Thread: I ain’t no body man!!!

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I ain’t no body man!!!
Dave and Techinspector , I believe I told you guys about a man that I did some favors for that was supposed to do the body work on my 65 Ranchero.
Anyhow he said he wouldn’t have time to do it since he was moving up north.
I had seen two of his own cars that he painted and they looked really nice.
Well yesterday I went to see a 1970 Mach 1 that the guy did that was supposed to do mine.
Now mind you this guy had two body shops before, and now I think I know why he does not have them anymore!!! I felt so bad for this guy and his mach 1, I seen at least 50 spots that should have been fixed
before the car was painted. I just looked at the owner and said that car deserved so much more then that, The owner looked at me and agreed. I’m just glad I didn’t recommend him to anyone.
I am also glad he didn’t work on my car now, after seeing what this Mach 1 looked like.
I would have ended up doing my whole car over again and wasted the money on a messed up paint job!!! Listen I ain’t no body man by a long way, but the stuff he didn’t fix a novice could have fixed.
I did the body work on a 73 Maverick that had been rolled over the roof was crushed in and I guarantee
when I was done it looked better then this Mach 1, that had not even wrecked.
I was feeling bad that he didn’t do my car, But now I am ecstatic that he didn’t paint my car and waste
my time and money. I think this is where, be careful what you wish for comes in to play.
Thank you Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Kurt

Moral of the story... Paint work is way to important not to see examples of cars they've painted... pictures don't count as they hide a lot... Can't show examples... move on... just my humble opinion

Another lesson is "be leery of trade outs"! Far too often whoever is second in the transaction gets the short end of the stick.

Third rule, just because someone is the owner of a body shop does not mean they themselves can do quality bodywork (myself included, but at least I know my personal limitations and have hired others to do the things for me which I cannot do for myself )........



Bill S.

I've been burned on so many trade-outs, I don't even like to think of them anymore... Just one more reason I will only be doing my own cars, and cars for people I know I can trust because of a past association.... Besides, I'm supposed to be retired anyway!!!!!

Right Dave;
If god forbid you ever have a wheelchair,
I know you'll be out in your shop trying to figure out how to get
more glide for your roll. HE! HE! HE! Kurt

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Another lesson is "be leery of trade outs"! Far too often whoever is second in the transaction gets the short end of the stick.

Bob you are so right! About 8 years ago while going back to school, times were tight. I traded labor for free hair cuts from my wifes coworker. But when it came time to pay her back, for two haircuts (maybe 40 minutes total of her time) at her house, she reconded I owed her 4 hours manual labor, as her time was worth much more than mine. Well not being one to renig, I worked my butt off at her house doing repairs, weed wacking in rocky soil with glass strewn about, and hauling off lumber to the dump! Lesson learned. When she asked if I needed a hair cut again, I said I figured her rate ( 4 hours of my labor and gas for my truck, plus 25 mile drive)that I could get my hair cut by a professional a block from my house for the next year! She was actually offended! She didn't seem to get that 20 minutes service from her should equating to 2 hours of my time and my vehicle might be unreasonable!
I'm glad you were able to avoid the frustration of having poor body work done to your vehicle! After working all summer and Fall on body work for my old truck, I've decided I will arrest the rust, prime with epoxy everything after that, and take it to a professional, and pay to have it done right the first time! I have a newfound respect for auto painters!

My neighbor has a '78 Chevy 4X4 and he has taken it hunting and 4 wheeling and it was dented almost everywhere,one of the local skill centers here in Phoenix took it on as a project and he only had to pay for the materials.They did an amazing job I don't see a ripple anywhere and it was painted a Royal Blue which would really show any imperfections.Since I am on a tight budget I think i'll be talking to them about my '54.

Good luck Jeff; They will probably put it right out fron for advertisment.
Kurt

Trades DO suck! We traded the body and paint work on the 60 Chevy shortbed pickup in my shop post, for a 460 powered 74 Ranchero. Solid car, fresh motor and trans, but we can't get rid of the thing!! Its got a HORRIBLE flame (?) job, I guess its supposed to be flames!! but a great runner, but noone will even talk to us about it after seeing it. Were gonna be upside down with it if we have to go back and repaint it. BUT on the other side, about the Mach 1. MAYBE , just maybe you didn't get the whole story? We had a 52 Chevy 4door come in. We told the owner what the "estimate" was and he said go ahead. We got it stripped to bare and found LOTS of old (30+ year) old filler, and the small rusted areas were LARGE rust areas once it was all cut out. So, as always, we called him in to look it over and give him the options for repair and costs. He says, "Well, I don't have anymore money, so just slap some filler back in it and paint it up like we agreed"! So, a couple of gallons of filler and a Red Metalflake and Pearl White paintjob and we sent "Wavy Gravy" down the road WITHOUT our name or logo on the car. He was actually happy with the results, but I'm SURE word will get back to us that they know we did it. What we really should have done I guess was told him to just leave with the car at that point. What it comes down to, is never hearing BOTH sides of the story. Then again as someone said, GET REFERENCES!!!!

I can understand why the old bartering system never really caught on.......someone usually ends up very unhappy in the deal. Generally, you fulfill your end of the bargain and then end up chasing the other guy for a long time to get him to come through.

As for paint jobs and body work, there are a lot more hacks out there than good ones. Years ago we had a custom paint job put on Dan's Cal look VW, and when he finally got it painted we went to look at it. The body shop guy was all proud and we were in shock, it was horrible. We made it clear up front the car was a good one and we were going to be fussy, but he actually thought he had done a nice job. We made him repaint it, and he got it sort of ok the second time, not perfect, but passable.

Don

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Another lesson is "be leery of trade outs"! Far too often whoever is second in the transaction gets the short end of the stick.

that was the deal with this 41' plymouth i have.

the guy gave another guy a whole car to finish the bodywork and paint this car i have...long story short....the paint had dirt in it in several places and body filler is cracking in a couple places. the guy got the car, transfered the title to his name and done a crappy paintjob on the car i have now.

I could fill a page with horror stories......I haven't done a trade out in years and their is a reason for it.