OH @#$#@!!

[Mstng2]

Well into life it must fall, so here's mine ... I go to the body shop to check on the progress of my II and the shop owner is not there. The technition tells me, "hey you own the Mustang?" I say "yup". He proceeds to tell me I had better get my car out before it's too late, that the owner has skipped town, not paid the employees, and the courts are coming to lock the doors!!
He also said if they do with my car inside it could be up to 6 months before they release the car back to me!! I called my attorney and he said yep they can do that, so I ran home got my trailer and got my car out! The real butt smacker is that its in a million pieces and it will be hard to find a shop willing to take on a half finished job. So now its sitting at home in a zillion pieces... I called the body shop today and no answer all day so I guess they were right... WHY?!! GRRRR...

 

[kram2]

Thats a real bummer, hope things work out for you with finding another shop.

 

[Blue coyote]

Well, at least you got your II out in time.

I guess maybe you need to learn bodywork, eh?

 

[77CobraII]

That sucks. The guy I had do my II took a year!! And he didn't work on it half the time. I would go by and try to find him. NO luck. He'd say we'll work on it tomorrow, and then I coudn't find him for a week. Next time I get any car done, I'm taking it to a very reputable shop that I won't have to worry about. Good luck.

 

[Blue coyote]

Next time I get any car done, I'm taking it to a very reputable shop that I won't have to worry about.

I tried that once.....ended up costing me over $2600 for a "tuneup" and ignition upgrade (and I supplied all the parts!!!).

There's only one guy I will trust with one of my vehicles ever again, and that's only because he was my neighbour for over 8 years. NOBODY else gets to do a damned thing to my rides without me being present to supervise.

 

[77CobraII]

This guy also kept taking in jobs and putting my car to the side. He would be doing stuff for free versus my ride for $$. Never again!

 

[Apsychotic]

If you wasn't so far away....

Man, If you didn't live so far away, we could work for each other, I can do body work, and could put that II back together the way it should be, and you could put in my cam set... I wish you luck with finding someone, I'd try his largest competitor, & let them know that they will have your business from now on... later, Norm

 

[Vince]

That sucks. The guy I had do my II took a year!! And he didn't work on it half the time. I would go by and try to find him. NO luck. He'd say we'll work on it tomorrow, and then I coudn't find him for a week. Next time I get any car done, I'm taking it to a very reputable shop that I won't have to worry about. Good luck.

Well hopefully you either good a good price or exceptional quality work since it took so long? Isn't there an old saying "You can have it good, fast, or cheap. Pick any two."

 

[jshcobra]

I can empathize with your situation. I had my ghia at a shop for over 6 months for a repaint. Judging from the quality (or lack thereof) of the result, I'd say the guy did 99% of the work the night before I picked it up. In some spots, the paint is flaking off and the paint underneath still has dust and grease on it. Obviously, this guy didn't even bother to wash the car before priming it. The drivers side inner fender had a small hole he said he would patch, and quite honestly, it looks worse than a freshman shop class.

He has offered to repaint it, but I'm going to do it myself next summer. Seems that's the best way of knowing what you are going to get.

 

[1970impala]

Well into life it must fall, so here's mine ... I go to the body shop to check on the progress of my II and the shop owner is not there. The technition tells me, "hey you own the Mustang?" I say "yup". He proceeds to tell me I had better get my car out before it's too late, that the owner has skipped town, not paid the employees, and the courts are coming to lock the doors!!
He also said if they do with my car inside it could be up to 6 months before they release the car back to me!! I called my attorney and he said yep they can do that, so I ran home got my trailer and got my car out! The real butt smacker is that its in a million pieces and it will be hard to find a shop willing to take on a half finished job. So now its sitting at home in a zillion pieces... I called the body shop today and no answer all day so I guess they were right... WHY?!! GRRRR...

DAM! that really sucks! for the most part if it did come down to it, you could get your car back if you talked to the DA for your county. Count your blessings that guy told you the real story. Any work that I can do on my cars or house, I will do myself. otherwise, I remain at the site till the job is done right. last summer I had complete set of beautiful windows installed on my house. the windows were georgous and self-cleaning but the contractor that came out for the company sucked really bad. I came home at luch and told him i could do better than the job he was doing. He said F.U. to me. I called the cops and had him escorted off my property and lodged a formal complaint. I phoned the company as soon as he left, on my cell in my front yard. they had another guy there the next day and did a fabulous A1+ job that had taken days to accomplish AND with extra sashes I didn't have to pay for.

That, my friend, is the way things are nowadays.

 

[THE COBRAMAN]

Let me start by saying that I am not saying this is the case with any of the above scenarios.

BUT, too many people today shop a job solely by price. They assume that there is all this "fat" in a job, and that the guy that has the highest price is getting rich.

Case in point: A (now) good friend of mine bought a 13000 mile '66 chevelle 300 (not even a deluxe!). His intent was to build his dream car with a 375 horse 396, Muncie, etc. This car he bought was immaculate, original everything, window sticker in the quarter glass still.

He shopped around to get it painted, and found a guy that was going to do a good job at a "good price". This guy proceeded to take a WELDING GRINDER (the 8" electric kind) with 50 grit to this car and obliterated the body lines on the fenders. Now, you have to understand how sweet the sheetmetal was on this car before he started to fully appreciated what he did. The vehicle owner had already stripped the paint off the quarters with a DA and 150, it was that easy to strip. The vehicle owner just ran out of time, and wanted the car done sooner than he could do it himself.

Long story short, he got lucky, and pulled the car out before there was any more carnage, and we finished it for him. Yeah, he paid considerably more than the "good price" guy, but he was very pleased with the outcome. And it is a sweet car, Red/red, 396/375 with a nash 5 speed, original interior, and looks like the day it rolled off the line (better, actually).

On a good day, you (maybe) get what you pay for.

 

[Blue coyote]

Well, in my own case, the first inkling I had that it was a butcher shop instead of a mechanics shop was when I stopped by to check on things...the owner had farmed the job out to an aprentice, who removed a $25 harness (brand new!!!) with a set of wire cutters, rather than unplugging it from the obvoius plugs that were less than 6" away, and the guy even removed my second air intake horn because he said it was overkill. Then the guy gave me a huge story, and claimed he couldn't get it into proper running order. Took me less than 1/2 an hour to determine that it had a bad head gasket (between cylinders, so no telltale oil/antifreeze mix). I don't blame them for the bad gasket, but a shop like that should have been able to find the problem a lot quicker than a guy whose only mechanical training was a single semester of auto shop 20 years previously.....The part that REALLY pissed me off was that the shop is a high performance specialist who has done work for Mario Andretti, and came highly reccomended. I had expected a fairly steep price for the work, but what I ended up paying was more than double what it should have been, and while some of the work was well done, most of it was pure butchery.

I was so peeved that I ended up replacing the engine, then went and laid a 30' patch of rubber in front of his shop....The vehicle in question was my 84 Bronco II with a 2.8 and MSD ignition. Then I went home and cut most of the roof off the truck, so it was like the fullsize Bronco. THAT made me feel a bit better............

 

[westernlady1123]

I am so sorry you had to go through that! That really bites! I am looking to have some body work done along with a paint job next month. Makes me weary about trusting someone with my baby. I hope you find someone to help you out. Good Luck

 

[Eos]

That sucks. The guy I had do my II took a year!! And he didn't work on it half the time. I would go by and try to find him. NO luck. He'd say we'll work on it tomorrow, and then I coudn't find him for a week. Next time I get any car done, I'm taking it to a very reputable shop that I won't have to worry about. Good luck.

Sounds like what I went through getting my motor rebuilt last year.



Mstng2 sorry to hear about that. It sounds pretty damn crazy. I'd be pissed off as hell.

 

[franks78kc]

Deja Vu All Over Again

WOW! That sounds like what happened to me! Only 23 years ago! It was a 1969 Mach 1. I had bought new 1/4's for it, front fenders a new door skin, engine rebuilt. The guy that was to do the body work did the same thing, had the car all taken apart & split! The car back then was gonna cost me maybe $5,000 tops to do. Well, you guys know what they're fetchin' now.
I lost my butt on that one!

 

[Mstng2]

*UPDATE* I Got hold of the shop owner today, he IS still open and in business. His story is that his partner and employee tried to rip him off and told all the clients he was going out of business. Then they took all his tools, paint, etc etc, wrote a bunch of checks on the business account. He told me ha has the cops involved, apologized and asked me to bring my car back so he can finish it. I'm pretty leery about it, his story is believable but some things dont make sense. However, I'm thinking I'll take it back and try to get it finished. It's either that or fight the guy for my $2500.00 deposit. Hopefully Im back on track for July Car shows. (X's fingers...)

 

[Blue coyote]

If nothing else, it sounds like the shop owner might be hiring soon

And a bit off topic, but I just noticed I'm now a senior member. Now wouldn't THAT just frost the stones on a few of the guys over at BON