About the body shops.
I am in the same boat, but I understand where they are coming from. Body
work isn't complicated, but it is time consuming. At 30 or 40 dollars an
hour I can see where 10 grand would not be a hard number to come up with.
Most body shops also know that the work is risky. If you don't like it or
loose interest, or run out of money, there is no way to recover the money
invested. The worth of the car is much less at the end than the money in
the car. Customs are just coming around to the costs involved. It isn't
uncommon for a guy to have thousands of hours in a custom car. Yet they
used to sell for a few thousand dollars. Most restoration shops want the
car and money up front before they start.
I found a restoration shop that deals in american muscle cars, specifically
mustangs. They are dealing with a crowd that is interested in cars, but not
at a true restoration shop price. If you want to find out the kind of work
that real restoration shops do look at some of the more upscale magazines.
These shops can literally build a car from a picture. Some of these
restorations can cost close to a million dollars. They are more closely
related to full custom builds. The shop I found does good work, but not
panel reconstruction. They are more like an old fashioned body shop. I
haven't had a price quoted for all of the work, but a frame pulling will be
$700.
John
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