Not tying to start a fight, but a couple of things...
1. WHAT! You're kidding me right? You don't know me or my character, but you feel the need to say that I am a robber??? I am sorry that you aren't up to date on what "quality" paint and body work cost, but that is no reason to attack my character.
2. When I am talking about a quality job I am not talking about how much you could do it yourself for, or what you buddy down the street quoted you. I see this all the time, people are shocked by the price of good work using top of the line materials, and they say "my friend said he would do it for X amount of dollars". What they don't tell you is that their friend is out of work and is OK with doing something for almost nothing. Their friend also doesn't have a portfolio showing his work, or dozens of references, or blah blah blah. Now I am not saying this specifically about me, I am saying this in a general sense. In life you pay for experience, warranty, and good work. Sure you can take it to MAACO and have it shot in Acrylic Enamel (they buy it in 55 gallon drums) which is identical in formulation to Van Sickle tractor paint. I am just saying you get what you pay for. If you want the truck to look like a work truck then why get it repainted at all, dents and rust make it look like what it is... A WORK TRUCK.
3. Lets look at this practically: A Crew Cab Long Bed truck is HUGE. If we just go off of general bodywork estimation criteria, to do a complete tear down, respray, cut and buff CORRECT job it will take around 160-180 hours to complete. This means that we are removing; bumpers, doors, all glass, all seals, all trim... you get the idea. This time estimate is also if the body work needed is minimal to average. If the truck is rusty than this time estimate is no where near what it will take.
IF the job took 165 hours, and the low average hourly rate for bodywork in Mid Missouri is $40 an hour, the cost for just labor alone would be $6600. This is if the truck is fairly straight, and there are no "hidden secrets". The materials for a quality respray of a vehicle this size just based on square footage alone would be around $2200. Now we are a $8800 and this is with everything going smoothly, and no replacement of seals, chrome, etc... It's not robbery, it's what it cost to do a job right. Now if we are respraying a Honda Civic, sure $3000 bucks would do it. But we are spraying a land yacht here, lots of long flat areas that have to be made "laser straight" and that takes lots of time with the long board.
It cost's good money to do good work. This is why people that do good work and don't do "cheapie" jobs stay in business, and people that cut corners to save a few bucks... usually don't. Good bodyshops don't do things on the cheap, and they aren't desperate for business. It's not wrong to earn a good wage for good work. Please don't call them robbers, it's just not right!
Please don't consider this a personal attack or "fighting words". I am not upset in the slightest by what you said, I just wanted to clarify my opinion so that others don't think it is "Robbery". You definitely have a right to your opinion, and I respect that, just please don't imply that I or anyone else is "robbing" someone because we are charging a price that they agree to.
Towcat - that's an $8000 job on a truck that's not the size of a small ship
, I would have said that was around a $6500 job