[alfa] Maaco, Cheapo, and Insurance Co

[RonHorowitz <RonHorowitz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy, Folks!

WARNING! DANGER! NOXIOUS TIRADE TO FOLLOW!

Easily offended, thin skinned, or otherwise sensitive persons: read no
further!  Opinion to follow is stated as opinion only. Like certain parts
of the anatomy, you are entitled to one of your own. Those prone to fits of
flame throwing shall proceed at their own risk!

><The problem that many are now experiencing is that they can't find a shop
>to paint a
>GTV jewel, beater or otherwise. The three recommended body shops that I
>personally have investigated are more interested in panel replacement and
>collision
>repair. There are few resources for restoration in my area.>

There _are_ good economic reasons for this. In an insurance job, the work
is assessed, it's quoted (usually high as hell, too) the parts and paint
are ordered, the parts are delivered to the shop by the local parts vendor
the next day (or the same day,) the work is knocked out in short order to
some minimum standard, and the insurance company pays. Usually, insurance
company checks don't bounce, either.

Hell, you could almost base a business on that sort of scenario! (at least
if it weren't for fees and regulations, the BAR, the BAAQMD, the EPA, OSHA,
the ADA, and the rest of the alphabet-soup.)

With the "typical" Fiat / Alfa / Lancia / whatever paint job, the "typical"
owner wants a 100 point paint job for maybe fifteen-hundred bucks or so,
including stripping to bare metal, dent straightening without the use of
fillers, rust removal, hand-made patch-panel fabrication and fitting, metal
finishing, five-stage painting, color sanding, buffing, polishing, and all
the rest. This delusion usually goes along with the almost universal "how
'bout I throw in a case of beer" or the ever popular "I'm not in a hurry,
take your time and do a good job" (all the while giving me free indoor
storage) or even the hugely offensive slap-in-the-face "at least it's
interesting work" (as though the balance of your life's work had no merit.)


It should be noted that the interest of a business is making money, and the
more and faster the better. In the business sense, interesting work means
lucrative work, since one's interest in working is in getting paid.
Conversly, it should be noted that although slave labor and/or the various
forms of indentured servitude many old-car owners seem to feel entitled to
merely by right of junk-heap ownership is _illegal_ in most of the
civilized world, regardless of the owner's expectation at restoration time.

Why any working stiff should be willing to subsidize someone else's hobby,
or contribute to the value of someone else's asset through the willing
contribution of free or discounted labour in this tough economy remains a
mystery. This is especially so since everyone I know has more "interesting"
projects of their own than they'll get done in a lifetime.

A lot of the guys I know who _are_ still doing restoration work run covert
operations. I can think of maybe a dozen or so people doing this, and I'd
probably count myself in their number if I hadn't opted out of the game
altogether (mostly for fear of governmental seizure of assets.) Just
because these folks are running covert operations doesn't imply that
they're working cheap, and a number of them are essentially captive shops
to one or more wealthy patrons.

Bottom line, there will always be more labourers willing to work for more
pay than for less, and there will always be more customers willing to pay
less for more than more for less. If you're finances happen to fall to the
Wal-Mart-side of the supply/demand intersection, you're just out of luck,
which is no one's burden to shoulder but your own.

>END OF TIRADE<
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