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How much does car body work cost?

B

Barnaby W. Füi

Elite Member
I got this big old boat called buick and it's rusting and whatnot, I want to take care of it before the whole car disappears - how much does this stuff cost?

It's got minor rust eating away at one back fender, the rest of it is pretty much surface rust, there is also one dent in the drivers side door. Pretty much it needs that back fender taken care of, door dent pulled out or whatever, and the whole thing sanded and primered. Paint can wait 😎
 
It ranges alot... cheap quick job, is half the price of taking it to a good body shop.. sometimes on older cars like that, the cheap shop works just fine, as most people don't care if it's perfect. call around.
 
Geez, is there some rule that when you become a lifer, you have to change your name? 😕

Tyler: can you elaborate a bit on "a lot"? $300? $800? $2000?

I could probably go about doing it myself, I do know a guy who runs a machine shop and has pretty much every tool known to man...
 
I wouldn't spend more than what the car is worth. From the sounds of it, you're looking at least $1000.

There are some states too that mandate that if a car is too old and too rusty, it won't pass inspection:frown:
 
Originally posted by: ynot167
I wouldn't spend more than what the car is worth. From the sounds of it, you're looking at least $1000.

There are some states too that mandate that if a car is too old and too rusty, it won't pass inspection:frown:
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No inspections in iowa 😎

The car cost $900 but honestly was a great deal. It's my fault I've let it rust a bit over the past couple years, the engine is in great condition and most everything else is besides cosmetic stuff. I'm mainly just interested in keeping the thing around for a while so I don't have to worry about buying another car too soon. It's also kind of a neat car, it's grown on me, not a very common car. It has high pimp potential 😀 (some black dude at a gas station once asked me if I wanted to sell it 😀 - uh oh, was that racist?😕 )

And it also seems I will probably be looking into doing it myself, shouldn't cost too much then.
 
I do minor body work by myself. It never looks perfect, but it's fine with me.

If you are just dealing with surface rust, get an electric sander, and sand it out. Then prime and paint. If you can't sand it all out, use some of that supposedly turns rust into primer. I ran across one kind that was a spray epoxy that worked real well. The cheap stuff doesn't work too well. Then prime and paint.

I've used a dent puller (Suction cup) to pull dents before. However, that was on a mid 80s front wheel drive car, and most likely had much thinner sheet metal than your car.

Also, if you have a paint color that you can get in the spray cans at the auto parts stores, you'll save money by not having to have someone mix it. If you have a flat color without any metallic in it, you will most likely get a very good match. If you have metallic though, it will never look perfect.
 
Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
The trim stuff around the fender edges, how does that come off?
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Depends on what kind of trim it is. Some is glued on, some is riveted on... got a close up pic of the trim?
 
Originally posted by: Tyler
Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
The trim stuff around the fender edges, how does that come off?
Click to expand...

Depends on what kind of trim it is. Some is glued on, some is riveted on... got a close up pic of the trim?
Click to expand...

Nope, no camera..

IIRC alot of it is old and crappy looking, can I just throw it away?
 
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