How to Hire a Painter

Tips to Help You Avoid Painting Purgatory

- Jerry Heasley & Drew Hardin

The stories are all too common and, therefore, all too disturbing. A beloved muscle car project disappears into a paint shop for months, maybe even years, far beyond the promised turnaround time. What’s worse, the painter keeps asking for more money without being able to show evidence of progress. Or maybe the painter goes dark, refusing to pick up the phone or answer email.

When a car is stuck in painting purgatory, the best one can hope for is to get it out of the shop just like it was dropped off, none the worse for the unintended hiatus. A refund on your deposit? Fat chance. But often these tales end with insult added to injury, where owners discover cars that are torn apart, parts lost, gas tanks drained. Or if some work has been done, you later discover Hershey-bar-thick body filler under poorly sprayed primer, or what looks to be an oil slick bubbling up through the fresh paint.

To help MCR readers from falling into this trap, we interviewed three painters/restorers in different parts of the country. We asked their advice on what to look for in a collectible car painter—as opposed to a standard, collision-repair type of paint shop—and the kinds of clues you might find that could be red flags signaling potential problems down the road.

Bob Perkins 

Perkins Restoration, Juneau, Wis. Interviewed by Jerry Heasley

Bob Perkins is head Authenticity Judge for the Mustang Club of America. He has been restoring Mustangs and Fords professionally since the early 1980s. His collection of some of the best classic Mustangs in the world focuses on Boss and Cobra Jet models. Perkins is also one of the premiere painters in the hobby. He prefers single-stage acrylic enamel, per factory issue, although he also applies basecoat/clearcoat in some Ford restorations.