>[Oops, Seems I've written a mini-book here, sorry 'bout that]
>
> I had the local body shop guy come out and look at the B. Some of his
>advice is against what some of you have said, so I thought I'd run it by you
>all and see what you thought.
>
> On stripping the old paint myself, he said sandblasting would warp the
>panels if I wasn't careful. Chemical primer, he claimed, would get down into
>all the crevices between the panels and said he didn't ever recommend it.
>
Absolutely correct on both points. Sand blasting can create local heating
and warp body panels. Especially true on the hood if you have an original
alum. Chemical removers are ok if you are careful near joints and wear
breathing and eye protection. A DA (dual action) sander is good for the
areas near joints but watch the heat here too. Blasting the floor panels can
be a sleeper because they were covered with a tar-like coating that won't
blast off easily and even though they are not as subject to warping you will
create a lot of heat getting that stuff off. Plain old scraper will be
faster for the thick stuff. Incidentally, that's the same problem blasting
the old undercoating; sand just seems to bounce off.
Incidentally, there is a school that says old primer is the best primer. If
there is no reason to go all the way to bare metal, don't. If you follow
this school the DA treatment will suffice. And where there are dents the
shop will grind it clean anyway so save your time here.
He should give significant credit if you bring it to him ready to begin
priming except for dented areas.
> On all the dents and bangs, he said it was really easy for him to pull
>them out, and that I could try to do it myself but it wouldn't really save
>me any money since they wouldn't be much more labor if he was stripping the
>car anyway.
The first step in removing a dent (roughing) dictates how much work will be
necessary in finishing. If you don't know sheet metal this could cost you.
>
> About priming, he claimed he could do a better job using a
>polyurithane(sp?) based primer, and that type wasn't really usable by a
>do-it-yourselfer. He said on top of that, that he'd probably spend as much
>time fixing up my priming job as he would priming it himself.
Correct. Agin, the first coat makes the job, especially in longitivity. You
can't expect him to stand behind the job if he can't see how the foundation
was built.
>
>
>
> He gave me a ballpark estimate of two weeks labor ($2000) and all the
>paint and materials ($700). This is assuming I strip the car completely
>down to the bodyshell and sandblast the floorplans. He added that he'd pick
>the car up and deliver it back to my door. It seems to me that <$3000 isn't
>bad for all that he'd do.
Agreed. Here in S. Cal that would be way over $5000.
Ernest E. Gilbert
lawref@lawref.com
http://www.lawref.com/lawref/
http://www.lawref.com/lawref/eeg/eeg.html
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