earl scheib inside story from ex employee. I worked there in 80s

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Worked for Schieb...1 DAY! When they told me to fix a rust spot, i got torch and grinder...but before i started working the rust out, the manager came in STUFFED NEWSPAPER IN THE HOLE..."BONDO" over the mess, ....i packed my tools and walked off

Had two cars painted by Earl Scheib, one in 1964 and another one in 1973. Running joke at the time was that if you left a candy bar on the fender, Earl Scheib would paint over it.

"I'll paint any car, any color for $29.95, no ups, no extras"

I got my car painted at an Earl Shieb in San Diego a few years ago. They had the color code and STILL painted it the wrong color.

Back in 1970 my brother-in-law worked for Southern California Edison in the Redlands service center garage. There was an old body guy who would come in to do body repairs on the service trucks. He gave my brother-in-law an education on body and paint work on his 62 Ford Falcon. So after the minor body work was done and the car sanded and ready to paint. The old body man said take the car to Earl Scheib for paint. All the trim, door handles, emblems, bumper, etc were removed and everything was masked off before it arrived at Earl’s. The old body guy said talk to the painter before the car goes into the booth and slip him 20 bucks to sneak on some extra coats. The paint job looked really good and the painter even painted the door jams. I think over all it only cost my brother-in-law around a 100 bucks.

Back in the late '70's I fixed up a 1967 F 150 to tow my ski boat with. It had been a farm vehicle and was pretty rough. I did all the body work and primed it, then took it to Earl Scheib in Fresno for paint. It cost all of $100. I later sold the truck to a guy who blew the paint completely off one side with a pressure washer trying to clean the truck up after some duck hunting.

When I was in high school in the late 60’s a nearby Earl Schieb advertised their paint jobs for 39.95! “Any cay any color”. When you got there they had samples to look at and they had several levels of upgrades. We would pay 69.95 got the first upgrade level. They had two guys who did the actual paint jobs and others who did body work and prep. One of the painters was a Mexican guy named Javier. We would specify that we wanted Javier. Then, at home we would remove as many mouldings and nameplates etc as we could and we would spend a few hours sanding the paint. On the day they were painting the car we would find Javier and slip him a ten dollar bill. He would use extra paint and spend more time on prep. It was well worth spending the extra time and money!

I worked as a glass guy for a body shop like earl sheib. There was a Malibu there. I took the back glass out. And there wasn’t anything there but rust. You could see the ground. I asked how are you going to fix that? Where would you start? They used chicken wire, newspaper and bondo to shape a new pinch weld and structure. I glued a new glass in, and had to glue the moldings on. I’m sure the glass was part of the structure when the glue sat up. At this shop… the painter, painted 20 cars in a day.

I was in the auto business most of my working life 70’s 80’s 90’s and believe me the mechanical repair stories have the same outline - accept with wrenches instead of paint guns. Thank you for sharing. Enjoyed it.

As a teenager in the early 60's I got an Earl Scheib paint job that came out beautiful. In 1963 I had a 58 VW Bug I got painted from beige to red. Earl Scheib paint job's were $29.95 and every once in a great while they would have a special for $19.95. My cousin and I prepped the car by taking off all the chrome, bumpers, mirrors and any hardware we could. We even taped off where need be to insure no sloppy lines. When we took it in the guy at the shop was so impressed with what we did he jokingly said we should get a discount but we were already getting the sale price so he couldn't do that. They painted it a deep deep red that came out beautiful. I got a lot of compliments on that paint job and had that car for a long time. I really never could understand how they made much money at those prices.

I’m a So Cal native from the 70-80’s and I love your stories. Who would think talking about car painting would be interesting but it is! God bless!

In 1999, I bought a "barn found", 1959 Vespa 125cc scooter, at a swap meet. The body and frame are one and the same. It was pretty banged up, dented, rusting and partially crushed. My friend knew some recently arrived immigrants from Russia. In their own country they were probably highly paid engineers,....but not being fluent English speakers, they had to work anywhere they could. So two brothers from Russia, had a car painting business in a warehouse they rented. These guys did excellent work,...I had a custom paint I wanted, got it mixed up at PPG, matched it to a swatch, I found,...a mint-aqua blue. A very 1950s color. I wanted a two tone color,....central body area white, front fender, rear fender & front fork aqua, and a special (body detail), where I wanted a "boomerang" shape painted in aqua. I designed the stencil, & made colored drawings, as a study example. They repaired all the metal, even had to weld-in a small repair, used a soft medium instead of sand, in their sand blaster to remove the old paint and rust, primed and painted it to spec. It only cost me $1,500.00......which I thought was a great price, for all the "body work" and attention to detail.

I bought a '74 Super Beetle in 1991, and within a year or two the original paint job was fading and chipping, so I took it to Earl Scheib on Lincoln Blvd in Santa Monica. I can't exactly remember the prices, but I believe it was $199 for the regular paint job and maybe $499 for the Premium. They encouraged me to get the Premium and promised me I would love it. They seemed like cool guys, and I loved my Bug, so I decided to go for it. And man, I'm glad I did. They did an amazing job! The paint job was stunning. And that car has been my daily driver, and still is, for 33 years now. And everywhere I go, I get compliments on how the car still looks brand new. I got the exact same cream color you have on your Bug. It never shows dirt and always looks like it was just washed. I absolutely love it! I definitely gotta tip my hat to the guys at Earl Scheib in Santa Monica in the early 90's they went way above & beyond for an insanely low price. I'm forever grateful! Love your stories. Keep 'em coming!

i had my '67 suicide door lincoln painted black at earl scheib in florida for about $40 back in 1977, i liked it a lot.

My 1967 VW has a Scheib Zenith blue paint job. 3 years old now. Putty is shrinking and looks good 10 feet away.

a friend of my dad had his car painted there and they painted his license plate!

My dad had a '78 Nova he had bodywork and paint done by Scheib in '87. The bottoms of the doors were rusted on it. We got the car back and it looked great. After a month, he came and picked me up at work and I got in and slammed the passenger door and heard a thunk. I opened the door and a huge long chunk of bondo, wadded newspaper and plastic mesh onion bags fell out! We stood there in disbelief and my dad went nuts. He picked up this mess and drove back to the shop. Walked in with this mass of bondo, newspaper and onion mesh bags and hurled it at one of the workers. Lots of foul language and we were asked to leave and threatened to call the police. I went with and was embarassed but it was hilarious at the same time. Wished we had smart phones back then to record this Lol. I think the total bill back then for the paint and bodywork was $450 Lol.

I worked inside the Scheib s home in Beverly Hills Ca it had deep shag carpet orange and white and they were the best people I ever worked for in that town and payed their bills on time. Mr. Scheib died at the race track as he loved the ponies.

I started commission body work in 1979 at a shop in southern Indiana, 18 yrs old .The 4 bodymen that worked there ,all had worked at Earl Scheib at some point , so I learned from them, What NOT to do,lol. Just retired from the shop workforce this year. What a ride. Also teach at a small tech school as a sub. Have my shop at home of coarse.