TIPS!! Avoid paint prison.

[Rich916]

I’m not a painter, But I have owned a service company for 20 years and submit over 300 contract proposals and invoice upwards of 1000 jobs per year. Trust me, I have learned the hard way!

School of hard knocks has taught me the following...
ALLWAYS get everything in writing and get signatures.

Contracts vary, Include these three points in that order and avoid a lot of hassle.

Include in the contract-Terms and conditions

(1) TOTAL COST: Determine your budget BEFORE you contact a painter.
If you are expecting a $12,000 job for $5,000...Its not going to happen! It pays to be honest here. If you only have $5k be upfront with it and then negotiate based on that budget.

(2) SCOPE OF WORK: Be very specific.
What are your expectations from the Body Shop and what are his expectations of you? Discuss the following: Rust repair, fabrication, panel alignment, block and sand, (anything and everything you can think of)..all this can be negotiated. What is he painting??...including Inner fenders, Jams, underside of hood, dash, cut-buff, etc... Be very specific so there are no surprises.

(3) DATES: A start time and a projected finish time is mandatory.
If this shop cant do this, keep looking, you will be glad in the long run

Put everything in writing and at the bottom of the page include this>>

*THE ABOVE PRICE AND SPECIFICATIONS ARE HERBY ACCEPTED abc body shop IS ATHURIZED TO DO THE WORK SPECIFIED.

Then both sign and date it.

**** I wrote up a contract with my painter/ body guy. He wasn’t offended at all. It's just good business.