The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Bodywork and Paint on a Budget

I have read many threads on many sites regarding bodywork and paint. A fellow stovebolter had a great idea about getting bodywork and paint done on a budget. Check with your local community college or technical trade school. Many offer autobody classes, that meet in the evening, two times a week for a semester.

I took one such class in 1988, while in college, with no money to paint my 1966 Chevy C10. Most classes are equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, ample room and an instructor versed in bodywork and paint. Your costs are for credit hours and materials.

The upside is you have the thrill of doing it yourself. Your work space is not bogged down with the process of prepping and painting. Your significant other will appreciate the lack of noise, dust and paint fumes and you will learn a new trade or brush up on your body and paint skills.

In closing, many do-it yourselfers lack the money, skills, equipment and space to do this work, thus resulting in a bogged-down project. Grab your phone book and check with the local community college or tech school and get your project painted in time for the summer cruising season.

Tony

The Tarrant county college here used to have a class like you described, they may still have it going on, haven't seen their schedule in a number of years.. they have a state of the art paint booth, and the instructors at the college are top notch !!

I attended one locally here and the shop teacher was unbelievable. Tremendous talent. We just pulled our cars in at 5 pm and went to work. It was a fun, affordable experience. It was completely self propelled and the inst. only came around if you needed him. No classroom work, just body work and it was great! I subframed a 49 international in that class.

That's not a bad idea. I need to check around here for a class. I would like to do as much as I can myself but have never done body work before. Maybe I can even get my GI bill to pay for my restoration.

Eric,
I don't know whether you are in or out of the service, but I would look into all the details of the GI Bill. If I had it to do over again I would have paid more attention when they were explaining the benefits. I got discharged in '68 after four years in the AF, two of which was in the Fareast with the 1st Mobile Comm. Group. Once back to civilian life I played around with racing a fuel dragster, then ran around in a circle chasing midgets, went through a few women and finally got caught by one that wanted to marry me. We bought a fixer-upper house, a few motorcycles and to make my life story a little shorter, after 9 1/2 years I decided to look into the GI Bill.
My wife and I wanted to take flying lessons and I figured the GI Bill would pay for mine, however, when I looked into it, I found that the GI Bill would not pay for basic flight lessons. If I earned my private license they would pay for advanced training. I also learned that my benefits were only good for 10 years. I think I had heard that before but wasn’t paying attention at the time. A bonsai run at the flight training got me my private in the minimum amount of time and I started training for my Instrument/Commercial ticket with the GI Bill finally picking up the tab. I got a lot of free flying out of it but the problem was that I only had around four months left on the benefit. So when it ran out so did my dream of being a commercial pilot, I just simply couldn’t afford the lessons and had to drop it.
Anyway, I wish you more luck with your GI Bill than I had.
But then, from the way Jane and her band of dissenters cursed me and threw rotten eggs at me in San Francisco when I got off the plane from RVN, it’s a wonder that the Government gave me any benefits at all!
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Thanks for the advice Denny, I need to look into what I can get. I am still active duty (19 years worth so far) but the benefits keep changing and now that I am approaching time to use some of them I really don't know what I can get these days. I think for me a lot of the changes are for the better. They are even looking at making GI bill benefits transferable to dependants. I don't know if that will happen or not though. Some of the local colleges here have a campus on post here and think anything you take over there is covered. I know they do some automitive stuff but not sure about body work which is what I really need to learn.
I do recall whan I was in High school some people would bring in cars and stuff to get fixed for free in the auto shop just as small projects for the kids who didn't have anything of their own to work on. Thats probably illegal now with liability laws and stuff but if you don't mind a kid working on your truck under the supervision of an instructor it may be something to check into.

By the way Denny, I fly for the army and if it's any consolation, doing it for a living isn't nearly as fun as just doing it when you want to.

Found that out many years ago Eric. I scratch built a Pitts S1D, IO320-160hp and then a Wag-A-Bond from WagAero's plans. Did a little air show work and competed in the International Aerobatic Club competition for a few years. My partner in a dual Pitts act was a Delta captain and it paid good but sounded like it would get pretty dull after a while. Now military flying is a different story entirely. I didn’t have enough education for the AF and didn’t get to fly in there, other than some T-34’s in the Aero Club while stationed in Sacramento, Ca.
Use that GI Bill as soon as you can when you finally hang it up. I should have planned mine better.
Back to the subject that Tony started, our local Jr. college has a short 3hr course in March called “Refinishing and Top Coating” that I would like to take. It would fit in just perfectly with my plan to do the frame up this summer. I need to catch up on some of the new paint systems that are available now days.
All I have to do is figure out what I’m going to do with our mutt when I go to class. She suffers from Separation Anxiety and ya can’t leave her alone for 10min for fear of her hurting herself or tearing up the house. It’s a good thing I taint gotta go to work anymore! It’s been a real challenge, i.e., trying to restore my ’50, 3604 and entertain the dog every half hour. The wife wanted her so I either get divorced or baby sit the PITA! I’m almost to the point of taking her to the shrink on the days I would have class.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL