NaCl Solution…

I’m still more than a little salty about my experience with the body shop I was originally planning on using to paint the Mustang. I had been lead to believe by my original contact there that they’d take the car in the condition it was in (he’d seen it) and get the paint job all taken care of. That all changed when my contact and his lead tech came out to visit my shop. It was immediately clear the tech didn’t want the job:

• He mentioned that he probably wouldn’t take the job at all unless the car was acid dipped – a two thousand dollar job on top of the cost of the paint job
• He whined that there would inevitably be rust behind the rear window – even though it was fairly clear just by looking through the broken window seal no rust was present
• He whined that the replacement door skins I purchased to address the rust in the doors wouldn’t be of good enough quality and would be difficult to install

It was clear he didn’t want the job, but didn’t have the professional courtesy to simply say so. He left with a promise to call back – a promise he did not keep.

In the time since, the solution to my saltiness has come in two forms:

1. The awesome body shop I eventually found to do the paint and body work
2. The Mustang’s rear window channel and new door skins behaving exactly like I thought they would

Work on the Mustang has significantly accelerated recently. I visited the shop today and found a few more …holes… in the car than I’m used to:

The windshield, back glass and doors had all been removed so the shop could prep the underlying surfaces for sealing and painting.

Without even being prompted, the body shop guy called my attention to the rear window channel:

You have a clean car man! There’s no rust at all!

There wasn’t any rust of significance in the windshield channel either. With the roof having already been taken care of, the only area of rust left in the car was the doors.

Which now have the new skins installed:

Again without prompting, the body shop guy pointed out that the skins fit really well and were high quality parts. He didn’t have any troubles putting them on.

The reason he decided to put the door skins on in their entirety instead of using them as a patch panel was that he took a close look at the old door skins and found them to be beyond reasonable repair:

It would have taken significantly longer to cut all that rust out (for both doors), cut out the  corresponding patches from the new panels and graft them together than it did to simply grind the old skins off and install the new ones.

Not everything went perfectly today though. Sadly, I’m going to need a new windshield. My old one is delaminating and needs to be replaced. Thankfully, the rear window is fine and is now resting comfortably at home waiting to be cleaned:

I’m delighted with the process and with the folks working on my car. My saltiness has dissolved into satisfaction of seeing my paint job take form. I do have a feeling we’re not going to make a Christmas homecoming, but if that happens it happens and I’ll deal with it. It’s worth it to watch people who want to work on my car do so with obvious pride, enthusiasm and quality.