Projects The stuck in paint prison thread

I do some damned good work when I did paint for other people. But when I paint my own junk, well it looks like a cat threw up on it.
I hate cats!

 

You're 100% correct in my opinion. It's all in the homework. I've said it here before. Walk into the shop, look for old cars with shit piled on them that doesn't look like they've been touched in a while. That's strike 1. Ask about the cars that are there, ask for the owners name and number for a reference, if you're told no, that's strike 2. Get an agreement on the job, as in cost estimate, and I do mean estimate, numbers can change, everybody knows that. Ask how long it's gonna take to complete, if you know for a fact it's gonna take a lot of work, but you're told it'll be done in a few weeks, strike 3. If I price your job for $5000, and you accept that, you write me a check for $1500. That is for your materials. Once your car is painted, you will bring me $1500. Once your car is completed, reassembled, detailed, etc, you owe me the balance. And we put this all on paper, with both of our signatures. I look at the cars in my shop and think of them as my cars, and I treat the owners the way I want to be treated. All of the talk about body shop prison and half ass body men isn't the norm. I think most of the problem lies on the car owner. Do your research. Another thing, if a shop is nasty, junk everywhere, shitty looking sign, garbage falling out of the garbage can, etc... is this the place you want working on your car? If they're too damn lazy to clean their shop, do you really think they're gonna work on your car?

 

I do my own body work, so no one to blame there except myself. When it was time to paint my coupe, after the body work, I took it to my son's friend and got the numbers to have him paint it (labor only), and I bought the paint supplies. We scheduled a date, and the car rolled in 2 days before the paint date. I taped it off at his shop, and he sprayed the sealer and the 1st of the two colors. The next day, I taped it off again and he sealed the unpainted part and then painted the 2nd color. The next day we pulled the tape off and I cleaned up around the edges. We left the car sit in the paint booth over the weekend, and mon Monday I installed the lights and bumpers and drove it home to my garage. Roughly a week at the paint shop.

The next year I had my 39 done, again, I did the body work, but this time I traded the paint job for doing some welding on one of his projects. The deal was, he was going to go over the body work a little, then he would paint the truck for me. I took the truck to him in Oct, and I took his project to my place. He stretched the "body work" out to about 3 months before I started putting pressure on the paint job. I intended to drive the truck in the spring and it was leaving his shop in April. About mid April the job was done. The truck body work was more refined then it was when I dropped it off, but I was slightly disappointed in the paint, I was expecting the same paint quality my coupe was. The reality was, the entire job was better then if I had done it myself, and it didn't cost me anything, and I didn't have to do the paint job (which I know I don't do well).

Next year I will have another truck ready for a paint job. That one too I will do the body work on myself, and will pay him to paint it for me. I'll buy the paint, and I will tape it off like we did on the coupe. He will seal it and put the color on, which may be two color again, (we can't decide on the color(s) yet). I told him I'm expecting a paint job like the coupe this round again. When I'm done with the body work, we will schedule a paint week.

No paint jail here. Gene

 

My problem with paint prison is the body man I use is not very good and the longer he works on something the lower his standards go. Eventually he adopts the attitude of “being done is better than being right”. He also does body work because he’s too cheap to pay anyone else to do it and Lloyd lives too far away. This is what happens when a truck mechanic does paint and body work with absolutely no training or education on paint and body work.

 

I take pride in doing everything myself, my paint and bodywork isn’t perfect but damn respectable. The only aspect I don’t do is upholstery, I have a good looking woman who does that for me….for some reason she married Lloyd, go figure. I will, at some point teach myself to do that as well.

 

I'm another who does his own body and paint. We had an insurance claim on the wife's ot Firebird, so while we were at it, I let the shop do a dent repair on a front fender and match the paint. I probably could have done it all myself, but was afraid of it not matching. The shop matched the paint perfectly, and I paid for the extra dent repair out of pocket, I was happy. For a little while...

After a closer inspection, I found out they didn't even take the spoiler off to paint it and the deck lid, the gaskets under the spoiler were painted. Then a few months later, tiny bubbles started popping up on the fender. This from a high dollar shop that does millions of dollars in insurance jobs every year. Very doubtful I'll ever use them again for anything.

When I decide it's time to do the Lincoln, I'll do it myself. It won't be perfect, it won't be a $10,000 job, but I will be able to say I did it myself. If it takes 6 months, so be it. It will still be here, not locked up in some shop. Not knocking all the pro guys who take pride in their work and charge accordingly, they should get paid, but I can't afford their prices for something I can do myself. I don't have pockets full of money, so to stay in this hobby I have had to learn to do stuff myself. The only thing I have farmed out on this car was the transmission rebuild, and that was because I have never done one yet and this one is a bitch to get in and out.

 

Yea; The painter gets this real nervous attitude when I check on my job. Meanwhile the shop is full of modern jobs getting done. Newc

 

Like Sand Thru A Hour Glass.....So Are The Projects Of Our Lives...