My '69 Dart Build - Finally
Here we are a month later so long overdue for chapter 2 - no wonder this build has taken so long!
As mentioned in post #1, their was some bodywork done by "paint shop #3". Here's the very quick story of the others, and it doesn't stop with "paint shop 3" so please do extensive due diligence if you may be doing your own shop search. Don't make the same mistakes I did.
* Shop #1 - Closed doors and disappeared with my already paid for paint before I even took my car in.
* Shop #2 - Closed doors and moved out of state just a few months after opening. Luckily I wasn't out any money to this guy.
* Shop #3 - Went to a recommended shop that ended up having my car for a year and performed some bodywork. Then stopped communicating and finally refused to give me an updated completion date. I took time off work and showed up unannounced and pulled my car out - with a little assistance from the local police because he originally refused to turn loose of it even though I didn't owe him any additional money on top of what I'd already paid.
* Shop #4 - Following another recommendation, my Dart went to another shop in the same area that specialized in custom paint jobs but the story ended up being very similar to Shop #3. After a year the owner told me he wasn't going to finish my car because his new collision repair business was much more profitable. More money spent and still not finished.
* Shop #5 - Following a recommendation from here on FABO, talked to a painter that does body and paint in the shop on his home property. He has a full-time job as an electrical engineer but has been doing body and paint since his teen years. He's doing outstanding work correcting the work of the other shops and voluntarily communicates regular updates. He supplies periodic invoices detailing what he's done and I pay based on progress. He should have my Darts body and paint finished next month. I would recommend this shop in a heartbeat...but he now has a 3-year backlog of new work waiting.
That's enough for now. More later...