blisters

[962porsche]

there are many posting about them .
the cause could be a number of reasons but most are rust and there is no easy way to repair them .
most times they are from just simply crap work and over time they just blow right thru the top coat .
you had to look real hard to see the blisters in the finish on this one because it was just starting to blow thru .






i sanded a few areas to see just what is going on under the finish .
i had to sand the finish as i could only guess as to what was going on . as most customer don't quite understand to give a price for what it will take to do the repair before the finish is sand off to see what is under there just can't be done . i do not have x ray eyes . if i did i sure would be working on cars !
i had to sand blast the 4 fenders down to bare to fit the rust that was causing the blisters . what i found was some of the worst crap work you will ever see .
this was the case were at the time the customer though i was nut when i gave him a price to restore his truck 7 or 8 years ago . he thought i was totally nuts and i was just looking to screw him over . he took it to another well known shop in our area .










he saved him self 20K by taking it to another shop as my estimate was 40K for the resto .
when you look at the total crap patch work and the amount of filler used in many places it was over an inch thick the bottom line is he got just what he paid for a cheap 20K job that was hacked and wacked to the point of now the OE fenders are almost not worth saving .

this is a case when you shop by pricing and have no idea of what and why some shop estimates are twice that of joe hack this is just one reason .
the top coats you can scrape off with your finger nail the well known shop ruined this truck .
some of the reasons shops like mine will charge more is the car owners get step by step photos of what is being done to the car thru out the process of the resto they can see 1st hand the work being done . he got a before and after photo of his truck that is . i understand why he only got two photos .in no way could you give a customer photos of the hacking that was going on .

with a good shop they will most likely ask you what your budget is . this is not you get every dime out of you it to know how far the shop can go with the resto .
so tell the shop what the budget is and a good shop will work with you .
a good shop will keep you in the loop of the resto with taking photos . the photos also are good because if you have classic insurance you can keep upping the coverage as your cars value will keep going up over the course of the repair . this is a plus for you .
know what your getting for your money ! there is a reason as to why there are big price differences between shops .
things not to do are stopping in every few days and hanging out at the shop were your car is . this takes production time away from your car . shop do not charge you for the time you stop in and want to just look at your car and stop production on your car . you can make love to your car once you get it back home the shop doing the work is not the place to do it . if you want to come look at your car ask the shop when a good time to do it is . over the year i have told customers to not just keep stopping in because you want to look . they don't understand its the shops time and time is money . the hour or two you hold up production is an hour or two less your car is being worked on . you want your car back and the shop wants you to have your car back ASAP .

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by 962porsche

what i found was some of the worst crap work you will ever see .

1" of filler? Is that all?

I learned the hard way in the 70's is that if there is breathe through from behind, blisters/bubbles are forthcoming with basic mud. If there are cooties in the pits, bad things.

The shop could have even used fiberglass resin/cloth to seal this off. Did they just slap filler in there?

$40k and $20k are numbers I don't understand. But that is me from Akron contemplating repairs I don't comprehend because there are many houses in Akron that are under $20 in the old rubber worker hoods.............all relative.

HOWEVER, I could have done the patches with my 18 month old 220 MIG better than what I see in these pics. And I suck at it.

[962porsche]

you really never want to use fiberglass products over steel . all that should have been done is but weld in patches and then there is little to no filler needed at all .

as for the pricing my estimate was for just over 40K for the resto this doesn't mean the resto wouldn't end up costing more as who knows what you run into as you tear the truck apart and get down to the bare bones so it's a starting price .
he found another shop that with do the job at a set price of 20K . any one that give a set in stone price for a resto has no idea of what a resto is about ! my guess is for the shop that did the resto on the truck found out there set in stone 20K price would make then lose so much money they started cutting corners every place they could .

as for the weld quality they did . i still can't get over it . the bottom line is you get what you pay for . never shop on pricing know what your buying and getting .