To paint or not to paint

["A. Foster" <monkeypuzzle1@xxxxxxx>]

Steve;
 In my line of thinking the second approach is probably the most sensible.
Body shops charge by the hour and every hour spent taking off bumpers and
chrome is money not going into improving the car itself. There is an added
bonus, since your are more familiar with your car and how the trim is
mounted there is less likelyhood of any of the pieces getting broken then if
a bodyman removes them. Another feature is that you can put the money that
you save from removing the trim parts yourself into having them replated,
and you can have them replated at your leasure since they are in your garage
and not the body shop.
 In may ways you can also get a better paint job for less money since you
can remove the door panels, seats, and other interior stuff that gets in the
way of painting the door jambs or fixing the floors. It is the removal of
all these things that ads thousands to the repair bill. One other idea might
be to only farm out parts of the job like the metal work and carry out the
painting yourself, or even just the priming. Any way you look at it the more
you can do yourself the less money goes to the shops and the more goes into
the car itself.
Best Regards
Arran Foster
1954 Imperial Newport
Needing A Left Side Taillight Bezel And Other Trim Parts.
P.S As long as they kill the rust and prep it properly you won't have a
problem.