Rookie Mistake...

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So heres how you do it. Contact the local police with a copy of your title. Ask for an escort and bring a trailer. A few friends wouldn't hurt to help you load everything that belongs to you.
 
4spdragtop said:
I gotta agree with getting it. Take it no matter the shape/stage it's in. If you do, how much would you be out?? $5-7k?? Better to "lose" that now, early, than potentially an entire car.
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I'm almost there. Probably out $4K if I take it after he gets back in town after the Holidays
 
Too bad you personally don't know any cops to tag along while off duty as observers and helpers. Then when you're grabbing your parts, and car you could insist on some money back. You never know what that conversation will reveal.
 
A56 said:
Too bad you personally don't know any cops to tag along while off duty as observers and helpers. Then when you're grabbing your parts, and car you could insist on some money back. You never know what that conversation will reveal.
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True.
 
Sorry you going through this crap I agree with most people go get your car and all the stuff that goes with with them go to small claims court and try to get your money back, before you go there one day and it’s all gone gone then you are out your car and money again I am sorry your are having this issue. People like that are big dicks
 
Get your car out now. File in small claims court, get what you can.
 
As said above. Get it now. Here are 2 examples. 1) My buddy took his 65 dart to a guy to do some suspension work/ body work. 6 years later, small claims court, judgement in his favor, he has the car but is out 10k. 2) friend took motor to guy in lake of the ozarks. Bought a 512 stroker kit and he took 5k cash along. Block was to be decked, balanced, assembled, etc. block not decked, flat part of domed pistons sticking out of block .020. Guy sold this stuff to friend and now can't be found. GO GET THE CAR ASAP. Only 600.00, I think to file in SCC.
 
MICHAEL A SCUDDER said:
Never dealt with a "restoration shop" before until I bought this 68 Dart GTS 340". Just an FYI, never give them a large deposit up front, especially if the owner looks like a 25 year old hipster with horn-rimmed glasses that went to college for vintage automotive restoration.

Bought the GTS in October of 2020 and got it home in February 2021. I had it thoroughly disassembled and on body rollers by May of 2021. No glass or anything. Gutted and ready. "Joe" came and looked at it in May of 2021. He shot me an estimate of $12,500 to $15,000 to do body and paint only on a 99.75% rust free Southern California Dart. He told me it would be early 2022 before he could get started on it and it would take 6-8 month to complete the work. I guess I was good with that because he was local (In Greensboro 5 minutes from my house) and some good friends of mine spoke highly of the quality of his paint work. I figured I could check in on him and his "progress". At that time he and his partner only had 3 big projects in the works. Finishing up a 1969 GTO, had a 1970 RAIII speed Trans Am coming in and a Lamborghini that they had to go to FL to look at and give an estimate on.

After a while, in July of 2021, I looked around for other shops in NC and emailed Clark's Classic Restorations in Greenville NC. A Mopar Restoration guru. He told me he was a year out before he cold take in new work, so I figured I'll just keep it local since the time frame for getting it in to the Greensboro shop was getting closer.

After some significant harassment, I finally got the, "Joe" Greensboro guy to pick it up in April of 2022 and gave him a $10,000.00 deposit which he immediately took to the bank. I only did that to show him I was serious about getting the car done. Well, the car sat until November of 2022 until he took it over to a shop in Burlington to be media blasted. That cost $3000.00 of my budget. The media blasters ruined/broke/stole my 53 year old OEM brake pedal with OEM stainless trim ring so now I need to buy a cheap Chinese knock off. The car was DA'd and put into epoxy and sat again for months.

After a while I asked where my OEM front inner fender splash shields were and he immediately blamed the media blasters again. I wasn't about to buy AMD stuff when I bought and delivered a 100% original steel car to him. I asked for the number of the media blaster and lit in to the guy, because "Joe" didn't want to or have the balls to. After a few conversation over two days and a few hours from hiring a lawyer, "Joe" found the inner fender shields. He never took them to the blasters. So I had to apologize to the media blaster. He was OK with it and I also found out he didn't even blast it. It got farmed out for the second time to a guy he knew.

I continued to check in every 4 weeks or so. The car had some minor blocking and sanding done and they welded up a few spots in the hood. I was told then that my car and a 1965 Riviera, (that showed up after my car and my deposit), would be worked in tandem because they were both rust free cars. I was fine with that. I left him alone for a few months until I checked in on December 14th of 2023. My car has made no progress and the Riviera is painted and gassing out. They had a DeTomaso Pantera they did some blending on the roof of. I was then informed that my car and the Lamborghini, (another car that showed up in the shop after my car and after my deposit), will be worked in tandem. But, the Lamborghini got accepted to be in the Concourse De Elegance in Pebble Beach and had to be done by April, which tells me my car will be pushed to the side yet again.

If I had brought my car to Mr. Clark in July of 2022, one year after I first contacted him, it would almost certainly be done by now.

Car was looked at 4/2021. Picked up 4/2022 with a $10,000.00 deposit. 12/2023, still in primer. Engine is done, Interior is done. My 18x24 garage is packed full of part waiting on his ******* ***. My fiance's 24x24 has a few parts in it too. I'd pull it from the shop but he has not done $10,000.00 worth of work to it and good luck getting a partial refund of my deposit. Very frustrating, but, I've never done this before so a lot of lessons learned the past couple years.
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I could have finished your sentences. I was in the same exact circumstances with my car. Same amount of money, even in a later comment where there were two businesses being run. My guy told me all about the shops you need to be careful of because they aren't trustworthy. Turns out he was speaking of himself. My problem was he did amazing work if and when he wanted to.
Be careful when you go to get your car from him. If your guy already "lost" some of your parts, you'll never know what you're missing until it's time to put it back together. Ask me how I know.
 
I agree with the majority. Go unannounced and ready with truck trailer to get your car and all belonging to you. Having the police there is also good advice. It unfortunate that this is happening to you and the big thing we cannot recoup is time lost. When you finally find another shop to do what should have been done you certainly won't fall into the same trap. Sorry you have to go through this but I wish you smooth sailing from here on.
 
I have to come back and thank you Michael for having the guts enough to post about this. A lot of people might not have. Maybe someone can learn something from your misfortune and that is a good thing at least. So thank you.
 
MICHAEL A SCUDDER said:
Never dealt with a "restoration shop" before until I bought this 68 Dart GTS 340". Just an FYI, never give them a large deposit up front, especially if the owner looks like a 25 year old hipster with horn-rimmed glasses that went to college for vintage automotive restoration.

Bought the GTS in October of 2020 and got it home in February 2021. I had it thoroughly disassembled and on body rollers by May of 2021. No glass or anything. Gutted and ready. "Joe" came and looked at it in May of 2021. He shot me an estimate of $12,500 to $15,000 to do body and paint only on a 99.75% rust free Southern California Dart. He told me it would be early 2022 before he could get started on it and it would take 6-8 month to complete the work. I guess I was good with that because he was local (In Greensboro 5 minutes from my house) and some good friends of mine spoke highly of the quality of his paint work. I figured I could check in on him and his "progress". At that time he and his partner only had 3 big projects in the works. Finishing up a 1969 GTO, had a 1970 RAIII speed Trans Am coming in and a Lamborghini that they had to go to FL to look at and give an estimate on.

After a while, in July of 2021, I looked around for other shops in NC and emailed Clark's Classic Restorations in Greenville NC. A Mopar Restoration guru. He told me he was a year out before he cold take in new work, so I figured I'll just keep it local since the time frame for getting it in to the Greensboro shop was getting closer.

After some significant harassment, I finally got the, "Joe" Greensboro guy to pick it up in April of 2022 and gave him a $10,000.00 deposit which he immediately took to the bank. I only did that to show him I was serious about getting the car done. Well, the car sat until November of 2022 until he took it over to a shop in Burlington to be media blasted. That cost $3000.00 of my budget. The media blasters ruined/broke/stole my 53 year old OEM brake pedal with OEM stainless trim ring so now I need to buy a cheap Chinese knock off. The car was DA'd and put into epoxy and sat again for months.

After a while I asked where my OEM front inner fender splash shields were and he immediately blamed the media blasters again. I wasn't about to buy AMD stuff when I bought and delivered a 100% original steel car to him. I asked for the number of the media blaster and lit in to the guy, because "Joe" didn't want to or have the balls to. After a few conversation over two days and a few hours from hiring a lawyer, "Joe" found the inner fender shields. He never took them to the blasters. So I had to apologize to the media blaster. He was OK with it and I also found out he didn't even blast it. It got farmed out for the second time to a guy he knew.

I continued to check in every 4 weeks or so. The car had some minor blocking and sanding done and they welded up a few spots in the hood. I was told then that my car and a 1965 Riviera, (that showed up after my car and my deposit), would be worked in tandem because they were both rust free cars. I was fine with that. I left him alone for a few months until I checked in on December 14th of 2023. My car has made no progress and the Riviera is painted and gassing out. They had a DeTomaso Pantera they did some blending on the roof of. I was then informed that my car and the Lamborghini, (another car that showed up in the shop after my car and after my deposit), will be worked in tandem. But, the Lamborghini got accepted to be in the Concourse De Elegance in Pebble Beach and had to be done by April, which tells me my car will be pushed to the side yet again.

If I had brought my car to Mr. Clark in July of 2022, one year after I first contacted him, it would almost certainly be done by now.

Car was looked at 4/2021. Picked up 4/2022 with a $10,000.00 deposit. 12/2023, still in primer. Engine is done, Interior is done. My 18x24 garage is packed full of part waiting on his ******* ***. My fiance's 24x24 has a few parts in it too. I'd pull it from the shop but he has not done $10,000.00 worth of work to it and good luck getting a partial refund of my deposit. Very frustrating, but, I've never done this before so a lot of lessons learned the past couple years.
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Good luck! I have had a 69 Barracuda Formula S 340 4-speed factory A/C convertible in Body Shop Jail for 14 years now. Originally bought by a client, I was the middle man who said could get it done by a friend who owns his own body shop. His mistake was he paid up front for the job, then bought a parts car, had them both dipped, and the body man completed the body work which consisted of a complete front clip firewall forward, both quarters, trunk and interior floor, and welded it all together. He then stopped and hasn't done a thing to it since. Says the guy owes him more money to finish the job, and he is even a member here! After 14 years the owner of the car was going to sue us both, so I gave him a 67 Barracuda Formula S 383 4-speed fastback survivor and I got his convertible. Now I am out a good running car and don't know if I will ever have the convertible body finished. Count your blessings, my client had $25K sent plus buying the parts car...
 
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I'll see what happens but I just submitted a formal complaint with the NC State Attorney General Consumer Protection Division. Not a lawsuit but it does establish a public record and it will give him an opportunity to either: 1) make me whole based off of what I'm asking for or 2) dispute it in which case I have already been given the name of a good lawyer to take to small claims court should he not wan't to mediate a way out of this.
 
PA Dodger said:
I could have finished your sentences. I was in the same exact circumstances with my car. Same amount of money, even in a later comment where there were two businesses being run. My guy told me all about the shops you need to be careful of because they aren't trustworthy. Turns out he was speaking of himself. My problem was he did amazing work if and when he wanted to.
Be careful when you go to get your car from him. If your guy already "lost" some of your parts, you'll never know what you're missing until it's time to put it back together. Ask me how I know.
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Fortunately I know everything he has and I itemized it in the complaint.
 
MICHAEL A SCUDDER said:
It's $3000.00 just to file a lawsuit in civil court
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I have some experience with civil court, although with lower stakes and less money involved. My mom's '64 galaxie which has a truly one of a kind paint job was damaged by her mechanic several years ago. He refused to cover the cost to fix it, and she sued. On his day in court, he didn't show up and she won the case. We thought that was going to solve things. When the paperwork was given to him telling him that he had to pay the judgement, he refused to pay it. This is the problem with small claims: winning the case is the easy part, collecting your judgement is a whole other beast. Several years later I got the sheriff to do a till tap levy, which got my mom some of the money she was owed. Had we known his bank info, we could have used a bank levy which is more likely to be effective, but we didn't. It's very difficult to deal with people that have no bad conscience.
 
I would dick around with the paperwork/lawyers AFTER you get your car back.
Any work he may do from this point will be half-hearted anyway after your falling out.
GET YOUR CAR BACK, worry about the rest later.
 
I had a similar experience. One point of leverage that helped was that I kept reminding him that everyone in my car club was also waiting to see the finished work. When he saw that he was risking future work, there seemed to be movement.
 
What is the matter with these guys? Imagine having a client with money willing to pay for work? Seems easy enough.

Sorry to hear of the hassle. I agree with the masses....Get your car and your stuff. If this guy starts blowing sunshine, and sells you on it????

In the big scheme of things, 4 grand is just an expensive lesson. Good Luck.
 
I know a good bookkeeper that will definitely go and collect your money from him for you for a nominal fee.....guaranteed 100%
 
3forty said:
If it was me,there would be no deposit. The body shop would receive a certain amount of money for work done. The money would be spread out until finished.
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LOL.........And the body shop would tell you to go to hell! :) There is something wrong with the system.
 
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