Hard to watch!! Not for the faint of heart!!

[Classic Heartbeat]

It is extreamly hard to watch thousands of dollars worth of labor, and materials get stripped off of our Panel project!! It is going to be extreemly difficult to trust another body shop again! I probably never will!! WES www.ClassicHeartbeat.com

[Terry Peerson]

A little Bondo there? I have given up completely on "Body Shops". They only seem to care about how fast they can make something "look" good. Doesn't seem to be any that really care about quality restoration work. Get her in, get her done, get her out, get insurance check!

Just my opinion,

Terry

[Fred T]

Wes - I must have missed something. Care to elaborate? Seems like we're all getting ripped off by body shops now.

[Putter]

I obviously missed something here...what do you mean. I think I skipped a post!?!?!

[dubie]

I musta missed something to. Fill us in bud

[Classic Heartbeat]

Well it started when I took my panel to a body shop to have some work done that I am not able to, nor have time to do. Then once I discovered his junky work, my problem was compounded when I hired another incompedent bodyman in my shop to shoot the wrong primer to bare metal!! Almost everything that has been done has been stripped and it all has to start over again!! I am so sick that I could just puke!!!
Here is a link where I have explained it better if you want to read up on it a little.
http://www.classicheartbeat.com/panel_18.htm
If the link doesn't work, it starts on page 18 of my panel project page. WES www.ClassicHeartbeat.com

[Putter]

Oh, now I am up to speed. Makes more sense now.

[shuttermutt]

Geez... those pictures are enough to make you sick, aren't they? There are some good body shops still around, but it takes a lot of research to find them. The guy I hired to do all the work on my Chevelle is a Grade A kinda guy. His work is flawless. He spent about a year on my 'Velle's frame-off and, after taking everything apart, bolt-for-bolt, he was still heartbroken that he had to put a coat of filler on parts of the rear quarters that was as thick as a dime.

Sure, it wasn't cheap (or fast), but I damn sure got the quality I was after! For pics of the work in progress (goes back to him for finishing in September), click on the link below.

[dtlilly]

Wes, seams like an epidemic of con artists and shoddy craftsmen going around. I guess you have to do it yourself, so you know it's being done right.

[hambone1958]

WOW that is scary I'm glad my body shop has an open door policy if the doors are open come in and check it out. The shop is on the way to the bank so I stop in a couple times a week and check out the progress. I also helps that the guys doing my project are eat up with the hot rod bug as much as me.

[68c10owner]

it`s this very reason why i don`t plan to paint my truck. i`m just going to leave it in primer. i definately don`t have the skills to make it as straight as i want it, although it`s not to bad off, but i don`t want to put my truck in a shop and hope they know what to do with it. sorry to hear about your bad luck though.

[67cst]

ohh man, i feel your pain, i got hosed on my paintjob too, ive got around 43 hundred bucks into paint and body work and my paintjob looks like its worth about half that, major bummer, but what can you do? there is a shop next to ours at work starting up here and the guy is from california, said he has been doing custom paint on rods for 29 years, im pretty stoked cause i keep doign him little favors here and there moving stuff in the yard , giving him an extra hand lifting things with the forklift etc, maybe il lget a good deal this fall if i find a 4x4

[stelth2002]

I agree, body shops are the worst. Ive gotten ripped a couple times with crappy workmanship.

[Canadian694x4]

Wes man, sorry to hear about that...definitely hearing about this and Dtlilly's experience I will be trying my best to learn to do my own work to avoid these crap body shops!

[mocwon]

Sorry to hear about that Wes. There are way too scam artists out there and a bunch of others that aren't near as good as they think they are.

I'll lucky as hell a real good friend of mine is one of the best paint and body guys around. I do most of the work and he guides me when needed plus he does the stuff that's out of my league, including the paint.

[atcavage]

When I took my truck in to be painted, the guy was real nice. He went around, circled all the damaged spots on the truck with a grease pencil. He was like, oh there's a dent there, we'll get that. He was even going to fill the pits on the windshield. When I got it home, we noticed that all he did was circle the damage so they knew that they didn't damage it in the shop. They painted over the stickers in the glove box and several other places. Everytime I do something, I find blue paint everywhere. So I can definitly feel your pain. Most paint/body jobs cost too much and aren't worth it.

[Classic Heartbeat]

I am keeping a real close watch this time. The work that I am able to do on my own I am. I also told this body man that I will only pay for something once, so he better be sure what he is doing, or the next time it is on his nickle!!! I already have made him redo the taillight section on the passinger side, because he miscut the patch panel. It was his time, and he had to purchase the patch panel also. WES www.ClassicHeartbeat.com

[68plus4sub]

You guys are freaking me out, My body "classics" shop was supposed to be putting on the final primer coat at the end of last week, and now all of these horror stories!!! I'm pretty sure I've got a good one though, but I guess you don't know until you get it back. I have a pretty good feeling about how it's going to turn out. I'll be passing on the results on the board when I get it back, so people out here in the west will know a good place. It's near Boise, so it's been pretty tough on me to not watch the progress. The guy sent tons of photos early on to show me what rust there was, and sent a bunch of progress pics. Hope I have better luck than some of you!!!

[Fred T]

That first guy's work would be enough to make me hire a crooked lawyer, and I hate crooked lawyers! At least the problems I had were minor compared to this, they did a good job of painting, just their assembly stunk.

Sounds like you're on the right track now. I'm going to be tempted to go in to the body shop with an attorney (in plain clothes) by my side.

[Bowtie67]

I have found lately all these body shops want to do is make a fast buck, a majority of them wont even do custom or work on restos. They only do insurance work. I have a good fiberglass hood that when it came from the manufacturer it was a little thin where the hinge bolts up to the hood and nobody will touch it around here. My body man that I have dealt with for several years and has painted many bikes and such for me in the past doesnt want to do any more customer pay work because no one wants to pay what he has into it for work( I dont blame them either) or coarse people want the top dollar jobs and only want to pay the Macko price tag as well and I am no exclusion to this. He painted my truck 6years ago, was supposed to cost me around a grand and ended up costing me 3grand and looked a little better than a quicky paint job and there really wasnt that much body work either.

[Bamm]

You guys are right, a lot of shops just want the get em in get em out quick money jobs. As long as it shines, its fine attitude. Then you have shops where they do really good work that want to A. Charge you 3-4 grand for an all-over job, or B. Cut you a little slack, but with the agreement that they will use it as a filler job when they are low on insurance jobs and it will take the better part of 6-8 months to finish. I worked at a very good shop for 3+ years out of high school and learned a lot. One thing I learned is that these guys run a business and you have to realize the old saying "time is money" is right. They can make $2000 on an insurance job in three or four days or they can make $2000 on an "all-over" resto job, but it will take them 5-10 times longer. Your best bet is to either learn to do the bodywork yourself, (here's a hint, if it looks like it will require a lot of body filler, get a replacement panel. You won't regret it) and then get a painter to spray it one weekend. Either way a nice job isn't cheap.
I've seen sign's that say:
You can get a job three ways: Cheap, Fast and Nice.
1. You can get a nice job cheap, but it won't be fast.
2. You can get a cheap job fast, but it won't be nice.
3. You can get a fast job nice, but it won't be cheap.

Best of luck on your bodywork Wes, ......Jerry

[Classic Heartbeat]

I have an uncle that was a bodyman for 45 years. (retired now) I know that you get what you pay for. My problem is, I told him what I expected for work under the paint and did not argue his shop rate nor his time. I was willing to pay top dollar for top work!! I also did pay top dollar for top work and he burried his crap work under bondo, and hoped that I wouldn't catch it. To date I have ground off over $5000.00 worth of top notch crap!! and the body wasn't even ready for paint... All that I was able to rake out of him was $1000.00 of my money back and he tried to cancle the check on that. Good darn thing that I am smarter than his sorry arss!! I can feel my temprature rising so I better stop here!! LOL WES www.ClassicHeartbeat.com

[busterwivell]

That's why I'm learning to do my own work. That way, I know what I've got. Fot those of you that haven't done your own body work, start pricing sanding discs, primer, paint, hardener, reducer, etc, etc. It adds up quick. You can't get the material for the price of a Maaco paint job, but then, you didn't want a Maaco job, did you?

[Classic Heartbeat]

You are not kidding there!! When I hired the second real peice of crap, the first time through the autobody supply store cost me over $500.00. All of that got ground off also... The bodyman that I hired this time is afraid to take a step without my approval... I made him eat some of his work and pay for the patch panel he ruined!! I told him that I will not pay to do anything twice again!! So he better know what he is doing or it would wind up costing him!! WES www.ClassicHeartbeat.com

[Red69stepside]

Man, those are scary stories.

Would it be possible to develop an informal star rating for local shops?

I know no one would want to actually recommend someone, because of liability, but if we can just report shops that do good work, that could help others find a shop that has at least done something right recently.

I'd sure like to know who's a 10 and who's a 3.