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what a memory Earl Sheib

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Shadetree55

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22K views · 36K reactions | 🗣️Crazy how times have changed.. Founded by Earl Scheib in Los Angeles in 1937, the company had branches in 23 states and abroad in Germany and England, all company-owned by 1975, with Scheib manufacturing his own paint through a wholly owned subsidiary. After a restructuring in 2009 the company closed certain locations and franchised off the remaining locations to shop managers, giving them the opportunity to become small business owners. Specifically, the company offered them the rights to purchase all the equipment and fixtures in their shops and to use the Earl Scheib name for their own business. Many managers took advantage and agreed to the terms, resulting in today’s independent Earl Scheib paint centers. 👊🏽 I help others learn the art of paintless dent repair (PDR) 🔥 If you’re Interested in learning paintless dent repair. We offer online & in person training - send me a DM 🔥 @elevationdentco @truckstopchic #carporn #carlifestyle #carrepair#collisionrepair #paintlessdentrepair #autobodyrepair #dentrepair #autodetailing #automotive | Johnathan Hatfield

🗣️Crazy how times have changed.. Founded by Earl Scheib in Los Angeles in 1937, the company had branches in 23 states and abroad in Germany and England, all company-owned by 1975, with Scheib...
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#8 ·
55 Tony said:
Unlike my Chevy Van factory paint.
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Your chevy van wasn't the only thing that did that back in the late 80's early 90's. All of the big 3 were trying to save money (be cheap) back then by eliminating a primering process and found out fast that it came back to bite em in the behind.

At first (as body techs) we would get 40 hours to strip and refinish a delam vehicle, which wasn't bad and we could make money on some cars, then it got cut in half to 20 hours and we were losing our butt trying to get them done and still looking nice for our finicky customers who all seemed to work at the GM plant in the paint shop or quality control.


Anyways, back to the Earl Sheib or Macco paint jobs. Thye both served their purpose back in the day. The thing is that they would use paint from a 55 gallon drums. If you wanted a red metallic you got it, although it probably didn't match the factory color because it wasn't. Body work was extra cost and if you wanted a gloss hardener added it was extra.

Some of them held up fairly well while others failed miserably.
 
Discussion starter · #9 ·
FUZZY said:
Your chevy van wasn't the only thing that did that back in the late 80's early 90's. All of the big 3 were trying to save money (be cheap) back then by eliminating a primering process and found out fast that it came back to bite em in the behind.

At first (as body techs) we would get 40 hours to strip and refinish a delam vehicle, which wasn't bad and we could make money on some cars, then it got cut in half to 20 hours and we were losing our butt trying to get them done and still looking nice for our finicky customers who all seemed to work at the GM plant in the paint shop or quality control.


Anyways, back to the Earl Sheib or Macco paint jobs. Thye both served their purpose back in the day. The thing is that they would use paint from a 55 gallon drums. If you wanted a red metallic you got it, although it probably didn't match the factory color because it wasn't. Body work was extra cost and if you wanted a gloss hardener added it was extra.

Some of them held up fairly well while others failed miserably.
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I had a 67 Galaxy 500 convertible painted blue in Memphis Earl Sheib. $29.95. Shined like a new penny. One day I had just washed it and took it down the highway to blow most of the water off. The passenger side of the hood and top of the fender paint blew off in almost a whole sheet. not one sanding mark under it 🤣 But it looked good for a little while.
 
#10 ·
Earl's shop in the Philadelphia area had closed when I needed a reasonable paint job for two of my daily drivers. I sanded the cars down, removed the emblems, did the little body work that needed to be done and delivered them to Maaco. They taped sealed and painted. The cars came out great and lasted for years. But I missed out on having bragging rights to say I had a car painted by Earl Scheib!
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
Dragsix said:
Earl's shop in the Philadelphia area had closed when I needed a reasonable paint job for two of my daily drivers. I sanded the cars down, removed the emblems, did the little body work that needed to be done and delivered them to Maaco. They taped sealed and painted. The cars came out great and lasted for years. But I missed out on having bragging rights to say I had a car painted by Earl Scheib!
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I am pretty sure Maaco is still in business
 
#13 ·
Coworkers and I used to joke that Earl Scheib's paint cans probably all said "Maytag" or "Frigidaire" on them LOL
 
#16 ·
Yep, cheapest synthetic enamel they should find. Once that paint hit a car, it was ruined for life. impossible to sand, had to be stripped off and start over.
I don’t think they actually sanded cars. I had a buddy who painted his truck and there was shards of steel wool stuck in the crevices that they painted over. I think they just scrub the car with steel wool and hit it with the paint gun.
 
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#17 ·
In the late 1960's, I had a friend with a 65 Corvair convertible and he had Earl paint it. The big difference was that he did all the prep work himself. He removed the top, all the trim, etc... and sanded and primed the car himself. It actually turned out fairly nice.

Ed
 
#18 ·
Dragsix said:
Earl's shop in the Philadelphia area had closed when I needed a reasonable paint job for two of my daily drivers. I sanded the cars down, removed the emblems, did the little body work that needed to be done and delivered them to Maaco. They taped sealed and painted. The cars came out great and lasted for years. But I missed out on having bragging rights to say I had a car painted by Earl Scheib!
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Wait a minute. You're a car guy, and you would have bragged about having Earl Scheib paint your car? ;)

Back in the day, mentioning Earl Scheib to a car guy invariably resulted in him groaning and rolling his eyes.
56WagonJrStocker said:
Anyone ever sanded an Earl Scheib paint job, the paint was like rubber, plug sanding disc. Some body shops would not work on them if painted by a ES.
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The guy who mentored me on body work and paint said Earl's paint was incompatible with pretty much everything. So, the only thing you could do was to take it down to at least the factory primer, if not bare metal.

An Earl Scheib story for you:

I worked one summer with a guy who was about to start college at the same college I went to. He had a very worn '64 Chevy Bel Air that really needed a paint job (among other things). Having just finished high school, he didn't have much cash, and we were working for just a bit more than minimum wage.

Despite the limited life left in the car, he wanted it to at least look better (among other things, the carb had backfired and scorched the paint on the hood), so he decided to have Earl paint the car.

To save money, he paid a couple of goofballs we worked with do the pre-paint bodywork. That was mistake #1. When they finished, you could tell it was going to look bad once it was painted, and it most certainly did.

The car was a light brown, but he wanted it painted maroon. His dad took the car to Earl Scheib to have it painted. Earl's guys told him maroon was extra money. So, his dad had them paint it PLUM. Think a neon purple. Then think neon purple on top of some of the worst body work you've ever seen - like mounds of Bondo with sanding scratches that looked like they'd been carved with a machete, right in the middle of the hood.

The car was so butt-ugly, when he drove up, some of our coworkers would wave at him and shout, "taxi!". :)

Unfortunately, he'd spent all he could afford, so he took off that fall to college in that thing. Needless to say, there were a few jokes made about his car, and he did his best to grin and bear it. He drove it for 2 years before he actually gave the car away, and bought a nice low mileage '67 Nova. Another plus - the Nova had been painted maroon by GM.
 
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