�Another great project we had was on a 1970 Plymouth Superbird,� Benzaquen continued. �Purchased by the customer as a restored vehicle, the seller provided 3 photos of the restoration. 1 photo in the weeds, 1 photo in primer and 1 photo painted. The customer had the car for about 6 months when he noticed the paint was bubbling in several areas. At this point, we were called in to look at the car. Upon arrival, the body was absolutely straight and we could not see any evidence of anything wrong. We thought that the prep job was not done properly and the paint would need to be stripped and repainted. When we stripped the body down to bare metal, we were absolutely horrified. The quarter panels had been rusted and filled with body filler. The body filler had metal shavings mixed in it, so magnets would stick, when the seller checked it. The roof had been filled in the same manner to cover an extensive amount of hail damage. The trunk lid and hood were in the same condition. The trunk floor had been completely rusted out and they had placed cardboard in the holes and then fiberglassed over it. They actually took the time to make all the unique grooves and lines in the floor pan to make it look original. We had to remove the hood skin and fabricate a new skin and weld it back on the hood frame since there was so much hail damage. The hood would not stay open when we originally looked at the car. Our thought was that the hood hinges were weak. It turned out the hood would not stay open from the extreme amount of body filler in the hood skin. When we installed the new skin, the hood stayed open as it was supposed to. The nose cone was made out of aluminum and had been the victim of several impacts throughout its life. They filled the dents with an aluminum-based filler. By the time we finished the car, the customer had spent $50,000 restoring the car. This was after he had purchased it for $40,000. Definitely not what the customer had originally planned to do.�
|