I waited for 6
years to save for the chance to fully restore my 1968 SS Chevelle I
have owned for 26 years. In that 6 yrs., I scouted body shops to
find the best to fit my requirements. I was met with
statements that the shop only did insurance work, or they will never
do another restoration again! But I was able to find 3 shops in
the region who wanted to tackle a full restoration.
I chose
a guy who had a large shop and did mostly
restorations. The owner had a day job and had mechanics working
the shop in the day and he worked at night. I had 3 yrs. to
check out the guys work and he always seemed to know about restoration
work and the problems associated with overhauling an entire classic
car.
I had an
estimate of about $6000 for the basic work, excluding any hidden
problems uncovered. He said it would take about 6 month to
complete, starting in Nov 1999.
To make a long
story shorter, it took over a year, I had trouble finding the owner at
the shop when he said he would be there, the cost ended up at over
$11,000. (I had him do the interior at an interior shop, so that added
about $1500.)
After I finally
got him to deliver the car to me, I found the quarters were original,
with 1/2 inch thick bondo over the rustout areas. The agreement
was to replace them with full quarters, which he charged me 12
hrs labor plus parts for each side. There was still
fist-size holes in the backside of the quarters, allowing exhaust to
get in. The trim was falling off and the new windshield was
loose! Some of the rubber/felt seals I had waited so long to
have put in were in the back seat, still in the bag! I wrote up a list
of complaints and gave the guy a chance to correct the problems I had
found but it was then that several people told me to get the car back
because the guy was known to remove SS emblems and such to sell, or
not even give your original car back!
I had to find
another shop fast to determine what was done/not done in order to sue
the 1st guy. I was lucky to find a shop up the road from the 1st
shop who was familiar with his ways and had in fact redone several
classic cars for the same reason as me! One guy who got ripped
off was a judge! The second shop (Reflections Automotive,
Belleville, IL) was great in assisting me and even sent a
mechanic with me to small claims court as an expert witness.
They did 1 or 2 classic cars at a time and they were only fill-in work
between insurance stuff.
These guys took
my 68 apart down to the frame and repaired areas that I wouldn't have
thought of. Plus, they took digital pictures of the restoration
as proof, and I was invited to review my car at any time! In the
end, I had more things repaired/corrected than the 1st guy ever would
have done. Door windows roll like new, no leaks, trunk like new,
etc. Paint looks like factory and all the trim lines up and is
secured and tight. There is no place I have found that was
missed.
So there are a
few shops in my area still accepting certain types of classic
restoration work, but on their terms and cost will be up there.
But if you don't get the right person or shop on your classic, read
the above again. You will end up in some kind of mess like I
did.
Steve
ACES #
5494
