When inspecting your panels at the body shop take a magnet!! Great way to check for a bog master at work
As a first timer commencing a resto and a Kombi I planned of having the job completed in 6 months and total cost $10,000 Silly me.... I walked into a wall of rust and this broken, that is worn , need a new one of these,,geeessssssh Its been over 2 years a double the cost and still not finished The wife calls Woodstock a Labour of Love...I do the labour and she gives the love Good luck all Tim and Sasa
I guess that's why doing it yourself is very rewarding and frustrating at the same time. Rewarding to know that there is no nasty stuff being hidden under that new paint. Frustrating because you only have yourself to blame for imperfections. I constantly find little areas that could be better but driving the bus is more important than spending hundreds of hours on getting it perfect when its just suppose to be a nice daily driver NOT a show car. Having said that I hate seeing people getting ripped off, paying $10,000+ for bodywork and still having rust issues after a couple of years.
It's incredibly rewarding to do it yourself, I'm in the late stages of finishing body work and sure there are places I could have done better, live and learn. I'll be happy to know I can drive this bus for years to come knowing the bottom of the doors won't rot off and the rear won't crack from kilo's of filler.
if you can weld or do mechanical work i guess its easy but there are many of us that can't and we have no option but to put our faith trust and cash in others that can........i find it better to do what you can so i stripped my bus myself but no way could i do the work that matt smith has done to my bus.i guess if i tried i would have made a mess of it and not only that i would have ended up with a bus in bits with the potential of never being fininshed..
Some great info guys, we are all new at this, we got our 75 bay coming to bits presently....my question, can anyone recommend a good panel/paint shop in say northwest Sydney- Blacktown area?
Mechanics talk to Andrew Dodd @ North Rocks and his opinion on panel and paint place. Convenience is there for a one stop shop but complacency by them on time and what they charge you - shop around and if convenience for a one stop shop is your choice then check regularly (like weekly or fortnightly), get a written quote & time line.
I know of another van that was done extremely poorly at that same place - I wonder how many more have been stung?