By contrast, traditional carnauba waxes and paint sealants do not offer any resistance to scratches and scuffs due to the very thin layer of paint protection they offer. There are a lot of steps involved in getting your classic car restored, and it’s best that you know at least a little about them so you don’t get ripped off, now I’m by no means saying that most shops out there are going to rip you off, but there are a select few shops that make a living pulling little tricks, short cuts and work a rounds, and you don’t want them doing this on your car.
Now first and foremost a restoration shop is not like your local collision repair shop, it’s completely different in every respect, yes a restoration shop does body and paint work, but that is about where the similarities end, a collision repair shop can look at the damage to your car from a collision and give you an estimate with in $100 dollars of the job.
A restoration shop cannot begin to give you an estimate that is even in the ball park, there is no way for them to see every last detail of the restoration on your car, every car is different, some cars are rusted out more then others, parts car be almost impossible to locate for some cars, you don’t just call the local parts store for some of these parts, especially when your talking MOPAR restoration work, there just weren’t a lot of them built in the first place.
Now a shop could tell you something like this when you ask for an estimate, a normal restoration on a car that’s in good shape, with no, or very little rust would take about 800 hours for us to restore, and this would probably be about right, and if the car is in bad shape you could add about 300 hours, this would be pretty close to what it should be, but every shop is a little different, and you have got to know that these estimates are based on time only, parts are added cost, and usually added time.
When a shop tries to give you an estimate, it usually ends up with the car not getting completed, and the owner of the shop, and his customer being very unhappy with each other, and this doesn’t need to happen, this is one reason that my shop doesn’t give estimates on work, unless it’s just something like changing a quarter panel, or door, something simple, on a full restoration we can’t do it, we have tried, and we have had the same problems that I have alluded to earlier.
OK; now that I have finished that little tangent, let’s get down to business, the very first thing is that you love your car, because you’ll be spending a lot of time with it, rather you do the work yourself, or hire a shop to do it for you, either way it will take a lot of time to finish the restoration work, the word restoration itself should be enough to tell you that, most shop are just a man living his dream to restore cars for a living.
Now if you choose to have a shop do the work on your car, make sure that you take a tour of any shop that you are considering to let do the work, during this tour you should look around the shop, look that how clean the shop is, look ate the quality of the equipment and tools that the shop is using, high quality tools and equipment indicate pride in their shop, and in their workmanship, and clean shop shows pride in the shop, and gives you an idea of how they’ll treat your car.
Now look at the work in the shop, look at the other cars, ask the employees what their doing, and why they’re doing it, one of the best answers that you could hear is, I love classic cars, and I think of each car that I restore as my own, if this were my car, how would I want it done, and then I do it that way, or as close as possible with in the budget that we have to work with.
If you decide that you want the work done faster, the shop will put more people on you project, but you have got to realize that these people are working for the shop labor rate, so if the shop has a labor rate of $75.00 per hour, and you have two people working on your car, your not paying $75.00 your paying $125.00 per hour, or shop rate for each employee that’s working on your car, and it is fair, they had to leave another job to help on your car, and their job is now just sitting there waiting for him to get back to it.
As you’ve seen I talk a lot about the shop, and the work they do, and what they charger for their work, now I’ll give you a few questions that you should ask the owner of the shop while he’s by you, or you can ask the foreman of the shop id the owner is gone.
1. Has your shop ever restored one of these kind of car in the past.
2.If so, can I see some before, after, and during pictures.
3.Ask them why they should be the shop that restores your car.
4.If your doing to take to the shows, have they won any awards from car shows.
5.Tell them what your going to do with the car, I.E. It’s a driver, it’s a show car.
6.Do you have a good parts connection for the parts on my car.
7.Do you charge to locate parts for my car.
8.What is you typical time frame for completion of the restoration work.
9.If you want custom paint, does their shop do it, or is it farmed out.
10.Do you have references from past customers, a lot of shops don’t, and it doesn’t mean anything, but if they do, please ask to take a look at them.
If you just do a little research, you can save yourself a lot of agony, and the shop also, before you go in to the shop get all of your ducks in a row, learn about your car, make sure that the shop has worked on your make and model of car, most shops have pictures of cars that they have restored, sit down and look at what they have, ask a lot of questions, most shops expect that, if they don’t like you asking questions, look for a different shop to do the work on your car.
Make 100% sure that all of your questions are answered to your satisfaction, if you don’t ask any questions then it’s your fault if something go wrong during the restoration of your car, if you ask questions, the shop will have a better idea of what you expect, remember questions, not demands, if you get rude with a shop owner, or it’s employees, your car could get pushed to the back burner, so be nice, but make sure that the shop knows what your looking for when the car is done.
- Classic Car Restoration [http://autorevival.com]
- Muscle Car Restoration [http://red-line-resto.com]
I’ve been in the automotive business for about 20 or 25 years, I have worked in all facets of the industry, from parts to restoration, all different makes and models, I just want to keep people interested in the old cars because it’s where my heart is.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/David_Atkin/19638
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