First bill from bodyshop......im scared

HOW MUCH!!!!! Im sorry but thats mental 5k to restore your car? it dont even sound that bad. Mines coming in at under 2k to paint the full car in and out and fit a rear panel. granted the rest of my car has no rust bar a little bit on a rear arch.

Im guessing its the mods that are costing the money?
 

i think what you have to ask yourself more importantly is are you happy with the work??? if you are then i feel you've got your moneys worth, far too many people have this delusional attitude that a car can be restored/modified correctly for very little money and unless you have the skills yourself then its just something you have to pay the going rate for.

breaking it down into each arch cost etc its maybe right on the limits of what you should be paying but if the guy is open enough to keep you in the loop as to where your money is going then just try and keep tabs on it as best you can and don't leave it too late and the budget is blown and no cash to pay them.

 Yea it's the metal work that's bumping the price right up.
  I've been down to see him again and the plan is ill be getting involved as much as possible to bring the costs down. I don't imagine I'd find many body shops willing to let customers come in and work on their cars so this is a big bonus.
  Tomorrow I'll be stripping out the sunroof and mechanism/slider rails. Once all that's out and my spot weld bit has arrived ill be removing the sunroof cassette which I'll clean and repair. This means I'll only be paying the body shop for repairing the roof skin itself.   Once it's repaired ill be replacing the sunroof cassette and setting up the sunroof mechanism etc which again will save me a lot of labour charges.
  I'm also going to see how much of the prep I can get involved with, stripping the paint back etc.
  As far as 5k to restore a mk1 goes well that all depends what needs doing and to what standard it gets done I suppose. The fact that I can go in and see everything that's being done suggests they are open and honest and have nothing to hide which is reassuring. 
  I'll get some pictures up as I go along. The original quote was him doing all the work so this way I'm hoping to bring the costs down.  There are a few areas that need attention like the scuttle panel and roof, panel gaps etc.