Thought I would try to start a follow up post regarding the AMD Installation Center from a couple months ago. I wanted to share my experience in the event it helps any fellow members out who are in a similar situation to where I was when I was trying to figure out how to kick start my project and move it forward.
Hopefully this. Video YouTube link will work that I added to our facebook group.
You have to be super excited to have your car back. looks like they did a wonderful job on the metal work. Do you have a place picked out to handle the paint?
Not yet, why you wanna collaborate...lol
I am going through the process of determining if I should farm it out or take a stab at my first full paint job. Guess it will ultimately come down to price and timing. A number of years ago I took a night school class in painting. It was valuable as I say you can never stop learning. I bought my own gun and since have done a few little jobs. The biggest so far was painting the spoiler on my wife's SRT8 BC/CC inferno red. It actually took me two tries and still did not come out perfect but I learned so much by doing it over. I was literally one paint stroke away from a perfect paint job, but I looked down mid-stroke on my last pass of clear, to ensure my foot did not accidentally kick the stand that the spoiler was on and the gun got too close and created a little run. :barf:Oh well, next I learned about fixing a run. :haha:
Speaking of which that PPG class you spoke about earlier really sounded interesting. Bet you will learn a lot.
I'm sure you can paint the car yourself, but much like your wife's spoiler there will be little set backs and hiccups. If you are up for the challenge, then I say go for it. But being it's your first time it will most likely cost you more to do yourself then to pay someone to do it. If you could find someone local to guide you along it would help a lot. I can help with tips and tricks, but there's only so much I can do over the web.
I can accept that about the cost for the sake of learning. However, the quality and end result are what worry me. But I supposed I would be worried either way.
So I will add to this topic as I go and try to add additional details on my experience with the AMD Installation Center as well as the process and answer questions as we move forward.
Just to give some back ground, this stage of bringing the car back started in April of 2016. After a conversation with fellow member, Gabes Hobbyshop, he convinced me that the market for 1970 Dodge Chargers were hot and if I ever thought about parting with my "project" charger, now would be as good as any. So I put an Ebay ad up to test the waters. I figured I would put a relatively high price on the car and if it sold, great. If it did not sell, then it was meant to be that I rehab the car back to life. Well, the car sold in 30 mins and I had multiple offers. I was surprised to say the least or worst maybe I didn't ask enough. lol
I had watched several shows and read a few articles on the AMD Installation Center over the years and was curious about their work. I had already seen and purchased quite a few Auto Metal Direct (AMD) sheet metal pieces for my Convertible from Stephen's Performance at the Mopar Nats and thought the new parts were great. So with the sale of my Charger behind me I went to the AMD Installation Center's website. Craig Hopkins is the owner and took the time to post videos on the site showing you how to properly evaluate your project car to determine what work would be needed.
Once you have looked your car over and decided what it needed the website allows you to punch in each item. It gives you a price for the body panel and associated cost to install it. Pretty easy. So I entered all my information and it came back with a online quote. After reviewing the info for a few days I decided I was serious enough to contract Craig with the online estimate info. The contact feature also allows you add pictures. So I sent a whole host of pictures to him showing the state of the car.
Craig reviewed the information and pictures I sent him and called me back the very next day. He was very polite and casual. We talked for a while and I asked a lot of questions. The majority of it was pretty straight forward, but I had concerns regarding the convertible body panels I needed that are not readily being reproduced and how that part of it would be tackled. The AMD Installation Center specializes in full panel replacement. They try to avoid doing little patch repair areas in favor of full panels, but will do some of that when there is not another viable option. Craig advised of a gentleman that he is aware of that converts AMD quarters into convertible quarters and believed he could also assist with the convertible windshield header piece that my car is in need of. He advised he would reach out to him to get a price on those parts. I was also familiar with the name and open to going that route. However, it was a significant cost added to the estimate.
Prompted by our conversation, I re-evaluated the information and the car and tried to fine tune what I think I needed. I added things to the estimate and took some things off after going and looking at each part. This is time consuming but will give you the best change of getting an accurate appraisal of what it needs and cost. It also allowed me to speak first hand to Craig about what he saw in my photos and what I found. After another conversation with him, he reworked another more formal estimate of what we discussed and sent it over to me in the form of a excel spread sheet. One spread sheet for the new parts I was buying and labor to install plus another spread sheet with the panels I already owned with just labor only. Additionally, we had to add in the convertible parts the car needed and labor for install. The info provided what right in line with what we discussed and really motivated me to want to act. This was around April/May 2016. After reviewing the info further and going over the website and info and telling the wife of my plans, I called Craig and asked if he would be there the 4th of July weekend (2016). I advised I would be heading down there in person with the car. I wanted to have him look the car over first hand and give me a "final" estimate. It would also allow me to get a good look at their operation and get a sense of who I am handing my baby over to.
I picked up my buddy, Gabes Hobbyshop, around 11pm and headed from St Louis to Georgia in my very tired Lincoln Navigator. We drove through the night and literally hit the worst weather. We drove through ever monsoon possible. The poor Challenger had been blasted and epoxy primed and was on an open car trailer. Dolt! :bricks:The AMD Installation Center is in Cleveland, GA (just north of Atlanta) and our route took us like 2-3 hrs through the mountains. At one point, while on a rainy two lane curvy mountain road I could feel the Lincoln starting to wain. So I pulled over at the first available area. Turns out it was a scenic overlook. At that same moment the rain stopped and it gave us the chance to stretch our legs and take some photos.
After a long drive we made it. The AMD Installation Center is very unassuming place and the guys there are very humble. Coming from the Midwest I can appreciate that. The crew there was very friendly and all stopped what they were doing to come see the car. They were about to help take the car off the trailer and they mistakenly thought I was another customer coming in to drop the car off. That car came a few mins later and turned out to be a customer getting his Superbird worked on. Craig was there to greet us, as well, and quickly walked out there to go over the car. We spoke about each part needing a replacement and went down the list. We spoke specifically about the convertible parts needed and what he was quoted from Ken H. As expected there was a few areas that Craig's trained eyes were able to see that I missed that would need to be addressed. I was fortunate that my car was stripped completely, blasted and had the quarters opened up for inspection. Knowing that they do mostly full panel replacement, I wanted to focus our attention on the other areas that would need work. These were various other small areas that need a zip of the mig welder here or there or where patching was needed as the sensible (least work) option or where no other option existed. At first Craig was hesitant to give a price for that, however, I was firm that I needed a complete price before moving forward. He gave me a fair price for that and we then sat down printed out another updated spreadsheet and agreed to an agreed price to do the work. Once agreed I gave the go ahead on the spot. Craig only asked that I provide him a small deposit which I believe was a couple hundred dollars, which I did not have on me but mailed a few days later. Craig advised they were running about 6 months out and typically can do most cars in 30 days after they start. The expected start would be somewhere around the beginning of 2017. We made a deal but I was bummed when I could not leave my car there. His back shop was already packed full of other customer cars so I kept the car on the trailer and turned right back around and headed home. But not before hitting a Krystals for some tasty goodness. My buddy loves this place. It was around 24hr round trip and I was bushed. --more to come.
So how much was the quote ?
I have to admit I'm curious too and can you give us the Cole's Notes version of what all is included? :wave:
Very cool writeup on the AMD installation center. It seems they are pretty straightforward and easygoing guys.
I wouldn't hesitate to ship them a project but from where I live I would need to source said project near Georgia!
:bigthumb:
Thanks! There is more detail to come. I just got tired of typing for one night. Hope the info will help the community.
Interesting post.
Quote from: RUNCHARGER on July 19, 2017, 06:30:00 PM
Interesting post.
:iagree:
Good stuff for sure, thanks for posting all the info! :cheers:
Great post! Paint it yourself and do a complete writeup here so we can learn. :D
I wanna paint mine in a few years, I painted a Dart 20 years ago, came out nice.
I also bought a gun (just a cheap one for now) and I'm painting smaller stuff now.
If I do paint it myself I will definitely do a write up on it, as I will likely need advice along the way. I'm still at the point of getting paint quotes from reputable shops as well.
" I'm still at the point of getting paint quotes from reputable shops as well." - that may give you the impetus to do it yourself if nothing else! Good luck and keep us posted please. :cheers:
Glad to see that E-Body get saved. And this is a great post. Very interesting.
Let me know if I can be any help with your paint. As you know I do not paint cars for anyone, but I will offer free tips and tricks if you want to do it yourself.
Wow what a cool experience! Closest us guys have to giving birth! LOL I was excited for you just watching the video ! Thanks for recording that! :banana:
Now fast forward several months and I called down to Craig Hopkins at the AMD Installation Center and informed him I would like to bring the car down at the beginning of November. I wanted to beat the snow as some of those mountain roads could be sketchy with a car in tow. He was fine with bringing the car a little early and said he would make the necessary room. The first week of November I took the car down there but wanted to try a different route from Missouri. This time I went further south toward Atlanta and worked my way back up. Its probably an extra 45mins but avoided a few hours in the mountains. This also gave us a chance to stop by Auto Metal Direct on the way.
We found our way to Auto Metal Direct and was shocked at the size of the place. It's huge. We parked in front of the doors and like dorks wanted to take some photographs. Seemed only right since the car was being rebuilt with all AMD sheet metal. We went inside and found they had a front show room with various painted hoods and display vehicles. There was a friendly young guy at the front who greeted us and asked if we were here to pick up parts. We chatted for a bit and he said the big wigs were out at a show or something but seemed cool with us just looking around. We looked at some of their displays and got a few more photos. My buddy even poked his head through the racks to take a look at the behind the scenes warehouse. It seemed to go on forever. If you need something for your mopar, its there on those shelves. If you like Chevys they can help you too.
When I was down there last summer, Craig and I discussed fitting the front end sheet metal with reasonable gaps. This is something they normally don't do as it doesn't require any spot welding and typically is what a traditional bodyman would tackle as part of getting the exterior straight and ready for paint. However, for me I wanted that instant wow factor when I picked up the car and a very quick way to tell if the car was put together right. I felt one way to do that is by seeing all the panels on the car at the time of pick up and would keep me from second guessing the work should I install them later and have any issues. Craig and I bantered about that for a bit, but when I showed up with the car on a trailer he realized I was serious about hammering out the details and reluctantly gave me a price to do it. We settled on $700 to hang and align the exterior that I would also buy from him. However, I told him, I would let him know when I dropped the car off if I was adding that additional work. My main concern was making sure I could come up with the cash for any work I authorized.
After leaving Auto Metal Direct we took a short 24min up to the AMD Installation Center. Like before the guys stopped what they were doing to help unload the car off the trailer. I had brought the new AMD parts I had already purchased for the car with me, along with my door shells, and various bagged hardware. Thank god when I took the car apart I had bagged and labeled the parts in ziplock bags and boxes. However, as a tip, if I was to do it again I would also keep a ledger of what specific parts were in each bag. This will help you identify things without having to look through each bag. Craig and I went through my container of ziplocked hardware and parts and he tried to keep anything he thought they would need. As part of their process, they photograph all your parts while unloading to avoid any confusion down the road as to whether something was or was not dropped off with the car. They are very organized. Cars and parts are given a customer number to prevent it from being misplaced or used on a different car. When walking through the shop you see they have a dedicated parts rack for each customer project they are working on.
Craig and I sat down in his office and discussed the work. I came prepared with my notes from our conversations and print outs of the various spreadsheet changes we were working from. We went over the most current spreadsheet line by line. I took out one or two items and added a few. Biggest thing was to add in the exterior sheet metal and lining up the doors, fenders, shaker hood, valances, and trunk lid. Craig printed me out a final spreadsheet and a handshake deal was made. I cut Craig a check on the spot for sheet metal he was to pre-order. This was roughly a 1/3 of the total bill upfront and was expected.
LOVE hearing stories like this. :clapping: AMD is doing great things for the hobby and sounds like they are treating people right. :banana:
Great detail and pictures to go along with it. AMD might be were I'll have to order my 1971 gill fenders from, thanks
Great thread: I like the way they are doing business and you as well. When you give clear expectations the other party has a lot better chance of meeting those expectations.
I have spoken to Craig a number of times, very easy to deal with. My 1970 AAR is booked in for late October. I will take pictures of the whole restoration, I am planning on a "nut & bolt" restoration.
Hey all. Hope all is well. Sorry for the long delay. I previously spent significant time creating the final post on this tread and when I went to hit post the entire computer locked up. All my work was lost and it took over 2 weeks to get the computer back. I was bummed and didn't have the moral fortitude to get right back on it. My apologies it took so long, however, I promised transparency on my experience with the costs for the group and wanted to make sure I delivered what I said to my supportive online friends. In the future, I have learned the Save as Draft button is your friend. lol.
Can't wait to hear how things are going. :)
To continue where I left off, I had dropped the car off with Craig and the AMD Installation Center team in early November, before the snows, even though my expected start time wasn't till the beginning of the year. A week or so later Craig contacted me to let me know the fenders and another part were back ordered and would not be available till the end of January. Doing my own due diligence, I called Auto Metal Direct myself and confirmed this just in case they were somehow available to me so I could help move things along. But they weren't. He also advised he received my convertible parts from Ken H and he would shoot me some pics. Unfortunately, I didn't get those photo's and wonder if he may have gotten sidetracked or forgot he mentioned them.
I didn't want to be an annoying client, but did try to make sure every several weeks to reach back out to him. Around the beginning of February, I e-mailed Craig to check on the status. He advised he had been out of town filming and returned sick. He said that since the airing for the Graveyard Carz Phantom Cuda episode, they had been hit with a ton of e-bodies needing work. Most cars are done in about 30 days, but they only have one e-body jig table currently to work from. He was having to contact clients to let them know of the change in scheduling but said mine would be next in line. They typically do 5-6 challenger and cudas a year and had 10 in line currently. but he will be building another jig table to help address this.
I followed up the beginning of March and was told Craig was out of the office. I believe he was working on the Graveyard Carz big reveal episode for the Phantom Cuda. He returned the following week and let me know mine was next up on the jig. I told him this was fine as I was worried it would be finished during the snow and rainy season and I would have a tough time picking it up.
The middle of April Craig contacts me and lets me know my car will be put on the table on Monday. I anxiously waiting all weekend paranoid as it was finally the moment of truth. I was mainly nervous because I am not a rich man and always feared I would be getting contacted with more requests for money or giant unexpected bills. I dreaded the day, but it was here. Time to face the music...
Monday/Tuesday rolls around and I get a follow up e-mail with some photos. Car is up on the jig, but they have identified a few areas needing additional work. Oh no, here we go (I was thinking) :barf: But it wasn't as bad as I had thought. Craig gave me some detailed shots and I followed up with him to discuss. He had concerns regarding the shock tower brace, torque box and leaf spring area. These were mainly places we could not easily see as they were either sandwiched in between other parts or the dolly. After talking with him, I agreed they needed replacement, however, I did ask if they could try to save the original torque boxes as I was not confident in the aftermarket ones. He said they would try. The additions accounted for an additional grand or so (parts n labor).
Also the crossmember, which looked fine other than the same tab on the inside. Craig said now would be the time to replace it considering the volume of the car already being replaced.
Craig also mentioned the trunk gutter area on the back deck tray needing work. However I reminded him that the odds and ends rust repair was included into out original estimate. He replied that he remembered and thanked me for staying well organized.
The convertible wheel cap area also needed that additional odds and end rust repair that we initially talked about. Sure helped to have had the car completely stripped and taken down there for them to see and quote in person.
Going with our rust repair theme, Craig sent these. I thought the last shot was pretty crazy, but the car is getting a lot of needed work.
Two weeks in and I get some more photos updating me on the progress. The status updates are usually pretty brief. But car is on the upswing!
Craig is building a great reputation. Good follow up skills and photos along with taking the time to explain everything can go a long way in an effort to make customers happy. Looks like it's being done to a very high level of repair. Most likely will be better then new when everything is done.
The second week of June I get an e-mail asking me about the trunk lid for the car as Craig didn't see it written up and I did not supply one. I replied that it was my understanding it was included in the parts needed and was in several of the pics of my car at the shop.
He wrote back that the spreadsheet did not have it on there and the trunk lid in the pics was just for the mock up. I quickly checked my own paperwork and e-mail and found I was indeed wrong. We had just about every other "trunk" part but that one listed. So I must have just missed it or I deleted by accident. He was going to need that part when he lines up the sheet metal.
Subsequently Craig lets me know the progress and we agree to shoot for a July 4th week pick. I get additional pics showing Craig working on the weekend rebuilding my door hinges and lining up sheet metal.
Sorry some of these shots are out of order.
Header panel being repaired. More on that later.
Nearing the finish line.
Last week in June I ask Craig to send me the final bill as he wanted the final payment and for it to clear before I picked up the car. This was a significant amount of money, so I could completely understand. Plus I thought the upfront cash outlay was small by comparison. This was another one of those moments were you have to have all your paperwork, emails, spreadsheets and notes ready to go and know yourself what you expect the total to me. Man, I was dreading some last minute fiasco where the bill skyrockets. But that did not happen, Craig was not only right on the money, but I could tell he also worked to ensure costs did not jump over the quote. Sure there were a few items here or there or additions but that has to be expected with this amount of work. IT can also be extremely scary. This is a lot of money and money does not grow on trees. It is nice to find a reputable shop that you can trust. With that hurdle out of the way, I sent a registered check to AMD Installation Center for the remainder of his part and also a check for parts to Classic Muscle Metal, another business there, that handles the selling of the sheet metal part of the job.
July 4Th week, I rolled down to the AMD Installation Center with my good friend and brother and open trailer in tow. I was worried about the weather as within a day or two the reports went from it will be sunny and 80 degrees to rain all day. Nothing I could do at that point as I had already looked in vain for an enclosed trailer to rent and they are practically non existent around here. So I just prepared for the worst and hoped that would work out.
Rather than do a 24hr crash and burn bonsai run there and back like I had been doing previously, we left a day early. I did not want to screw the car up pushing it to get done in a day. We showed up bright and early and found the car still getting some last minute tweaks. I had spoken to the team a couple days earlier about anything needed for me to bring down there. They advised everything was in with the parts I had dropped of initial (thank you bag and tag) with the exception for the hood striker. I found it still on the prior hood, so I blasted and primed it and brought it with me. Wesley was in charge of my build and helped me get the striker on. He is the same guy who did the Graveyard Carz Phantom Cuda build. He was happy to show me around the car and over it with me. I had already given my good friend and brother instructions on what to do when we got there. My brother's job was to go around and photo everything and my friend's job was as my quality control guy. He can be real picky about stuff and we had a couple areas we specifically wanted to look at further because the last set of photos I received were still in the in-progress stage. So as Wesley walked me around these two went about their assigned tasks. The guys there did not mind and even walked us around both buildings. My brother got lots of great photos and my buddy gave all the areas of the car we discussed a thumbs up. Wesley and I discussed the car and quality of work and I was very impressed. Oh, man was I relieved. I had made it a point to bring a small gift as a token of thanks for the hard work they did. I bottle of bourbon made near my hometown. I presented it to Wesley and he was grateful.
Craig wasn't there initially as I believe he may have been out at a doctor's appointment and I did not specify an exact time I would be there. However, when we arrived they made it a point to give him a call and he arrived a little while later to personally make sure I was happy with the job and to see us off. Now that is personal attention. We pushed the car out of the shop and loaded it onto the open car trailer and in the process almost ran over one of the workers. check out my earlier video you can almost see it. Disaster avoided, we rolled it up on the trailer and over a tarp I had lain down. Guys in the got right back to worked however, a couple asked me what I was going to do with the tarp. I said I was going to wrap the car up and try to protect it from the rain. The first guy commented the tarp likely would not make it the 10hr drive and the other said I should just leave it uncovered as it is in EPD and primer coating. I'm not sure if the rain would have ruined the car, but I did not want to try to find out. As they got back to the shop, me and my crew went about covering the car with a tarp from the bottom, another tarp from the top, and then double wrapped the whole thing with tape and clear plastic that pallets get wrapped with. It was so much work and literally took hours, but it worked so good. It rain just minutes after we left the shop with the car behind us.
Impressive work! Thanks for taking the time to post this. I wouldn't have any second thoughts about taking work there after your detailed post.
Very cool; they do awesome work. I talk to Bill Crabtree quite a bit. BTW; awesome tow rig! We have an '06 GCSRT8 :cheers:
What a cool process/experience! The closest we guy come to giving birth! LOL
Thanks for all the pictures! Cool to see it brought back to life! :bradsthumb:
So here are my final thoughts on this process: the AMD Installation Center has a great rep in the Mopar community for a good reason. they provide you an online tool to create your own estimate and get an idea upfront as to the costs. This whole process started because I had two project cars that had been sitting forever without much forward movement. A buddy mentioned the market for 70 Dodge Chargers was heating up and encouraged me to part with one car to move the 70 convertible ahead. I agreed to put it up for sale with a lofty price and let the market decide. It sold in 30mins for full price.
Once it sold I made a plan to sell off the parts I had acquired overs the years for it and started looking at ways to fix the Challenger. Late one nite I went to the AMD Installation Center's website and did a quick down and dirty estimate on my own and I was really surprised at the number. It was roughly $21,000. This was a little more than I expect, but yet still in the realm of possibilities. Shockingly, in my reach if I could successfully sell my parts and make close to what I thought they were worth.
Smart move! You are going to love having a done finished car much more then 2 projects. Can't wait to follow your build all the way to the finish. :banana:
I agree: It's hard to let one go however better to have one car that is in reach rather than two unstarted projects with the costs to restore them going up every day.
Quote from: RUNCHARGER on November 05, 2017, 05:04:43 PM
with the costs to restore them going up every day.
Don't say that LOL :'( :haha:
After getting the online quote, I sent Craig the quote using the online tools and included pictures of the car. He called me the very next day and we discussed the project. He provided me an amended quote and I reviewed it. The new quote was slightly higher than what I came up with as Craig and I added a couple things and it also included blasting an epoxy. So around $22,000 or so, however he would have to reach out to Ken H for convertible specific quarter panels and a header peice as they are not made in the after market.
As mentioned before, the AMD Installation Center does full panel replacement and does not typically do patchwork. This allows them to quickly turn cars around and help ensure the highest quality. However for the customer this adds a significant cost to the project that could otherwise avoided if you were doing it yourself and patching in a new skin.
At this point I got super serious. I went out to the car with the Auto Metal Direct catalog to give me a visual and price comparison. I looked over every peice of sheet metal and noted anything needing replacement. I also used it to check the quote spreadsheet Craig sent. I didn't think it was possibly but I found more stuff I needed to add to the list. I resent and Craig made the adjustments. A couple weeks later I drove down there so Craig could look the car over in person. In my mind I did not want to go over $25,000, but to get a firm final number, I felt we needed to talk in person. Craig looked it over and we agreed on $500 for over all rust repair on the few areas remaining that were not being replaced. This was important to me as I could see where some in the business could get creative billing for that. But Craig was upfront and gave me firm number. This Was over $27,800 or so and included 2 conv quarter panels converted by Ken H and a conv windshield header ($7500 for the 3 of them). This was beyond what I thought was my max budget was, but I was this close to getting the car back together and just decided to go for it. For the sake of simplicity we rounded up to $28,000. We also discussed them hanging the exterior sheet metal and aligning it for an additional cost.
Keep in mind during this process and anytime changes are made Craig will send a new spreadsheet. I've attached. I made sure to take plenty of notes and date everything I received. I found it was really helpful and kept us on top of what was going on.
I took the spreadsheets and wrote out the final total, this included the additional parts and labor I added after work started.
That's all upfront and figures never lie.
Cody: Hey you're young enough to get them all done. At my age I have to pick my battles!
Thanks for actually posting exact figures.......Now when I tell my customers that metal work is expensive....maybe they'll understand if they read your informative thread :worship:
There wasn't much in the way surprises working with Craig. He was very transparent and easy to work with. But always I would recommend doing your own due diligence.
My total cost was about $32,000. I get a lot of folks would say that is a huge amount and I would not disagree with them. The car needed a serious amount of work and is one step closer to being back and on the road. After I brought the car home I had the pleasure to chat with Alan Galant as we had previously discussed sharing cost comparisons on a Challenger convertible in similiar condition he had recently finished. I found the costs very close and the main difference being the $7500 for the convertible parts sourced from Ken H. However, I'll let Alan chime in if he wants add more detail on his end.
So if you're in need of repair work for your beloved Mopar, I don't think you can go wrong with the AMD Installation Center. As well, if you are up north give Alan a call. His work is well known and he has a great rep in the biz.
Hope the write up is helpful to anyone considering to have work done even if you don't go this route you can at least have something to compare it to with pics and spreadsheets.
I think the only main difference between an "installation center" and the type of metal work my guy(s) does would be the ability to fabricate just about anything. I feel my guys could have easily fabricated patches to save areas like the windshield header or door posts, etc...without simply replacing the entire panel, and they can certainly convert the quarter panels "in house" to save a ton of money.
In some cases that does save money, but in other areas the fabrication costs more money, so you're no further ahead.
Five to ten years ago my guy(s) would do a lot more fabrication, patching quarters or floors, but with the introduction of the OE quality panels from AMD, we find it much more efficient, and a much cleaner job by replacing the whole panels at the factory seams.
I think you did very well with Craig, and our other member
@Car-nutt (https://forum.e-bodies.org/mlist/car-nutt_86) is probably very glad to hear of your experience, because his AAR is there now. :cheers:
I totally agree. The pro's to going this route is having a highly reputable shop do the work that is very similiar to how the factory may have done it. Plus I feel in some ways the the new sheet metal is an advantage. Additionally, as we went along I felt more compelled to replace adjacent panels with new sheet metal that otherwise may have only needed very small patchwork.
Of course there are con's as well. In many respects having a shop that does repairs on panels rather than replace them can save money. Especially for panels that you have to remove several other adjacent panels to get to. Or in my case sheet metal that is not made in the aftermarket.
If I was to do it again, I would have loved to have a guy like you have Alan that could have repaired my windshield header and converted my new quarters to convertible quarters. We spoke about the cost and going the Ken H route was extremely costly for me, not to mention the $2500 header we got had rust holes in it and required additional repair. The quarters were nice, but in the future I would take a different route.
This thread has been and continues to be extremely instructive in the do's and don't s and complexities of reconstructing our cars.
Thank you. It was meant to help people in similiar situation. When I first looked for myself, there wasn't a lot of recent info. They had a ton of magazine coverage and tv credits but I still felt I needed more info as I expected my pocket book would be really tight with the size work needed. So I figured if I did it I would share the knowledge so others wouldn't have to go in blind.
Hopefully, fellow member Car Nutt has a good experience and can share any insight/ tips from his perspective. I'm just glad to be part of this Mopar community.