Good show! Now he owes you...

Don't worry Arne....If you subtract my owes from Brandon's owes, it's a very large number of net owes for him! Guy

Right he is. The joys of having kids.

This guy is truly an artist. Unfortunately for my dad, I am sure the price tag will reflect the guy's skills

Personally, I've found that the men with the highest skill levels may have higher hourly rates to begin with, but it takes them far fewer hours to accomplish any metal working tasks. In the end, they wind up being less expensive than paying for the practice time, redo time and error corrections of less skilled workers.

The two best body men, artists in metalwork really, that I have worked with in the past 10 ten years - would of course prefer to start with NOS, OEM parts if available, but working on Classic Cars and/or building street rods and custom cars - they are more than willing and able to hand form any metal part needed. Both felt that the Tabco doglegs were more than adequate starting points.

FWIW,

Carl B.

Carl.....We understand that, and Chuck was perfectly willing to use Tabco if that was the last resort. However , he preferred the real thing and if I could provide them I wanted to. This car is going to be special as I think you can tell by the restoration thread.(look at the perfect circles in the front radiator panel where he welded the front clip). I agree that an expert body man can save time and of course you know the results will be perfect. I wouldn't use anyone else. He's within weeks of finishing the final body work and laying on paint. You're gonna like what you see. Thanks for all of your help. Guy

Carl,

my comment on the cost was due to the fact that there was far more poorly repaired collision damage than expected in this extremely rust free 71. As you can see in the resto thread, almost half the car has been replaced within the last year :)The body guy has put far more hours into this car than I could imagine.

He has a porsche 356 spyder in there with something insane like 1000+ hours in block sanding. It's exquisite.

five&dime

Was someone cutting up a rust free car that you were able to get the panel you need? I am starting to look for a drivers side for #1905.

I will provide details once my dad gets his part

Hi Guy/Brandon

I understood that you understood.

For everyone else following the thread, I was just trying to add a couple thoughts.

1. Most of the time one is better off paying the higher shop rates for higher levels of skill. The bitterness of poor workmanship lasts far longer than the sweetness of low price etc etc.

2. To support Paul Martin's and others use of the TABCO product - some comments would leave one with the impression that they are a POS - which is most certainly not the case IMO.

I really didn't mean to sound like I was questioning your approach nor motives. In fact I'm sure the outcome will be wonderful.

FWIW,

Carl B.

Landed my dogleg......It was cut from a rust free quarter for $250.00. A place in Oregon called Danny's Datsun. He did a great job of describing, cutting, packing and shipping! Now the only thing that I need to complete my parts inventory is a perfect restorable (dent free) front bumper. Guy

Didn't know Danny had any cars left. He's been slowly liquidating his stock over the past couple years. I've bought several parts from him since I got my first Z in '05. Glad to hear he still had what you needed.