Re:to paint or not to paint/Hugh's accident/Long Read

[Jeff Ingraham <jeff_ingraham@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi steve and Hugh..
   Here is my story... (i hope you are all sitting
down!)
First off let me start with my 74 Plymouth Satellite,
19,ooo miles, perfect in every way...
Bought from the original owner's estate (A physician),
Stored in a heated indoor storage facility since
new...
Driving it to work one day and a CRAZY woman does a
U-turn in the middle of the fast lane of a divided
highway in heavy traffic. CRASH!
(Sorry hugh Been there done that!  I am glad YOU are
safe!)  
Not much damage really but the bumper and grille were
toast.
So begins my search for THE VERY BEST restoration
facility in the area.  
After a LOT of discussion/calls/talking to folks in
the car biz I respect, I light on one body shop. 
Owner is a member of local car clubs and come VERY
highly recommended from everyone.   
Turns out to replace bumper, Grille, header panel and
repaint hood will be $4500.   Fine I say, I want it
PERFECT just like it was!
The body shop expressed concern about finding the
parts so I found EVERYTHING via the Internet myself. 
All they had to do was bolt on 5-7 parts and shoot the
hood.
Well after several cost overruns/it turns out it was
almost $6000 in the end. (Luckily paid in full by the
crazy woman's insurance.)
The shop tried to put a dull rusty used bumper on
which I would not accept so that was part of the cost
overruns.
Anyway in the end it was almost $6K and when they
finally get the new bumper on they had tripled the
cost of the parts I found to the Insurance company
The bumper replate took almost 3 months total, when
they finally put it on, they found the frame rails
were bent upwards so the bumper does not look "right"
to this day.  (Long story I was out of state when it
was finaly finished so my brother picked up the car,
and when I did go back with it about the bumper, the
owner refused to do anything about it.
So for $6k I get slow service, darn near extorsion on
the cost of parts to the insurance company, and a
bumper which points to the sky!

The finaly piece of irony/sadness to this story is my
5 year old daughter was helping me in the garage last
Summer and dropped a crecent wrench on the hood
chipping the paint and blowing $6k.

So that was my experience with the 'best of the Best"
body shop in this state.  needless to say I will NEVER
GO BACk and will try and keep anyone I care from from
going there.

Contrast that with my brother's 58 imp.  Hit in front
of his house by a drunk/high as a kite/homeless stoner
in a friends unlicenced PINTO with no insurance, no
job, and soon to skip town without a trace
Hit very hard and took out the whole drivers side.
So...   
we go about getting the parts from Bob Hoffmeister
etc. We remove all the chrome, we replace 2 doors,
bumper and front fender, much chrome etc.
We bought a couple of books and my brother had already
taken a body work class at the local community
college.
we did all the body work ourselves learning as we go
and redoing it several times to get it right.
After we had done everything he had the car painted at
the maaco in Council bluffs iowa who took more pride
in  the Imperial and care with it then the high priced
shop did with my car.  They still have a picture of it

in their shop an PROUD disply now 3 years later.
It took us about 3 months also but in the end the cost
was around $1500 or 1/4 of my Satellite's job even
though the Imp needed a LOT more parts, turned out
BETTER because WE did the prep work and took our time
and had a garage where we could work on it evenings
and weekends.
Sorry this got so windy but I now firmly believe if
YOU do the prep work finding someone to shoot the
paint is relatively easy and inexpensive.  My friend
took his VW van from sitting in a field since 1968 to
a 1st place world of Wheels show winner (yesterday in
omaha as a matter of fact) with doing all the work
himself and Earl scheib painting it.
I did the same thing now with my 59 Imperial 4dr;
http://ingraham.esu3.org/cars/59imp.htm
Turned out very good and aside from one spot where I
woudl like to redo it it still looks very nice.
So that is what I plan to do with cars that really
need to be painted is take off all chrome myself and
do the prep work myself and then let someone else
paint.
Stay safe everyone!
Jeff Ingraham

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