FJ60 Rust repair - $1200 worth it? (1 Viewer)

[CMD82]

Hey guys, I am looking for opinions. My '82 FJ60 needs some areas addressed pretty bad. My rear qtrs are very rusty extending behind the rear mud flaps, some areas under the snake blinders, and some other misc. areas with just some surface rust.
The truck has been a tough, reliable truck. I picked it up for $800 about 4 yrs ago and have only had to replace a slave cylinder and the fuel pump, outside of standard tune up and wear items (tires, brakes, etc.) It needs a front axle job pretty bad, but the rust has gone from just being part of the trucks character to a worry. It is a third vehicle for us and not a DD. It is very reliable and is taken on lots of road trips. Interior and frame are in average shape.
I found a body guy who said he will remove ALL the rust by cutting and welding, and fix any other smaller areas that need to addressed for $1,200. I always thought that I would fix the rust the best I could and get a ~$300 paint job to make it look somewhat decent; however I am working full time and in graduate school so my time is limited.
If I was to get it done, I would of course have to have it painted which would could cost a couple hundred on up to a grand.
Does the price of $1,200 sound reasonable? I could probably talk him down to $1,000.
Please let me know everyones thoughts.
Thanks,
Chris

 

[Trapper50cal]

for reference

For references sake....I paid two grand for 4 or 5 minor dings and all the rear wheel well rust (metal replacement, filler, sanding priming and painting + painting the roof since it was oxidized.

Many folks would say go in and do DIY for the experience but if you don't have the proper tools and shop area (and even if you do) it will prob. cost you the same to more DIY

Sounds like a reasonable price, if you trust the guys work.

 

[cruiser88]

Get references, seems to cheap

 

[CMD82]

No I have never seen some of his work, but this guys comes referenced from a co-workers brother who paints vehicles. Ideally I would like him to just take care of the major metal replacement areas and I will take care of the surface rust areas, but it seemed to me that he wanted to do all or nothing.
I may also try to get a couple other quotes...

 

[cruiser88]

No I have never seen some of his work, but this guys comes referenced from a co-workers brother who paints vehicles. Ideally I would like him to just take care of the major metal replacement areas and I will take care of the surface rust areas, but it seemed to me that he wanted to do all or nothing.
I may also try to get a couple other quotes...

Yes I would

 

[kbill45]

rust

I would get in touch with the cruiser club in your area. Might find a fellow cruiser head that will give you a break.

 

[Heartworm]

Assuming that you get good reports on the body man, that $1200 would be a good deal. You know that he would easily put in more that 20 hours on it ($50 per hour and plus $200 for materials). It seems that there are two parts to your post. (A) was the $1200 quote reasonable? and more importantly (B) what should you do about the body repair? Having recently gone through a spray on bedliner job on my rig's rockers, I am amazed at how well that stuff will cover irregularities and end up looking great in the process. My vehicle did not have any rust, but if I ever pick up another 60 with some rust in the lower areas, I would consider trying some DIY stuff. You know, cut the rust out with angle grinder or other crude implement, patch the hole with steel either welded or even pop riveted, smooth out the margins with limited amounts of fiberglass, and then put on the bedliner. I bet that you could do that and OWN the welder you would need for less than $1200.

 

[jvazquez53]

I took mine to the body shop for a quote and the shop owner asked me:" You are not selling this truck, are you? If you want to sell it, I want it!!!" And mine has plenty of rust.

 

[Winston]

$1200 is a very good deal - or I way overpaid for my work

 

[CMD82]

Thanks for the comments guys. I am going to try to get a couple other quotes to compare. I will let everyone know what I find. No rust and a new paint job would be awesome!

 

[Joshua993]

I have an 88 FJ62 with one spot of rust behind the pax side wheel well - ok, it's a hole, but it is still the only bit of rust on the body. The quote I got to repair that one spot was $700.00. Either the guy I went to for the quote just didn't want the work and high-balled me, or $1200.00 is scary cheap. Scary as in quality-of-work, scary. Just my 2 cents...

 

[forestdan7]

If you got a reliable truck for $800, and you can get all the rust fixed for $1200, you are doing thousands of dollars better than most of us. Especially if you can make sure the work will be good quality.

 

[REKCUT]

$1200 is very cheap. Keep in mind that rust is very hard to kill. If you dont go far enough into the process it will come back rather quickly. It is also one that tend to be worse the farther you dig into it so dont be suprised if he comes back part way into the project wanting to go farther and charge more. Very labor intensive repairs.

 

[macneill]

Sounds low to me if he's going to replace steel. I'd be certain he's not going to just bondo it.

I paid a fortune to have all the rust removed from my gutters and A pillars.

 

[CMD82]

Yea we covered the process, especially to ensure that he will be replacing with metal and only using filler to smooth for final. I agree about finding more once you dig in, but he spent about 20 minutes examining all areas. I still would like to see some of his work. Seemed like a honest guy...

 

[MTN.GOAT]

rust

Way-way to cheap.. DIY, bedliner and drive. Grind out what you can and make a trip to your auto body paint supply and purchase some rust killer and some Dura-glass. It is a great filler product but is hard as nails to work back down (need grinder). Works great and will save you some green.

 

[muto1]

I have the same issue would it be easier for me just to cut a section out of another fj 60 that i have that is destroyed

 

[brownbear]

As you can see the question of the $1200 is it worth it? Well the collective thoughts here is yes the $1200 is a good price. But is it worth it to invest $1200 into the truck?
That depends. If it's a good mechanically sound truck I think so. But I see some good condition cruisers going in the 3500 range. The rotten rusty ones seem to be about $1500.

I spent a fortune on mine fixing and welding rust. Doing it myself and spending probably over 10k. In the end the rust came back. It's not easy to de-rust these trucks. POR-15 is not a fix, and doesn't work.

Cheap paint that can be touched up seems like a good idea, as they pop rust you can sand and fix.

 

[toomanytoyzz]

Let's see pics of the rust. That will tell the true story.

I'm guessing the body guy saw this vehicle to give you an accurate estimate, correct? If he has to fully replace panels the cost will definitely exceed $1200 in no time. What you can see is only half the story. Once you dig into it is where the "can-o-worms" starts. A grinder will open your eyes to ALL of the rust especially if you take the interior apart.

 

[NCFJ]

As stated above, it is hard to estimate a price for this type of work. I replace rusted areas on a somewhat regular basis on builds in the shop and I can tell you that more often than not you can count on the affected areas being at least double the total surface area by the time you are done.

Cutting out and replacing sheet metal in and of itself is not that complicated of a job. It is, however, tedious if done correctly. The whole goal is to replace the rusted area with matching sheet metal without warping, shrinking or stretching the patch or any of the surrounding areas. You can warp a panel just as easy with a grinder as you can with a welder.

$1,200.00 is not a lot of sheet metal work in most shops.