When is good enough, actually good enough?

[Halkett]

Hi Don,

So, I did the "easy" stuff and left the hard stuff to the guys with talent and tools. I did the strip and rebuild...the dip, blast and paint was all done by others. The drive train was only 40k in so was reasonably stable, I contacted previous owners who confirmed the engine and gear box was spared a life of violence...

...a bunch of stuff was sent out for work - brakes, starter, generator, air pump, etc...

I have a whack of pictures from tear down to rebuild, I am keen on my concept of originality. I took my time...no hurry/ no pressure. Some highs, some lows but overall a very stimulating and challenging project. Very DO'able on a reasonable budget and more importantly limited mechanical experience..( no previous frame off experience on my part )... my best advice was "it's just nuts and bolts"....

This forum helped a TON, its fair to say I checked it almost every day for at least 1.5 to 2yrs...it is, as they say, a long story. but in this case with a reasonably happy ending...

let me know how I can help / speak to you soon.
Stephen.

 

[DNK]

Mostly Curious, Thanks

 

[TR3driver]

So what is the cheapest possible paint job you can have done professionally, that doesn't look like a homebrew rattle can job in the back yard? What about these "one day" shops ... don't they charge something like $1,000 for a small car?

"Absolute cheapest" would be about half that much.
https://www.onedaypaint.com/1daycoupons.html

I paid about $1000 for what you see above, including a fair amount of body work (big dent in front apron/grill area, small new panel for rust repair in one front fender, two new rear fenders mounted, half dozen or so smaller dents), stripping to bare metal, painting door jambs etc. (original paint was pale yellow, but car was already an ugly maroon when I got it) and the black stripe. The color was also a custom mix. To keep costs down a little bit (plus get paint all over instead of masked off), I removed and installed all the chrome myself; but let them do all the other prep work.

But that was a few years back, so I'd expect to pay closer to $1500 for all that work today. The Stag didn't need as much body work, and it was $1300 or so (but that included the hardtop and they had to R&R a fair amount of chrome, to do the rust repair on it).

And honestly, while there was a little "orange peel" here and there, I think the overall quality was very similar to what these cars had when new. Remember they were "cheap" cars to begin with.

 

[glemon]

There are various options to get the car looking a little better, I would not recommend the rattle can route, even if you get a color match it is hard to get smooth application and not have overspray issues.

However, I have had some luck using an airbrush for automotive touch up, takes some trial and error, but with an airbrush you can add blending agents, mix colors and use real automtive paints and paint products, etc.

You will invest a little in equipment and paint, but not nearly as much as the time needed for a complete respray. You will by no means get perfection, and getting the airbrush to work right is kind of like tinkering with SU carbs, so if you don't like that kind of thing probably not the road to go down, but you can get by doing this for much less than a whole paint job, but the results will probably be less than satisfactory.

Better route is to find the small local body shop or part time bodyman who will work with you on the project, my friend recently did this with his Alpine, he did most of the prep work, took it to the bodyman for final inspection, where he did a little work before the top coat, and the bodyman applied the topcoat.

He got a very good deal, but paid the bodyman about $250 or so for his labor, and probably spent another $750 or so on materials.

Please not that paint has gotten very expensive, if you are going to paint the car as they generally recommend you will spend many hundreds on the primers, topcoats, various thinners and hardeners, etc.

The car looks excellent by the way, if you can't find someone like this through word of mouth you can also try your local want ad listings as these guys sometimes advertise in publications like that.

If they will spend some time with you, indicate a willingness to work with you as you want on the project while offering their own advice, that is a good sign, that and of course visit their shop and see some examples of their work.

Greg

 

[Moseso]

"Absolute cheapest" would be about half that much.
https://www.onedaypaint.com/1daycoupons.html

Hey, Randall...

What does Earl Scheib say these days? Does Earl Scheib even exist anymore?

He used to say, "I will paint any car for $59.95!" (I <span style="font-style: italic">know</span> that's not the kind of "quality job" that any of us would want...)

 

[TR3driver]

What does Earl Scheib say these days? Does Earl Scheib even exist anymore?

Definitely still in business, there is one where I get off the freeway and they always look busy. Haven't seen or heard an ad for them recently (but I rarely watch TV or listen to the radio, so perhaps I just missed it). But environmental regulations and the high cost of "green" paint products has killed the $59.95 paint job (which was $199.99 the last time I heard one of those ads).

I've seen those el cheapo paint jobs, and in all honesty I don't think they were all that bad. If you took some minimal precautions yourself (rub the car down with steel wool and Acryli-Clean before taking it in); then did some cleanup work yourself afterwards (use lacquer thinner to remove overspray from tires, bumper, exhaust, etc.) the result was usually at least a "5 footer". And it would continue looking nice for 2-3 years, longer if you kept the car garaged. Where they skimped was mostly preparation and clean up, the guys who shot the paint were good at it.

My next door neighbors had their daughter's car painted by Earl (long time ago), and neglected to remove the AAA sticker from the rear panel. For years, every time I came home, I looked at that painted sticker (you could even see the embossed AAA logo through the paint) and laughed. But it looked nice otherwise.

 

[vagt6]

Randall, I actually had an Earl Sheib paint job once! I wrecked a '67 Ford Fairlane, patched it up and had an Earl Sheib paint job on it. It really wasn't all that bad, really.

You're right: it's all in the prep. I masked everything before I took the car in, all they had to do was paint. But, I didn't get a discount for all the prep work I did, either.

That Earl dude drove a hard bargain . . . Maybe that's why he's still in biz??

 

[tdskip]

So how would you guys prep the car for a Earl/One Day job?

Bumpers, windshield, all the trim etc has to come off. I'd want them to spray the door jams and trunk.

Remove the hood and trunk lids so they can get both sides as well?

After all of that, might as well strip the engine bay....

Darn it - here we go again.

 

[hondo402000]

based on doing a few paint jobs in my life time,and each one got better looking. the body work is the tedious and hard part, if you strip it down to bare metal you probably will find rust that was paintd over, holes not fixed the right way, thats why a good paint job might cost 5-10 grand and thats if they do it right and you can trust them. kind of like baking a cake, putting the icing on is the easy part. it you want to do it yourself it can be done, get some books and read up, and if you have a spare body pannel to work on with some dents to be fixed and bondoed it would be well worth your time to practice on it. a flat primer coat never shows the waves that a shiney top coat reveals.

just my experience

Hondo

 

[DrEntropy]

No "Easy Button" with this. "In fer a penny..." an' all that.

 

[Brosky]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Remember they were "cheap" cars to begin with.[/QUOTE]

Randall,

They may have begun life as such, but no longer are classified that way today.

 

[Brosky]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]Darn it - here we go again.[/QUOTE]

TD,

Think of restoring these cars as a circle. The circle has no beginning and we all know that these have no end, so they must be a circle.

 

[TR3driver]

They may have begun life as such, but no longer are classified that way today.

My point was just that a less-than-perfect paint job is "as original".

Actually, though, I'd argue that they are still pretty cheap. You can easily spend over $25K on a Miata, which is about the cheapest thing on the road today that counts as a sports car; and it's very rare that a Triumph will bring that much.

And I wouldn't put a $5000 paint job on a Miata either

 

[glemon]

"a flat primer coat never shows the waves that a shiney top coat reveals."

just my experience

Hondo

Truer words were never spoken, next time I am going to find all those spots before the topcoat (of course I said that the last couple of times as well)

 

[TRcheologist]

I read somewhere that the trick to any restoration is to envision your end state - whatever that is - and commit to it without regret. It's certainly painful to take the car off the road for the months needed for quality work - body, paint, interior, etc. That said, I haven't missed a month (or, 19 months in my case...) of the downtime for the satisfaction I've subsequently received from the end product. Too, a comprehensive restoration doesn't have to relegate you to "museum piece" status. I get just as many positive comments on the odd rock-chip and patina as I do on the quality of the restoration. No regrets.