Professional Body Shops, Beware!!

Arran raises a good point here. Elijah Scott had a similar thing happen with some rust repair on his 71 Imp. He paid X dollars for the shop to fix a rot spot between his vinyl top and decklid. When we were painting his car, we discovered their "Fix" was to lay THREE pieces of metal over the hole, pop rivet it in place, and slather on some bondo.

Now this should not besmirch all pro shops. The majority probably do good work but you have to think what they specialise in...collision damage. Most the kids working there, havent been alive along enough to remember our old cars much less have any experience with rust and how to repair it.

The previous owner of my 64 had a 3K paint job put on the car. It looks good at 5' but I can see some cracking and repair work under the paint and know that sooner or later, it's going to have to be repaired. Throwing money at the problem is not always a sure solution.

Hello All;

One thing that I should have mentioned before, although other people have, is that you don't always get what you pay for with the so-called professionals. I remember that there was a car for sale up in Cumberland, a nearby town, that was parked on one of the side streets. The car was a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville four door hardtop with a nice interior. I had seen the car for sale a few years before and had noticed that the price kept getting cheaper every time I saw it. Anyhow I went up to the house to ask about it and the lady told me all about the car and condition of it including that it had been repainted. Apparently they had spent $4000 dollars on paint and body work a few years before only to discover that the shop had filled in the rust holes with bondo.

Of course because of this the paint bubbled and the rust had resurfaced thus explaining why the car kept getting cheaper.

Imagine that $4000 dollars for a paint job and they didn't even cut the rust out, what a rip off. At least if you do the job yourself and mess up you can afford to go back and fix it later. At least you know what you what was done to it as well. I know this isn't exactly an Imperial story but it does show that lightening your wallet more doesn't make the job better, so be careful.

Best Regards

Arran Foster

1954 Imperial Newport

Needing A left Side Taillight Bezel And other trim parts