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How to find the right shop to repair, repaint or restore your pride and joy can be a very hit and miss affair - often with large amounts of money being paid for sub-standard work.
What follows is an article written by a former panel beater and gives a good system for not getting ripped off.
If I had seen this article sooner, I would have avoided a very costly mistake.
http://www.autobody101.com/content/articles/confessions-of-a-body-shop-owner/
"Anybody know of a good body shop in (enter your city name here)?", "How do I get my body shop to work on my car?", "My car is being held for ransom!", or just simply "Body shop Blues". I'm sure you have all seen topics similar to these posted. Gentlemen, my name is MARTINSR and I was one of those dirty rotten bastards that would keep your car ten times longer than I promised.
For the guy not doing his own body work or at least not all of it,
he is at the mercy of the body shop. It is not a nice position to be in.
In fact, it can go down as one of the low points in your life. I have
seen horror stories that would make your hair stand on end. A long time
customer of mine (he owned about 60 cars and usually had a few in shops
around the area at all times) had a car that was held as evidence in a
murder. Yep, it had blood splattered on it when one of the shops owners
killed the other with a baseball bat!
The following is my
generalization of restoration shops that I have owned, seen or worked
at. There are exceptions to the rule. Please don't beat me up if I have
rolled your shop into the mix when you are an exception. But, if you do
see yourself, I suggest you get down to your neighborhood junior college
and take a course or too in business. One of the great myths is that we
each think our business is so unique, we can't learn from a "regular"
business class. Well after much instruction and exposure to the business
side of things I can tell you, business is BUSINESS. Whether you are
running a liqueur store, a cat house, or a body shop, they are all
exactly the same. Sales are SALES, period.
So, we can agree a
body shop is a business, being a good body man does not make you a good
businessman. Restoration shops are usually owned by good body men, not
good businessmen. It is very hard to make money doing restoration work,
it is very easy to make money doing regular collision work. The business
man makes his money doing collision work and tells all the customers
with restoration work to go to Joe's Body shop down the street, he does
the restorations. Joe loves doing what he is doing, but seldom makes
much money. He is an artist, a true master at his craft. Joe sees things
at what they can "become", not what they "are". When Joe sees a car he
doesn't see the time it will take to make it the show winner he knows it
will be, he only sees it as the show winner. I really don't believe he
means to lie to you when he says it will be done in a month, he is
looking at through rose colored glasses, his vision is altered. Like a
woman forgets the pain of giving birth, so does Joe when he gazes upon
the beautiful car he has carried for nine months (or longer). And when
the next rust bucket rolls in, he has forgotten about the hundreds of
hours needed, he only sees a luscious rose garden.
Like I
said few make a living at restoration or hot rod work. The biggies that
you have heard of like Roy Brizio or Boyd Codington all make money with
other ventures, not the rod shop. The first time I visited Brizios shop
this was very apparent. The rod shop is about 5000 square feet sitting
in the middle of a 50,000 square foot building. The rest of the building
is Brizios manufacturing business. It is all non auto related by the
way. The rod shop is a hobby, I don't doubt for a second he makes money,
but it is a hobby none the less.
So when you go looking for a
shop to do your car you have to remember this, you are most likely
going to be dealing with an artist. If you think the business end of it
is going to go smooth, think again. If you build yourself up and believe
everything, you are in for a BIG let down. If you set yourself up for
less than that you will be much better off. I suggest getting ready for
MUCH, MUCH less and then you will be happy when it only takes five
months instead of the ten you got ready for. If he said one month and
that is what you are planning, by the time five months rolls around you
are ready to kill someone.
These are HUGE generalizations but
I have found a few signs that may help you in picking out a shop. If
nothing else they will help you understand who you are dealing with.
1. If there is more than one car sitting in the shop covered with dust,
this may be a bad sign. If you have been around body shops much you
know that dust build up is like the rings in a tree, you can tell by the
layers and colors how many YEARS it has been sitting. If there is a car
that is being used for storage of misc. boxes and things, bad sign. My
brother used to joke that I should bolt a vise on the fender of the car,
at least I could get some use out of it! Coyly ask "Cool car, is that
yours?" if he says "Naw, it's a customers", BAD SIGN. If there are ten
stalls in the shop and six have dust covered cars in them, RUN. I
shouldn't have to tell you this one, but if there are guys hanging
around with beers in their hands, RUN.
2. How many stalls
does he have? I have found that the real restoration/rod shops seem to
have only room to have three or four cars at a time. If you only had
room to work on three cars, you are going to be damn certain they get
out so you can have room for the next. One of the most successful custom
shops I have ever seen was a little four stall shop in Pittsburgh
California. It is the famous (well at least on the west coast) DeRosa
and son Customs. Frank has been around since the fifties making show
winning cars. He and his son Frank Jr. do the same today and do it FAST.
They run a neat, little and clean shop. If you have seen the 2001
DuPont calendar they did the "Cadster". It was only in the shop for a
few weeks. By the way, it doesn't have DuPont primers on it like the
calendar says, Martin Senour primer was used.
3. Does he look
at your car like they do at the McPaint shops, you know, all jobs all
colors the same price? If he doesn't take a good long look at the car
taking notes, he has no clue what he is doing. He is looking at the car
with those rose colored glasses. Every single panel should be examined
and noted for the amount of hours needed. If he just looks over the car
without doing this he is surely going to be WAY off. If he is way off on
how much he is charging you, what incentive does he have to work on it?
So let's say you have a shop you would like to bring it to, you really
need to case the joint. Turn into a stalker and keep an eye on the shop.
You know for months that you are going to need a body shop. Watch the
shops for months. Drive by during business hours and see if they are
actually open. Many of these guys (remember they are not good
businessmen) take their open sign as sort of a guide line. If it says
8:00 to 5:00 it is more like 9:15 to 2:00 then 4:25 to 7:00, they can't
get your car done like that. See if any cars leave. If you go by there
and see the same cars sitting there and many little jobs going in and
out, BAD SIGN. I have to tell you, those little money making collision
jobs are dang hard to turn away. If I had a million hour job sitting
there and it was the 28th of the month I am going to set it aside for
the $800.00 job I can do in two days to pay the rent.
If they
don't allow you to walk around and check the place out, be wary. Look
at the paint dept, does he have a booth? Is there junk and open cans all
over? Is there many different brands of paint? This is usually not a
good sign, he buys anything he can get his hands on. This is many times
the sign of a "junior chemist", they guy that mixes products and doesn't
follow tech sheets.
If you have decided that this is the
shop you want to go to, help the poor guy. You "suggest" to him how you
want to go about the money part. This is the ONLY way you should do it
believe me. Don't give him a deposit and leave the car. This is darn
near a guarantee that your car will be sitting for weeks while he uses
that money to buy parts for a high profit collision job or simply pay a
long standing bill. Which then leaves your car sitting there with no
incentive to work on it.
Here is what you need to do. Tell
him that you want to do only ONE of the things on your car, at a time.
You want to get a price for all of them maybe so you know what it is
headed, but do only one at a time. You will pay him for one step at a
time. Not because you don't trust him, but because YOU are bad with
money and that YOU don't want to leave him hanging after the car is done
with no money to pick it up.
This way it is more like he is
in control and made the decision. Then you negotiate the time it will
take for each step. Let's say you have patch panels to do on the front
fenders. You agree that he will have them done at the end of the week,
and that they will cost $200.00. He has something to work for, he knows
he will get the money and he actually does it. You go see him on Friday
see the work done and give him the $200.00. Then you pick another thing
to do. Just as if you were doing these things at home, break them down
into bite sized pieces so he can swallow them. If you go in there and
find that he hasn't done it or he has done poor work, you can then say
"I am sorry to yank your chain, I don't have any more money, I just lost
my job" and take the car, no body owes a thing. If he does not want to
do this, you really need to start rethinking your choice of a shop.
Either this or variation of this should be fine with him. If it is not,
something is wrong.
If he really wanted to make money he
would be doing this. The first restoration job I ever did where I really
felt I made money was done just this way. It was a little '58 Bug eye
Sprite. I had decided that something had to be done or I would fall into
the same trap as before with a car sitting forever. One of the first
shops I ever worked at was a full on restoration shop. It broke the rule
and was pretty big, with four full time employees. Every car had a time
card assigned to it. When you worked on the car, you punched in. Then
each month (these were HUGE frame off restorations on 30's and 40's
vintage Fords) the owner would receive a bill with the times worked. If
they couldn't pay, the car left, period. The guy made money and I
finally got smart (after about 12 years in business) and followed his
lead. I put a sign on this Bug Eye and would post the hours I spent on
it. I told the guy to come by each week. Now, when the guy came in and
saw only two hours were spent, he was not very happy. That was a heck of
an incentive for me right there I will tell you that! It worked great, I
actually got paid for every minute I worked, unlike most restoration
projects. And he actually got the car back in close to what I said. It
was still late, but not ten times as late as I had done before.
Another thing I highly recommend is to take plenty of photos of the
car, really detailed photos. When you drop the car off leave him a copy
of them. Letting him know you have a copy. Not threatening like "I am
doing this so I can prove you lied to me" more like "I can't wait to see
how different it is and you can have these before shots to show future
customers". Which is true, it is just not the only reason you are doing
it. If he is doing a full on restoration for you, I HIGHLY recommend
parts like chrome and interior be taken home after he removes them so
they don't get stolen or damaged. You need to have a very close
relationship with the shop, if these visits make the guy edgy, you
really need to find another shop.
If you have the attitude
that you are genuinely interested in how this work is done, not how he
will do YOUR car, but just in general. You will find that he will be
much more likely to "show off" his talents than if you go in there like
an untrusting customer.
Along with these photos you want a
VERY detailed work order. Run like the wind if he has no work order.
Still run if he has a work order that says "fix dents and rust" as the
repairs being done. RUN, I say. You need to have a fully detailed work
order, not for legal reasons (wink, wink) but for your own records to
show the wife where all the money went. The "wife" is a great way to get
things done. You need to come look to see what is done because the wife
wants to see. Bring her in there, she has an excuse, she knows nothing
right? So you bring her in to see what magic this guy is doing to your
car so she can understand why it costs so much. Bring a friend when you
drop the car off, be sure he hears everything that is said. Let him or
her help you make the decision on leaving it there. Sometimes YOU too
can be looking through rose colored glasses. If someone else says they
have a bad feeling, LISTEN to them.
There are few things that
can compare with returning to a shop to find the place is locked tight
and the mail is piling up on the floor where the carrier has dropped it
through the slot. I have seen it, it really happens. The good news is it
is rare, just take your time and find a shop where you feel
comfortable.
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