Rookie Mistake...

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These types of places have a guarantee, if you don't go get your car now its guaranteed to disappear!
 
MICHAEL A SCUDDER said:
No written contract or completion date. He does lease the building unfortunately. As far as proving ownership , have the NC title in my name and the only set of original keys the car. I made sure to itemize the fender tag and VIN tag in the complaint to the NC DOJ/AG since he removed them for media blasting and put them in his safe.
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oh.my.lord.

that's big red flags and bright red lights with loud sirens.

do not hesitate, go get your stuff now

do not be waylaid by some shuffling of feet or excuses, or whatever nonsense excuses as to why he can't get the car out or where the parts are or whatever. get a crew together, get a truck and trailer and go get your stuff. pack a lunch and expect it to be an all day affair.

this dude ain't never gonna do right by you, better to get yours before get bamboozles you again. best plan of attack, blind side him 1st thing at the shop. no prep time for the razzle-dazzle when you shanghai somebody.
 
It would not be the first car to disappear from a shop in this situation, get it the hell out of there asap moneys lost / lesson learned.
 
I wish you the best. Tell him you found someone that can start immediately on it. Then get it out of there. Bring as many friends with you when you go pick it up.
 
MICHAEL A SCUDDER said:
You're good man. I follow you 100% and honestly I could probably use a scolding over this. I should have known better but the guy seemed legit and came referred from people I trust. They didn't know he worked like this and only saw his paint work and listened to his self congratulatory words. I shouldn't have let it go on this long. I don't really think he will do anything truly criminal but he will butt hurt and that's fine. If it hurts his feeling or bruises his ego, he needed to hear it.
He's young and has no work ethic or organization skills. I just printed up every email we exchanged since before he came and looked at my car to give me an estimate. I'll work on getting the text chain printed. It goes back to the day before he looked at my car and has every false promise and exaggerated statement in full. He wasn't supposed to bring his Dad's 70 RAIII Trans Am down until my car was "done". I have that. His dad's car has been there a year and has had more hours spent on it than mine.
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Sounds like you are in denial and still believe that he will make this right. He will NOT. And legal action or a letter from the AG will just aggravate the already shady situation. GO GET YOUR CAR NOW!
 
Go get your car before you can't!

This guy is a con artist. His past partner who seems a stand up guy has told you as much.

Think about how much money you have tied up in the whole project . If receivers take possession of the business, you could stand to lose the car or any non-serialized / un-documented parts of it , including doors ,fenders ,hood, trunk lid, etc..

You have gotten some of your moneys worth, write off the rest as a lesson learned and move on.

Most of the comments on here are in agreement with me as you can see.

Go get it.

NOW !!
 
Mtrhead said:
I know a good bookkeeper that will definitely go and collect your money from him for you for a nominal fee.....guaranteed 100%
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Gotta keep the books.

100% seems like a good score.

If i had a choice between Herbert and the sheriff, i might be leaning towards Herbert. Sheriff ain't 100%.
 
Mike....sorry you're in such a mess. It takes all the joy out of fixing the car. Do you know, or have you talked to Geoff McBryde about doing it when you get it back? Geoff owns and runs Showtime Restoration in Cherryville, NC. I don't do Facebook, but know he has a page with the business name. I'm sure he's like anyone else that is worth sending a car too, and has a backlog, but he has been in business for a long time and does excellent work. Hang in there and it will work out.
 
JDMopar said:
Mike....sorry you're in such a mess. It takes all the joy out of fixing the car. Do you know, or have you talked to Geoff McBryde about doing it when you get it back? Geoff owns and runs Showtime Restoration in Cherryville, NC. I don't do Facebook, but know he has a page with the business name. I'm sure he's like anyone else that is worth sending a car too, and has a backlog, but he has been in business for a long time and does excellent work. Hang in there and it will work out.
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First I've heard of him ... I'll look into it for sure
 
We all start out as rookies...& rookies make mistakes. Don't be too critical of yourself.....
 
I think Mr. Mcbryde is the guy that runs part of Holley Moparty. If so, he is a stand up guy. Talked to him at length at Moparty.
 
remytherat said:
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.
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I had a bad experience collecting a small claims judgement years ago on a shop that rebuilt my torqueflite incorrectly. The judge allowed him to pay me off in installments of $25 per month. It took forever!
 
Your car could get lost in a shuffle or a quick bankruptcy and be gone forever , re-title under different vin , anything could happen, I may not be a great painter but do all my work when building my projects , from engine work to body an paint an interior ,other than some machine work , its all me just to not to take the chance to get screwed over as you are being done , these days a good shop is almost an impossibility , you should have picked up your car months ago
 
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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Sad. In our life time we have all learned from bad experiences. Too bad it seems to alway cost our asses a lot of $$$$$$$ n frustration.
Sorry.
But Happy Moparing
 
MICHAEL A SCUDDER said:
I've recently started exploring other shops as a back up. I'd be a year out again but they are Mopar specific and I know it will get done right. One I emailed said he takes no $$ up front. Every month his clients get a bill. If the bills don't get paid, all work stops.
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For my business customers pay all materials up front. They’re yours your not happy take it and the materials. Pay day is Friday no pay it’s in the lot collecting storage fees
 
Ahoey said:
For my business customers pay all materials up front. They’re yours your not happy take it and the materials. Pay day is Friday no pay it’s in the lot collecting storage fees
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Sure makes me appreciate the shop (Motor City Solutions) that did my 71 Demon all the more. Pay for work completed each month after it was completed. Just like payday at work...work 2 weeks then get paid for it (or where I worked, get paid 2x/month). No "pay up front" and the problems that can bring with it.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I don't know what advice to give. Although, I know what I would do. I would go get my car and write it off as lesson learned. I sure am sorry.
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The advice I would give is, "Pay as it goes". Some need an incentive to perform. YES, a lesson learned because "MONEY " talkes.
 
Dana67Dart said:
If he goes belly up and the car is on the property it will be hell to get your property back.
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^This^

I've known guys that have gone through that scenario and it's not good. More money (lawyers etc.) on top of bad... and you'll never get all your parts back.

One of the problems for a lot of shops is the owner is either good at bodywork or a good businessman. Rarely does both come together. Throw the ex-girlfriend business into the mix along with your substantial down payment and it's just a recipe for disaster for everyone involved.

Sorry to say if you're going to lose $4k on this mess, consider that gone and yourself lucky that it's not more.

One thing that bothers me is that he has removed the VIN tag. That may blow up in everyone's face when you can't just walk over and look at the VIN tag to prove the car is yours. Since it's a '68, that VIN isn't going to be stamped in the body like the later cars. The sequence number is and that's on the fender tag, but he has that too. In other words, you may want to think long and hard about calling the cops to be there when you pick up the car... If there's a problem, you can call from your cell phone...

What I would do is just show up, be nice... and just say this isn't working out. NO EMOTIONS, even if he gets a little pissed. Just be nice and straightforward and take everything in one trip. Some friends to help is good, just remind them "No emotions" to keep out of a fight that would be in HIS shop.
 
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