I may know a little about this
Body shop rates are about $48 a hour on average. The part that you are missing is this is for fixing new vehicles. They look in a book and it says 18 hours to replace a quarter and a good body man can do it in 8 hours...but they still charge the 18, because that is what is in the book. I know of many bodymen bill over 80 hrs on jobs they work for the week and only work 40 hours. Pretty much standard practice. So in reality they are working around $80 or so an hour
Mechanical work is completely different and rates are much higher.
Now to the problem at hand. Classic cars are completely different as you don't look in the book for hours for a job. It is based on the exact time taken..hence the $75 or whatever per hour. I am sure you will not have a problem once they understand (send build pics) of what they are dealing with.
You really need to be making a depreciated value claim as well Steve. Give me a call or shoot me an email and I will explain. It is going to be complicated to establish a value, but it can be negotiated
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