1980 C3 looking for a good bodyshop within an hour of Barrie

[Stevel1980]

HI,

I live in the Barrie area and been having a lot fun fixing up my 1980, I have new bumpers on order and am looking for a good body shop within an hour of Barrie, I am budgeting $5-$6K. Body is good, no color change but definitely needs to be stripped down and painted.

Anyone have any good references?

 

[Brian Keery]

Strip it yourself, and maybe that price is doable for a decent driver. My guy will run you 10K if you want it done start to finish......and you won't get it in till next fall. That's the problem with anyone good, they're all busy.

 

[buckhorn76]

Strip it yourself, and maybe that price is doable for a decent driver. My guy will run you 10K if you want it done start to finish......and you won't get it in till next fall. That's the problem with anyone good, they're all busy.

:agree: 5-6 won't do it. i've had quotes of 7500 - 9000 for paint, colour change or not.

 

[Keith Tedford]

When you get done pricing a refresh on a car, you are going to have more into it than if you just went out and bought one already done and not have any of the "body shop prison" problems. You can quickly have more into the car than what it is worth. Been there in the past even when doing a lot of the work myself.

 

[AllFlash]

Oh and welcome to the site where forthright honesty is first and foremost eheh.

 

[vintageracer]

The price jump for painting Corvettes is because of the extra potential difficulty of working with fiberglass. If you want "driver" quality... Brian's suggestion may help... "strip it yourself".
I have a guy in the Stoney Creek area that might be able to do you a budget job... but he will likely be very slow at completing it as his regular car-lot customers get priority. Stoney Creek is more like 2 - 3 hours from Barrie.
David

 

[Brian Keery]

When you factor in that materials and shop supplies alone will run anywhere from $1000 - $1500, that doesn't leave a lot of meat on the bone. Installing new bumpers could be 4-8 hours just to get fit right. The prep is what kills you.......that's why spending a few hundred bucks on some good stripper (not a big fan of the razorblade technique - unless you've got the hands of a surgeon) at least gets you down to bare glass so you can see what you've got. Many of these cars haven't lived an easy life, and more than one owner has been shocked to find previous damage once the old paint and bondo (yes some people used a lot to patch these cars up) was removed. Even without any body damage, just properly burying bonding strips could take a good body man some time, and money, out of the budget. If you can find a decent painter, do the stripping and bumper fitment as well as the colour sanding/buffing yourself; I'd say your budget is doable. Good painters are not on every street corner though. There's a lot of work involved in painting a fibreglass car, but like anything with these cars, if you can do some/all of the work yourself it definitely offsets the cost. Good luck.

 

[Nick Montanaro]

Hi Vintageracer,
I'm in Niagara Falls and could sure use a budget paint job. Can you send me the info for the guy in Stoney Creek?
Thank you,

 

[wildone909]

Welcome to the forum.. I completely agree with Brian.. I removed the bumpers, trims , lights, door panels on mine and installed them myself after the paint job... lots of work but it saved me 2000 or so. On the bright side you really get to know your vette