FFP

Firm Fixed Price... its the way you do business with every other expenditure in your life... why not your vehicle restoration? The vast majority of business would not happen any other way. Can you imagine having a home built without knowing up front how much it will cost or how long it will take? Would you buy a new car without knowing how much it will cost or when you can take delivery? Even buying a pair of shoes or a hamburger would be a daring experience. How many things in your personal or professional life are you willing to agree to pay for without knowing how much it will be, how long it will take, or how good it will be? Why would you want to have your car restored that way?

Nightmare Scenario: You've taken your treasured muscle car to a body shop. They can't tell you how much more its going to cost or how much longer it will take. Looking around the shop you see there are no other cars like yours and you're beginning to wonder if you've made a wise choice. Often these cars sit for years. Often the car owner has already spent thousands of dollars. And all too often the work done is obviously sub-standard. Then too often car owners have to cut their losses, pull their car out, hope to get all their parts back, and start the search for a reputable shop all over again. Quite often, they come to us. Want a better way?

Restoration and paint/body shops can bill you one of two ways: Time and Materials (T/M) or Firm Fixed Price (FFP). Most shops prefer to bill you T/M because it is easier and more profitable to do so and it puts no time or dollar restrictions on your build. They can take as long as they want to build your car, and in fact it is more profitable to do so. Lax scrutiny and inefficiency actually become a benefit to the shop. Taking eight hours on a job that can be perfected in four is a benefit. Billing you for being on hold with a supplier for two hours is money in the bank. Why would you want to be a their mercy? With an agreed-upon fixed price, cost is established and timelines determined before you turn over your treasure. It then becomes beneficial to the shop to be efficient, knowledgeable and highly qualified. And with a set amount and timeline, the owner of the build can better budget the expense.

What is really important? We've done enough builds to know that there are three primary concerns anyone has when looking for a shop. The are: Quality, Price and Duration. Most shops cannot or will not offer assurances up front regarding these concerns. We choose to offer a more evolved, enlightened experience.

Quality is assured by visiting this web site, speaking to our references, visiting our shop, seeing our work on the internet, in magazines, at local car shows and at major national events like SEMA.

Price is assured because we have a complete understanding of the costs associated with building Mopars by having done so many, by us specializing, and by us having done our due diligence gaining an understanding of the effort required for all the various issues that can arise.

Duration is assured by us having an understanding of the time required, by maintaining a schedule of work, and by maintaining qualified staffing levels and diligently managing all projects.

We believe that by offering FFP and shifting the risk from you to us, we can reduce or eliminate your fears, thus setting us apart from the majority of shops vying for your business. We can only offer FFP because we have built so many Mopars and know them very well... we've already made the mistakes, already done the learning required to know how all the parts fit, how they are supposed to look, and know what's right. We have many other Mopars to refer to if some new twist comes along. That means we wont need to be guessing when it comes to your car. We won't need to experiment, or assemble it any way other than correct. Your Mopar is not a mystery to us, its our specialty, our life blood. We've seen what happens when your Mopar goes to a typical paint and body shop or to a shop that claims to restore cars without specializing... we see them because we often get them afterwards to be made right. Sometimes its simple things that need to be fixed, but so often the fixes are major such as removing and replacing new quarters that were hung wrong. This happens more than you might think.

Here's a typical project scenario... A potential restoration customer will call inquiring about the costs for a restoration. Often, the customer is concerned that we cannot provide an accurate estimate without seeing the car. This is often very true, but we can get close if the customer can provide answers to key questions about current condition and the vision he has for the build. This is necessary since so many of our builds come from out-of-town or out-of-state. The estimate will be more accurate the more the customer knows and reveals about the condition. We can then provide a ballpark estimate, usually good to within a couple of thousand dollars. Once agreed upon, we will schedule a date to take delivery... with the understanding that we will inspect the car when it arrives and call with any concerns. If we still have a go-ahead, we will disassemble the car and media blast the body. This becomes the moment of truth... the time all things are revealed. By this time we will know very well what the build cost will be... any shop worth its salt that has done several of these cars could tell you, if they wanted to. At this time we will come to our final, firm and fixed price. Once agreed to, we will not change it for any reason, unless you request a change that significantly affects the scope or complexity of the build. Timelines will be set and the project will begin.

Almost too hard to believe, there are those that claim that doing business this way could lead to poor quality, presumably because we might underestimate the complexity of the build then cut corners to finish the job as agreed upon. These people do not know us and are not used to the concept that we are a shop that does only Mopars, that you cannot throw anything at us that we have not done, nor do they know our dedication, honesty, integrity or experience. Granted, shops that specialize are not common. But its what we do... thats how we know you'll always get our top quality work, right up until the very end. We will NOT compromise our stellar reputation to save a few bucks or to save a little time. Get to know us, you'll understand why their concerns do not apply to us.

Our fixed price quotes completely cover all labor and materials (which is a very significant cost). It does not cover parts. We are considering including the cost of body panels in the fixed price though so ask if you would like to see your quote done that way. What is not included is the cost of parts... restoration parts, customization parts, any parts. There is such a wide variety of parts available and at different quality and cost levels, not to mention levels of upgrade or customization, that we cannot include them in our fixed quote. We may be able to give you a decent estimate, depending on your wants and needs.

One last thing... we build many Mopars in many styles. See our Build Style page for more information. By now, you've seen that though we use the term 'restoration' what we do is not strictly restoring your car to its exact original factory condition. If you have a highly valued car that you need to build to OE certified condition then to be honest we are not the shop for you. While we've done some of these cars, only in rare cases were we hired to perform OE certifiable builds. If you need one, you really should seek out one of the few shops that specialize in them and be prepared to pay the cost. The vast majority of our builds are for people who want to enjoy their cars... they need to be correct for the most part, but more often than not are modified with new powertrains, paint, wheels, amenities, etc. Our rule-of-thumb is that if the part on the car is original-style then it has to look right with the right fasteners used... if its custom aftermarket then liberties can be taken. In other words, we don't want to offer the nit-pickers anything to complain about, but if its custom anyway, then lets have some fun. Bottom line is that we want these cars to be on the street, at car shows and in magazines. We want them to be seen and heard, and we want you to take the joy of the muscle car to the masses. We take great pride in producing a quality product at a reasonable price.

Call me personally if you have any questions: 210-256-7056

Steve Enochs - owner
PAINTSHOP101