Hello:
Last year I took an evening auto body repair shop at the regional Voc-Tech
center. The instructor was a beset-upon saint who was capable of the
dodgiest work for the sake of expediency.
I am slowly trying to teach myself the craft and I find it exceedingly
hard. It is very rewarding, however, and even the smallest accomplishment
is quite satisfying.
In the class we were free to bring in our own iron to work on and I was
doing lower wing repair on my MGB-GT. After struggling along for a few
weeks on a job a pro could have turned out in an afternoon, I remarked to
the instructor (as I eschewed the ever-proffered pail of Bondo [they pass
it around like jellybeans]) that I didn't think I could make wages doing
this work, he replied, "Now you know why it costs a thousand dollars to get
anything done commercially!"
The expert bodyman is a scarce commodity these days. The economies of the
collision repair shop, and the pressures from insurance underwriters just
doesn't allow the slow contemplative approach. Probably the last thing a
manager in a job shop wants to see is you trundling in your little bundle
of joy for some resto work. Those jobs just cause grief for a busy shop.
They probably have craftspersons who COULD do the job correctly, but they
can turn out three or four profitable collision rebuilds in the same amount
of time it takes to restore your sheet metal to acceptable restoration
standards. Where they make their real money is straightening pranged
unibodies. The shop with the latest frame jigs and knowledgeable operators
do pretty well and often perform frame straightening for other, smaller
shops.
If the finishes on contemporary cars and trucks is a recognized benchmark
then it's easy to see the industry's lack of incentive to turn out orange
peel-free jobs. One of our neighbors recently took her Mercury Topaz to
Earl Scheib for a respray and the finish she brought back was markedly
superior to the original. I am thinking I will do my prep work and let them
spray mine as well. They do seem to be better with the spraygun than with
the masking tape dispenser, however.
Regards,
David F. Darby
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/4598
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> From: Calvin Krug <ckrug@laf.cioe.com>
> To: mgs@autox.team.net
> Subject: re:Body shop blues
> Date: Tuesday, 14 July, 1998 10:01 PM
>
> >Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 17:30:42 -0400
> >From: Trevor Boicey <tboicey@brit.ca>
> >Subject: Re: Body shop blues- little MG
> >
> >Bill Eastman wrote:
> >>
> >> Maybe it's just me but does anyone else wonder how body shops stay in
> >> business?
> >
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