:_paranoid :_paranoid Andy............. Calm down! Do I have to send Curtis over there ???:P Your not alone..

I think Chris' original remarks are geared toward a ever growing group of people who have seen the interest in cars spread and are trying to cash in. The television has brought cars into a more mainstream movement with overhaulin, barret jackson auctions on tv, etc...

Robby Ray is sitting there watching Barret Jackson in his lazyboy on the front porch and a light goes on in his head; "Heck that rust bucket out in Ned's field could be worth $$$$, with some bondo and paint. So he proceeds to build a car out of bondo and bailing wire. It will look good for a month or so and then it goes down hill.

We all know someone like this, these are the people I think Chris was targeting.

Yes Dead on I am not out to point any fingers or names the guys that do this kind of work know who they are. I just wanted to point out some fine detials on what to look for so it wont happen as much. I know they will go on making crap cars but if everyone buying a car knows what to look for it will make it harder for them.

There is always going to be those guys, Buyers just need to be careful when buying a car, that is a good point Chris.

So why don't we start a thread and allow Chris and a few of our other talented builders to walk us through the process of buying and building a car. It can start with a simple walk around, when buying. Tricks that are used to cover up the stuff that none of us want to end up with. Then it can move onto picking a shop for our virtual project. One that will build a typical PT type car. They can post pictures and give info that educates us all on what things should look like at every stage of a build.

I doubt we can ever stop people from ripping each other off, but maybe we can help keep this from happening to our members here at LG.

That is a great idea Curits, I did not start this post to knock any shops. Just to make people aware of bad work. I am getting tired of people bringing cars into my shop like this, it takes way to long to fix and cost double to do. I just want guys to watch what they buy and make sure they check the cars out. Big and small shops need to step it up and work together to help stop this stuff.

Hey now...leave me out of this :)..... the car in my field is pretty nice.....

Well, I have to agree with Chris' original post in that the bad work out there is becomming more apparent. I think it's mainly because of the mad rush to make fast money when muscle cars (especially Camaro's) started going through the roof several years ago. Before I met Todd, I was building a car for another customer. He had purchased a Camaro online but not ebay. I'd have to say that the car looked as advertised when it arrived. The seller said it was ready to paint with no rust and it looked close to that description when it showed up. Well I saw a small bit of seam sealer on the floor durring disassembly and decided to pick at it. I didn't stop picking until the Car needed a new floor, firewall, outer houses, fenders, etc....you get the picture. The LH door was hitting the "A" pillar so I pulled on it and found a 1/4" gap that was filled with duraglass. Actually, the pillar was no longer attached to the car. The replacement quarters were not even welded to the door jam and they never fixed the wheelhouses. Can't tell you how many times I see guys put quarters on without fixing the wheelhouses. If that customer would have had me just paint the car and not fix it, I'm sure it would have killed him. The lack of welds throughout was incredible. I think a lot of novices have no idea of what "Uni-body" means or even care about safety.

To say the buyer was at fault would be correct to an extent since he didn't pay for an inspection or inspect the car himself. He spent another $10k on the car just to have me fix all the problems. It came from a body shop who filled it full of mud to get it out the door. Just like Chris' friend, they did a great job making it look like all the rust was repaired properly.

I also agree that ebay has a lot of junk, but you do on rare occasion find a good solid car. "Payback" came from ebay and it was a very solid car. I remeber looking at the car for Todd and was very surprised at how good it really was. I told Todd that if he didn't buy the car I would. Like many have already said in this thread, don't go cheap and always personally inspect any facility doing work for you if possible. Customers shell out a lot of money for what they expect to be quality work. There are however customers who want to cut corners to save a buck. I usually tell those customers to find another shop because my name is on the line. I also doubt if they would tell anyone that they told me to do a crappy job. Some shops have no sense of pride because they are rulled by the almighty dollar. I'm a different breed. I do this because I actually like it and take great pride in giving a quality job as I'm sure the shops that are a part of Lat-g do as well.

Here's a few pics of the Camaro I mentioned above.


Both quarters were never welded to the jam
http://i595.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/100_1395.jpg

"A" pillar cob job!
http://i595.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/100_1297.jpg

Nice floor pan repair with Duraglass!
http://i595.photobucket.com/albums/t...m/100_1097.jpg

WOW.... just WOW, is all I can say after reading this whole thread