Paint and Body work in Los Angeles ?

[RockFish]

Anyone have someone they can recommend for top notch paint and body work in the LA area?

I've searched through the old posts, and the question has been asked over the years, but I haven't seen any actual recommendations. Any help would be appreciated.

I've got a freshly rebuilt 5 spped ready to go in, engine and old trans are out, engine to be rebuilt (stock or stroker, haven't made up my mind yet). A new, 1st class paint job is almost a necessity (can't put all that shiny new stuff in a car that really needs paint)

The body is straight, and the current paint doesn't look bad, from about 10 feet away, if you don't lift the hood, or open the trunk ...

My car needs the kind of paint job all our Roadsters deserve, help me out here folks.

Thanks

[Cherry Blossom]

i would like to know of one as well.
rockfish: please let me know how much you end up paying for what you get done.

[ppeters914]

I've asked several people what they paid for their top-knotch paint jobs, and was told $3000 minimum, which does NOT include any bodywork.

Or you could visit Maaco every other year for twenty years....

[RockFish]

3 to 4K is about what I was expecting, ppeters914. The car doesn't need any major body work.

Has everyone in LA painted their own car ? Nobody's paid someone to paint their Roadster and been happy or unhappy with the results ?

I've painted one car in my life, and sworn never to do it again. I don't have access to the kind of facillities I had back then anyway. My skill level (and safety) dictated a single stage paint, and while friends seemed to think I did a fine job, I was never completely happy with it.

CherryBlossom, I'll let you know who I decide to go with, and how things turn out - and keep watching this thread, I just know one of my fellow Los Angleinos is going to come through with a recommendation or two.

[RoadsterYosh1]

Paint jobs are labor intensive so the cost is usually pretty high for a good job. If you can do most of the prep work, can really save a ton of money. I would NOT go to Maco. Some of the Earl Scheib you can make arrangements with them to prep and paint using the primer and paint you supply. Did this with my Roadster. Did much of the prep work taking parts off (including parts of the interior), some body work, and finish polishing, they did all the finish sanding and paint. The job was good, but not what I would call “show quality� cost about $500-600 or so plus the cost of the paint and primer, so total cost was probably around $1000. All quality PPG paint.

If you want to pay the big bucks……

Cypress Auto and Paint – they have 2 shops a “production insurance� (in Hawaiian Gardens) and a custom shop (in Cypress). I only have the production shop # (562)938-8836 ask for Tom. They can probably do any price range you want, but expect to pay atleast $2000. The production shop does an above average job. The custom shop can do a paint job that’s worth more than the Roadster will ever be worth.

Sixteen Customs Body Shop (in Gardena) - I’ve never used these guys, but have see some of the cars that come out of their shop. 310/715-1810. Very good quality

Hope this helps.
Yosh

[Cherry Blossom]

hey roadsteryosh1, can you post some pics so we can see the work that earl did? i too have been thinking about doing all the body work and prep before i send it in the shop so i can save some money. plus i am pretty patient and meticulous when it comes to these things so i may be able to pull it off fairly well even though i have no experience at all.
any other suggestions?

[RoadsterYosh1]

Other than the avatar next to my name, don’t have pics of the car on the net.
The only thing I can suggest is that the more prep work you do yourself, the more $$ you save. Also when you get your car painted, regardless of if you supply the paint or not, make sure you buy an extra quart of the paint. That quart is nice to have to do touch-ups.

To clear up what I posted above. The previous owner was doing the prep work to sell the car, I did some additonal prep before the car got painted. I bought the car after the paint job as part of the deal. If not for the arrangement made, I would have gone to Cypress Auto & Body to have the car painted.

[datsun65]

Going with a place like earl will never give you anything near a show quality car. But, Occationally, they can do an 'OKAY' job.

I've had two cars painted at Earl in the past. One I had done 5 years ago came out pretty good (a roadster) and WELL expceeded my expectations. 2 years later I had another car painted at the same location (paid more $$) and the paint and body workwas extremely poor, absolutely aweful.

As other have mentioned, you need to strip everything off your car...every drop of chrome, emblems, grill, taillights Usually Earl does a pretty poor job of masking, a poor job of cleaning overspray. So...for example, if you remove your grill, make sure you put paper in front of the radiator (ie, grill opening), otherwise, they will paint your grill. Anything inside the car you want to protect (ie, dash), mask it off yourself.

Now somewhere in the Valley (maybe Chatsworth?) Earl Schieb's Son runs the local paint location. I saw a Camero article which detailed how to have a classic car painted at Earls (it Featured Earl's Son Location).

Ask the branch manager who is the best body prep person, and ask if they can work on the car. Make sure you find out who is the best painter...have them shoot your car.

Here are some photos of the 65 1500 painted at Earl's 5 years ago. In the pictures (taken by Alvin) it is dirty from sitting in the owner's garage...

http://community.webshots.com/photo/402 ... 8361Ovlsiy
http://community.webshots.com/photo/402 ... 8851MuUNiR
http://community.webshots.com/photo/402 ... 8455EDavRU
http://community.webshots.com/photo/402 ... 8620SDMEtb

[toadster]

Painting the car yourself is really not that hard, I've painted mine and a few other cars in my garage with great results (look at projects area pix) PM me if you want the low down on how to do it and don't be scared it's really not that tough!! just knowing what products to use is about 80% of the job.

[JoeK]

"just knowing what products to use is about 80% of the job."

And what not to use is another 50%!

[JFBrink]

My '66 is in the process of being prepped and painted at California West Coast Paint & Body at 5060 Venice Boulevard, just east of Redondo.

I dropped it off there completely stripped (no windshield, even; took the brake lights off when I arrived) but with no bodywork or paint prep.

They have been doing an incredibly thorough and careful job of prepping it. They have so far stripped all the paint and tacked a bunch of stress cracks. They're doing all the bodywork with METAL, not bondo.

The manager in charge of my car, Carl, is really consciencious, calling about twice a day to ask questions on topics where body guys usually just make a judgement call that is probably opposite of your own.

All this for about $2,200. I don't know what the paint will look like, but the quality of the prep is so high, I don't really care. The one thing that might put some off is that they mix paints by eye, not by PPG code.

CWCPB, ask for Carl: 323-933-5618.

Jesse.

[JoeK]

Paint it Black, no mixing required

[Cherry Blossom]

hey JFBrink, is that price a "hook-up" price or what? it seems like a great deal for the amount of care they are putting into it. redondo is about 1hr and 45min. away from me so i am really considering that body shop.
please post some pics or send some to me once its finished. i would greatly appreciate it.


edit: does that price include the engine bay, door jams, and interior floor? and is their alot of rust or body work needed?

[RockFish]

Thanks everbody, for your advice, suggestions, etc. It's greatly appreciated. I should have some before and after pics to post in few months if I'm lucky. Time to load the body/frame on a trailer and start getting some estimates.

In addition the body shops mentioned here in the thread, I also got a couple other recommendations from other places that I'll list here for anyone who might check this thread out in the future.

Karkare Collision Center Inc.
1101 W Foothill Blvd #1 & #2
Azusa, CA 91702 - 626-812-9355 - Currently working on someone's Roadster, they are pleased with the work so far(body)

Foreign Motors Body Shop
9436 Las Tunas Dr
Temple City, CA 91780-2135 Phone: (626) 287-2404 - Lots of work on "classic" cars, Porsche, Jag, etc. Thouroughly impressed with work I saw in progress at the shop. Price ?, I'm scared to ask. The cars that were being painted there cost as much as a new house (or a down payment on one in L.A.) - I'm going to tow the Roadster down there for an estimate, just to see what they give me. Who knows ? May be very reasonable.