Topic: TATA Y89 Restoration/Pro-Touring Build Thread (Skip to Page 9!)

[TheKid]

Did the 403's on these cars come from the factor with a Turbo 350 or 400? I've looked around and can't find a solid answer

[Nick623]

350

[N PRGRES]

350

[Grand73Am]

I highly suggest doing the body and paint before the interior. You can't really do thorough body and paint with the interior already in. A paint job, yes, but not a resto quality body and paint. There's alot of dirty work involved with the bodywork and paint, and I wouldn't risk doing that work with a restored interior already in place. Too easy to get to get your new parts dirty with overspray and sanding dust in the air.
The interior looks okay now, so I'd leave it be until after the exterior work. Then just be careful around your new paint while assembling the interior.
As a professional restorer for 25 years(including 57 chevys    ) , that's the way to do it.

Here's a very good sequence of restoration by a shop(that's in legal trouble, so don't go there), but he does do a great job of documenting his TA restos for all to see. Look at the order of work here. Putting it on "slideshow" would be a good way to view it: http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e120/TransformationRestorations/Adams79TA/?start=0

[N PRGRES]

I agree 100%.  The interior should be last

[TheKid]

Steve, thanks for that advice! The only reason I wanted to do interior first was because of price. I'm motivated by seeing things comes together, and it'll take me quite a while to afford paint an body work, where as interior I would be able to do piece by piece and watch the car come together. I like your approach better though. It wasn't a thought that I had even considered, so now that I've seen that slideshow, and heard a few other opinions, I guess it's time to start saving up my pennies and get my body work done.

Any idea what decent body work on something this nasty might run me? I'm trying to gather good information about body shops and pricing as to avoid getting ripped. Things that I know are a problem:
Rust inside the doors (due to the sweeps and gaskets all being shot)
some minor surface rust on the bottom of the door
Hood and front panels need to be re-aligned
Good quality paint job (not sure what one of those runs these days)
All the graphics placed

Theres a pretty reputable body shop here in my town that I'm considering letting do the work, I'm not sure what all this will cost, but it can't be cheap! Any ideas? Thanks for the advice also Steve and Dave!

[N PRGRES]

Mine is going to run about 4 - 5K but I have a guy that does it out of his garage and does incredible work, so that might not be a good estimate.

[TheKid]

Yeah, that's about how much I figured I'd be spending..eek! Gotta make more money ha...I love college tuition.

[79ban1]

4 to 5 k is cheap for a complete strip down, paint and body work mine cost around 20k.

[eroc022]

4 to 5 k is cheap for a complete strip down, paint and body work mine cost around 20k.

4-6k is average, i want to know who charged you 20k!

[TheKid]

Yeah, I was about to say, whatever costs 20k, I'm not looking for something like that at all! That's a bit extreme....I've been putting half my nightly pay aside every night to try and reach my 5k ha.

[N PRGRES]

For 20K that think better be better than new!

[79ban1]

The car was completely taken apart to nothing but a shell every little thing was taken off the car then it was hand stripped to bare metal then the inside, door jams, trunk, firewall and under side was media blasted. The car was the put into an epoxy primer then the body work began. the car gets pre assembled for fit and gap check then taken back apart to block sand, they go through and reseal the body where the factory did and then some. When done the car will be completely straight with no body panel waves at all. The shop that is doing it does concourse show cars and Custom show cars.

[eroc022]

same thing was done to mine, by a shop, and it wasnt even half of that..... i think you are getting ripped off, and unless they are blocking the car while its together, you will have waves, what shop is doing it might i ask ?

[TheKid]

That's a lot of work, it'll look amazing, but that's a big price tag!

Eroc, what's that same process costing in your case?