Costs

Nightmare scenario: You've taken your car to a body shop... maybe even sent it half way across the country in search of a good deal. But they won't tell you how much its going to cost or when it will be done. Looking around their shop, you don't see others like yours, and you begin to wonder if they know what they are doing. Quick! Wake up! Its only a bad dream... right?

If you're looking for a shop to build your car, or even just for paint and body work, please read on.

Bottom line: if you're looking for a shop to build your dream car, you have three primary concerns:

1. Quality 2. Price 3. Duration

Our experience tells us that if you are serious about building a nice car, investing in your dream, these issues in this order are paramount. Above all, you want top quality and may be willing to spend a little more to get it, for poor quality at any price is a worthless waste of money. The length of time of the build is very important, but not critial. However, months are acceptable, years are not.

Most shops will not offer assurances up front regarding these concerns, but we choose to offer a different, more enlightened experience. With us, Quality is assured by examining this site, seeing our work in magazines and on the internet, and seeing our work at car shows and major events like SEMA. Price is assured by our having a complete understanding of the costs associated with building these cars, with the experience of having built over 50 Mopar projects to date, and by having done due diligence gaining an understanding of the varying conditions and expected outcomes of these projects. Duration is assured by our understanding of the time required to build these cars, by maintaining a schedule of work, maintaining qualified staffing levels and by diligently managing the projects.

We believe we can reduce or eliminate the fears of our customers by providing trustworthy estimates, by performing flawless, professional work, and by being open, honest and helpful all along the way. We believe this sets us apart from the majority of shops vying for your valuable business, and we intend to continue to fuel our business with honesty, integrity and quality.

As we've stated before, we've intentionally positioned our business in the mid-to-upper levels of all shops out there price-wise, with our quality near the top. We want to be able to include as many folks from all walks of life as possible in our pricing, while keeping the doors open, helping to make as many dreams come true as possible. When pricing our services, you'll find us higher than the corner body shop, but lower than other nationally-known shops. This keeps us busy, keeps our technicians employed, keeps us building top-notch Mopars... it won't put our kids through college, but there's other ways of accomplishing that.

We're currently working on a method of precisely calculating the build cost of a typical restoration, one that we intend to be able to use to guarantee a cost up front. Once complete, we'll offer that here, as a service to you. Until then, we can give you come generalities. Restorations we do for our customers come in different levels of service, from total turn-key jobs to partials. A complete job will involve a complete car coming to us which we will completely disassemble, media blast, metal work, body work, paint, polish and reassemble, ready to be driven away. Typically, a car of this level of service, with minimal to moderate metal work, and with relatively simple reassembly, will fall in the 28k-38k range. This cost includes all labor, most materials, and lots of services that you would not normally expect to have included such as (but not nearly limited to) suspension rebuilds, engine work, transmission work, upholstery work, stainless polished, A/C system work, wiring repairs, underside of the body done (as are all nooks and crannies) and most anything else you can imagine. Finished means finished. No cut corners, no overlooked details. All nuts and bolts attended to. The spread in cost is mostly attributable to varying levels of sheetmetal replacement, and the cost of some reassembly options (Aftermarket upgrades like A/C, brakes, transmissions, power windows, etc).

The other popular type of job is partial reassembly... this service does all the same media blast, metal and bodywork, paint and polish, but limits reassembly to jobs that the customer does not feel comfortable or qualified to perform. This usually consists of reinstalling the suspension, sometimes the engine, reassembling and aligning all body panels, installing all glass, sometimes the dash and harness. Since the reassembly of a car is so labor-intensive, its also expensive, and electing to do this yourself can save 8k to 10k. Still, most people don't have the time or skills needed, but there are those gearheads that do, and we're happy to help you with whatever level of service you prefer.

For now, until we get our application up and running, please feel free to call us at 210-256-7056 to initiate a conversation regarding price expectations and time durations. Generally speaking, durations are more a function of the customer than of the shop... figure your build cost and divide by the amount your budget allows you to afford in a month, and you'll arrive at about how long the build will take. Given this formula, a 30k build where you're comfortable with a 2k/month payment will result in a 15 month duration. We'll tailor our build effort (number of hours per month) to your needs and your budget.

Our billing method is simple and designed to keep stress between us to a minimum. We'll bill you at the end of each month for work performed, with us keeping our hours within your budget. We don't need to be paid in advance for anything other than an initial deposit which is to be used for initial materials purchases and for media blasting services, which are performed by an outside vendor. Invoice payments are greatly appreciated within 10 days, considered late after 30. If there's a problem, let us know and we'll work out an arrangement. At 60 days, the vehicle is considered in storage and all work stops until payments are caught up. We know troubles arise, fortunes come and go... we'll do all we can to help. However, quick turn-around on invoices enables us to keep prices down, making our services available to more of you.

Simple/Partial: Usually applies to a rolling body with most parts already removed, and no requirement for complete
reassembly. This is a popular choice for those with mechanical skills that don't mind doing alot of the work themselves,
and need to save some money. Full media blast is included, full metal and body work, full paint and polish, but only
parital reassembly. Generally, this means we hang and align all body panels, reinstall a suspension, and often
install glass and dash. The level of service is up to you, but you are assured that you are receiving the full level of
attention to all body parts and any other parts you wish to have us work our magic on.
Generally 14-22k depending mostly on level of services needed in metal work (panel replacement and rust repair).

Standard/Complete: Our standard is the gold standard compared to most shops. We pride ourselves on extremely nice body and paint,
no matter what level of service you choose. In this case, Standard refers to the most common level of service we perform.
This involves a running, driving car delivered to our door, and a running, driving car presented back to you in immaculate
condition. Along the way, all details are attended to, all you need to do is enjoy.
Generally 22-32k depending mostly on level of services needed in metal work and options desired during reassembly.

Complex/Complete: This level applies to a standard/complete package that has additional requirements such as extensive
metal work, custom metal work or other extensive or custom requirements including sophisticated engine or suspension
upgrades, or other complicating factors.
Generally 32-42k

For the above conditions, we can often tailor a build that offers you a set build cost (for labor, sheetmetal and materials but not
parts) and provide a monthly invoice amount for the duration of the build. However, when building extensively custom cars, we rely on simple hourly rates:

Custom/MuscleRod: This build level is reserved for cars with extensive modifications, in other words a custom car or national
show-level build. These require too much in the way of time-consuming modifications to put a price tag on ahead of time.
Generally 42-60k with potential for more.

We hope this give some idea on where we fall in the grand scheme of things, cost-wise. We strive to provide top quality services at reasonable rates, and to build for you the finely detailed car of your dreams.