Body Questions

[Ikestaa]

Hey Bob,
We are getting close to paint and My dad and I are thinking about switching things around. We originally were going to have you bond and rivet the body and have your local guy do the paint as well. Now we are thinking about having the paint done here in Indy. Could you still bond and rivet the body before it gets painted? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[ERA535]

Ike-

I went through the same process that you are going through now.

ERA can bond the body and send it to you unpainted but it is my opinion that having them do the paint is one of the best deals around.

If I were to do another ERA I am absolutely positive that I would have them paint it. I have a friend who did and the paint on his FIA is great. I would guess that if he tried to get the same quality paint job locally would have been $6-8000.

The real reason I did not have ERA do my car is I was getting impatient - I wanted it NOW!!!

Pat

[Bob Putnam]

Ike,

No problem. We can just do the bonding stuff if you want. Just warn Peter.

[Ikestaa]

How much work would a local body shop have to do (in order to get estimates). Would they have to align panels, even out seems, sand the body etc.?

[M. Farcus]

The painer ERA uses has done MANY cars and knows how to tackle the project and get it done. I have build at least a dozen cars and have had about half-a-dozen different shops do the paint work....last one was in the 7k to 8k range....bear in mind that I am real picky and have added a lot of "lets to this, this time" things which always drives the cost up. The last car (mine) took 6 month to paint....it was great but costly from a time and $$$ stand point.

Can't beat the ERA deal for $$$ and speed....they do a good job and probably have as many added tricks that make the body look top notch as anyone.

My experience is that the FIA is a better body than the 427 and would be cheaper IMO to paint....but the FIA is from a new mold (mine was #3) the last 427 I did was in the 400's I think.

Just make sure Peter isn't eating near the car when it's painted.

MF

[Bob Putnam]

I don't have hour figures. We get the bottom line bill from both our paint sublets, both of whom charge in the $3600-$4000 range. Of that, I think that there's about $1000 in paint and materials. (Jeez - I remember when we did bodywork in-house and paint only cost us $40/gallon. Now for some fancy stuff it could be $500 )

Either you or the body shop will have to disassemble the kit: Remove lights and windshield.

The seams all match pretty well, requiring a small coat of filler. The entire body should be blocked out but I don't think much filler is required to match panels. Everything fits pretty well. Our paint guys do some radiusing of the driver's compartment edges and finish the inside of the hood where the fiberglass is exposed.

[Ikestaa]

I think we will stick with your guys.