1958 Corvette

Mustang408

Mustang408

Member
I've been asked to bid on doing the repaint of a 58 Corvette. It's a customer car at the shop where my brother works, and his boss is getting several bids to see what direction they want to go. The body will stay on the frame, but the motor and trans is going to be removed.

I've looked the car over and I don't see any really bad areas I feel I cant repair. I'm just a hobbyist painter and I have fiberglass experience from being an A/P mechanic.
I'm just not sure what is a fair price for the work. I have a full time job so I'm certainly not interested in giving work away just to do it. ( Still have a ton of my own junk to work on.)
ANY help would be greatly appreciated!
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Thanks,
Kevin
 
We would bid that job only after a complete strip of old paint to see what is needed
 
never attempt to bid a corvette until stripped like flynams said. ( he's old and has done a bunch :) if original it's not really that important but still could hide stuff , that car has had a lot of work it looks like. the part that worries me is the bubbles on the hood that are down to glass and that glass just looks wrong . i believe it may be a replacement hood . they're good at having air bubbles .
paint only would be 9k here.
 
All the repairs that have been done over the years will have to redone right or it will haunt you, lots of surprises under that paint I bet!
 
that's a tough one! I agree with what is said here. Biggest problem is a lot of possible customer's are not going to let you strip their car down, and then give them a bid for repairs. They want to know upfront, so they can decide if your the one to do the job. It does need to be stripped down, and the customer needs to be convinced that there is no possible way to know what is under all that until that step has been done. At this point, all you could do is convince them that it will be done right, and the first step is the strip down. Charge time plus materials for the strip down. If they will go for that then the customer can be shown all that is wrong with it. From there it's either time plus materials or try to bid what you think it will take time wise. Hard to say on that car. 15k-20k done?
 
We make it simple here. The car deserves a good paint job, or a Macco job...the first step is strip it for a price...then the customer is free to shop the rest of the work anywhere they want...many times we will work in $5000 progress increments, with pictorial reports emailed weekly...and the customer is free to pull the job any time they want to...but we give them more than expected and that doesn't usually happen. I also give ballpark estimates by saying....you know so and so's red 58???? well his job was around $xxxx....but we don't work for free, we just work hard...and we need to be paid just like anybody else, and that usually aint cheap on a car like this...and usually not an investment with a return...they need to know that...or go buy a car that is already done that someone else lost on...just sayn....
 
Exactly what flynam posted is how i have done bigger jobs. I told my customer's that I needed a paycheck once a month, and at any time they were not happy, they could pull the job. Document all work with pics and writings to verify what you have done to justify your pay monthly. Have the customer come in to see the progress. We try to guesstimate, but it is pretty hard to do. The last thing they want to do is get taking a car like that to different shops for the endurance of the restoration. I see some people out there bouncing around from shop to shop with their projects, only in the end to end up out of money, and a botched resto job. Too many different shops working on a car is not good.
 
408, the guys have given you a lot of good advice and one more thing to think about is who puts its back together? Is that you? If it is, unless like Shine or Flynams that have done a bunch of these, missing parts and never doing one will be a nightmare for you and take a bunch of time.

My opinion is just the bodywork and paint has to be in the $20,000 + panels needed area as like Bob said, this thing will be full of surprises once it is stripped.

408, this may be one of those jobs, if you have never done one, could take you 2 years part time and you would lose your rearend doing the job.
 
it sounds like it is not being restored in the first place . not to come off the frame is the first mistake . having a mechanics shop handle the restoration is the second . there are so many things about a corvette that take years of experience and knowledge to accomplish . the doors have a bucket full of parts in them , install a windshield wrong and it will break or leak . it looks like the car has already been hacked once. the left front fender looks like it had a snout clip put on it. you'll never hide that. i would think long and hard before getting involved in it.
 
I agree with you shine but what this looks like to me is someone wanting out cheap and then hope he can get a Barret Jackson price.
The car will end up going to a normal bodyshop who is slow right now and never done a vette before and they will look at it as a simple strip and paint and done in a week for $4000, then first month in sun and let the bubbles Begin.
 
The other side of this coin is that the standard is set so high and still seems to be climbing that these cars become show only because they were done "right"...I do it for people, but hate it at the same time. I personally would rather see the car above put together and driven as is almost....the basic reason we build Rayzr...and sorry, but at my age I would rather use it with the possibility of losin it, than build it and bring it out a couple times a year in white gloves....just sayn
 
it kills me to turn away work but i have learned if the words " make a profit" every comes up i pass. too many folks think they can freshen up the engine and do a repaint then make 10-20k. most likely the engine trans is fine .
yep the days of drivers is long gone for the c2's . even the c3's are getting up there.
 
flynams;25995 said:
The other side of this coin is that the standard is set so high and still seems to be climbing that these cars become show only because they were done "right"...I do it for people, but hate it at the same time. I personally would rather see the car above put together and driven as is almost....the basic reason we build Rayzr...and sorry, but at my age I would rather use it with the possibility of losin it, than build it and bring it out a couple times a year in white gloves....just sayn
Click to expand...

LOL, do you think this is an age problem?? Up till about 7 years ago the wrong anything in a vette, GTO or Camaro or fiirebird would just give me the shakes.
Then it started with a perfect 57 T-Bird and all of a sudden I got sick of shows, ripped the 312 out and added about 60 more HP, took out the Fordomatic and put in an aod, redid the brakes to disc on all four and we have put almost 30,000 miles on that car and never enjoyed it more.
If at this age I found a C-2 or C-1 I wanted it fool with, its going to be an LS-3 with a six speed auto and auto everything.
Funny how we change.
 
Barry;25997 said:
If at this age I found a C-2 or C-1 I wanted it fool with, its going to be an LS-3 with a six speed auto and auto everything.
Funny how we change.
Click to expand...

You should do it...the Bird is nice, but the Vette would be afterglow everytime you climbed in it

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Barry;25997 said:
If at this age I found a C-2 or C-1 I wanted it fool with, its going to be an LS-3 with a six speed auto and auto everything.
Funny how we change.
Click to expand...

You should do it...the Bird is nice, but the Vette would be afterglow everytime you climbed in it
 
Thanks guys,
The car is being restored by my brother. He is very detailed and got his boss to agree to remove the body from the frame. The car is from an estate sale and the owner was looking to do some of the restore with his son. Some of the parts were in boxes but the car runs and drives fine. Looks like they realized the job was a little above his skills and took it to my brothers shop. This is not a small repair shop where my brother works, butt not a full-on restoration facility. He said most of the major paint work is done by a local collision shop.
I'm not worried about the glass repair aspect of the job, because i have extensive epoxy repair experience with very damaged flight controls from aircraft. I'm just worried about the mapping of the repairs. I've red several of the threads from the Corvette experts, and think I have a good indication of the pitfalls.

Next week I will look the car over one more time and probably make my bid.

No mater the outcome, I will keep everyone here in the loop and document any work.

Thanks!
Kevin
 
Not done correctly those will crack hard in the door jam...pm me if you need to
 
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