twas_brillig
Jedi Knight
Offline
Our 62 BJ8 was painted in the mid-80s; we only finally got 'round to driving it a bit over the last three years. Last winter (indoor storage; middle of Alberta), it developed blistering in all the paint over the steel body parts - like a bad case of measles/chicken pox.
I stopped by at a very good body restoration shop today today: without sanding and/or scraping, the guess was that moisture has worked its way in and I've got generalized corrosion under the paint (the paint shows no signs of damage). The suggestion was that there was probably no real problem with the original paint job, but that modern primers (such as zinc chromate) didn't exist back then and that I have a rust problem.
THe cost guesstimate was about 40 grand to take everything down to bare metal, eliminate corrosion; repair some cracks by welding and a couple of misc. dints & dents; if I disassembled the car myself and did the reassembly, then probably 25K. And I won't disagree with the guesstimate: paint is $ 400/gallon, etc. etc., so presumably a minimum of two grand for materials, up to maybe four grand. The rest is labour.
The chap made a semi-humourous suggestion to go outside of the country and find a place where labour is cheaper.
So: is anyone aware of a reputable restoration shop in Mexico or elsewhere where the hourly rates would be less than the local $100 or so?
Not quite sure what I'm going to do - probably just drive it and feel bad about the body slowly dissolving under the paint. Think I'll get it sprayed by Rustchek underneath for a bit of protection; the only real affordable option I can think of is to sand it all down to bare metal, then get the barrel of rustoleum and a paint brush out, but I'm thinking that the aesthetics might be lacking.
Thanks,
Doug
I stopped by at a very good body restoration shop today today: without sanding and/or scraping, the guess was that moisture has worked its way in and I've got generalized corrosion under the paint (the paint shows no signs of damage). The suggestion was that there was probably no real problem with the original paint job, but that modern primers (such as zinc chromate) didn't exist back then and that I have a rust problem.
THe cost guesstimate was about 40 grand to take everything down to bare metal, eliminate corrosion; repair some cracks by welding and a couple of misc. dints & dents; if I disassembled the car myself and did the reassembly, then probably 25K. And I won't disagree with the guesstimate: paint is $ 400/gallon, etc. etc., so presumably a minimum of two grand for materials, up to maybe four grand. The rest is labour.
The chap made a semi-humourous suggestion to go outside of the country and find a place where labour is cheaper.
So: is anyone aware of a reputable restoration shop in Mexico or elsewhere where the hourly rates would be less than the local $100 or so?
Not quite sure what I'm going to do - probably just drive it and feel bad about the body slowly dissolving under the paint. Think I'll get it sprayed by Rustchek underneath for a bit of protection; the only real affordable option I can think of is to sand it all down to bare metal, then get the barrel of rustoleum and a paint brush out, but I'm thinking that the aesthetics might be lacking.
Thanks,
Doug