Body work vs New body Kit

[T-Roy]

I am trying to make a decision on whether to get body work/repair or just buy a body kit for my 1971 240z. It is a lot of work that is needed. At this time I don't want to pay $4500 in body repair. This does not include paint. I am going to buy a new hood because the existing one is damaged. But at $4500 I can possible buy a kit and have it installed before paint. Either way I still don't want to pay $4500 period. As you can see it is to the metal now.

Any ideas would be very helpful. My apologies if the pictures are too big.

 

I'm in San Francsico bay area (Antioch)

 

What I mean by kit is, new fenders, panels, and possible door skins.

Edited October 27, 2010 by T-Roy

[cockerstar]

What's causing a $4500 quote for body work before paint?

[z2go]

The big question is, are you going to be doing the metal work yourself? It might end up costing the same or more to replace all of those panels, not to mention the fact that they every car is different, and those panels might not fit on your car the way you would think. With all of the years that these cars have, and hitting an untold amount of potholes, fender benders, frame tweaking incidents, however minor, make a huge difference when you go to mount a brand new piece, or even worse, weld it in. Most everything needs to be shaped to some degree, even dogleg replacements. A new hood probably isn't a bad idea, hoods are one of those pieces that are probably the most interchangeable.

 

If you have your car at a good shop, that 4500 doesn't sound unreasonable, especially if after another 3 or 4k you end up with a painted car. From those pictures I can tell that there is a lot of work that needs to go in to fixing those parking lot dings, low spots, etc. My car had a lot of similar dents and dings, and stuff I didn't even realize was going on, like a low spot around the hatch key area from years of pressing it in.

 

What you really want to be wary of is a shop that says that they can paint your car out the door for $3000. I've seen cars that are painted for that kind of money, and you would be better off doing the work yourself. It would at least look better, and you would save a lot of money.

[T-Roy]

The car has a bunch of small dings, and 2 very small tares. The doors need to be lined up. No rust, body is straight. There are no major/big dents anywhere. It is a ding festival, small ones about the size of a penny all over it. Shop extimates 60 hours of body work plus materials.

[z2go]

That ding festival is what is really costing you those hours. It doesn't sound like they are padding the bill, at least not to me. I would ask them what it would cost to install the major panels, knowing they might need some coaxing. The tricky part would be replacing the rear quarter, roof, and anything else part of the unibody. Tons of welding and shaping... and your bill might start to go way past $4500. Are you going to fill in the roof, or leave the sunroof? If you are planning for any amount of serious power you might want to think about replacing the roof skin

[T-Roy]

The more I think about it the more I realize I may have to bite the bullet. The 60 hours is at 2005 prices of $65 an hour. So he's giving me a deal he says. I wanted to make sure it was on the level and it look like it might be.

[palosfv3]

Based on your pictures, 60 hours to get your 260 ready for paint is not unreasonable . I would only suggest you remove the remaining trim and windows before any priming or painting is started.

 

Regards

 

 

[rigez]

If you want a full roof skin no dents let me know I'm in your area. I'll let it go for cheap. Not using it so its taking up space in the garage.

[T-Roy]

I don't think the roof skin is going to save me any money at this point. Let me ask the shop.

[rigez]

PM sent

[gorillaFart]

i think you can honestly find complete replacement doors and fenders for dirt cheap (i bought a complete door for 30bucks, no bondo, and had 1 dent)... u would save a lot of money there. weigh your options. u do want it done right, but things do get pricey. you have to do what you can to save a buck

[Indri]

The problem with the dings is that they will use a lot of body filler. However, if you're on a budget, that may be the way to go. What is your ultimate goal with the car? I'd ask the shop what the price difference would be if you sourced new panels. Again, the problem with new panels is it depends on how much work they need to line up properly. There's no way of knowing until you get the panels mocked up to the car. So you could buy panels that need a lot of work and thus surpassing the cost of filling in the dings, or you could get panels that need little work and would save money in the long run. Honestly, I believe the cheapest route would be to fill the dings....actually I could almost guarantee the cheapest route would be to fill the dings. No HUGE drawbacks from doing that really but I know a lot of people tend to "scoff" at body filler.

 

 

Like gorillaFart said too, you may be able to find doors and a hood for cheap and then use filler on the rest. That actually may be the cheapest option - depending on how cheap and in what condition the doors and hood are (how much work they would need).

 

When it comes to cost, in the end, it's all about how many man hours the shop has to put in. Parts and materials are cheap, labor is expensive.

Edited November 1, 2010 by Indri

[T-Roy]

Buying a new kit and trying to make it work can be more expensive accoding to the shop. I am going for a full restore since I came this far. I was looking for a way to save but. According to the response I've gotten so far I might be making out pretty good.

[Randy]

None of what I can see warrants the replacement of any panels, that would actually cost more, because they are still going to be fixing warped metal with filler once they put them on.

[T-Roy]

I've decided to stick with the panels I have now. The only thing I replaced was the hood. I bought that from Black Dragon auto parts today. I tried to buy used but the price for used was a couple dollars less than new. So I went new. So I'm going for it. 2 of the panels are finished. The wheel wells had rust removed, cut out and repaired. There was some unexpected fabrication that had to be done. Window from hatch has been removed to clean up rust there. Now it's a real restore. I will try to swing by the shop and take some more pictures.

[T-Roy]

Went by the shop today. Surgery never looks good. I am having some problems uploading pictures. Most of the dings have been repaired on the right side.

[Texlenin]

T-roy, they're doing what's called a "skim coat." The idea is to lay down the thinnest possible

layer of Bondo to fill and level all the depressions/waves/dimples. Then sand that down as far as

possible, rinse, repeat. The start all over again with high-fill primer to fill in the sanding

scratches. Then "block sand" to get a smooth surface.

You might ask them if they are using "plastic" (styrene, I think) or "metal' bondo. A weakness of

Bondo is that if water gets in from behind, it can loosen the bond and make it crack or fall off.

The thicker the Bondo layer is, the more likely that will be to happen. The "metal" has aluminum

particles in that are less likely to let that happen.

"Skim coating' is a commom practice on older cars were panel replacement may not be an viable option.

It's not what you'd do with a hail-damaged car; chassis flex would shake little cones of bondo all

over the road....

Hope this helps some. Remember, as Bill Reagan said, " Rust Never Sleeps! "

[T-Roy]

The car is painted. Its straight. Waiting for the window man to come place the back window in. Will be uploading some pictures soon.