Guys,
I purchased a replacement quarter panel from West Coast Classic Cougar along with a few other parts and my body shop installed them. They charge labor and materials but the total bill was a ridiculous amount. Could I get some feed back from the community on what you guys have roughly paid to have a quarter panel installed? Iāve included a few pics for you guys to get an idea of the level of effort involved.
Below is a picture of the car after it was blasted.
I donāt know how much time it takes, but taking Harryās estimate above and applying the shop rate of the restoration shop that has my car ($60/hr) that would mean ~$2400 per panel. I have a feeling thatās on the lower end of shop rates though.
I would guess around $3,000. Takes a lot of time to line up and install a quarter panel properly. All the other body lines on the car is based off the quarter panels being correct.
Ok, Iāve read the input from the other guysā¦ now the suspense is killing me! How much was āa ridiculous amountā? I gotta knowā¦ cuz I need to eventually pony up TWO ridiculous amounts! Which will probably end up costing me a third ridiculous amount when I take into consideration the tail panel work and other unibody factors. (Can we just call it an āRAā for short, or will that be too easily confused with āRight Armā?)
Ok okā¦ focusā¦ back to the OPā¦ So, how much is an RA?
Give it to me straight Doctorā¦ I can take it!
I did my own and just drilling all of the spot welds takes forever and a day. Do that to the old panel and the replacement panel and you got about 4-6 hrs roughly. Then getting the lead out of the sailpanel. The worst part is the area around the rear quarter window and the roof seam. Where it is welding to the rocker panel is also a challenge. Itās a very time consuming task if done right.
Hi Guys,
The hours attributed to the right quarter panel repair add up to about $13,000! The panel before it was removed didnāt look to bad and there was not a lot of rust. The car was in an accident many years ago and there was a large gouge in the panel from how it was grafted on back then. (you can see that right behind passenger door).
Boy, I think that I am in the wrong business.
$13,000? for one quarter panel? and no paint job with it?
altho a lot of sheet metal was removed, me thinks that I need to open a restoration shop.
it has been along time since I did body shop work and I am not sure of the shop rates and stuff now days and
maybe that is the right price at todays going rate. I duno. but to me that seems too high for just one quarter.
both sides for that amount does not even sound right to me. $3K to $4k would be more like it.
huh. now I know why my insurance payments nearly equals my car payments.
DE Mick
Unless this is a super rare or desirable car I donāt buy cars that need extensive rust repair or panel replacement. It is always more costly and time consuming than you expect.
I would expect to see $6500 for labor to change a quarter panel on a non - rusty car. I canāt tell from the pictures if the quarter really needed to be changed.
So, you say other partsā¦Did they do more then just the quarter panel? What kind of agreement do you have with the shop? Did you get some terms in writing? Hope you can take it in stride as deals like this is usually what kills your enthusiasm to continue the restoration process. I think everyone has dealt with a shop trying to take advantage of them.
It is in washington state (north of Seattle) with a rate of $90/hr. I received an inital estimate of $18K-$20K for the car which was revised to about $25K after the car came back from blasting. The car was delivered to them as a complete rolling shell. All the mechanical parts, interior, trim, glass, wiring, window regulators, brake lines, steering harware, etcā¦ were removed by me. There was some rust on drivers floor pan, cowl, and right rear quarter but otherwise a very sound . Everything seemed to be on track until the quarter panel replacement was started and that is where the progress slowed but the bills mounted (the receipts for qtr panel labor was the $13K without the cost of the actual quarter panel). I was told the car would be paint ready in a couple of weeks kept paying expecting thinking Iād have a painted car. At this point things have balooned to $38K (iāve paid $26K so far) and the cars isnāt painted yet. Theyāve told me they intend to put a mechanics lien on the car and posssibly sell it to recover their $12k. If that is what the course they take iāll be out $26k with no car. But donāt feel paying the additional $12k is just either.
The contract was for time and materials. However I donāt believe their time spent was reasonable and thus why I posted my question here about what is reasonable.
What do you guys suggest I do here? I was so excited to start project but this is not what I expected. Iāve had this car for many many years and was hoping to have it to share with my daughter as we did the final assembly. My enthusiam has definetly beed killed
Guys,
