My Bugeye ran about $525 US for the complete job, inside and out. The first
go 'round was with walnut shells to get the paint, followed by sand to get
the bondo and rust. Unfortunately there was bondo and more rust than
originally anticipated so I ended up with that lace effect that Frank
mentioned. Another downside is that the operators were really tentative
about getting too aggressive with the rust (and undercoating) on some of the
curved surfaces for fear of warping them. This necessitated some hand and
phosphoric acid work along the beading on the fenders, seams on the front of
the bonnet. etc.
The upside is the guys were so tickled with the car that they bumped it up
to the top of the list and got it done a couple of days ahead of schedule.
The owner of the shop (who was off on a hunting trip) had told them to get
it done "whenever" and they decided that meant "first". It was more than
just a little comical when I went to pick up the car ... I don't speak much
Spanish and they didn't speak much English. About the best I could do to
answer what I thought were questions was to say "Austin Healey insecto ojo
de Inglaterra" and write out "1959" on a piece of paper.
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