Am I crazy for spending this much on body work??

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E

emanning

10 Year
Joined
Mar 13, 2014
Threads
19
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Hey all,

My '85 FJ60 is my daily driver. It was handed down to me from my parents who bought it back when they got married in '85. The ultimate goal is to get the truck back in (or close to) it's original shape. Mechanically, everything's in pretty good shape. Engine is healthy and all that. So I want to tackle its rust issues before they get any worse.

The biggest issues are obviously in the rear quarter panels. Those will need to be cut and welded. The bottom corners of each door are also starting to go. Looking to cut and weld those as well. Otherwise, it's mostly a lot of surface rust spots on the hood, valence, tailgate, and doors.

I've put aside between $4-5k for this project (putting that tax return to good use) and I thought that would be more than enough to cover it. To get an estimate, I took it into a local Maaco shop by recommendation of another LC owner who's had two of his trucks in that shop. Three pages of notes later (see attached), the estimate came out to around $6,500 (that includes a $1,200 paint job).

Damn :(

The estimate isn't too far off from what I was expecting to spend. And I know I'll enjoy the hell out of the end result. But I'm questioning whether this makes any financial sense at all (that's where you guys come in).

Sure, I could probably spend that money shopping for another LC with fewer rust issues. But I like the idea of keeping this one in our family. I see clean FJ60's go up on Craigslist in my area for 8-10k pretty consistently, so I'm not too worried that this work won't be value added in the long run.

What do you all think? Should I go for it?

1a) RL Quarter Pnl.webp


1d) RR Quarter Pnl.webp


2a) RR Dogleg.webp


2b) RR Dogleg.webp
 

Attachments

My rig had rust bubbles around the wind shield and rain gutter near roof line...with all the glass and accessories removed, paint and repairs cost me about $2,500.
 
I don't even know if those wheel arches are fixable...
Everything else is no big deal.
You don't even have to deal with the doors. Just dribble some rust preventing goop inside the doors and it will stop further rust from forming.
 
If you intend to have a Landcruiser, I'd fix the one you got. Your parents bought it new from the dealer and it's been in your family all these years. You know the history from day one. How do you put a price on that?
 
MickTLC said:
If you intend to have a Landcruiser, I'd fix the one you got. Your parents bought it new from the dealer and it's been in your family all these years. You know the history from day one. How do you put a price on that?
Click to expand...

What he said.
 
Replacement panels are available. I spent 400 hrs on mine taking to bare metal, virtually no rust repairs. Paint alone with
clear coat is over $1500 just for product. The value of the truck is determined by the completed work, not before.
I found a small one man shop, he allowed me to work along side and do the grunt work ( sanding, sanding, sanding, spot
work, little do hickies that take more time than anything) and I left the professional work to him. Cause I don't paint.
You will pay Maaco whatever the shop rate is for whoever is working on it, so you're paying for an apprentice to sand.
But an hour is an hour. That cost has to be appreciated.
Can you do any yourself? I took my truck apart and into all the pieces for free. If you towed your truck to the paint shop with
all the doors removed, glass removed, hinges removed, trim removed. BE very clear what you want. I expect you could save
a certain amount of money, the shop should respect your time and effort. If the shop says they will charge the same for a
truck brought in as I suggest, find another shop.
I am a big fan of asking around, find a local up and comer who it enthusiastic and has word of mouth references.
Last, pure opinion - bondo is a skim coat, not a repair device. If you pay cheap, you get cheap.
Saving money isn't being cheap. If I had your truck, I would fix it. Knowing its going to cost 25-30% more than I thought.
 
I have similar rust issues as you. I'm looking at a private body shop with a great reputation. I'm prepared to pay $15k to get the job done right. I've gone the budget way before with another vehicle and in the end it looked good from far away but up close there are a bunch of things that still bug me. 6-7k for a full body job is going to leave you with all the original mirrors and trim. if they aren't in good shape they'll either look worse or add to cost to upgrade. these are big trucks, require lots of materials which aren't cheep ( not sure about maccos paint ah quality) and more hours because of surface area to mask and prep. i guess what I'm saying is if you go super budget you'll get what you pay for. spend the time shopping around and look for similar vehicles that shop has completed and for what price. body work is time consuming and that's where the cost hits. good prep costs
 
Looks somewhat similar to mine (same color, same spots but you have a bit more rust). Ultimately, like everyone said, can you put a price on the sentimental value of the truck? $6500 with paint does not seem all the bad when you are looking at $1200 of that being slated for paint afterwards (hopefully either good single stage or with clear).

Could you do it on your own, yes as I am going through it myself and have been enlisting the help of people here as well as friends locally that know how to weld plus doing my own. Never touched a welder before this so it has been well worth the endeavor for me. Get yourself some new panels for those rear arches and take your time.

The only other factor that will play into it is if you have a finite time as you call this your daily driver. Doing yourself will take quite a bit longer than taking it to a shop to have done.
 
Do it, you'll regret it if you don't.
 
Just to put things in perspective:

In 1988 I purchased my '86 FJ60 for 12K. (Granted that was 28 years ago).

Virtually a brand new car for twice the price of a good paint job and some body work today.

Something's not right here.

I wonder what a good paint job and some body work would have cost in 1988? Gasoline was $1.25/gal.
 
SNLC said:
$6500 is cheap for the amount of rust. I would be a little concerned with level of quality for that price.

Cheers
Click to expand...
+1 on this. I'd expect a job like the one in your photos to cost significantly more. One clue as to how Maaco is such a "bargain": I used to buy automotive paint for my spray booth. I got friendly with the supplier. Red urethane acrylic for my rig retails at $400-500/gallon, and that's just for a single-stage topcoat. That's the high-quality stuff. He offered me the stuff he sells to Maaco - he calls it "ten foot paint." Paint companies make specific formulas just for big chain shops where price is the priority. Paint is not paint.

My $0.02: stabilize-treat the rust, learn to love the patina, and invest your cash.
 
There is a lot of shop time involved in that kind of repair. The cost isn't out of line, but I would get a few estimates and detailed list of what they plan to do for that money.

Where are you, Colorado? So it's gonna start rusting again right after you drive it home. You should ask for extensive rust-proofing with the repairs, too.

How's the frame?
 
What others have said...Since it's been a family vehicle since new and has sentimental value, definitely keep it. The quote doesn't seem too crazy considering the number of hours it'll take for the rust repair alone - I know since I'm doing almost the exact same work to ours right now! I decided to do mine in my garage - I recently purchased a MIG welder and started teaching myself, and have been able to fabricate all of the patch panels so far myself too. I already had a compressor, grinders, buffers and an HVLP paint gun so I didn't have to purchase those. My guess if you had to purchase all of the equipment, supplies and paint (for just the areas shown) you'd have around 2k invested for all of the equipment and supplies to do it (decent but not top quality equipment), but you'd have the experience, knowledge and equipment for future projects. I'm all for learning how to do something new that'll not only save you money, but also give you a very positive skill!

I've been taking photos since I began my work and will start a thread once I have more time to get it all sorted...

Good luck with the project, whichever you choose!!
 
emanning said:
But I'm questioning whether this makes any financial sense at all (that's where you guys come in).
Click to expand...
Of course it probably doesn't. But you are here on MUD, and have a truck with family history, so do it. But as others have said, make sure you do it right. Good luck.
 
You didn't actually specify what exactly what they are doing for that price. Is it total metal replacement? Are they fabricating replacement panels, or are they securing used rust free panels? Are they doing butt welds or overlap welds?
Given the fact that it is a Macco, they are franchised so quality runs the gamit based upon the specific location. For the price I would be afraid they would slap a few gallons of filler on your truck and call it good.
 
I wouldn't expect a lot of actual metal to be replaced for that quote. You would be surprised what body filler can be made to look like... For a year or two.
 
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