When we had ours done, we had the body nearly completely disassembled, all sanded down, all the small dents repaired, a few patches done in the bottom of the rear fenders to fix the rusted through holes from water damage, then primed, painted in the new version of the original lime gold, and one coat of clearcoat. It was in the shop probably 4 months because we knew the guy in charge and cashed in a favor to get a nice discount on the work, it was done in the time the shop wasn't flooded with insurance claims, but it finally ended up costing us $3800, without the discount we got it would have been easily $5000.

 

A nice fully painted car does not mean a nice paint job. It means the whole car. Speak English. I had mine done 12 years ago, and it cost me 5 grand. The shop took off the doors, hood and trunk lid front and rear glass with chrome, sand blasted it, replaced a few rusty spots on the rear quarter and the bottom of the doors, prepped it and painted it. Now, that was 12 years ago and out in west Texas where things are generally cheaper than Kali orYankee land. I would expect my paint job to cost about 7 grand today. If it doesn't look like this before they paint it, they are not doing a quality job. This is Ol' Yeller before they took the glass out and replaced the headliner. The 1st shot is how she looks 12 years later. The paint job is one job you cannot skimp on.

 

You mean like this? First blasted >epoxy primed > ding repair > epoxy prime over that portion (yellow) > some sort of sanding prime > block sanding > maybe some other prime? and then paint. I don't know much about paint and body but so far so good.

 

Yep...You still have a ding on your rear quarter though. All of my running gear was left in place though. That saved a ton.

 

Jeff,
Do youself a favor, pull that plug on the end of the cowl and clean the cowl area out = and don't tell me you are goint to reuse the headliner.
And a note ot all 64 to 66 owners - see the opening in the sheet metal at the lower part of the cowl. That gets filled with leaves and keeps water in the cowl area.
Jim

 

Ha ha, that is dust from the shop, not a ding. Looking at the picture, I see I'll have to remind them to remove the door striker. The running gear is in mine as well as I've already painted the engine bay and put in a new driveline, however, the rest of the car is stripped to the bone. It certainly isn't a show quality restoration, I just wanted to make sure the paint itself is done to last.

[edit] You're right about the plug Jim, I meant to mention that as well. Oops. You are correct about the gunk at the outlet. Mine was filled with pine needles, but fortunately, the metal is all still good in there. I imagine different leaves would probably plug things up a lot more.

[2nd edit] You don't like my headliner Jim? It is the original factory one and I want to leave it original. Actually, it was glued in pretty well from the factory so I just left it and the blaster 'separated it from the body'. I have a new one that I'm going to install myself (wish me luck) after I reassemble the interior. Since the headliners are so cheap and it is completely empty, I'll give it a shot. If it comes out lousy I'll have a shop do it. The fact that the windows are out give me hope that I'll be able to pull it off. We'll see.

 

Yeah, that headliner is right out of the "Beverley Hillbillies."

 

Rip all that headliner out, paint on some POR-15 and install a new sound deadener. As long as you are there -
Jim

 

I agree......
The best way is to go to a few shops and get quotes. Don't pick the cheapest because that's their way of getting you in then upping the price with "incidentals". The good shops will give a price on the painting and leave the body on a pay as you go. That way you can decide how much or little you want to spend on the body work.

 

hey gothand, what kind of seam sealer did you use around your cowl panels and cowl?