Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback
I know it's been awhile since I've spent time on FABO. - Looks like my last post on this thread was back in July.
Most of my time has been taken up with work on that house we've been restoring. The city council there is still bent on having the place demolished. It's insane because all of the work we've done on the property looks great and it's very attractive despite the fact we have a long way to go. When you're a one man construction crew with limited resources it means progress is slow. Keep in mind that every wall, ceiling, window, and the flooring are all being repaired or replaced throughout. - Of course, so is the wiring and I'm also moving some walls around to accommodate a slightly modernized layout. One of the biggest projects I tackled this year was rebuilding (and moving) the stairway to the upstairs.
Despite the focus on house renovations I have been able to spend some time in the garage now and then. I just haven't had the time to pop onto FABO and post updates. I'll try to remember some of what's been going on here since my last posting.
I helped my friend Doug haul his '69 Coronet to a body shop in Lincoln, Nebraska. The owner of the shop had really bragged himself up to Doug and convinced him that there wasn't a better place to take the car. The shop's owner is Paul Christophersen.
Doug has that hoop rotisserie and the plan was to haul his car on the hoop because the suspension was already removed.
The view in my rear-view mirrors was strange driving the 30 miles from Seward to Lincoln. We strapped it down very securely so it never budged on the way.
With the car delivered Doug was happy as a clam (why are clams happy?) but it didn't last long. Problems began to show up with workmanship within a few weeks. The first issue was with the spare tire mount that they welded to a new trunk floor. Even though they did the welding outside of the car (before installing the trunk floor) the welds were really crap. It looked as though whoever did the job had never used a mig before. - Full of holes (porosity) and globby with way more weld than necessary. I don't think they had the gas turned on.
Now Doug is a perfectionist and although he didn't make a big deal out of it at the time he called me up after seeing those welds and asked me if I'd make a trip back to Lincoln with him to see what he was concerned about. Doug had payed a $2500 deposit fee before taking his car to the shop and was hoping that he was just overreacting. - But he was already beginning to have doubts about the type of workmanship they were doing.
When I got there with Doug I was surprised at how bad it looked. (I had thought that Doug might have been overreacting too) Although I agreed with Doug's assessment I told him that the shop didn't have a bad reputation and that he'd probably be happy with the finished product when the car was finished.
A few days later Doug called me back with new concerns. They did sort of a butcher job on the fitment of the right rear quarter panel. They didn't lap the new panel correctly and there was a large hump on the roof-line. In addition to that they wanted to use a new tail panel (AMD) that was mis-stamped. The keyhole wasn't centered properly. It was off by almost an inch and it needed to align with the aluminum R/T trim Doug had bought for the car. New welds on the car didn't look good either. I know that the factory welds weren't always pretty but these were really bad.
They had barely started working on the car and they'd already sapped about $15,000 from Doug. Now Doug isn't wealthy but he was willing to pay whatever it takes to get a really nice restoration. He was now convinced he wasn't going to get it from this place. Their finished work might look good after applying filler and paint but it wasn't up to the normal standards of other shops. The number of hours that they claimed to have in it was crazy.
Doug decided to pull the plug and take the car back home before they did anymore bad work. A few days later he had me return with my trailer to load it back up. They kept his deposit.
Doug was devastated. The loss was a real setback. He was dismayed because he had heard a lot of good things about the shop from former customers. It was known for doing high dollar restorations on Hemi and Sixpack cars. We came to the conclusion that the people he'd talked to were probably folk that never saw what was under the new paint of their cars. - Most likely those that just wanted to drop their cars off and pick them back up when completed. - Not those that likely played any part to the restoration process themselves.
Even Doug fell prey to being seeing the shiny stuff. He had been impressed by the sight of an A12 Super bee and Hemi cars on the premises. He didn't look close enough. When I sighted down the sides of the Super Bee I was surprised at how poorly the car had been blocked out. There were welds on the cowl of a '71 Hemi 'Cuda that were really unsightly. - and they put fresh paint over those welds so it was apparent they weren't going to dress them up any further. There was a Hemi Charger with fresh paint on it that had a noticeable buckle in it's hood.
Another friend of mine and I had noticed those flaws when Doug had first dropped his Coronet off but assumed Doug had noticed them too but was OK with the stuff. When we did try to voice concerns early on, Doug said he hadn't noticed those problems and was still confident they would do excellent work on his car if he kept his eyes on the progress. Part of the reason Doug eventually called it quits was because the shop told him they didn't want him coming around anymore until they were done. Originally they had assured him that he was welcome to come by anytime to inspect the work as it was being done.
These are photos of some of the other vehicles that were at the shop. I didn't take any that reveal the flaws. At first sight they looked very nice. It wasn't until you looked closer that you would notice the problems.
I know it's been awhile since I've spent time on FABO. - Looks like my last post on this thread was back in July.
Most of my time has been taken up with work on that house we've been restoring. The city council there is still bent on having the place demolished. It's insane because all of the work we've done on the property looks great and it's very attractive despite the fact we have a long way to go. When you're a one man construction crew with limited resources it means progress is slow. Keep in mind that every wall, ceiling, window, and the flooring are all being repaired or replaced throughout. - Of course, so is the wiring and I'm also moving some walls around to accommodate a slightly modernized layout. One of the biggest projects I tackled this year was rebuilding (and moving) the stairway to the upstairs.
Despite the focus on house renovations I have been able to spend some time in the garage now and then. I just haven't had the time to pop onto FABO and post updates. I'll try to remember some of what's been going on here since my last posting.
I helped my friend Doug haul his '69 Coronet to a body shop in Lincoln, Nebraska. The owner of the shop had really bragged himself up to Doug and convinced him that there wasn't a better place to take the car. The shop's owner is Paul Christophersen.
Doug has that hoop rotisserie and the plan was to haul his car on the hoop because the suspension was already removed.
The view in my rear-view mirrors was strange driving the 30 miles from Seward to Lincoln. We strapped it down very securely so it never budged on the way.
With the car delivered Doug was happy as a clam (why are clams happy?) but it didn't last long. Problems began to show up with workmanship within a few weeks. The first issue was with the spare tire mount that they welded to a new trunk floor. Even though they did the welding outside of the car (before installing the trunk floor) the welds were really crap. It looked as though whoever did the job had never used a mig before. - Full of holes (porosity) and globby with way more weld than necessary. I don't think they had the gas turned on.
Now Doug is a perfectionist and although he didn't make a big deal out of it at the time he called me up after seeing those welds and asked me if I'd make a trip back to Lincoln with him to see what he was concerned about. Doug had payed a $2500 deposit fee before taking his car to the shop and was hoping that he was just overreacting. - But he was already beginning to have doubts about the type of workmanship they were doing.
When I got there with Doug I was surprised at how bad it looked. (I had thought that Doug might have been overreacting too) Although I agreed with Doug's assessment I told him that the shop didn't have a bad reputation and that he'd probably be happy with the finished product when the car was finished.
A few days later Doug called me back with new concerns. They did sort of a butcher job on the fitment of the right rear quarter panel. They didn't lap the new panel correctly and there was a large hump on the roof-line. In addition to that they wanted to use a new tail panel (AMD) that was mis-stamped. The keyhole wasn't centered properly. It was off by almost an inch and it needed to align with the aluminum R/T trim Doug had bought for the car. New welds on the car didn't look good either. I know that the factory welds weren't always pretty but these were really bad.
They had barely started working on the car and they'd already sapped about $15,000 from Doug. Now Doug isn't wealthy but he was willing to pay whatever it takes to get a really nice restoration. He was now convinced he wasn't going to get it from this place. Their finished work might look good after applying filler and paint but it wasn't up to the normal standards of other shops. The number of hours that they claimed to have in it was crazy.
Doug decided to pull the plug and take the car back home before they did anymore bad work. A few days later he had me return with my trailer to load it back up. They kept his deposit.
Doug was devastated. The loss was a real setback. He was dismayed because he had heard a lot of good things about the shop from former customers. It was known for doing high dollar restorations on Hemi and Sixpack cars. We came to the conclusion that the people he'd talked to were probably folk that never saw what was under the new paint of their cars. - Most likely those that just wanted to drop their cars off and pick them back up when completed. - Not those that likely played any part to the restoration process themselves.
Even Doug fell prey to being seeing the shiny stuff. He had been impressed by the sight of an A12 Super bee and Hemi cars on the premises. He didn't look close enough. When I sighted down the sides of the Super Bee I was surprised at how poorly the car had been blocked out. There were welds on the cowl of a '71 Hemi 'Cuda that were really unsightly. - and they put fresh paint over those welds so it was apparent they weren't going to dress them up any further. There was a Hemi Charger with fresh paint on it that had a noticeable buckle in it's hood.
Another friend of mine and I had noticed those flaws when Doug had first dropped his Coronet off but assumed Doug had noticed them too but was OK with the stuff. When we did try to voice concerns early on, Doug said he hadn't noticed those problems and was still confident they would do excellent work on his car if he kept his eyes on the progress. Part of the reason Doug eventually called it quits was because the shop told him they didn't want him coming around anymore until they were done. Originally they had assured him that he was welcome to come by anytime to inspect the work as it was being done.
These are photos of some of the other vehicles that were at the shop. I didn't take any that reveal the flaws. At first sight they looked very nice. It wasn't until you looked closer that you would notice the problems.