Paint

[Will Owen <nashwill912@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey, gang -

Someone mentioned that you might want to look at some cars a shop has
painted in the past. If you're looking for a high-quality job, see if
you can find any pre-1960 cars they've painted, and look at the welting
between body and fenders. If the welting is painted, too, go find
someone else - a good shop will remove the fenders and replace the
welting, while a cheap outfit will just shoot everything as it sits.
While this doesn't apply directly to most of our cars, it says something
about a shop's attitude and craftsmanship. A neighbor of ours in
Nashville was so thrilled that her parents had paid a shop to restore
their old Studebaker, and then sent it to her as a birthday present;
when I saw the welting painted the same grey as the rest of the car, and
a bit more of the same on one of the tires, I had a pretty good idea of
how much "restoration" had actually taken place. And I was right, as it
turned out.

Another thing you might want to observe is how the workers treat
surfaces before painting. I've seen guys laying bare hands on primered
surfaces, even in one case eating lunch on someone's hood! That's the
point at which you murmur something about getting some other estimates
and you'll be in touch later...

Will
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