Do bodyshops not want classic car work anymore?

[perry113]

I ran a bodyshop for a few years for a friend of mine. Back in 2013-14.
It's a tough business. Back then I needed to bill a bare minimum of $500.00 per day minimum giveaway per man to make it by when we were doing wholesale work.
You have to pay the man hours. The shop needs to make it worth their while in the survival game.
You can't do it for the price most want to pay.

The disassembly and assembly alone as most know here is anything but easy.
It is rightfully very expensive to do one right even when its solid let alone metal and body work.
I understand why people try to work with a budget but I also sympathize with the shop's persepective.

Who wants to work on a high level car that also requires knowledge and specialization for a loss.

 

[Pinder]

I totally agree. Its a very labor intensive process.

[Shvegel]

I found a restoration shop that no longer did any restoration work.  I basically hounded them to paint my car.  On a perfect front end with flawless paint and a small dent from a control arm falling off the shelf it was $1750 to respray the front end back to the doors with everything off the car even the doors.  I then had them do the hood, decklid (Bootlid), top cover and doors which were stripped by me and primered in epoxy primer.  They were admittedly pummeled with small dents and dings but that was a $5500 charge with my paint.  So no stripping, trim removal and bodywork it cost me $7250 to paint about 3/4 of the car.