That is probably about 80 hours labor and materials which is about right to strip all areas prone to rust, repair, and prime. You can bet that if they run into problems they'd be reminding you that the price was an ESTIMATE and not a cap. It would be MUCH easier to replace most the body panels on a modern car. Apples and Grapefruit Loyal. Most bodyshops today are in the panel replacement and paint mode. Very few do any real bodywork anymore as it just doesn't pay as well as insurance work. For instance you can get a new fender for a Neon for about 36 bucks. How much time do you think they can afford to spend straightening out an old one vs just hanging a new one made offshore and slapping some paint on it? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Loyal Stern" <loyalz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2003 1:00 PM Subject: Re: IML: Restoration/body work in St. louis > The prices that i had heard were around $3000- 3500 > from 2 different shops (one was a restoration/custom > shop & the other was a regular body shop) That seemed > high in comparison to a newer car that I had that > someone rear ended & totaled out 3 years ago the > estimates for that were around the same $3000-$3500 > range. I do understand that they don't know until they > open it up & see but are these figure at the high end > of price? This isn't including repainting the car > because the whole car needs to be repainted, so > painting the repair spots would be mute. > > Loyal > >