I have an 86 sport coupe, body problems as follows:

Both doors rusted through on bottom outside door skins.
Passenger door rusted out inside bottom of the door.
Quarter panels has a 3-4 inch rust spot/hole.
Hood paint is all faded, dried out and cracked.
Front bumper has most of the paint missing.
Various 1 inch or less surface rust spots here and there.

A rust repair body shop said they'd sand out/fill the small rust spots, MIG weld in metal patches for the larger rust spots including lower door skins, strip the hood, and paint the whole thing for $1,200.

I know that replacing the 1/4 panels, doors, hood would be ideal, but that costs more than I'm willing to spend. $1200 seems reasonable to me for something that will last a few years until I decide what to do with the car in the long run. Plus it would free up some money for interior & mechanical upgrades.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,
John

 

Well, I could be wrong and others likely will disagree with me, but I think it's reasonable. I'm spending about $2300 on my car for all sorts of work like, rebuilding the driver's door- the bottom is really bad, installing all new weatherstrips that I purchased, installing new outer belt weatherstrips and inner door top strips, several rust repairs that thankfully are minor, pulling the windshield to check for any rust and reseal the glass with a new seal, total body sanding, priming, painting and new lower stripe which alone cost them over $200 after they found one company that still made them for the 1984 model. It's in the shop now and they are going at it with a vengence. They did find some hidden body filler (small areas) that I have to check with them to see how they will be fixing it (weld in new metal or some other method). In all it has been about a month and a half in the shop as they are very busy with many projects and have to do mine in between other jobs. After I get it back, the other fun projects like new wheels, alignment, redo the interior (carpet, headliner, console, etc., etc.) and next spring, we get to rebuild the engine!!! The fun never stops! Good luck and post pics so we can see what yours looks like when done. Brad

 

that doesn't seem like it is too bad of a deal, considering the welding and rust repair. is the paint job going to be a maaco-type of job with "built in" clearcoat and all that, or is it going to be an actual multi stage job with wetsanding and buffing? if it is going to be the real deal, that is a very good price.

 

definitly resonable! i had some surface rust taken care of on my camaro in several different places,for fixing the rust along with painting it they wanted $500,so yeah thats pretty reasonable

 

$1250 is a steal. Go for it.

 

Sounds reasonable for the amount of work that they are doing. Have you considered getting good doors from the junkyard and swapping them out?
Unless you have lots of money in the engine, suspension, interior or a strong sentimental attachment to the car, you may spend that $1200 better by finding a rust-free 3rdGen. I know that may be hard to find in the Northeast.

 

Actually my tip for buying thirdgens is this. Buy them from southern non-coastal states. Have them shipped to you. Rust isn't a problem at all down here.

I still check for rust when I buy cars. Just incase they came from somewhere else. But rust doesn't really happen here. Even all the bone yard cars are rust free.

 

... unless you're going to drive them in the salt every winter. Then patch up the cars up there and don't rust out any additional clean ones.

 

they going to re paint your whole car or just the areas that where touched up??? either way it is reasonable.

 

Yeah, they will repaint the whole thing. I'm going to have it done next week, as I can't pass inspection with it this month as is.

To answer earlier questions, it's my first car and I bought it new, so the sentimental attachment prohibits me from just buying a rust-free one for $1200!

I found a local sign shop who is going to make the lower body decal stripes. I looked everywhere and no place sells them for the 86 SC, just Z28 & IROC stripes.

 

John-
Did you try to find the lower stripes at PhoenixGraphics or Stencils and Stripes? Both carry lots of reproduction stripes and decals for our cars.
My body man searched all over for a source for my 1984 stripe kit and he finally found it. There is evidently only one place on the planet that still makes them. I'll ask him where he found it next time I'm at his shop.

Good luck and please post a picture when you are done. We'd all like to see what it looks like when it's finished. I should have mine back with fresh paint in about a week or so... can't wait! Brad

 

Thats a whole lot of work for a cheap price!! Steal deffinatly but the paint quailty will be poor...The shop I work at, for a nice 3- stage paint you lookin at no less than $3000. Plus all the weldin an what not would be around the $2000 ballpark...But I think that this guy is just lookin to get some dough...But deffinatly a STEAL!!! for that price..

 

Sentimental value makes these decisions easy! Just do it but make sure the work is gonna last.

 

Like I said, I know that doing everything "just right" would cost a lot more. The paint has been terrible on my car for years, and the rust is bad too, so just getting that patched and painted will be a HUGE improvement. Even if it just lasts a couple years, that's cool, and it will still look better than it does now regardless.

About the decal stripes, yes, I tried all the usual graphics places, and searched the web endlessly, no luck. Only Z28 and IROC stripes.

The sign guy I met was cool, he took a sample of it and said it would be no problem for him to put one on.

I'll try to get some before/after pictures.

 

that sounds very reasonable for the work involved, the only advice I can give you is to ask for a seperate clear coat, not integrated, some cheap shops use integrated clear coats and it makes reflections blurry instead of mirrorlike. (From my experience anyway...)

Also, some people may say sinking $1200 into an old car with 230k on it is not really a cost efficient idea, but my answer to that would be $1200 is a lot better than over $20,000 for a new car! Good luck with your ride, hope it comes out sweet.

 

you really couldn't ask more out of $1200. like a lot of the others have said, even if that is just repainting the areas that needed repaired. given the location of the rust damage you have got a steal. now, i only wish i could get such a deal.