Glenn, I truly feel your pain, I have the same problems, I have decided
that one way or another I was going to make this work. Remember that body
shops do not like to do this type of work. It is not their bread and
butter. You will get the outragious quotes from them. You need to decided
how bad your floorpans and sills are, if they are too bad to repair, then
try and find a better tub. If you can just patch them, do that, If you
need to replace them you can do a lot of the work yourself and then have
someone else weld them in. there are cheaper ways of doing this. Don't
necessarily hit the mainstream places. There is a welder in my area that
will come to your house and weld for $25 an hour, find someone that owes
you a favor. $1100 is still not that bad of a price (it beats what I paid
for a car with aweful floorpans, sills, a bad tranny, and enough bondo on
the back end to serve as a boat anchor. Keep going, sounds like you have
some good going too.
Patrick
At 10:25 PM 10/16/98 -0400, Glenn Trunnell wrote:
>
>Listers,
>
>I'm in a dilemma and I'm seeking some advice. I bought my '76 Spit about 4
>mos. ago at the "bargain" price of $1100.00. It seemed like a good idea at
>the time. The car had been sitting for about 3 years but started and ran
>although it wasn't driveable. Since that time I've rebuilt both master
>cylinders, installed a new water pump, replaced the brakes, rebuilt the
>carb, replaced both speedo cables and put a new coil, crane ignition system
>and four new tires on the car. My investment to this point is right at
>$2000. Now the dilemma, whilst doing this work I discovered that the
>frame was severely rusted, I didn't know enough at the time when I bought
>it to check this, as my previous cars have been MGs or American cars and
>this is the first car I have ever seen with a rusted out frame. Undeterred
>I bought a parts car to get a decent frame and managed to break even by
>selling almost every part that was on the parts car. I just got the frame
>back from being sandblasted and painted and it looks great. I ordered
>about $400 worth of bushings, shocks and a new rear spring and was planning
>on building up the suspension and then transferring over the drivetrain and
>body. Since I was going to have the body off the frame I thought that this
>would be a good time to get some body work and painting done. The tub (to
>me at least) is in good shape, it's been painted several times and the
>paint is chipping. Also the drivers side floor is gone and the outer
>rockers have pin holes in them. The rear wheel arches are also showing
>some bubbles and there is some other minor rust. I went to a paint shop
>that specializes in restorations, their estimate for the job....$4000!!
>Thinking that these people were truly insane I went to Maaco..their
>estimate: $3000!!
> So what should I do? I truly can not afford 3-4k worth of paint and
>bodywork and my talent is mechanical not bodywork and paint. I also do not
>know how to weld. My concern is that I'm going to end up with car that I
>can neither afford to fix nor be able to sale. Should I try to part the car
>out and recoup my investment that way? Does anyone have a rustfree tub they
>want to sell? Does anyone want to buy a great little project car with a
>new frame?
>
>Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
>Thanks,
>Glenn
>
>
>
Patrick Bowen
'79 Spitfire
Jacksonville FL
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