all over the place but i am trying to get a rough idea. I have a 1952 Chevy deluxe it is going to need inner and outer rockers, and lower rear quarters behind the gravel guards. I am going to buy the replacement panels just curious to what it might cost to have them installed. I am wanting them welded and very minimal bondo. Thanks for any help guys......
Depends on where you take it, if you take it to a Hamb friendly craftsman he will likely charge by the hour as he cannot forsee what he will have to deal with to do the job proper. If you take it to a well-meaning guy that does sidework etc he will give you fixed price but he will tackweld the replacements and mudd the rest without doing anything to repair/replace the supporting metal and you can bet if the inner & outer rockers need replacement all the metal they are attached to will need a great deal of work. A regular insurance work type shop won't touch it. So my advice as far as cost goes is to find a guy that knows what he is doing, agree to an hourly rate and let him do the job properly - don't provide anything other than money when he needs it. If he wants a replcement panel let him order it, it is my experience that all replcement panels are junk and if you provide them then he will bitch to you about poor quality, if he provides it then you can bitch to him.
I'm sorry, but you have asked the wrong question. Body repair shops these days are set up to repair accident damage on late model cars quickly. The question to ask is "who in my area will do this work? Do it properly, in a timely fashion, and not rip me off?" Don't use any one that does not come with good references. Check his references carefully. Pay what ever he charges. The wrong guy can save you $60 while causeing $600 worth of grief. oj types fast
ARM & LEG , make sure to go to right place . Try to get price before job starts. "AND THE BOWTIE ROLLS ON"
Done right is not cheap. You could easily spend a couple of grand. Stay away from production type collision repair shops. Find a reasonably priced resto-type place to do the work. There should people on here that can do the work, or tell you where to go.
95% of the time, you'll find some other issues that need to be attended to while repairing what you can see... keep that in mind.
I agree with what the others said. No one can give you any idea what it's going to cost without seeing the job in person, and even then, the job will be 2-3 times worse then what can be seen. Let the shop buy the panels. If you are worried about them jacking the price up, ask where they are buying them and confrim the price on your own. This type of work is NOT for the average body shop or backyarder if you want it done right. FWIW, I get 60.00/ hour. Local collision shop rate is 43.00/hr, the only other resto shops in the area get 60-75.00/hr and Whitepost restorations gets 100+/ hr. FWIW when rockers go it tends to get into the floors so be prepared
For what this would cost to farm out, have you considered spending the $$$ on a good MIG and air tools to do the job yourself? Most of the inner and outer rocker splicing and welding is out of sight. Then work on the quarters last. While involved, this isn't a top chop. If money is an issue, try to barter if you have any skills/labor to trade with another local rodder. Perhaps you can't do welding or fabrication, but you're able to blow apart and rebuild someone's front suspension, etc. as a trade. Ask around your local circle at car shows, etc. You'll be sure to find a local rodder that will take on the work as a side job in his home shop for a fraction of the cost of a pro shop. The other option would be to cut out all the old metal, then spend the time to perfectly fit the replacement panels in place and farm out only the welding.
Not everyone has the time, skills or inclination to do it himself as Hotrods to Hell suggests above but you can do a bunch of prep work that might make things go easier and faster for who you are paying to do the work. 1. pull the interior out yourself so it doesn't have to be dealt with. 2. Clean all the mud, undercoating and other crud off the areas of the car that need worked on. Why pay someone else 65.00 an hour to scrape undercoating or dirt and mud so he can weld up the panels? You might even wire brush the rusted areas with a cup brush to get things as ready to be worked on as you can before having someone look at it. I forgot one thing, After seeing Scotty's post in post 18, don't cut anything away yourself. Clean but don't cut. It's a lot easier to repair something from the get go than follow behind someone else and try to figure things out. I can't say on who buys the replacement panels, that would depend entirely on the deal you have with who does the work but some guys see it like going to the cafe with your own bacon and eggs and wanting them to cook them for you.
I would check you local craigs list and see who's advertizing that type of work...alot of these guys are mobile and can do the work at in your garage or a buddys...prep. repair. patch .prime,,,,some guys like to cut corners on there work for example i had a 67 camaro that had a nasty crease on the front pass fender and one body guy said he would cut the metal out and weld in a new piece,,another body man came by to give an estimate and i had a cheap harbor freight body kit laying on the floor...he said let me see your kit..I KID U NOT...this kid had the narly looking thing beautiful and flat within 8 mins--- i timed him...to say the least he was working on the car two days later i love miracle workers!! gump
You can network around and see who is in your area who does this kind of work, as opposed to a body shop that is mostly focused on late-model insurance work. Ask yourself, if someone worked out of their garage and charged you $40 an hour, and it cost $2000 in labor, does that sit well with you? Play out some scenarios in your head.
never buy patch panels if you are not doing the work yourself. here is an example of why not. I did some rust repair on 50 Chevrolet. the owner bought what he considered to be trunk pans, and floor pans from the aftermarket, he also bought an NOS rear tailpan for a fastback, even though his car was a coupe. the front floors pans were good, they were stamped steel and looked like the originals. the rear floors and trunk were flat sheet with a couple beads rolled in them and totally useless. I had some flat sheet here already that I got cheap from a guy going out of business, I would have only charged him what I paid for it.. would have saved him a bunch of money. I told him I did not need the tailpan, but he insisted I cut it up and use the pieces to fix his car. would not listen to me, thought he knew more than I did. so I fabbed up the patches anyway and he never knew the difference. so I'm guessing he spent $200 - $300.00 on parts he did not need. find a guy who works out of his own garage and takes pride in his work. ask for pictures of what they have done in the past. ask them how they would do the work. plenty of guys out there who will take your money and do a shitty job. good luck in your search for someone who is not a hack.
The average shop rate is 65 and hour. The average time on a standard lower quarter repair if the inner only needs a little love is about 6 hours that's with the filler done not ready for paint though. Inner and outer rockers will be by the hour as most rust will crawl back into the b pillar and floor braces, probably ten to twelve hours per side. Most people don't realize how much time is involved in cutting out the rust repairing inner structure and making it all fit without an inch of filler. Hope this helps
Oh yea and by the way I do this all day long, it sucks but to let you know on the 49 to 52 Chevs if you have rust in the qtrs it will most likely be thin and pinholes above the wheel well on the lip, it usually shows up after the paint is removed so be ready for a few surprises once some one digs in. I do these repairs for cheaper on the side and charge 35 to 40 an hour to give you an idea of garage prices. if you find someone to do it for 20 bucks think twice wire, gas, cutoff wheels, grinding disks are not cheep and it will sometimes be made up in the labor and bite you in the ass later..not always but you know how it goes..
Even for a small job you should get references because that 100 bucks can become misery if you let just anyone do it. Check with local clubs and go to car shows and ask questions
You do not take your own eggs and bacon to Denny's for them to cook, let the people doing the work decide what to use.
I'm replacing the entire cowl section on a '67 Mustang for a friend right now. The advice given about letting the tech choose patch panels is dead on. I am using parts he provided after doing his own deconstruction. Several parts were cut away unnecessarily and the new replicas (reproduction would give them too much credit) are far from a direct fit. I am custom tailoring them for his car because of interference, fit and shape issues. In some cases, I am simply hammering out my own parts to replace still more rotten parts he overlooked and they are turning out better than what he bought. Step one: Go find your guy and forge a relationship after deciding he has the quality standards you desire. Step two: Do as he says. Step three: Pay whatever he asks, so long as it's the same standard of quality that drew you to him in the first place.
That's the best advice right there. Check around and when the same name comes up as the guy to see from several different sources and you see examples of his work before you meet him that's the guy.
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