I m pretty pissed off!

[Darrell67]

My bodyman is pissing me off. He started to work on my truck last monday. Since then all he did is put a little fill on the two front fenders and doors to fix a few dents,and then he primed them. That took him 2 days ,not too bad. On wednesday he started on the cab. He only had 2 dents to fix. He started putting on the fill and sanding it off.He has been at it for 4 days now and is still not done. Today I asked him how many hours he had on it so far and he tells me 42. At $20 per hour plus material thats over $1000. At this speed it will cost me about $8000.He has his own car in the shop and is working on it on my time [I think]. He s pulling a fast one over me , but nobody else wants to touch it because they are all busy doing insurance jobs. Just because I'm making a show truck and i want a good job he thinks he can rip me off. Thats enough ,I have to go stick my head in a bucket and cool off.

[imaindianoutlaw]

Damm dude what can I say? Should have had him quote it!

[Darrell67]

He wouldnt quote me a price. He said a job like that had to go by the hour. The last guy he quoted [a 72 roadrunner] was $3500.It ended up $7000. They are fighting over it now .I just found this out.

[>X<]

thats exactly the thing that made me learn to paint. when i got my truck i got at least ten estimates, the cheapest still 800 over what i paid for the truck.

[mikep]

Same reason I learned to paint. No way in hell I would pay someone $5000 to do work that I was too lazy to do myself. I'd rather make a thousand mistakes and learn from them than pay someone else who already did that.

[Darrell67]

I have a general knowledge about body work.I dismantelled the whole truck myself and did whatever i could,but I wanted to leave the bodywork to a professional because the truck was original paint and 99% rust free and I wanted a perfect job.I have too much invested in it to screw it up. I might buy an old beater and try to fix it up myself.

[72chevyLWB]

Well, if you want a show truck let him take his time. If you want a quick crappy job make him rush it and be pissed when you find out there were more dings in it than you thought. Its better to have it done right the first time. I don't know how bad it was, but you can and do find other things in it that you didn't know about. Just my .02 though

[mikep]

Oh Hell! Your'e in Canada. I thought you were talking real money. $5000 US is about the going rate for a custom paint job here too if you can find someone to do it . For $8000 US it had better be a really , really , really nice paint job on a flawless body.

[Alexis]

Originally posted by mikep
Oh Hell! Your'e in Canada. I thought you were talking real money.

ROTFLMFAO, that is the funniest thing since a line i heard on "who's line is it anyways" lmfao

[ebfabman]

Here's some suggestions. Show up often, maybe with a cold soft drink or a snack. Always have a smile and a friendly hello, even if you are pissed.
If you show up every day and are pleasant, you can kind of track the hours he spends on your truck. But never stay for more than just a few minutes or even a few seconds, just to look at your truck. Just remember to be very friendly even if he hasn't done anything to your truck. Always be very understanding about every excuse he may have for not having worked on your truck.
Keep a small note pad and look at your watch, make notes on the progress each visit. A camera would be nice to snap just a few pics each visit. Tell him you are documenting the resto of your truck.

You are in the best position to get the job you want at the best deal he will give you if you are very, very patient, even if you are frustrated.

One last thing, Praise him and his work in a genuine way and do your best to kill him with kindness


good luck

[JJ]

ebfabman, you do some of the best work I've seen as far as body work, I've admired it when I see the pictures, and I'm just a wee bit envious of your skills. But you have gone way over the top on this piece of advice regarding the body shop. You are the man!!!! If you're ever in Oregon, I'd be delighted to meet you.

[Brad]

JJ, niiiiiiiiiiice.

Seriously though, I would have to agree.

[ChopTop]

It's kind of funny the exorbant prices that some are charging for body work or full repaint's. I once asked the wrong body shop on an estimate for full repaint on one of my trucks, he honestly said it would cost more than the truck was worth! A truck with no dents and no rust! Don't get me wrong, these guy's have to make a living, but not at my expense! I honestly believe if you have to pay someone else to do the resto on your truck your going to have a lot more invested than many of rest of us here. That being said, I have seen over 15k invested in full resto's only to have a truck worth about 8 grand or so. I think I need to open my own body shop.

[JD72]

I feel for you, but body shop folks are a different breed no offense to body people they have their on quirks just like a machinist. Do like he said kill him with kidness, drop bring him a six pack or something. This is not an isolated event its hard to find people who will do a complete paint or custom work. It's body shop hell, hang in there and you might get the job you wanted.

[junkyardjohn]

$20 CANADIAN -- IS THAT EVEN MINIMUM WAGE?? WHEN PEOPLE B!TCH ABOUT MY HOURLY RATE, I ALWAYS TELL EM THAT I CAN CUT MY HOURLY RATE IN HALF, BUT IT'LL TAKE TWICE AS LONG. SHOOT .. THAT PIMPLELY FACED KID AT MCDONALDS IS GETTING MORE THAN THAT, JUST FOR SAYING " YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT"?? I GUESS WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY HERE IS YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR, & IF YOU TAKE A TRUCK TO A BODY MAN THATS ELIGEBLE FOR FOOD STAMPS, & TELL HIM YOU WANT A AWARD WINNING SHOW TRUCK, CHANCES ARE YOUR GONNA BE DISAPPOINTED WITH THE RESULTS.

[Maximum Overdrive]

Well there is a lot of talent and skill that goes into a making a talented bodyman. So the prices that most charge are actually within reason. Not knowing all the exact details, such as seeing the dents, it does sound like your bodyman is a bit on the slow side. The thing to do is get bids from other people on how much is will cost to do what you want. They may not be able to do the work as you say but most will at least write a free bid so that you can get an idea on price.

[imdarren]

I once went into a print shop to get some things printed.
There was a sign on the front counter. It said...
YOU CAN HAVE IT
QUICK
CHEAP
GOOD
PICK TWO

Soooo..
You can have it quick and good. But get your wallet ready.
Or, you can have it cheap and quick. Don't expect a quality job.

I think this is true for many services we wan't done in life.
Just my .02

Darren

[RON WOODGEARD]

I've had this happen 2 times in my many years. One was a so called friend, I would go to the shop and see what progress was done "everyday" He would be working on someone elses that got there after mine did. He told me he needed the money for materials for mine, Well i sucked that up the first time, but then i opened my wallet and pulled his bluff, I volunteered to run and pay for the materials needed to complete mine. I still got a run around for a couple of more weeks then one day I got in it and drove it out.

No we don't talk yet today, but who gives a big one! what kind of friend was he to think he could blow me off for other jobs. And I was paying his going rate,with money up front!. And if he took on too much work, he could have told me that and there would have been NO hard feelings.

If it proceeds to be going in the same direction, And you get the chance, drive it away. Yea he'll call the COPS (maybe) but it's your vehicle and he's not honoring his commitment to you, it will be classified as a CIVAL case no CRIMINAL.
Then if he wants to take you to court, go to other body shops and ask for estimates for the repair and how long it would take. I did this on the second one and in court I showed how extraordinarily long he was taking compared to the actual work completed, and estimated by the other shops. I won that case.
There are places you can go to protect yourself when someone wants to put the screws to you.

But don't "ever" leave anything at any shop without a COST estimate and TIME estimate. If he doesn't know how long in estimated time it will take him to do a repair and cost,then he doesn't know his work, and he's looking for you.

I think it's great how some of you are willing to "SUGAR COAT IT" but the money should be the sugar for the coating, not kissing his @ss.

But this is written going solely on your side of the story.

RON

[Truck Hippy]

OH MAN!!! I would give any thing if i know how to paint. A good friend of mine is having a 68 Camaro vert. painted at a local body shop and he made the mistake of telling the guy "I'm in no hurry". Wrong thing to do! The car has had a birthday at that place. My buddy is not in a hurry for the car but he told me he would like to get started back to work on it and he's afraid if he say's anything the guy will do a sh*t job. Anyway, good luck on the paint job!

[mikep]

I absolutely agree. Dont ever leave anything at a shop without a firm estimate in writing of how much the job will cost. If your guy won't give you one then go elsewhere. If your'e dealing with someone who doing work on the side out of their home shop under the table then I dont have any sympathy as your'e shifting the tax burden onto me.

Personally I'd consider $50 an hour shop rate at approx 100 hours normal for a excellent paint job on a relatively straight body. Thats two and a half weeks for someone who's doing their job and good at it..

[guypm]

I can relate to what you are saying. I've had mine in the paint shop for about 3 months now. I had several price quotes from 2grand to 6grand. I talked with each shop in detail about what i wanted. I went with the 2grand because the owner needed the work at the time more than the others, agreed to do much more than the others and seemed nicer than the others. All the while, Kenny(my painter) would take in other work and put them ahead of mine. This rocked on a long time until I finally asked if he would put a higher priority on mine. He agreed to work exclusively on mine which he is doing now. I should be driving it home this weekend. I'll post pic's when done and let my fellow board members tell me if I made the right choice. I wanted a fellow named Chris to paint the truck but he went up real high on the price and was going to do less work than Kenny. I agree with you ebfabman in that you should always be polite and friendly, but sometimes you have to get your point across. Anyway let me know what you think when i post my pics
Thanks, Guy

[Spoof]

It's always an excellent policy to be polite, but there is nothing wrong with voicing your concerns. I'm a contractor and when a customer expresses polite concerns I listen and always do my best to give a little extra to ensure they reamain happy. So, tell him your either worried about the progress or worried about the mounting costs, not angry about it, just worried. In some countries you don't get respect if you don't haggle a price, I found in Canada you don't get respect unless you show you know what to expect from a job and your going to make damn sure you get it!