Lots of speculation and interesting thoughts, maybe I can clear up some and answer a few questions.

We (US Car Tool) are a Mopar Only resto shop and have been doing this for 5 years. Building race cars, fabricating rollbars, replacing unibody panels has taught us a thing or two about mopar metal and it is definitely our "sweet spot", as we say in our tag line, We Don't Scare Easy!!

The 69 Superbee in the advertisement picture is a full rotisserie restoration and it is pretty similiar to the Body in White, we just did the dismantling and the reassembly - there are plenty of pictures of this car (368 of them!), before during and after on our web site. Check this link for lots of detail http://www.uscartool.com/img/69bee/index.html

With the recent introduction of replacement sheetmetal, OEM floors, quarters, roofs etc. we recognized that we could now predict the costs of most of the major rust repair that is needed on a mopar unibody. In the past, we spent countless hours chasing used sheetmetal, sometimes having to repair the replacement parts before it could be used.

Now we can understand the costs (to a greater extent than ever before possible) and we have a lot of expertise in removing and replacing unibody parts and fabricating parts that can not be found. We routinely built frame rails from scratch, repaired cowls and firewalls and patched together floors from various parts.

So with an understanding of the costs involved, we introduced the US Car Tool "Body in White" program at $15,000. This introductory price was raised to its present $17,500 after 6 months and 6 cars in the program.

The breakdown on costs is roughly, $2000 to have the unibody dipped and stripped to bare metal, $7,000 - $8,000 worth of repair panels (some are still not available and have to be sourced used or fabricated from scratch) and the remaining $7,500 for labor to remove / replace the panels. At our shop rate of $75 per hour, this is just about 100 hours of labor, but we care more getting the unibody correct than we do about hitting a number. To separate out the really bad cars, we charge a bit extra for replacing frame rails or a roof. We do frame rails for $250 plus the cost of the part, roofs for $500 plus the part cost.

We (US Car Tool) had a 1970 Challenger R/T at Carlisle on one of our rotisseries. This was the very first car to go through the "body in white" program and is still another 30 hours or so from being finished - needs all the finish detailing underneath, some more welding at the trunk floor extension to quarter and the wheelhouse to quarter panel attachments and lots of small brackets still to be reattached.

All the work in our shop is done in bare metal and we keep cars in bare metal until they are finished. The 1970 Challenger R/T customer wanted his car in epoxy prime, so it is now in primer, but there is zero (none) filler in the car. Check the over 600 pictures of this car on our web site at http://www.uscartool.com/img/70ChallengerRT/index.html

I also saw a question about panel alignment. I don't want to sound mean or anything, but we just aren't that new at this (grin!). Check pages 69 and 70 on the '70 Challenger R/T BIW and you will see it with fenders, doors, decklid and even a rear glass windshield. All to verify panel alignment.

I suppose the net is, we believe in offering a great value to the Mopar community and have absolutely nothing to hide. Our process is fully documented with pictures and the end results. Have a look and let me know what you think.

As always, Moparts Rocks!! Thanks Tom!!