New project help!

[carson]

Hello all,
I am getting ready to finally restart my project, a 67 Camaro, and I have a couple body related questions.
The car is currently stripped pretty far, it does still have a subframe and rear end just for mobility reasons, but they can be removed easily enough.
I am currently between places to do any actual long-term set up and work steps so I figure it would be a good time to outsource some body work.
The car needs:

• drip rails
• trunk gutter (I have the replacements already)
• front passenger quarter patch
• some tulip panel patches
• rear passenger floor
  plus whatever other surprises show up once digging starts

I also want to add minitubs while I'm at it.


My questions are what would be a general ballpark for cost for this given back in a good sealer primer vs cost given back in color?


And what is everyone's opinion on painting before any other steps? I know the level of caution when building out the rest will skyrocket, but it seems like it would eliminate the need to blow everything back apart and give the car another sentence in paint jail (I may have a bit of a wait before I have an adequate working facility given the time frame of new construction). The car will really be mostly a "catalog" build with very few really custom areas, if that helps sway any opinions.


Also, does any one have any solid recommendations for a shop in the Austin, TX area for this kind of thing? I am pretty ignorant about the whole process, from getting a quote to starting the whole process.


Thanks everyone for all the help and inspiration from these sites,
Carson


p.s. I am going to cross post this a couple places, sorry if you get tired of seeing me pop up everywhere.

[65 drop top]

This is a really hard question to answer without seeing the car, or without knowing the quality of the paint and bodywork that you'd expect. But that being said, I would estimate that a car that needs a few patch panels, some minor body work and gapping, and a cut and buffed paint job would run you 20-30k for a pretty nice job. But quality is everything and you could potentially spend 5k to 100k for what you're asking.

[ryeguy2006a]

I agree, this is a very difficult question to answer. I'd say that if you found a good shop they will be asking about what 65 mentioned. If you just wanted the panels replaced and primed, I'd say $8-10K is reasonable. That's without panel gapping or body working the panels. Just replacing them.

[carson]

Yeah, I know it's a very vague and open ended question. I guess more of my concern is the question of getting the body complete and in paint before I start any of the rest of the build vs. just getting it rust free and primed. I have been weighing the pros and cons of each, and putting that against the fact that I am about to lose my place to work on it until a new house/shop is built and "storing" it at the body shop. I think that maybe two trips to the body shop is the better answer, just wanted to get some other opinions. I am not uber concerned with a high end show car level paint job when finished, really just more of a clean driver.

Any recommendations for a shop in the Austin area? I would really like some first hand experience before I commit to anyone.