Looking good

TKOPerformance wrote:

MACO used to do it for $299.  If you did all the body work yourself and just had them spray it the results could be quite good.  

I spent $3,500 in '95 to have my fastback stripped, body work completed, and painted.  Probably be 3x that amount now.  The guy who did it is still around, and does a lot of classic Mustangs though.  

I was talking to my brother-in-law last weekend that owns a body shop and is semi-retired.  He said he's doesn't know how anyone in their right mind would pay the $ to have a car painted.   Back before covid he said a nice paint job with little body work would cost $20K   He figures that # has doubled now.  He ordered a pint of paint to fix a scratch on my SUV.  It was well over $200 for the paint only.  Unless the car was handed down from a family member and has sentimental value or it's a super rare car it's not worth spending the $ to paint them. Unless you do it yourself or know someone.   Steve69

Steve69 wrote:

... Unless the car was handed down from a family member and has sentimental value or it's a super rare car it's not worth spending the $ to paint them. Unless you do it yourself or know someone.   Steve69

I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinion but this simply doesn't make any sense to me.  I can do a lot of things, some of them pretty well.  Paint and body is not one of them.  A man's got to know his limitations and if he wants to have something done right, whether it's paint and body or appendix removal, the best choice is to have a pro do the work.

RTM wrote:

I'm far from an expert and something always goes wrong when I paint. Grant it I don't have a proper air dryer so that doesn't help. Plus painting in my dirty garage, it's a challenge. 

For the color you picked, I think it was wise to have someone else spray it.

'Sez the guy with a BEEEUTIFUL Mustang !!!!
6s6
 

They are definitely still around.  

Yeah, it was nuts when these cars were at the low point of their value.  I knew a guy in college who had bought a '70 BOSS429 for $2,000 off a dealer's lot in 1973.  It had almost no miles on it and was in perfect condition.  The dealer couldn't move it due to the gas crunch.  He campaigned it in Super Stock I think for a bunch of years until it was worth too much to risk wrecking.  He put it all back to stock and turned a '79 Fox body into his race car.  

I remember my dad buying a '69 Chevelle SS396 for $500.  It had good paint even, though the engine did run like dog poo.  We dropped an LS6 454 in it and went drag racing.  Even after all the work (cage, slicks, etc. etc.) I doubt he had more than a couple grand in it.  It ran high 10s and the engine was darn near stock (long tube open headers, a different cam, fuel pump, and carb were the extent of it IIRC).  Behind that were a basic TH400 trans and deep gears in the 12 bolt with a spool.  We took it to the track on an open trailer.  Good times.  Those were the days!  Man, I'm getting old...

Last edited by TKOPerformance (11/17/2025 6:35 AM)

They've got the paint on it.  They didn't paint it in the Indigo Blue that I asked for but did paint it in the Nightmist Blue, which is originally what the car came with.  It looks so good that I didn't have the heart to tell them it's not what I asked for.  Oh well.  

It's coming together so maybe later this month it will be back in my garage.  I'm really glad I chose to reinstall the scoop ornaments (the original holes were still there with filler in them under the paint) and kind of wish I'd gone for reinstalling the rocker mouldings too (I said I didn't want them because the stripe would anchor the lower lines so they welded up those holes).  Oh well.  

rpm wrote:

John Ha wrote:

It'll be the same fake Nightmist Blue color (GM Indigo Blue metalic).  The shop owner said it'd be a month or two to get it done.,

 
A month or two? Well in his defense he didn't say a month or two from when.

I wasn't in any hurry and it worked out OK.  I was able to install a new garage floor coating over the summer.  I wanted to do that in sections so nothing expensive would have to sit outside for a period of time.  It would have been a lot harder to do that if the Mustang had been in there instead of in the paint shop.  I guess a corollary of "adapt and overcome" :-)

Last edited by John Ha (4/03/2026 12:02 PM)

Looks really  good John. That is a unique looking Monte Carlo bar. Is it custom or off the rack?

Ron68 wrote:

Looks really  good John. That is a unique looking Monte Carlo bar. Is it custom or off the rack?

I made the Monte Carlo bar from a curved one - basically relocated part of the curved sections.  I don't really know whether it's effective but it gets lots of comments :-)

Nos681 wrote:

Looks really nice.

BobE wrote:

Paint looks good!  From the pictures, seems like just put some gas in it and drive it away! 

​Thanks for the comments.  I'm very happy with what they've done.  It's far and away better than I ever could have done at home.  I learned a lot more about the car's history too, and they properly fixed several issues that I didn't even know existed on it.

Rudi wrote:

I’m constantly looking to fix problems that don’t exist🤪

 
I'm president of that club Rudi.