The original agreement was that I would pay 1/2 down, pay for the paint and materials, and then pay the remaining balance when the work was complete. I paid the half down, bought the materials. Then with about 20% of the work complete, the shop wanted me to pay all but a few hundred dollars of the remaining balance. The way I looked at it was if the shop was only going to get a few hundred once the car was complete, there would be no incentive to finish the car for the amount of money that would have been owed. So I had to pull it before they started taking short cuts. The sad part is, the guy was doing really nice work (according to a couple of other shops that have looked at the car about taking it in). I think they under-estimated the total time involved and once the car got torn apart they wanted to use that against me to send more money.