Hello James - on the paint front, I had some touch up work done last week at the same place, and again they did a marvellous job for little money. If you are still interested in getting your car done there, drop me a line and I will put you in touch.
The engine rebuild was covered here in several posts extensively. It was like this: I asked Joe Alexander if he would do it with my help, and he said yes! So all I needed to do, figuring Joe is in Ohio and my car and I are in Amsterdam, was find a rebuildable engine in the US, have it shipped to Blacklick, shipping myself (and wife and then 4-year old son) to Ohio, doing the work, then shipping everyone and everything back to Amsterdam. All this happened. The parts and machine shop work cost me around $1,900. That's including all new pistons, rings, bearings, valves, etc which I got from Will Samples in Texas. Joe donated his time and we video taped the whole process for prosterity on 10 hours worth of film. I will convert that material 'later' (probably when I retire in 15 or so years) into a chapter of the illustruous Manual. I then had the engine (actually there were two engines; one short block came with the other rebuildable one, and had already been rebuilt) shipped back to Amsterdam through a shipping company recommended to me by our friend Michael Salemi, for a mere $450. The customs duties back in Holland were more than that if you can believe it.
So basically because of Joe's generosity I ended up with a superbly rebuilt engine, a lot of fun and education in the process, and 'knowledge material' that will hopefully help out others in the future.
The reason I went through all that trouble is that, when I scouted around for a place that would rebuilt my engine, they all came down to three unknowns: (1) cost - no one would quarantee a price up front, (2) quality - people have had their engines rebuilt by proclaimed experts, only to have to have it done over again, and (3) time - no one would commit to a deadline. Just the three ingredients that a customer would like to see covered before committing to a major expenditure.
In the US, I believe Metric Motors (and there are probably others, such as Noel's in Florida) effectively do a good job. In Europe, I would not know who to recommend.
As for me, I liked the rebuilding experience so much (it was in a way like a 'final frontier' for me previously) that I have collected a total of 14 old suitable engines for future rebuilding, when I retire (in 15 or so years ...)
Cees ("Case") Klumper in Amsterdam
'69 white 280 SL automatic
