On Oct 11, 2006, at 3:51 PM, Tom wrote:

> Years ago, my wife had a new 1974 special edition gold metalic
> beetle (LeGrande Bug!) w/ clear coat.  After a couple of years, the
> clearcoat started to peel.  Took it to the dealer's paint shop that
> said in order to fix, the whole paint job needed to be sanded down
> & repainted-WTF?  Several years later, nothing done, & the car
> looks even worse after we balked on the $700 sanding before they
> could even repaint.  Took it to Earl & they said, no problem, we
> can paint over than clearcoat!  We were selling the vw, so said,
> what the hell, & they painted everything that wasn't masked off or
> removed, tires, trim, the dog, etc.  After we battled to get all
> the stuff that wasn't supposed to be painted cleaned, the car
> looked pretty good.  Put it on the market, & my wife's boss decided
> to buy it!  Uh oh! Do we sell it to her knowing that the paint job
> might not hold up?  Explained situation to the boss, & she her
> family drove it for another 15 years w/ the paint never coming off.
>
> The moral of this long story about Earl is:   Take off everything you
> don't want painted before taking it to them, Don't expect the prep
> work to be more than the minimum or none you paid for.  Prep work
> is the big labor cost & the paint job is only as good as the
> surface beneath it.  So if your vanagon doesn't need much prep,
> Earl can do a decent job for little $, but if it needs rust repair,
> body work, they just cover it up cosmetically & you'll get what you
> paid for.
>
> Pax,
>
> Tom B.-
>
>
> On Oct 11, 2006, at 2:41 PM, Jeff Lincoln wrote:
>
>> These are exactly the kind of opinions I was looking for. Even
>> without any
>> experience I know that in most cases you get what you pay for. I am
>> certainly not in search of a "custom shop" type paint job
>> (although it would
>> be nice) but I would like something that looks at least close to a
>> factory
>> paint job and will last several years.
>>
>> Here is what was quoted on the Earl Scheib web site for $718.95
>>
>>
>>   - Chemically clean & dewax
>>   - Dual-action sanding for adhesion
>>   - Careful masking & taping
>>   - Air-blown dust removal
>>   - Tack cloth cleaning
>>   - Paint coats #1 and #2
>>   - Masking & tape removal
>>   - Infrared Quartz Finish drying
>>   - Final cleaning
>>   - Many additional colors
>>   - Paint coat #3 (base coat) for a uniform finish
>>   - Bumper & Tire Conditioner
>>   - Additional sanding & preparation for adhesion
>>   - Integrated clear coat
>>   - "Starfire Colors"
>>   - Extra final cleaning
>>   - True separate Euro-Clean top coat
>>   - Ultraviolet sunscreen gloss hardener protector
>>   - Pro-Tech protection plan
>>
>> This of course didn't include any body work (that I would plan to
>> do myself
>> with the help of some friends who know that type of work). I never
>> thought
>> about doing the sanding and stuff myself - nor would I have
>> thought about
>> removing everything removable before hand.
>>
>> Again, I'm not sure I'll go this route but all your opinions and
>> experiences
>> help. I have found there usually isn't one "right way" of doing
>> anything -
>> but I certainly trust the opinions of anyone on this list before
>> any type of
>> business like this.
>