I'm still in the planning stages for a replica, and yes I'm a newbie. I'm one of these computer illiterate morons too, if you were wondering, so please bear with me. I ramble on a lot too.
I've found Lynn's posts to be very informative, as I've poured over the posts for good build info and ideas. So when I saw the problems he'd been having with his $85 an hour paint shop thread, I thought it might be time to register as a user and not be an annonymous leech my entire time here.
IMHO yes there's a lot of curves on 40 that make painting it yourself difficult. I realize many of you have put a lot of time, money, and sweat equity into your cars to the point you might feel painting them yourself would be damaging to the final fruit of all your labor. You might feel there's no way you can get "show car" results if done yourself.
I'm not about to spend 17 grand of my hard earned cash on body prep and paint when I tackle the project! This was a big thing that put me off of a project like this early on. By the time it's all totaled I could easily rack up 100K in build costs, and another 200-300 hours of my own time. When it's all said and done I wouldn't necessarily have a finished product worth that.
Plus if I'm building a car myself, I want to be the one in control of the final outcome. Lynn's experience at his bodyshop is not uncommon. They never touch the damn thing for a year then two weeks later it's suddenly done and you have a whopping bill for 100-500 hours labor plus materials.
My soultion is to take the autobody class at the local, or not quite so local in my case, community college. Du Pont and PPG sponsor a lot of programs all over the country to train their next generation of certified autobody technicians. This will give me access to state of the art facilities in which to prep and paint my project, when I tackle it. There's 2 kick butt spray booths, sata paint guns, a computer controlled PPG mixing station, and all the tools I'd need. Did I mention there's professional autobody/paint techs that teach the course. I'll pay 235 bucks plus materials then get all the instruction and help I need painting the car. College credit, a professionally painted project, and a new skill, it seems like a win win situation for me.
Chances are there are classes like these springing up around the country near you.
I've found Lynn's posts to be very informative, as I've poured over the posts for good build info and ideas. So when I saw the problems he'd been having with his $85 an hour paint shop thread, I thought it might be time to register as a user and not be an annonymous leech my entire time here.
IMHO yes there's a lot of curves on 40 that make painting it yourself difficult. I realize many of you have put a lot of time, money, and sweat equity into your cars to the point you might feel painting them yourself would be damaging to the final fruit of all your labor. You might feel there's no way you can get "show car" results if done yourself.
I'm not about to spend 17 grand of my hard earned cash on body prep and paint when I tackle the project! This was a big thing that put me off of a project like this early on. By the time it's all totaled I could easily rack up 100K in build costs, and another 200-300 hours of my own time. When it's all said and done I wouldn't necessarily have a finished product worth that.
Plus if I'm building a car myself, I want to be the one in control of the final outcome. Lynn's experience at his bodyshop is not uncommon. They never touch the damn thing for a year then two weeks later it's suddenly done and you have a whopping bill for 100-500 hours labor plus materials.
My soultion is to take the autobody class at the local, or not quite so local in my case, community college. Du Pont and PPG sponsor a lot of programs all over the country to train their next generation of certified autobody technicians. This will give me access to state of the art facilities in which to prep and paint my project, when I tackle it. There's 2 kick butt spray booths, sata paint guns, a computer controlled PPG mixing station, and all the tools I'd need. Did I mention there's professional autobody/paint techs that teach the course. I'll pay 235 bucks plus materials then get all the instruction and help I need painting the car. College credit, a professionally painted project, and a new skill, it seems like a win win situation for me.
Chances are there are classes like these springing up around the country near you.
