[TR] hourly restoration rates - ranges?

[terryrs at comcast.net]

While not specific to a total restoration, I confess I have done my share of
putting up, mudding, sanding, priming and painting drywall.B  So when it came
to the body of my '59 TR3A restoration, which IB  sawed in half to take off
the frame (why not, the floors and rocker panels were rusted almost through
anyway), I took it to a guy who wasn't afraid of the job and who charged a job
rate.B  Took a year to get back, but no problem because a) I had plenty else
to do on the car, b) I didn't have money to do everything at once anyway, and
c) he charged me $2,000 to bring the body back from the dead, not counting the
cost of the rear valence(?).B 



Then again, Bill is a neanderthal throwback, a guy still fresh from the
fifties who oils his thinning hair back like Elvis, chainsmokes Marloboros,
refuses to wear aspirators while sanding, and builds custom hotrods.B  The
only additional cost was listening to entertaining energetic rants about
politics andB  new age body shop workers who know how to replace panels but
not repair them.B  ...Oh, he had some interesting conversations, animated, of
course, about politics.



Being with him made me love the car even more.



Terry Smith, '59 TR3AB  (gotta get that heater working this month!)

New Hampshire