Back to......VANagains NEWest 65 Chevy SportVan Deluxe

You really should put on a real respirator so you can live long enough to enjoy your van.

making some good progress.........................

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I know, those cheap paint masks are almost useless. I was counting on the wind to keep some of it away from me.

Joe, that's a good question, to use single or two-stage paint. I would rather not have a clear coat on it. Maybe it's the sun down here in the southwest, I see so many cars with the clear "shattered" on the hood, roof, and trunk, new and old. Nice rust-free cars but they look like crap because of this.

Here's a typical example:


And here's an extreme example:


However, all the painters I've asked say to go with two-stage. They say single stage requires maintenance (polish, wax), whereas the clear protects the paint. When I ask about all the bad clear I see, they say the clear they use is much better... (better than the clear used by the car's manufacturer?)

The other reason they want to use clear is because mine is going to be two-tone. The clear coat will smooth out the edge where the two colors meet. That is appealing to me.

What do you guys think?

Another headache: As of this June, California allows the use of water-based paint only. The clear is still the same but the base coat is now water-based. I knew this since late last year and that was my motivation to get my van in the shop this spring. I hear all the new cars come with water-based paint. It doesn't hide scratches as well so they recommend you sand with 600 and then DA with 800! When I bought my test colors, they allowed me to buy acrylic enamel. Maybe I can but the pros can't? I don't think my body man has tried recently. He hasn't sprayed any water-based yet.

This body man used to work for a nearby shop. When I went there a while back, he quoted me $7500 for bodywork and paint. Now he works on his own and he came by to see my van again and said it would be $10,000! I said, wait, the $7500 included the big job of welding in the front fender, which is done now! He said, after talking to me this time and he could see that I want it to be quite perfect. Not show condition but I was picky. And this is true! My van is pretty straight, no rust, but he says, "It looks like a 45-year-old car." Man, I'm wondering what he'd charge if it were rusted out too! He's got one car ahead of me, so I got time to decide. That's a lot of dough, but I do want it to be pretty much perfect. He broke it down: $2000 materials, another $1000 for paint(?), $1000 to rent a booth and a painter, I think he said another $1000 for a final sand, buff and polish(?), then $5000 for his body work. Ugh!

WOW!! $7500-1oK for a paint job- Rediciolus!! For that price I could buy a van have it transported to a paint shop here & Painted & rebuilt!! Here - with the right shop-NOT Production shops!!- we can get the work done foe under 2- 3K- Let those shops charging those prices -Starve! Im curious - are u members down in cali- wearing Rolexes & have 100-hundred dollar bills hanging out of the pockets?? Whith those paint prices wed all have 30k in our 1000 dollar vans -I am amazed-I just love Eastern washington & idaho states-

Here's something else to think about, Are you going to drive this van alot and expose it to the normal wear and tear of parking lots and road debris. I'd hate to get a chip in a high dollar paint job. I got a nice one parked at a bar grabbing lunch last week and I thought I was "safe' lol.. gotta get me some of those stick on Bullet Holes.

If I was planning on spending money for a higher end paint job i would go with the base/clear. Its like a extra layer of forgiveness, u can always wetsand and buff out stratches and stuff like that. The quote your body guy gave u is way over price specially if your just talkin a single stage paint job. I wouldnt totally shy away from water borne paint either, it does have its flaws like it cannot be sprayed over any bare metal at all it will rust in no time. But it also has a no window time frame in which it has to be clearcoated unlike urethane paints. Either way your body guy should block your primer so u have no scratches to fill, and let the paint lay flat, but thats my 1 cent on the whole deal

Believe it or not, my van has made its way back into a body shop!! This week I drove it to the pricey shop near my work. Their estimator guy looked it over with me and said he'd give me an official estimate on Monday. (The previous one was just a verbal estimate.) I'm hoping their official price doesn't give me a heart attack. I'd really like to leave it with them. I know what a perfectionist I am and I won't be happy if I get a lower price but end up with flaws that drive me crazy. So we'll see... Wish me luck this time!



This is where I brought it:
http://nickbattagliapaint.com/

He's got a huge awesome shop! Looks like those you see on TV! They do it all, not just bodywork and paint. Said I can come and do stuff on the van now and then while they've got it (for 4 or 5 months). Like straightening out the cargo door hinges (see my other post).

Good Luck!!! Hope you found the quality job you were looking for. From there pictures looks like a great place to have the work done

Good luck Vanagain. Just remember most of the time you get what you pay for when it comes to quality work.

I've got the pass side door trim that we talked about earlier. I'll send it back with Don when he's here in May.

Good luck on your quote,Vanagain.The cha-ching ya have to lay down may be costly at first bite,a quality job will last ya years.Divide that by the years it will last ya.May seem a lil better to justify.Paint,materials,shop time/quality,EPA guide lines,isn't cheap any where,on anybody.Paint alone is thru the roof now a days.Just sayin.Luck to ya!

Good luck, indeed. The best reliable quote I received was $6,000 and was for a 6 month wait. Not in my current budget and I need my van...

VANagain, I wanted to ask you about the "fenders" you show a few pages back. I am wanting to cut mine off also to repair and do some modifying to fit my Jeep Liberty lights in the housings. When you cut that off the old vehicle and your restore, how much does it effect on the inside of the van? The firewall for example.

I swear I believe y'all gots a fetish with sawz-alls...but ya do great work!

mbasaraba, as you can see from Don's great photos, there are two layers of metal in the front of our vans. If you just cut into the outer skin to make your modifications then you'll see none of that from the inside.

When they replaced the corner of my van, we really needed the door "post" to be positioned perfectly because the door hinges bolt to it. Plus in needed to be strong. They needed to get at all sides of the post, so on my good piece they drilled out the spot welds and detached the outer skin from the post. After the post was in place, they reattached the skin. When built at the factory the outer skin of the front end was undoubtedly attached last, spot welded around the edges. You can see an exploded view in the Chevy Van shop manual.

So, what do these Jeep Liberty lights look like? I'm always interested to see the customizations people come up with!

I will try to get a picture of my son holding one from inside the van tonight so can see the comparison of hole size but just flipping it backwards so the lens was in the original hole it fit almost perfectly. the shape of the light also matches almost perfect the contour of the factory shape.

After reading what you said about the fender it looks like I will need to cut a square out of the front and back then mount the lights and then TIG it all back in. Not a big deal. The bulb is changeable from a plug in the back so not like the whole assembly has to come out to replace a bulb.

Thank you for the added info, helps alot.

Don,with pics 1,2,3 above we do get to see how these rides are actually 'pieced' together in layers.I guess ya have to plan ahead on where to cut to get a weld on,especially the inner/hidden skins.Thanks bud.

donivan65 wrote:

""" IT'S ALIVE """

Can we call this the "Franken-Van"? lol


Have to say, that is a Great job!!!

Dan

Okay, I think I've recovered enough tell you where we're at, me and this body shop. A few months ago the owner looked over the van and gave me a verbal quote of $12,000. When I brought the van back last week I assumed I'd get a similar price in writing and then I could try to get it sown to 10,000 by eliminating some picky stuff. But now they've got their estimator/sales guy back. He spent a lot of time with me. I'm sure this allows the owner to get work done instead of listening to picky guys like me.

A couple days later they gave me a very thorough itemized list of everything single thing they would do and how much time each will take. Grand total: $15,407!! After talking it over for a half hour he lowered their hourly rate from 55 to 50. That got it down to $14,200. And he said he'll throw in some free pinstriping! I said I had to look over the quote and get back to him.

Today I went back and had them cross off some picky repairs and some labor for removal and reinstallation of things that I've already taken off and are just put back on with a screw or two. But those amounts barely made a dent in the total. Now we're at $13,798. and they're saying it could be done in two and a half months.

I did have one other nearby shop give me a quote that was about half as much. But they do most of their work outdoors and it will take six months because they give insurance repair jobs the priority. Coincidentally, this is about the same price I got from this Loose Cannon shop a year or two ago when they were in a smaller outdoor shop... from the same estimator guy!