RED LS1
SENIOR MEMBER
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2001
- Messages
- 837
I hope this is okay to post here. I don't want to post this in more main stream forums as I don't want the shop owner to see. Plus, I believe this forum to house some mature and good decision making members compared to others. I will try to make a long story short.
2/17 - I dropped off my 1985 Mustang race car to a friend of a friend who said he could do a full paint job on it in the amount of $4000. I realize that is not a lot of money to do a full paint job but it is a respectable amount and I'm not looking for a Sema job. The guy in question has painted quite a few of the mutual friends cars that looked great.
6/17 - After weeks and months of seeing NO progress made on the car besides disassembly I pulled it from his garage/shop as a basket case in pieces.
The Mutual friend felt terrible that his guy screwed up with me and offered to talk to his other buddy that owns a much more legitimate shop. A guy who produces much more work and does it for a living unlike the other guy. I called and talked to him directly. He assured me he could knock the car out in one month. He assured me it wasn't too much of a basket case and he's taken on much worse. He assured me it will be a priority job and not go on the back burner. He was perfectly satisfied with the $4000. He was 100% aware of the situation with the last guy and said it wasn't the first time work came to him because of the same guy screwing people around and not finishing their cars.
This all took place in June 2017. I agreed to go with this guy because everything seemed to point to a path of completion. His shop was very close to the other guys and the logistics of moving a disassembled car around worked out.
6/24/2017 - He has the car on his shop floor.
Throughout the last few months we talked through text about some things like the color and some parts on the car. At some point I told him I would give him another $500 because there's some slight body work that's involved (nothing major) that I felt he should be compensated for accordingly. Along the way it started to turn into a completion date of "After Labor Day." So now we've moved from the initial 1 month to 2+ months. I responded by saying, " Let's shoot for Sept 31st." That was my way of saying don't worry about rushing as long as you're moving on it we're good.
9/18/17 - After following up with him every few weeks (since he never once gave me any updates) I messaged him to get some clarity. It turned out the car hadn't been touched since the last time I messaged him 3 weeks before but now it's at the deadline. The car is still fully disassembled with no body work done to the actual body yet. I asked him politely to provide a plan for some completion. I let him know that we are past labor day and approaching the 31st and neither look like a likely outcome.
He responds by telling me the car is a basket case. He's had set back's in the shop and was set back because he had to strip the doors (don't know how he's not stripping the whole car??). He then proceeded to tell me he only took the car on as a favor because he was begged by our mutual friend.
It was left there and he has not got back to me since then. I now have no idea what's going on with the car or if he is even still working on it. I know I wasn't out of line by keeping track of the progress of the car. I was never rude or pushy. This went from no problem, give him a month to 3 months, cars still a mess and i'm the asshole just getting a favor.
I'm not sure where to even go from here. If you're still reading thanks for listening. The worst part is, I have a super clean GN waiting for a full paint job but I can't find anyone that can back up their talk when it comes to painting cars.
2/17 - I dropped off my 1985 Mustang race car to a friend of a friend who said he could do a full paint job on it in the amount of $4000. I realize that is not a lot of money to do a full paint job but it is a respectable amount and I'm not looking for a Sema job. The guy in question has painted quite a few of the mutual friends cars that looked great.
6/17 - After weeks and months of seeing NO progress made on the car besides disassembly I pulled it from his garage/shop as a basket case in pieces.
The Mutual friend felt terrible that his guy screwed up with me and offered to talk to his other buddy that owns a much more legitimate shop. A guy who produces much more work and does it for a living unlike the other guy. I called and talked to him directly. He assured me he could knock the car out in one month. He assured me it wasn't too much of a basket case and he's taken on much worse. He assured me it will be a priority job and not go on the back burner. He was perfectly satisfied with the $4000. He was 100% aware of the situation with the last guy and said it wasn't the first time work came to him because of the same guy screwing people around and not finishing their cars.
This all took place in June 2017. I agreed to go with this guy because everything seemed to point to a path of completion. His shop was very close to the other guys and the logistics of moving a disassembled car around worked out.
6/24/2017 - He has the car on his shop floor.
Throughout the last few months we talked through text about some things like the color and some parts on the car. At some point I told him I would give him another $500 because there's some slight body work that's involved (nothing major) that I felt he should be compensated for accordingly. Along the way it started to turn into a completion date of "After Labor Day." So now we've moved from the initial 1 month to 2+ months. I responded by saying, " Let's shoot for Sept 31st." That was my way of saying don't worry about rushing as long as you're moving on it we're good.
9/18/17 - After following up with him every few weeks (since he never once gave me any updates) I messaged him to get some clarity. It turned out the car hadn't been touched since the last time I messaged him 3 weeks before but now it's at the deadline. The car is still fully disassembled with no body work done to the actual body yet. I asked him politely to provide a plan for some completion. I let him know that we are past labor day and approaching the 31st and neither look like a likely outcome.
He responds by telling me the car is a basket case. He's had set back's in the shop and was set back because he had to strip the doors (don't know how he's not stripping the whole car??). He then proceeded to tell me he only took the car on as a favor because he was begged by our mutual friend.
It was left there and he has not got back to me since then. I now have no idea what's going on with the car or if he is even still working on it. I know I wasn't out of line by keeping track of the progress of the car. I was never rude or pushy. This went from no problem, give him a month to 3 months, cars still a mess and i'm the asshole just getting a favor.
I'm not sure where to even go from here. If you're still reading thanks for listening. The worst part is, I have a super clean GN waiting for a full paint job but I can't find anyone that can back up their talk when it comes to painting cars.