I contacted some local body shops for estimates on painting the car over the last few weeks. The results weren’t very encouraging. Most of the shops i talked to were not even interested in painting a car. The shops make more money doing insurance work fixing fender benders and didn’t want to consider a larger job that could potentially tie up one or more of their bays with a disassembled car for several weeks or even months. I did talk to two shops that would be willing to paint the car. Both estimate were way above what I was willing to commit to spending. I would have ended up with a top quality or even show quality paint for that kind of money. But my budget and goals were far exceeded by both of those shops.
I asked Val if he knew of any shops that would be willing to take on this type of job for a reasonable price. He referred me to a small shop that does driver quality paint jobs, takes on cars one at a time, and finishes the job in a fairly short (2-3 week) time frame. The paint is base coat/clear coat. He doesn’t do the disassembly and reassembly of the chrome trim. Just makes sure the body is stripped, straight, and then paints the car. His paint jobs are equivalent in quality to what the factory did back in 1967, but with modern urethane paint The painter’s name is Herbie. I called Herbie and he said to bring the car by so that he could take a look at it.
I made the drive out to visit Herbie and he went over the car. His prices were very reasonable and he was not only willing to paint the car, but would be ready to start the job in about a week. He also recommended adding a pin stripe to the side which he could do for a fair price. I’m not certain about the pin stripe yet, but everything else he said sounded good to me. I scheduled the job with him and went home to start planning and disassembling the chrome trim. I had been a bit discouraged by the estimates I had received so far and by several shop’s lack of willingness to even take on a job of this size. It now looks like I can have the interior and exterior completed by Spring time.
I still have a couple of days left before the car goes off to paint. So far I have removed the backup lights, tail light bezels, trunk lock, and the door upper weather strip. I still need to remove the door handles and locks and the radio antenna. Then I just need to decide what chrome trim I need to drill holes for and get any drilled that I need. Today is Saturday and my appointment with Herbie is for next Tuesday so I better get moving.
As a side note I installed new rear lap belts. They were supposed to be the same color as my front seat belts but they don’t match. I didn’t notice until after I installed them so I’ll try to live with them for now. I also got my molded headliner kit in but probably won’t be installing it until after paint. No problem, I will have the next 2-3 weeks or so to plan my next steps and the best order to perform them in. I’ll try to snap some pictures of the car just before it goes to paint, and of course I’ll take a bunch of pictures after I get the car back from Herbie. I can hardly wait.