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Re: American Muscle Car Revolution Resto Job as Promise
[Re: 70plymA34]
#481594
01/06/11 02:53 PM
01/06/11 02:53 PM
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Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 15,134
Kelowna, B.C. Canada
DPelletier
I Live Here
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I Live Here
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 15,134
Kelowna, B.C. Canada
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Car looks good, love the color and the paint looks nice.  Dave
1970 Super Bee 440 Six Pack
1974 'Cuda
2008 Ram 3500 Diesel
2006 Ram 3500 Diesel
2004.5 Ram 2500 Diesel
2003 Ram 3500 Diesel
2006 Durango Limited
[url] http://1970superbee.piczo.com [/url]
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Re: American Muscle Car Revolution Resto Job as Promised.
[Re: cloneguy]
#481605
01/09/11 03:58 AM
01/09/11 03:58 AM
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Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 146
rhode island
bomber1965
member
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member
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 146
rhode island
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(quote) I don't see how any machine could be powerful enough, hot enough or whatever enough to remove 1/2 inch thick undercoating but somehow not remove inspection markings.  I see at one of the posts above, they recommend softening the undercoating with gasoline. Our regs are pretty minimal here in GA but using gasoline as a chemical solvent is one thing that we can't do. We don't screw around with the EPA here. The guy we bought the shop from had such heavy EPA fines that the government got all of the money from the sale.
Dry Ice Blasting Principles
Cleaning with dry ice! This new development is quickly expanding around the world. One system uses small rice size pellets of dry ice shooting them out of a jet nozzle with compressed air. It works somewhat like sandblasting or high-pressure water or steam blasting, with superior results. The frigid temperature of the dry ice -109.3°F or -78.5°C "blasting" against the material to be removed, causes it to shrink and loose adhesion from its sub surface. Additionally when some of of dry ice penetrates through the material to be removed, it comes in contact with the underlying surface. The warmer sub surface causes the dry ice to convert back into carbon dioxide gas. The gas has 800 times greater volume and expands behind the material speeding up its removal. Paint, oil, grease, asphalt, tar, decals, soot, dirt, ink, resins, and adhesives are some of the materials removed by this procedure. Only the removed material must be disposed of, as the dry ice sublimes into the atmosphere.
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Re: American Muscle Car Revolution Resto Job as Promised.
[Re: bomber1965]
#481606
01/09/11 03:07 PM
01/09/11 03:07 PM
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Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 14
san diego
clownin mopar
member
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member
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 14
san diego
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Your car looks great so far, sorry to hear it's not done. I'm not sure American Muscle Car Revolution knew how difficult correct restorations would be! With the amount of real time involved in doing these, the 25k labor charge is un-realistic to me. I'm not here to criticize their work, only to point out some lessons for others. Everyone seems to say the top shops in the country charge to much, but going by this thread it doesn't seem to be so. Why? EXPERIENCE At this point you have invested all this money, and time, in a car that is still far from done & driving. You have gotten hosed some horribly inflated prices, like the Frank Badalson trans job! A pro shop could have done this in house for $500.00. You have had to do a lot of research, and a lot of things have had to be redone on this car that should have been done correctly in the first place. A top shop could have had this done already, correct in the details, running & driving delivered to you and for $50-75k, parts & labor. If that sounds like a lot of money, how much is your time & sanity worth?? I hope your car gets done soon, it's very nice! Good luck 
If I knew retirement was this great, I would have done it first!
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Re: American Muscle Car Revolution Resto Job as Promised.
[Re: clownin mopar]
#481607
01/09/11 03:14 PM
01/09/11 03:14 PM
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Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 1,039
INDIANA
Paul Jacobs
super stock
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super stock
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 1,039
INDIANA
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Quote:
Your car looks great so far, sorry to hear it's not done.
I'm not sure American Muscle Car Revolution knew how difficult correct restorations would be! With the amount of real time involved in doing these, the 25k labor charge is un-realistic to me. I'm not here to criticize their work, only to point out some lessons for others.
Everyone seems to say the top shops in the country charge to much, but going by this thread it doesn't seem to be so. Why? EXPERIENCE
At this point you have invested all this money, and time, in a car that is still far from done & driving. You have gotten hosed some horribly inflated prices, like the Frank Badalson trans job! A pro shop could have done this in house for $500.00.
You have had to do a lot of research, and a lot of things have had to be redone on this car that should have been done correctly in the first place. A top shop could have had this done already, correct in the details, running & driving delivered to you and for $50-75k, parts & labor. If that sounds like a lot of money, how much is your time & sanity worth??
I hope your car gets done soon, it's very nice! Good luck
I try to tell every potential customer those exact words, but the initial dollar figure of $50-75k sometimes scares people to death. When the expense is drawn over a 2-3 year period that helps a lot. Plus, sometimes people just want to drop off a car, knowing when they get it back, it's correct and has over 200 road miles on it, ready to go-with no headaches to them!
You will have a beautiful car, don't fret!
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Re: American Muscle Car Revolution Resto Job as Promised.
[Re: 67plymouthman]
#481609
01/09/11 04:30 PM
01/09/11 04:30 PM
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Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 1,054
Roswell, GA - near Atlanta
cloneguy
OP
super street
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OP
super street
Joined: Apr 2003
Posts: 1,054
Roswell, GA - near Atlanta
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Quote:
I think the customer probably received a pretty good value. I know several body shop owners that will do restorations when the business is a little slow. I have seen some shops take up to 4 or 5 years. Anytime you take a car to a shop you never know what you will get back or if the shop even finishes the project. Of course you can spend 50-100k on a restoration but who can afford those? And I don't think Tim is marketing OE Gold restorations. I wonder how many hours Tim and his crew have into this project and. I bet when it is all said and done their shop will be lucky to have earned $50-60/hr. 
To get the full picture on this resto, you have to go back a few pages and read forward. The long and the short of it are that the customer had a change of heart when the car was almost done so, we ended up doing a whole lot of work twice.
IMHO, we restored the car twice for far less money than many shops would have charged to do it once. We did more than the customer asked us to do, did our best to troubleshoot problems with other people's parts and work that we had no part of and we think we made the customer happy. We'll see when he gets the car home and does his posting here.
We learned a whole lot on this one and other cars we've done went a lot smoother. Yes, it took much, much longer than it was supposed to but the job changed completely between the start and finish and there were huge delays sometimes in getting correct parts. We make no excuses for working on other cars to pay the bills at times while this one had to sit as a result. I personally believe that there are many shops that would not have kept their word as we did. I've heard a thousand stories about guys having to pick up their cars when shops gave up working on them. That has never happened with us, regardless of the cost, and it never will.
I know that the whole thread is cumbersome, but you can't just read the last part and make judgements. I also know that not everyone will agree but I don't believe that anyone on here or anywhere else would have done the amount of work we did at the level of quality we provided for the price we charged.
$50-$60 per hour? Not even close. Maybe 50-60 Pesos per hour. 
Will we still do cars for a $25k MAX? Yes, we're much better at it now!
BUT, we know it will take longer than we want it to. Hubert retired early at only age 71 so he could marry a 40 year old and now uses all of his energy on her. 
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Re: American Muscle Car Revolution Resto Job as Promised.
[Re: Paul Jacobs]
#481610
01/09/11 05:11 PM
01/09/11 05:11 PM
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,083
Long Island, NY
70plymA34
super stock
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super stock
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,083
Long Island, NY
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Quote:
Quote:
Your car looks great so far, sorry to hear it's not done.
I'm not sure American Muscle Car Revolution knew how difficult correct restorations would be! With the amount of real time involved in doing these, the 25k labor charge is un-realistic to me. I'm not here to criticize their work, only to point out some lessons for others.
Everyone seems to say the top shops in the country charge to much, but going by this thread it doesn't seem to be so. Why? EXPERIENCE
At this point you have invested all this money, and time, in a car that is still far from done & driving. You have gotten hosed some horribly inflated prices, like the Frank Badalson trans job! A pro shop could have done this in house for $500.00.
You have had to do a lot of research, and a lot of things have had to be redone on this car that should have been done correctly in the first place. A top shop could have had this done already, correct in the details, running & driving delivered to you and for $50-75k, parts & labor. If that sounds like a lot of money, how much is your time & sanity worth??
I hope your car gets done soon, it's very nice! Good luck
I try to tell every potential customer those exact words, but the initial dollar figure of $50-75k sometimes scares people to death. When the expense is drawn over a 2-3 year period that helps a lot. Plus, sometimes people just want to drop off a car, knowing when they get it back, it's correct and has over 200 road miles on it, ready to go-with no headaches to them!
You will have a beautiful car, don't fret!
Thanks for the comments. I am not giving up on anything. This car will always be a work in progress even when its 100% back together. As I find more detail parts, it will add to this project. You have to understand thats it will never see the Mopar Nats or even local shows. I did it because I love these Mopars and they represent a special part of automotive history. Its also kind of a challenge to hunt parts down and the people you meet along the way have educated me quite a bit. Some really good people and in some cases not so good people.
The Badalson issue is long resolved. Lesson learned but there wont be a next resto so a lesson to all. Frank is a very knowledgeable person on these cars and I will continue to buy his resto products as I need them.
Anyway, when the car comes home and I start working on it, i will post some updated pics every once in a while.
In the next week or two, I will give a thorough write up on my experience with AMCR. Stay tuned........
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Re: American Muscle Car Revolution Resto Job as Promised.
[Re: 70plymA34]
#481611
01/09/11 05:52 PM
01/09/11 05:52 PM
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Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,169
Richmond, VA
rayztoy
super stock
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super stock
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,169
Richmond, VA
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Mike, The car is looking very nice! Take your time on finishing details. Keep the pix coming! Tim, You have the patience of a Saint! All and all, job well done!!
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Re: American Muscle Car Revolution Resto Job as Promised.
[Re: rayztoy]
#481612
01/09/11 09:06 PM
01/09/11 09:06 PM
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 777
Washougal,Wa
Dodge
super stock
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super stock
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 777
Washougal,Wa
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Very nice car Mike!!! Any chance the original owner has a pic of the car when new?
Stand behind your word
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Re: American Muscle Car Revolution Resto Job as Promised.
[Re: Dodge]
#481613
01/10/11 12:57 AM
01/10/11 12:57 AM
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Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,083
Long Island, NY
70plymA34
super stock
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super stock
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,083
Long Island, NY
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Quote:
Very nice car Mike!!! Any chance the original owner has a pic of the car when new?
Here is the car when brand new. This was taken in late November of 69. The car was ordered from the now defunct Farland-Buell Chrysler/Plymouth out of Denver, CO. Sorry its a B&W pic. I do have some color shots from the early 70's. I have to dig them up. Again, thanks for the comments.
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