Art & Inspiration Remembering Earl Scheib

While we think about the staggering cost of todays paint jobs, it is nice to remember when
We could get our cars painted for less than what a tank of gas costs today.
While working at the AACA museum in Hershey yesterday I was asked to hang an old canvas advertising banner that was used to advertise Earl Scheib.
The banner is 10 x 10” and now hangs in our storage building behind the museum.
Very cool vintage piece of advertising artwork.

 

“Any Car Any Color including Maroon and Metallics”
“ I truly do not know how long we are able to make this offer”

 

In 1975 or so, a buddy from my auto shop class had his family car done by Earl Scheib , I recall when he steam cleaned the motor , we took extra care to not get near the paint "just in case".

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-01-me-5781-story.html

 

Yes as a Chicago kid seen those and listen to radio ads, Later moved to Rockford and there was one. A guy I worked got a Used Ford Telephone Van and had Earl paint it. Never seen so many runs and sags

 

This was done in 1958 in east San Diego for $19.95. The guy that ran the shop told us to remove the emblems and do some prep work. We would make sure that we were the last car of the day so that it would remain in the oven (not turned on) over night.

 

Well at least it was all one color, rust and all.

 

I had a 41 Plymouth 4 door sedan while station at Ft. Knox, KY. I had the car in the auto hobby shop all the body work completed, windows and all chrome remove, sanded ready to paint. I got called out to go overseas for a 6 week trip. Drove the car to Louisville where there was a Earl Scheib's paint shop on my way to the Louisville airport. Told them they could have the car for the next 6 weeks and that I would be out of the country. The guy only asked, "what color" and told me how much it would cost. When I came back I really was not expecting much due to the low cost and saw only kids working there. I figure that I could take the car back to the base give it a quick sand job and repaint it. To my surprise, it came out great, everything was smooth and full of gloss and even the door jams done without any runs.

 

In the 60s, early 50s cars started showing up with Sheib coats on. They always looked much better than before of course.
It would seem as tho there were 2 popular colors. A light metallic blue, and a pale green metallic.
My cousin went with dark blue metallic on his '50, yes Dodge.

While pumping gas at a very busy 24 hour Gulf station, in the late seventies, a Stingray convert rolled in. The ass was jacked up, but he refused to say how.
When asked about the sharp looking, non factory paint job, he smiled and said "People don't believe me , but it's a Sheib"!

 

I never did have a car painted there, and I do recall people joking about how bad paint jobs must be; but I also heard that if you did the prep work yourself and just had them spray it they could do a pretty decent job. And of course, the low price was the main attraction. Kind of like taking your car to TJ for upholstery.

 

My brother had his '53 Chevy painted at Schieb. $19.95 in '62. Looked pretty good, except they got too much
paint on the hood so he ended up with a crinkle finish it. Oh well...it was Earl Scheib...but oven baked!

 

In the early 80's my little Brother (senior year of HS) got his car painted at "The Earl of Scheib" located across the street from where he worked (first mistake). A red 64 Falcon 2 dr hdtp. was to be painted white (second mistake). The plan was to drop off the car when he arrived at work and pick it up after he clocked out. He paid extra to have them paint the red door jamb areas red (third mistake). I detailed and degreased the jambs, hinges etc to ensure it would be properly prepped.
We spent some tome the previous day pulling all the emblems, grille, taillight housings, etc. Didn't pull all the side stainless as it's a bitch to get off/on (fourth mistake).
I had previously gone through the interior, painting the dash black, building a businessman's coupe style back seat area (for his guitar and amp) adding black GTO buckets and black loop carpeting.
That night he calls me at home and says "come on down here, there's a few problems with the Falcon".
I arrive to find a grayish pinkish Falcon. They (kind of) masked the side trim bet they went wide with the tape, leaving a thin outline of red around the trim (think Toad's AG 58 Impala). Overspray on the tires, glass. I open the door to look at the jambs. They look good-but wait, the black carpets are gray. I lift a floor mat to reveal dark black carpet squares. There's overspray on the dash too. They didn't mask off the interior!!!
I take a walk around the car with the manager and she's completely defensive of all their work. We go round and round. I say we're not paying and I'm calling corporate in the morning. End result, they kept the car another day, reshot it and detailed the interior and other overspray. Must have been a lot of rag/lacquer thinner scrubbing...ugh!!!

 

I am a fan of Earl Scheib paint jobs - as with any paint job proper prep is a must - an extra cost at a shop - plus, a lot depends on skill of guy doing the spraying - in 70's arranged for a metallic $29.99 job. when picked up he manager apologized that paint used was for the $39.99 - did not charge for it - car looked great - went and got a 12 pack of beer for painter - still take cars to the lower end name brand shops - has worked good for me

 

Earl the Pearl!
I took a car to them to be painted when I was a kid and dumber than a box of hood ornaments. Originally White, I wanted it Orange because it was the hot color in the late 60's. It was under a hundred bucks and had a few runs, but it wasn't that bad. Later in the week I took it to the quarter car wash and put the wand on it and the paint came off in sheets. There had been no prep work at all. They just painted over the white, no scuffing or anything.

 

I dropped off an OT 77 Dodge pickup in the early 80s to an Earl Scheib paint facility in San Antonio. I did the prep and had a beautiful blue metallic Mopar color picked out. When picked it up they had painted this thing the lightest shade of nonmetallic panty baby blue you have ever seen. Nice job but color was not close to what I asked for. It was fugly. Sold the truck right after that.

 

When I was in high school and in my 20’s there was a place up here called “ fair deal auto body” same idea as earl .

had a ton of winter beaters and cars painted there “$199.99 paint and 4 hours body work “ was there slogan .

wipers , glass, tires and trim painted for free


But if you stripped the car and did the prep , the actual paint job was pretty good .

 

I used to have all my VW's painted there. I told them to just put it on thick, so i can buff it out. They were great paint jobs. All single stage. I got all my body work done somewhere else, then dropped them off there.

 

I had my '57 Chevy painted at Earl Scheib's in 1969. I did the prep, and the paint job came out great, and held up well for the 3 more years I had it.
Scheib was able to do paint jobs cheap because he had his own plant that made paint for his franchises, and also sold paint to many auto makers too. He also paid his employees less than any decent autobody shop, so cheap paint and cheap wages were the key to his success.

 

Any car any color for $29.95 that wouldn't buy the masking tape and sand paper today

 

If you did your homework, ol' Earl would crank out a decent paint job. Most went in expecting a 19.99-29.99 paint job to be the perfect 499.99 job they couldn't pay for in the first place. The majority of the complaints against Earl were by customers that expected EVERYTHING for a NOTHING price. You'd have to be seriously brain dead to expect top shelf results from bargin bin prices.

 

Great thread. Reminds of my friend and I painting cars in high school ( early 70's ). We mounted my dad's old speed-air house paint compressor on an old push mower frame. My buddy would follow me around the car with the mower as I painted in our gravel drive. They didn't turn out too bad.

 

In 1970 just after I graduated from HS there was a local guy that would prep and paint a car for 20 bucks. You bought the paint and reducer at the local parts store (Centari enamel). Had a buddy's VW and my '65 Falcon 2 dr. wagon painted by him. Came out great for the money involved.

 

Just to add to add to that view,,, Late '50s early '60s family of four, our groceries were at $25.00 a week. Pops ( a grade 8 grad ) would just clear 3 grand a year. Worked his vacay in Dec as a temp for USPS.
By the way we had two cars.

 

Reminds of DIY garage in the 80s’ where I grew up in London, ON, Canada. There was a guy there that would paint your car for $100. My cousin and I fixed the rust on my grandmother’s VW bug and we brought it there for paint. We masked it off and supplied the paint. Turned out great and she had a lot of offers for it afterwards. It was a burnt metallic brown/orange. Lol!

 

My uncle had a '40 Chevy coupe painted a nice maroon color by Earl Scheib. Looked pretty nice! Had an original 6 cylinder that ran rough. Some dummy told him once the hot V8 really sounded good!

Dave

 

After beginning reading this, I was thinking of my OT truck. Then I started reading @Davesblue50 post and got excited, he's getting a PM from me. But his truck was blue, mine is babyshit green.

 

Anyone have a sticker or decal pic?

 

If I remember correctly there was an Earl Scheib located in Hempstead L.I. One of the guy's took his '55 Chevy to them for a paint job. The car was totally stripped, no glass, headlights, taillights interior etc. so it was an easy job. After the car was assembled nobody would believe him that it was an Earl Scheib paint job. Scheib did a beautiful job, I guess because they didn't have to do a lot of taping and masking they really went overboard with the paint.

 

I bought a Galaxy 500 that had repainted there. Best satin paint job in the area, in other words it flattened out in about 90 days. It was a 3 meter paint job but I suppose the price reflected that.