Subcontractors

Spinning My Tires is one man's view of the world of cars. Random thoughts, ideas and comments pop up here, all of them related to owning, driving and restoring cars. I've been doing this car thing as long as I can remember, and have enjoyed a great many car-related experiences, some of which I hope to share with you here. And I always have an opinion one way or another. Enjoy.

E-mails are welcomed--if you have thoughts of your own to share, please send them.

First off, I want to let all of my readers know that 662 Johnson Rd. has officially sold, even before it is complete. Closing is January 20, 2006, and I expect to be finished with the house by that time. I've earned enough money in the sale of this house to rebuild the Buick's engine and several other things, too. I'll be back to work on the car later this month, beginning with reassembling the chassis and tearing down the motor and hauling it to the machine shop. Check out www.century-partners.com (Century Partners is the name of our renovation company for obvious reasons) to see the website and house that Julia and I have been working on all these months.

In past issues of Spinning My Tires I’ve talked about amateur restorations, the professional advantage and how to get into the hobby for not a lot of money. This month, I wanted to talk about the expectations we, as hobbyists, should hold for professionals who do work for us. No matter how handy with a wrench you are, you’re probably going to need a “subcontractor” somewhere along the line: chrome plating, engine machining, upholstery, paint, etc.

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about finding subcontractors appropriate for your car—ask other hobbyists who does their work and you’ll get enough leads to begin your search. No, what I want to talk about is what you need to do when approaching these subcontractors. Even if you are fortunate enough to have unlimited funds, you still don’t want a project to cost an unlimited amount of money. And if you have limited funds, you definitely want to make sure you’re getting what you’re paying for. With many subcontractors, this can be a dicey situation.

I’m going to tell you up front that there are several grades of subcontractors out there. I don’t mean that there are some hacks and some artists (because that’s obviously true), but that there are “production” shops and shops who specialize in the kind of work a restorer expects. Here’s a newsflash: despite what they say, your local body shop wants nothing to do with the paint and body work on your collector car. Sure, they’ll take the job, but you won’t get the results you want and it’ll probably take five times longer than you expect and cost twice as much as they estimated.

Ever been to a high-volume “production” body shop? There’s always that one forlorn old car sitting in a corner (I don’t know why, but it’s usually an old Corvette), loose parts stacked on the seats, the body half-covered in primer and completely covered in a half-inch of dust. That car isn’t sitting there because it’s been forgotten or they just haven’t gotten around to it. No, it’s because the owner of the shop and the owner of the car entered an agreement without each understanding the expectations of the other.

The body shop owner will tell you the car sits there because the owner didn’t pay. The owner of the car will tell you he’s paid a substantial deposit and is just waiting for them to finish so he can send final payment. In the end, they both get screwed because the owner eventually takes his cobbled-up car somewhere else and has to pay for the work all over again, and the shop owner eats a bunch of time already invested in the project.

The work your local body shop (or industrial plater or upholsterer) wants is stuff where the details don’t really matter. That isn’t because they’re lazy or incompetent, but because that’s how they make their living. Production work is just that: a production line environment that reduces operator error and saves as much time as possible by standardizing the process.

In contrast, restoration is all about custom fabrication and using great care, neither of which production shops particularly care about. Volume is how production shops make their money. Instead of cutting out rust and fabricating a new patch panel, then carefully welding it into place and gently hammering it until it’s perfect, they prefer to replace panels and paint them to match or hammer out dents until they’re pretty close and then fix the rest with bondo. That isn’t what you want with a restoration.

But there are no two ways about it—pros who deliver the quality a restoration demands know how time-consuming can be and charge accordingly. They aren’t “gouging” you and they probably aren’t getting rich by charging what they do, they simply aren’t a “production” shop.

When you do find a restoration-quality shop, it’s time to adjust your expectations.

For example, a restoration-quality paint job is going to cost A LOT more than a production one. If your car is very straight and needs nothing more than prep and paint, figure a minimum of $5000-7000. If there’s bodywork to be done, panels to be patched, rust to be excised, it can easily be three or four times that much. I’ve heard of more than one $100,000 paint job, so it’s not uncommon (though there aren’t very many cars that justify that kind of work).

Realize that it’s darned expensive to craft perfection. You need to go into the restoration shop with your eyes wide open. Don’t assume that paint is paint and that all painters are the same. They’re not. Prep work makes the job, and a restoration-quality paint job will be flawless. A production shop paint job will look like, at best, the paint on a production car. You’ll know the difference when you see it, so prepare yourself for a whole new universe of costs and results at a restoration shop. Don’t walk in blind thinking that any shop can paint a car for $99.95. It will only lead to frustration for everyone involved.

So what is the best way to work with subcontractors? It may sound like the production shop will never deliver what you expect yet you can’t afford to pay a restoration shop to do it right. There’s a simple answer, explained best by long-time bodywork expert Brian Martin in his essay, “Confessions of a Body Shop Owner.” In this section, he explains how to ensure you get what you want in a timely and affordable manner, no matter what kind of subcontractor you’re working with:

If you have decided [on] the shop you want to go to, help the poor guy. You “suggest” to him how you want to go about the money part. This is the ONLY way you should do it, believe me. Don’t give him a deposit and leave the car. This is darn near a guarantee that your car will be sitting for weeks while he uses that money to buy parts for a high profit collision job or simply pay a long standing bill. Which then leaves your car sitting there with no incentive to work on it.

Here is what you need to do. Tell him that you want to do only ONE of the things on your car at a time. You want to get a price for all of them maybe so you know where it is headed, but do only one at a time. You will pay him for one step at a time. Not because you don’t trust him, but because YOU are bad with money and that YOU don’t want to leave him hanging after the car is done with no money to pick it up.

This way it is more like he is in control and made the decision. Then you negotiate the time it will take for each step. Let’s say you have patch panels to do on the front fenders. You agree that he will have them done at the end of the week, and that they will cost $200.00. He has something to work for, he knows he will get the money and he actually does it. You go see him on Friday see the work done and give him the $200.00. Then you pick another thing to do. Just as if you were doing these things at home, break them down into bite sized pieces so he can swallow them. If you go in there and find that he hasn’t done it or he has done poor work, you can then say, “I am sorry to yank your chain, I don’t have any more money, I just lost my job,” and take the car, nobody owes a thing. If he does not want to do this, you really need to start rethinking your choice of a shop. Either this or variation of this should be fine with him. If it is not, something is wrong.

If he really wanted to make money he would be doing this. The first restoration job I ever did where I really felt I made money was done just this way. It was a little ’58 Bug-Eyed Sprite. I had decided that something had to be done or I would fall into the same trap as before with a car sitting forever. One of the first shops I ever worked at was a full-on restoration shop. It broke the rule and was pretty big, with four full time employees. Every car had a time card assigned to it. When you worked on the car, you punched in. Then each month (these were HUGE frame off restorations on 30’s and 40’s vintage Fords) the owner would receive a bill with the time worked. If they couldn’t pay, the car left, period. The guy made money and I finally got smart (after about 12 years in business) and followed his lead. I put a sign on this Bug Eye and would post the hours I spent on it. I told the guy to come by each week. Now, when the guy came in and saw only two hours were spent, he was not very happy. That was a heck of an incentive for me right there, I will tell you that! It worked great, I actually got paid for every minute I worked, unlike most restoration projects. And he actually got the car back in close to what I said. It was still late, but not ten times as late as I had done before.

The same advice can apply to chrome platers and upholsters and machine shops. Be specific about your requirements and expectations, and ask to see their work. Ask around and see if anyone else has had experience with them. Get detailed work orders that spell out exactly what will be done, how much it will cost and how long it will take. Take Brian’s advice about breaking it into bites that both you and the shop can handle.

Remember this: every single subcontractor will tell you, “Yes, I can do that.” None will turn you away. NONE. The key is to know what you want, be able to articulate that to the shop, and to do your homework to ensure that they are capable of meeting your expectations. The subcontractor is essentially becoming your partner in this restoration, and merely expecting him to be a “professional” isn’t enough. Put all your cards on the table and insist that he do the same, and it will be much easier to work a deal. Be specific as well as understanding.

Finally, you must be prepared to pay good money for quality work. Learn the value of quality and how to recognize it. Nothing sours a relationship faster than arguing about a bill, especially after the work has been done.