240Z: New panel beater / bodyshop starting work soon
Long story short – i got a new panel beater aka Bodyshop to finish this project. He visited today to check out the car and panels and see if this project would fit into his schedule. Luckily he approved that the previous one did a good job mostly and he only needs to refine a few details.
The reason i was looking for a new one was mainly the time. In the previous shop, the car spent more than 5 years with only half a side done and a lot of money spent, before i suddenly got a call to get my car back from the shop because he needed the space for something else…
The new one promised to finish it in 7-8 months, with one guy responsible fully for the project. Tather than the one-man show previously working on the car, the new shop has a hand full of employees on hand working on this including all the special machinery to form sheet metal.
The new shop is also close to my work, so i can check by every now and then to have a look and chat and discuss details. They’re from a different level of restaurations too. They started their business many years ago with VW Bugs, but the owner restored his own Porsche 369 back in the day when he had to form all the panels himself by hand, and since then they’ve restored everything from jaguars to complete expensive bugatti collections. Including all the wood and aluminum work. Another one of their cars just recently won second place at one of the big international concours d’elegance shows. which says a thing or two.
And they got recommended to me by another workshop in the more expensive sector of cars, which use him for panel beating too. So references are there for sure.
We had a long talk today, The conditions seem pretty worth it, so we made a mutual agreement. After my exams are done (hopefully) in a few weeks, they will come and pick up everything and set to work. Until then, they have to finish up another Project to make space for mine.
I’m quite excited!. it’s only prediction – but it seems like more will happen to my chassis this year than happened in the past 6 years together. and that also on a very professional level, so i’m really looking forward to get the project back on track!