Date:         Fri, 17 May 1996 10:32:00 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Maher, Steve (SD-MS)" <SMAHER@gi.com>
Subject:      RE: Good paint shop in Bay Area


>Can anybody recommend a good paint/body shop in Northern California and
>suggest general costs of such work?

Well, you may not like this suggestion, but here goes: Earl Schieb.

The super-cheapo paint job you see blaring on TV, frankly sucks. But
he has a "better" and "best" paint job, which I would more accurately
call "poor" and "OK". I had them do their "best" paint job to my chop-top
Mustang a few years back, and was quite pleased with the result. They did
get a spot of paint on the chrome in one place, but you have to look hard
to see it. And I paid $389 plus tax, on sale, which they frequently have.

The paint has worn quite well for three years now, except where I dropped
an iron beam on the front hood, and is still solid and shiny. They matched
the color I asked for perfectly (not a factory color of ANYTHING), and
smoothed over some minor body dings and scratches for free. This may vary
from shop to shop, but I've always had good luck with Scheib.

If you want, see a picture of it down near the bottom of my page at

     http://www.wp.com/IrishMafia

You might also want to swing by an Earl Scheib shop and look at whatever
cars they're painting at the moment. I did, and they let me look to my
heart's content, with no high-pressure sales jive.

You can get better paint jobs, but you'll pay $2,000 or more for them.
And at a distance of more than 12", you won't see the difference, and
their "best" paint job does seem to last quite well.

My $.02...
 ______________________________________________________________________
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    ______//________    Steve Maher    smaher@gi.com   //__][__||____\\
   /o _   |  -| _   \   San Diego, CA     75461,1717  (o _-|       _ o|
   `-(_)=======(_)---'                                 '(_)-------(_)-'
 '66 Mustang Coupevertible      '89 Son Sherwin        '80 VW V6anagon

                      http://www.wp.com/IrishMafia

  "There are plenty of jobs to be had-- I have three of them myself!"
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