I am starting to look for a place to do some body work and paint my car. I have talked to 3 different guys and got 3 different answers. One guy said have to plastiblast the whole car and replace quarters regardless. Another said strip the whole car and weld in patches where necessary. Third said sand down and put new quarters on if necessary. The price ranges from $7000-$20000.

I look at my car and think it looks not too bad. The paint is over 10 years old. I know there is some filler in rear quarters behind the wheels.

Here's a pic of the car:

http://members.shaw.ca/zims23/DSC00186_rsz.jpg

I am going to a shop tonight to look at some of their work in progress. What should I be looking for? Any tips and advice would be appreciated.

1) For my 1st restoration project, I went with the 'plastic bead down, completely build the paint back up' route - mostly because the shop would guarentee the paint job for life. I REALLY liked the results and started my current project in that direction (got it completely glass beaded 1st thing)

2) Are there any car club people you know or do you belong to a club? Talk to them.

3) Any car guys at work? Talk to them.

I just went this route looking for a shop here in my newly adopted city.

I would want to talk with someone who had their car done a few years back. It's easier to make a car look good in the short term.

I've taken note of and talked to the owners of cars I see at shows and cruises that have exceptional looking paint, and while praising the paint I ask how old it is. If the paint job is more than a few years old, ask the owner their opionion of the shop that did it, and get the name if the response was positive.

In any given area, you'll get a couple of names that keep coming up. That's a good place to start. The lacquer on my car was done in 1983 at a cost then of over $6000, but the painter has since retired.

Not sure if what I have been going through will help but I thought I would share. My car was sand blasted and they warped my roof skin, not sure if plastiblast works the same way. I would just make sure that whoever does blast the car is willing to stand behind any damage they may do, it cost me a roof skin and the labor to install it. Also the body shop working on my car does both restorations and collision work and the collision work comes first. So you might want to find out how long it will take, my car has been in the shop now for 5 months, and they have only replaced floor pans and roof so far. Oh also they only thought it would need floors and quarters until it was blasted. One other thing this shop charges different rates for different things, like panel replacement, sand and prime. They tell you the cheaper hourly rate when asking rate price but then charge the higher rate for the different things, I would watch out for that. Also the one I am using would not qoute a total price only guess and at this rate I think it will double what I was first told.