Quote:
Originally Posted by Beechy
Shane......that's quite a chunk of work you've taken on, great work and documentation, thanks for the updates.
Bravo to TomM for posting that body-in-white data...saved an ulcer I expect.
However, back on post 51 u stated that you'd saved a bunch of money by going the route u did. Post 66 above (which is incredibly well detailed) says u saved $13.58.....is there a decimal place gone missing?
Also what percentage of the work did u do compared to body shop? SWAG.
More power to you.
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Thanks, I appreciate it! Yes, Tom’s info was a huge help in making sure everything was in its proper placement. It definitely saved a lot of second guessing and rework...I appreciate it Big time!
Yeah, for sure, there’s no error in the decimal placement, unfortunately, mostly because there were some additional items that I could have reused but decided to ahead and replace “while I was in there” type of thing. The biggest over-run was the A-pillar panels which led to the roof panel and rain gutters (or vice versa) The bottom of both A-pillars were rusted out above the rockers and in areas on the inner portions next to the windshield. Initially, the body shop quote was to just patch those areas, however, I decided I wanted to replace the roof since the PO had butchered the seam on the passenger quarter as well as both A-pillar seams while removing the outer A-pillar panels. Since I had sprung for the complete new A-pillar panels, I didn’t see the point in cutting off small areas when I could just have the whole thing installed on both sides netting a better finished product. That involved removing the outer cowls which I had installed already. Since the top part of those panels attach to the inner roof structure under the roof skin, it made further sense to do it that way while replacing the roof panel.
Some other items that impacted the bottom line was that I got too busy with work and went ahead and had the shop do some things that I had originally planned to do such as finish welding the mini tubs, closing off the factory fresh air vent in the lower cowl and rebuilding the upper door hinges...nothing major but it all starts adding up and accounted for about $1800. In the end, between work, kid’s sports and thrashing on the Nova, I was beginning to burn out and just wanted it to get done.
Although there’s no way to know for sure in my case, and definitely every new body is different, I still say that the biggest savings would come from the fact that there’s still gonna be a substantial body shop bill to get a new body gapped and have panels massaged. I have a buddy who bought a new 69 Camaro body and paid big time to have the door, trunk and rocker gaps filled with metal rod to close the gaps to 3/16’s as well as other problem areas. That may not be a requirement for everybody and certainly many people have the ability to self-perform more work and are more patient then I am and don’t mind walking away when they feel burned out which could save even more money.
As far as the percentage of work, I did all of the rough alignment and positioning of all the sheet metal as well as installing the mini tubs, torque boxes, subframe connectors, front subframe supports, rearpackage tray, full floor pan, etc. when I took it to the body shop, most items were held in place with either sheet metal screws or vice grips and spot welds. I intentionally left everything “loose” so they could do the final panel alignment and fine tune the gaps without first having cut everything loose. They then replaced the roof, A-pillars, rain gutters, fit the stainless trim to the window openings, fit the tail lights to the tail panels, removed the dash so I could get it blasted and primed and closed out the lower cowl. They also primed and painted the inside of the lower cowl since this area’s not accessible once the top cowl is welded on. They also sanded and protected the top of the inner roof structure before reinstalling the new roof.
The pics below give you an idea of what it looked like when they got it (top) vs when they were done with it (bottom). No difference to someone who doesn’t know what to look for but big difference in the way things fit. Hope that helps and thanks for tuning in!