Long sad story. Violins are playing
Well, it's been over 2 years since I've driven the car. I took the whole front end apart and rebuilt the engine, etc last summer.
http://home.maine.rr.com/lanesrus/car.htm
In the spring I re-did the front suspension. Then I called every body shop I could find to get the body repaired and painted. Had a semi-retired body man who was very familiar with these cars tell me to take off all the trim and emblems and sand down the areas that need to be repaired. Quarter panel wheel wells are bad and one area on lower door. There is also some damage in the lower cowl area where the driver's fender bolts on which will need to be fixed which I told him about. He then came out and went over everything and said he'd do it the first week of July. He quoted me $3000 for body work AND paint. I would pay for any body panels, etc. Wow. I was very excited and ordered new quarter panel skins and one outer wheel house from Ames. I also purchased all new chrome trim, mirrors, door handles, emblems, etc. First week in July comes and I call the guy up and he doesn't say anything. I'm like, "Hello?" He finally comes back and says he changed his mind, doesn't have time to do it, blah, blah, blah. Basically he f'ed me over. I was pissed to say the least. So I searched around again and no one wanted anything to do with it. Then as a last resort I called the local muscle car resto shop. I know about this place but they are very, very expensive. They do frame offs and hot rods and the guy is into Pontiacs. I called him up and he came and took a look at it. He liked the car and said they could do it, but he was booked until the end of August. I asked a ball park figure and he said he couldn't give me one because they won't know what they will find, etc, etc. But he did say to expect $10-15K! Maybe $20K. WTF? I told you he wasn't cheap. So now it's coming close to deciding what to do. I don't have that kind of money for some simple rust repair and a paint job. But I also can't sell the car the way it is without losing my shirt. It's all apart and in pieces. I don't know how to weld and really don't have the time, tools, and motivation to do any of the work myself right now. What would you guys do besides telling me to get off my but and stop complaining and do it yourself or take out a second mortgage to have the car done all nice but have way more into the car than it will ever be worth? I don't want to just bondo over the rust and Maaco the thing and then try to screw over someone when I go to sell it. I'm not that kind of person. This is driving me nuts.