----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 9:23 AM
Subject: IML: 70 LeBaron body work
Hi everyone, I am looking for opinions!
A week ago I took my 70 4-door to a body and paint restoration specialist named Rudy. He works out of my friend Kevin's dealership (who specializes in restoring and selling muscle cars - particularly mopars). As you can see, his overhead is low. He worked up a qoute for my car which inludes: Replacing sheet metal around the rear wheel wells where the rust has made a hole down by the rocker panels; sand-blasting all rust off the entire car; refinishing the seam where the quarter panel meets the roof (the vinyl is already removed); and finally, primer on the whole car. I may have forgotten a couple things but the whole car will be straight and rust free. All that for $2000 which does NOT include paint or vinyl. I should mention that he has 32 years experience in the field and I have inspected several phases of his work on a pick-up truck which is superb.
My Imp is a daily driver and I mean daily. I have rebuilt ( in the past 2 years ) the ENTIRE ignition system; cooling system,except radiator; and I rebuilt the transmission, except the valve body. I am struggling with this because it is my only car. When it breaks I drive my wife's old neon. I cannot afford to maintain a garage queen or beat it up (after dumping all that money into it) as a daily driver. Considering the daily driver part, I picked up the latest issue of Hemmings which has a 70 charger with 404,000 miles on it!!!
So anyway, the bottom line is: Do I keep it and pay for the work or sell it? I'd rather keep it. I would ABSOLUTELY NOT sell it to demo derby dummies.
I apologize for boring or annoying anyone with this long e-mail.
Keith,
Hauls like ass,
looks like ass.