Art & Inspiration Remembering Earl Scheib

When I lived in Texas in the early 70's and Worked in Waco one of the guys I worked with came back laughing one day. He had been down by the Earl Scheib shop and some guy had parked his car in the ally behind the shop right under the paint booth exhaust fan right between the big DO NOT PARK BETWEEN SIGNS signs. He had a multi colored speckled paint job by the time he got back to the car and was throwing a fit and I think had even called the cops who laughed at him when they pointed to the easy to see and read signs.

 

I got good results twice, got to shop several locations, look at the cars coming out to see where the best painter is and go there.

 

If ever there was the " genuine article ", Tom Waits is it, that entire album, is simply the finest collection, of true emotional anthems, for any occasion you can think of!

Bravo @Hillbilly Werewolf , for taking us on a tour, of the bowels of the Los Angeles Metropolitan region.
Long tawny fingers stretched out over green felt!

 

I remember going to Earl Scheib with a friend in 1960 when I was16, his car needed paint and some minor body work, the salesman had a wheel gadget he rolled along the damage to calculate the cost

 

I'd actually imagine the guys spraying the paint were pretty good painters. They probably had a gun in their hand day in and day out and got that robotic muscle memory for gun setup, distance from the panel, speed, overlap....

 

The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.....oh, wait....you're talking about that OTHER Earl...never mind, carry on.
I always said he was the Colonel Sanders of auto painting. Franchises paid his salary, not painting. Pretty cool, imho. Dummies like me are still slingin' bondo and squirting paint everyday. Could be worse though....at least nobody's telling stories about me(that I KNOW of)

 

I remember Earl's ads on T.Y, prices were $19.95 then up to $29.95 for a long time. My Aunt had her 41 Chev. painted there and they sprayed the tires when they sprayed the wheels. Fast forward many years and I had a Sunbeam Alpine I bought to flip and did the body work myself, when I took it to Earls I specifically told them to not spray the wheels. Of course they did and painted the tires with black paint. Pissed and let them know. Any other flips I went to One Day....

 

I am sorry about the confusion. I had forgotten that we have a member with the same screen name. I am glad to hear that you are well.

 

In high school I had my '60 Pontiac Catalina painted Marina Blue (Diamond Gloss) by the Earl Scheib in Culver City, Ca. It came out beautiful, all of a sudden everyone wanted to buy it. IIRC, it cost me a whopping $87 and change including some body work. Earl was great in my book.

 

Can of touch up, I found in a XK-140..

 

Hahaha! No worries Dave, apology unnecessary. It was kinda nice having friends check to see if I had croaked!! When I chose this name I expected to catch some grief...and the HAMB was a tough place back then.

 

Miami Florida didn't have "Earl Scheib" shops,but we did have a shop that was good at what they did for a long time!
. In the 1950s an in to the 1960s; "Johnny and Mac,by The RR Track" was the $19.95 paint job place.
I mostly did all my own in the back yard,and some of my buddys too,back then most of our cars only needed a Qt. of high gloss color{Was about $10 to $15 for all needs,sandpaper,tape, paint and thinner @ our cost,so the big outfits got paint much cheeper}= I did take two cars,too "Johnny and Mac" and what I got,was very nicely done. $5 was a lot of money back then. When your working for 50cent per hr. pumping gas or what ever.

 

Uh Oh, better get Maaco! I have not seen their ad in years but we have one in Upper Marlboro, at least I think it’s still in business.

 

Back when I was flippin', me and ol' Earl shook hands on a regular basis. Sometimes as many as three a week. 25 bucks (cash, no receipt) and a case of beer every friday afternoon (whether they had one of my cars or not) got me the 'deluxe' treatment (better masking. covers over the tires, and a painter who could bend over enough to do the rockers). I found the secret was to never change color, or choose one real close and wash the car with a Brillo pad before they got it.

 

Best reply on the thread!! $

 

I had my 1956 Plymouth painted there in 1962. I cleaned the exterior well and took off some of the bezels before taking it in. It was OK for a kid right out of high school.

 

When I had my Campbell, CA. shop I 'inherited' an old '29 'Lowboy' roadster. I had a nice '32 frame, original K-member, perfect rails, (many holes I filled)
I built new sub rails, mounted it, and prepped the body, frame, and '32 shell, primered and wet sanded #400 wet.
The painter at Earl Sheib said "Bring it over, I'll paint it single stage red, you'll love it."
I loaded the frame, body, doors, and all the pieces onto my car trailer, with a rolling caster jig for body, dropped it off on Saturday.
Monday went and got it, wow! $99 and he painted jambs, trunk channels, sub frame, and frame, inside/out, top/bottom. I thought it was a different car. Tipped him $50, (this was in 1979)
Assembled that roadster, everybody thought it was a top dollar body shop job.
Did a VW for me too. Excellent painter. Like everyone says: "Prep is critical!"

 

Badge Z28 -- By the looks of your photo, I'd think you could weasel a great deal!

 

Hello,

When we were teenagers in Long Beach, people that had saved up a lot of money went to the local hot stuff paint shops to get the custom colors, like Tahitian Red, Candy Apple Red or just a very good paint job for their hot rods or cruisers. The cost was a higher than what we heard, of... “We will paint any car, any color for $29.99.”

The first location was on Pico and La Brea in Los Angeles. We drove by that place a zillion times as it was in the “cool” section that sold plenty of discount items. But, there were so many of the Earl Scheib locations back then, it seemed like an invasion of Starbucks, today.

The Los Angeles area was stocked full of little shops, like the current Melrose shopping location. Shops like those selling clothes, shoes and of course, LP albums at a super low $2.99 to $3.99 for those normally selling for $9.99 and higher, elsewhere. It was worth the drive to those cool little shops.

Jnaki

We teenagers had access to the Long Beach shop that was close to our high school. So, for those that did not have the money or access to the hot rod, custom car painters, we had three sedans that got new paint jobs that were very good.

The simple silver paint on the 1956 Chevy two door post sedan looked new, which it was and the paint did not have ripples or blems. Silver looked good with chromed reversed rims, blackwall tires and our friend even had white tuck and roll upholstery installed South of the border. It was a great looking 56 Chevy sedan for the times.

The other Chevy sedan was a 53 Chevy Bel Air Hardtop and he had selected an oddball Green color. Not the normal Irish Style Green, but wanting something different, he selected this different color.

The 53 Chevy Bel Air was the first in our group to get the full treatment of all white tuck and roll.
similar in color
The last was a touch up paint by Earl Schieb for a White 57 Bel Air Hardtop. Luckily, the place my friend worked was just down the street from an Earl Schieb location and it was done in a day. Again, Classic Car Wax did a great job of highlighting the good paint job and there were no problems. The whole paint shop was there as an outlet for low cost paint jobs. The Long Beach shop back then did a great job and everyone was satisfied.
old Friday Art

Regardless of how, why and what happened to other’s Earl Schieb Paint jobs, the ones we saw and polished throughout our teenage days were pretty good. The ripples were not evident. No orange peels and the Classic Car Wax coatings made the paint shine really well. Everyone was impressed.

But, the social pressure of having an "Earl Schieb Paint Job" was horrendous. Body work? If the neighborhood, cruising body work guys can do a great job with their hand tools to pull out dents in door panels and fenders, the same tools and skills were also used at the local Earl Schieb Paint Shop. Good work, low cost... for a teenager, that was money in the pocket saved.

But then again, who cared if the car looked good and lasted the whole time without any worries. Rain, snow, salt air, dust, beach sand, and windstorms along the coast did a number on many cars. The Earl Schieb Paint looked good while weathering the elements during our teenage years. YRMV

 

"I'll paint any kaw......." Photo from Bakersfield awhile back. Attached to a Rolling Bones car built for a well-known California fella.

 

I had several cars painted by Earl in Phoenix
One was my first car - a 62’ Chevy Nova wagon.
Another was a 64’ Chevy Impala two door.

As mentioned before - the key was prep.
This was late 70’s and it was a decent job.

Jim

 

I grew up in Rockford and I remember Earl Scheib was on Kishwaukee St. right across from Kishwaukee Grade School. My Dad had a '59 Chevy wagon painted there in the early 60's, light metallic blue of course!

Dad did a little body work, scuffed it down with a Brillo pad and masked it off. Drove it in in the morning and it was done that afternoon! It came out pretty good for $19.95.

We used to laugh and say, "ANY CAR, ANY COLOR, windows up or down!!!"

 

Is there anyone left who does budget paint jobs ?

All the cheap places up here stopped there paint deals .

even Maaco . A lot of places don’t even like it if you do the prep and primer work anymore say they “ can’t guarantee a good job”

I think there is “no money” in just spraying a car anymore . A lot of places don’t like old cars either would much rather deal with insurance clams it seems .

 

Our local Maaco still does economical paint jobs but they’re not dirt cheap. They painted my ‘56 Chevy factory Matador Red in single stage for just over $1500 including some pretty tricky body work (a wavy hood among other things). They painted under the hood, trunk and door jambs. It came out waaay better than I expected. After I did a little careful detailing, no one would guess it was a production line paint job.
They recently changed hands and the new manager said that now they only do old cars in the “off season”, fall through early spring. I probably should have taken my Morris Miner woody to them instead of screwing around with it myself.

 

probably better paint that morris GOLD color....

 

While $19.95 was pretty inexpensive, it match the price of one of Reedman's of Lanhorne's weekend super special used cars. The regular weekend specials in our Friday nigh Philadelphia Bulletin were $9.95. Wish I'd saved an ad.

 

Budget jobs are long gone. A kid I coached in select baseball 20 years ago went to work in a body shop then went out on his own. He hits car shows with a binder full of paint job pics and a handful of business cards. Stays over booked doing $12-15K paint and body jobs. They are sweet but holy crap I couldn't afford one of his paint jobs.

 

From Phila, and around One of my pals bought a $9.95 deal from Reedman in around '68. It was an early Falcon, The roof was full of holes, as if it was in some sort of service.
Aside from that it was clapped out, but it ran.

 

Great thread. I always heard that if you did your own prep-work, you could get a pretty nice paint job out of Earl's place. I know it was the go-to for race car and hot rod guys around here for many years. I remember there being one down the road from me, but it shut down a long time ago. Not sure when they went out of business.

This Willys is still wearing its Earl Scheib paint job from 1961/1962 !



( The full story of that car and its sister car can be read here if you're interested: Erwin's revenge – ironandsteele )

ironandsteele.com​

 

Riiiiight.