As of Friday, July 16, Earl Scheib, Inc. announced it has ceased its operations nationwide.

Earl Scheib marketed his shops through low-budget television commercials. Appearing on late-night television programs, Scheib soon became a national icon and celebrity, and his oft-heard sales pitch, "I'm Earl Scheib, and I'll paint any car, any color for $29.95.

Scheib was found dead in his Beverly Hills home by his housekeeper. He had apparently died in his sleep early Saturday morning, said Jerry LuVisi, a longtime employee of Scheib's Green Thumb Stables in Chino. She attributed the death to probable heart failure and said Scheib had suffered from emphysema for two years.

The Earl Scheib job on the 323i and the outer body restoration on the 3.0CSi effectively form the bookends of automotive painting—valuable case studies in how the adages that “time is money” and “you get what you pay for” apply better to bodywork and paint than to almost anything else.