Thread: Enough is Enough ...........

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Old Coyote -
A friend recently asked me to look at his 57? Fairlane. It had been in a shop for restoration for three years. He paid the guy 900.00 a month. After three years, the engine is untouched, the paint only done on three sides, the interior re-upholstered , but trim not done, no battery to start and run. Some suspension work done, but some not. He has no idea what the guy did? For three years. He never questioned or regularly checked in on it. He now wants to sell it for 2-3K. He has over 30k into it! I just cringed. He doesn't want to spend a penny more.
I hate these stories. I'm sorry you've met with a similar experience. I have to agree with everyone, show up tomorrow with a trailer, and load up. Keep it profession and polite, but don't accept excuses. Glad to hear you have another shop lined up. Here, some friends have a custom shop in Santa Rosa. It takes them a year to take a rusting carcus, and roll out a beautiful show car. The cost is phenomenal, but they fabricate anything and everything, and have a plan on every car. You might have to wait three years for your project to start, but they get it done in under a year. Hope the new guys have you riding down the hi-way soon!

Don't blame you a bit Coyote!!!! I do admire your patience, hope some of my customers read this who complain cuz I don't get at their stuff for a couple weeks sometimes......

Go get it, 4 yrs is too long, been there before too. Thats why I stick to doing eveything myself but glass and interior. Awesome Thames though.

I agree it is time to move it, preferably to my house. I love them, they look mean with massive tires. one in town tubbed so much you probably got a foot between tires.

This seems to be the story with a lot of body shops. I think it has something to do with the fumes.

Wow 4 years I have trouble waiting 4 weeks .I'd take some buddy's with me. And call the police before you go. Tell them what's going on let them know that you don't want any trouble. You just want your car back.

Advise taking a camera with you and doing a photo inventory when you load the stuff up....then, if there is a future disagreement as to what you did or didnt take, you have pictures of everything.

This is kind of like moving out on the soon to be ex......may be friendly now, but wait a week or two!

mike

i have seen this many times .it,s one of them deals were every ones ends up bent out of shape no ones wins . there only so much room on the shop floor .guys will take the insurance jobs were parts are not hard to get or get ready for fit finsh to paint .there alot of guys that can hang new tin i did and i was one bad a$$ if i must say so myself your car could have the front end wipe off and it would be painted and back together the next day.not hard to make over 90 hours pay for only 30 hours of work . that s hard to turn down that work. i have worked with many guys that just wanted to paint and hang new tin.good body work takes alot of time and more on a body that as seen some hard years and rust. some shops do good work but bite off more then they can handle. the longer the car sits on the shop floor the more money it eats up . no matter how much you pay. they can make more on the EZ insurance jobs that all the new body parts are a phone call away .the shop will go under if they can not get things moveing off the shop floor .there is some guys that want to make a name and try to give you the best job and put alot more of time and money in to the car then was the starting price of the job was. when done not make a dime on the job .then there playing catch up on the next job . i have seen others shops do nothing right and suck guys dry and he ends up with nothing good and parts missing . i have done cars and trucks from shops like this that did get pull out and i finshed them . a freind and i were on call. were we came in to a shop to make things happen .when someone got in to deep . its a bad deal when car needs to be pulled out of a shop .body guys can be moody ? well some can half done cars will get striped and started over so its all there work coming from there shop. or they can get pissy about you not going to them in the first place .hope you get color on it soon if you were in town could make things happen for you. i still have the numbers for the crew

Everything went fine ........... I took them a list of the parts that had to be accounted for, they agreed with no issues .......... will account for all of the parts and prepare the car for shipment ........... told them I hated to do it but that I had to get the car finished ............. they understood and even seemed a little bit relieved ............. I think they bit off way more than they could chew when they started this ............. these guys are fantastic body and paint people ........... but they are lacking in fabrication skills ............ and this car was too much for them to handle

Sounds great that you guys parted professionally! Post some updates from the new shop as it comes along. Very cool project your building.

dont let them try and hand you a bill for storage. Some guys around here will do that if you pull a car out.

Originally Posted by Old Coyote

Everything went fine ........... I took them a list of the parts that had to be accounted for, they agreed with no issues .......... will account for all of the parts and prepare the car for shipment ........... told them I hated to do it but that I had to get the car finished ............. they understood and even seemed a little bit relieved ............. I think they bit off way more than they could chew when they started this ............. these guys are fantastic body and paint people ........... but they are lacking in fabrication skills ............ and this car was too much for them to handle

Coyoye, may I make a suggestion. Check out the Hot Rod shop over in Welcome, NC. They do really good work. Complete builds.

Good, it sounds like it went well. You might want to email the owner with a "question" about something and in it confirm everything you guys verbally agreed to. If they respond to the question and don't refute the other statements you have something in writing showing they pretty much agreed to what you wrote.

(I watch a lot of Judge Judy)

Don

This is a very hard story! I wish you that now everything is going well

Well Mr. Coyote, if that project has been sitting there for that long, it's my bet it will be there a month from now.......don't wait for excuses, snap it up and drive it into the sunset.

Originally Posted by Old Coyote

.......... I have had it ............ I am pulling the Thames out of the shop in Asheboro ............ it has been there for 3 years and 10 months ........... and this is where we are ............ the work has been excellent, but after four years this car should be finished







......... The car has again ( for the fourth time ) sat untouched for over two months ........... a very common occurence ............. I have talked with the owner multiple times about "getting on with it" ............ his answer this last time was "Things have been crazy around here, give me a few weeks to get things in order" ........... well, the answer to that is NO !!

I asked over a year ago for them to get a driveshaft fabricated ........ nothing ........... Need dimensions so I can get a new radiator fabricated ........ nothing .......... I went ahead and built the engine internals and it has been sitting since September waiting on paint ............. the rear doors still need to be media blasted ......... the shop has been waiting for their "Blaster" to return a call from over a month ago ........... Enough is enough

I will be informing them tomorrow morning to cease all work (ha ha, what a joke) and prepare the car for a total parts inventory and movement to another location

I hate to do this, but I would like to see this project finished before I die of old age ............. Enough is Enough !!!