Almost everyday I hear sad stories about body shops not living up to their claims and sometimes much worse. I deal with body shops everyday and after 3 decades I can usually tell the good from the bad just by what I hear on the phone. Often I hear “I don’t care, give me one of everything, it’s the customers money!” Or I will lead the shop to the info they need to do a correct repair on the forum and hear “I have no time for that”. Once in awhile I get on the phone with a guy who does old cars even though he could make a lot more doing late model collision work. They do old cars because they have a passion for them. Guys who are Licensed, bonded, insured with no drug habits that have been in the same location for years. The first one I would like to share with you is Scott Hall of Halls Body Shop in Frankfort IN. Please do not confuse him with several of the other “Halls Body Shops” in various states. Scott dealt with us throughout the restoration of this 69 featured on his site and I can tell “He gets it”. Tell him WCCC sent you.
D.C.'s Auto Restoration in Uxbridge, MA did the restoration of BBCat, B3Cat, and Cheshire Cat in addition to my '69 Q-code Mach 1, my '76 MGB, our '65 Mustang convertible, and my '69 Mustang convertible. All were trophy winners and all were done at reasonable cost. Everyone I’ve referred has been happy with their result as well. The referrals that I can specifically recall included a Shelby GT500, a Boss 302 Mustang, a '69 R-code Mach 1, a '66 Fairlane 500, and a '68 Mustang convertible as well as several other Cougars.
Dave doesn’t have a classic car of his own anymore, but he still loves fixing them. He just finished an all-original Austin Healey MKIII and is currently working on a '57 Chevy. He also does British cars for people in the area because he was a British-Leyland trained mechanic back in his dealership days. That’s how I originally found him.
67429merc (Mike Sutton) is a member here that is not about to toot his own horn. He owns Concourse Auto Body in Beloit OH and has owned many 67-70 Cougars over the years and has recently restored a 1970 Eliminator for a CCC member. He really does not need to look for business but it would not hurt his feelings if he had to start turning away Bowties to take on a few more cats. Not many body shops around that have decades worth of parts for your make and model on the shelf.
The shop that is restoring Unicorn is The Antique Auto Shop in Hebron, KY. They’ve been open since 1969, at the same location for over 20 years. They specialize in Packards and British cars, but always have an eclectic mix such as an R-code '64 Galaxie 4 speed convertible they’re working on at the moment. Here’s a link to their site.
The paint & body for my recently completed '70 Eliminator was done by Billups Auto Body just outside West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma. I couldn’t be happier with quality of their work. I checked in on the progress every few days throughout the process and they never had a problem showing me their work or explaining what they were doing and why. They work on all kinds of cars, but specialize in early Mustangs, Shelbys, and Cougars. They’re skilled at metal replacement using factory assembly techniques, making repairs practically invisible. Unlike several shops I talked to that paint everything using the modern base coat/clear coat technique, Billups was happy to replicate the original finish using a single-stage urethane enamel.
They typically have a waiting list, but once in, I was entirely satisfied with the pace of things.
They weren’t the cheapest estimate, but given the quality of work and level of customer service, I have no regrets using them. I’d encourage you to check them out. http://billupsclassiccars.com/index.html
With most body shops I say give them noting but what is to be painted, 4 bald rollers and the steering wheel from the go-cart you had in 1972. Looks like if you have the budget, they will do most anything and actually know how to put our era of Fords together! A 69-70 Shelby is one of the hardest pony cars there is to line up and make look perfect. Good share!
Totally agree, there is a big difference between a restoration shop and a body shop. My instructions to the body shop were to paint the car. I bring cars to body shops completely devoid of interior, chrome, glass, and mechanical systems so that they can concentrate on what they know how to do.
