Hello, First post, and I have a situation I would like some opinions on. I bought a 1952 5 window for my son 5 months ago and took it to a local rod shop. The goal was to take this old truck and spend time and money over the next 4 years in hopes of having a very cool first truck with a great story for my sons 16th birthday. I started with a professional because I'm new to the hobby, so I thought having an experienced team start the process and help be evaluate and plan what the next four years would likely involve seemed to make the most sense to me. What I asked is that they get the truck sanded, primed, and painted flat black. Idea was to make sure the surface rust was stopped. Now 5 months later I have over $7,000 just getting this done on the outside, so nothing under the hood or in the cab. There were a few dings but we asked that they be left alone at this point (son likes the rat rod look). Does $7k sound remotely fair for sanding, prime, and paint on the outside of a truck? This may be completely fair, and I'm prepared to continue the path as long as I have faith I'm not being taken advantage of.
That makes me feel better. I keep running into people saying they had their truck finished and running for $12,000, and I see no way of that happening for our truck. It does run down the road straight and the old six starts before you can get your hand off the key. I'm hoping that $6,k per year for the next 3 years will get him a safe, solid, and reliable ride. Thanks
I did all the assembly after paint my self and put another$7000 into the truck. My truck is rarely worked on by others. I have too much fun building it.
Some advice, for what it's worth, from one who has been doing old cars for 66 years. The $7000 is not unreasonable if they did #1 work and used the best materials. Look at the empty or partially used cans/materials and see if they have DuPont or Ditzler (PPG) on them and does the sanding materials have 3M on them. If you see names like Nason or Omni on the cans and perhaps Rhino on the sanding material then it's being done with #2 material at a #1 price. The most important thing is never, NEVER give money up front. Here's the situation: you have HIS WORD, he has YOUR TRUCK. Guess who's in the cat bird seat? If his work is good then you will have no problem paying for it. Of the fifteen cars in the shop right now EIGHT of them are from other shops that all have sad stories behind them. On a true novice that brings in a fairly extensive job we will not start on it till he can be there for a full day and picks out any panel of his choosing and watches what 8hrs of works accomplishes. They are amazed by how hard and long it takes to bring a mangled panel back to pretty again. Some of our customers end up doing dirty, monotonous, sweat producing work right along side the guys and love it--plus saves them a lot of bucks. A fringe benefit of this is they learn a whole new nomenclature and know how their truck works.
I agree with Evan 100%. DON'T PAY IN FULL UP FRONT! It is best to write out an agreement as to when payments are due and after so much is accomplished. It is hard to say really if $7,000 is too much without seeing what the truck looked like to begin with. Also, how did they repair rust if any? The bottom line is, in most cases, if you don't do most of the work yourself, you will have the cost of a good late model used truck in it if not the cost of a NEW one. A cousin of mine just had to retrieve a partially completed '68 Camaro from a shop that promised a 2 month finish date. That was 6 MONTHS AGO!!! The car is now like a giant model kit with missing parts and no instruction sheet.
Thanks Evan and Steve, We want to do more of the work ourselves, as we go forward, things like wiring, replacing all of the seals around the cab, and side window, the wood bed, wind shield wipers and interior I'm comfortable enough with (sure I will have many questions). The body work and paint are out of my comfort zone at this point. I did get to visit with the shop today and it appears the truck is ready to come home for my son and I start tinkering with. I will have $8500 in sanding, primer and flat black paint. We are going to try our hand and sanding the interior ourselves and see how it goes. I suspect long and laborious but my son needs to put some sweat equity in. We are excited to have the truck back and start making it his. He picked out a hair on long horn hide for his bench seat, and it has been laying across his bed for a month waiting on getting the truck back so we can have the bench seat covered in it. Safe to say this is not going to look like any other 52'. I'm sure it will not be for everyone but we are just going to do what we want, and learn a lot of lessons along the way.
Steve, your cousins story is repeated eight times in our shop right now---work promised but not done. If one doesn't give ANY money up front then the will HAVE to work to get any. If a shop is so tight on resources (cash reserve) that they can't do one week of work and then collect then it's best to avoid it. A deal we have made is to start a bank account in the name of a specific project that requires TWO signatures to draw any money out of it. That shows the money is there but we can't draw on it till the owner is satisfied and he can't remove money without us signing. I learned to do this when our new building was under construction and constant draws were being asked for when little progress was showing. I put money in three accounts: concrete, framing, and sheet metal and showed them the MONEY WAS THERE but it would take their signature and my signature to draw any out. No work-no sign. It really took off after that arrangement was made.
Evan, that is an excellent way to do business. That was the procedure my builder and myself used when my house was built in 1989. The problem with the body shop was, money was paid ahead, and the shop was never behind on what they were collecting. The problem was, hired help that don't show up, are in jail, sick, my dog got hit on the road and I can't come in today, I can't get a babysitter,...etc. You get the idea, POOR quality workforce. The man that owns the business is a fantastic painter and a friend of mine. He painted my Kenworth with about a five color Imron retro-looking style and I have attempted to stay out of the dis-agreement. I believe he quoted the job short, and probably needs to hire better paid reliable help, (if that can even be found these days). Anyway, he is still my friend and my cousin just seeks to "flip" cars for money. I much prefer people who LOVE cars and seek to enjoy and drive them. Markodom1974, this is a VERY COOL thing you are doing, PLEASE keep us posted.
9 years and almost there For what it's worth I have probably $15K in a rolling chassis. I did all the work myself except the engine rebuild ($2500) It was in poor shape to start but I wanted a Panel Truck and they aren't that easy to come by. The 9 years were due to a one year stint in Kuwait. One year rebuilding my sons tractor and one year waiting on the guy to open his non destructive stripping business so I could have my body de-rusted completely. I got the body back last week and now the hard work starts. I figure another $10K and I'll have a decent driver for my grandkids to drive me around in.
Welcome mark ! If you're happy with the work that was done then all is good . Expect set backs and numerous cash out lays to get this job done and the truck in safe & reliable operating condition including buying tools . NEVER buy cheap tools ! . Used is O.K. .
