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Paint job cost & Mechanic competence

To: spitfires@autox.team.net, spitfire-enthusiast@egroups.com
Subject: Paint job cost & Mechanic competence
From: "Victor B. Michael" <vmichael@enteract.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 12:15:18 -0500
Greetings once again,

I'd like to vent a little before getting to my question:

I may or may not have told the story about the rear-end noise on my 77
Spit, but you all have experienced something similar, I'm sure.  Fixed
one noise by replacing ujoints and created another. My fault. A bent
axle (half-shaft, whatever) while removing stubborn ujoints - my
frustration is this - a mechanic had me spend almost $500 to replace a
differential that "could be" the problem. He nor his lead mechanic found
the problem, instead the mechanic who was filling in while the lead
mechanic took a vacation discovered the problem almost immediately.

Is this just "the nature of the beast" and to be expected, incompetence,
what?!  Should I be upset at the fact this wasn't found before I
needlessly dumped money that fixed nothing? Should I ever trust this
garage again?

Okay - so it's fixed and I'm driving again! A very beautiful thing.

Now, a little chassis work on the front-end, a little body work on a new
bonnet and I start thinking about a paint job.
The bonnet is all green - the car is carmine red (internal paint is in
great condition)...How much do you think it would cost  to get a good
matching paint job (and MAYBE some minor body work) if I disassemble the
exterior trim and prep the surface (strip the paint basically)?

Would $1000 do a decent job?

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