Troubles in paradise..
 

These are the times that try men's souls... the ending stretch of a project.

Been working hard to get the car done by the Good Guys Del Mar show and things were looking good. To help get stuff done I decided to trade cash for time and hire an electrician to tidy up the wiring in the car.

Now keep in mind that things like the headlights, turn signals and such worked before the rebuild and mainly required the reconnection of wires. I also wanted a 12v plug added (for a cell phone, etc), the wire ran to the switch for the electric trunk latch, horn button on the dash, wires ran to the various (already installed) sensors, and the gauge wiring cleaned up. Found a guy that charged a very reasonable $30 and hour to do the work and got him busy. That was three weeks ago.

He would come into the shop for a few hours each day, skipping some days. After awhile I got a bill for $405 (13.5 hours). At this point nothing worked, but I did see some new wires and I know electrical can be a pain. Last friday, when I was on vacation, I got a call from him saying that "I'm trying to hook up the speedo and the instructions reference a yellow wire, I can't find one??". I suggest he call Stewart Warner's tech line and ask (what am I supposed to do, he's the electrician and I'm not even there..) Turns out he didn't read all the instructions and there was an addendum about the yellow wire. hmmm.

So Friday he tells the guys at the shop that he want's to be paid again. How much? How about another $900 (30 hours). **** goes out to inspect the work for me and NOTHING works except the gauge lights. No turn signals, no brake lights, the headlights come one in high beam only and are very dim, no horn and worst of all not even the trunk latch was finished (it's a one wire deal, not even a ground wire). **** tells the guy that he needs to speak to me and that I'm not going to be happy. He was right.

Met the guy at the shop yesterday and proceeds to tell me I need to give him $900 more. I say "so, I supposed to give you $1300 and almost nothing works???" He says "well, that's the hours I have in it" and I ask "so how much more $$$ to finish, $1000? $2000?" and he says "I don't know"

So after 43 hours of working on my car he not only hasn't finished anything he doesn't even have a clue what more needs to be done. I asked why the easiest thing on the car, the trunk latch, doesn't even work and he says "It has a bad ground".. that's BS since we tested it during install by toucing the red wire to the battery.. was grounded fine. Then the excuses started (all my fault of course)

"It's wrong to ground the battery to the roll cage, the ground need to be ran to the starter"

"The switch panel is all wrong" (even though it worked fine before.. It's just switches)

"I was just doing what you wanted"

Uh, no... I told him how the car was wired and gave him carte blanch to do whatever he needed to make it work. If an old way to sound the horn was bad then he could come up with a better way. I'm NOT the electrician, I leave technical decisions to the "professionals". I should make it clear that the guy didn't work for Best Of Show, I hired him independently.

So, I'm mad and now behind schedual. I was going to pay him $600 but the more I looked at the work the madder I got. The final straw was later in the day when we started the car. I noticed the speedometer was acting erratic (car sitting still, engine running). When I reved the car the speedo moved! The guy hooked the tach wire to the speedo!!! Those wires even came marked from Speartech.. lol

Anyways, I hate being a jerk and not paying but I hate shelling out tons of cash for nothing. He has $405 and I might pay him another $200 or $400. I know the guy was there "putting in the time", but I think it was just over his head and he was unorganized. My angry side tells me to say "bite me, sue me in court if you want anymore $" but I hate being like that. I think I will have another electrician assess his work and give me an opinion. If it's all junk that needs to be redone he gets nothing, if there was good and proper work done he will get some. I want to be fair without getting screwed. Oh the drama...

So here I am, a week and a half to get my car done enough for Good Guys and I am missing basic fuctions like working fans, brake lights and head lights. argh!!!!!!!

Anyone know a GOOD electrician in SoCal? lol -- seriously, I need to find someone ASAP. I think I'm going to call some of the bigger shops and ask who they use.

The only good news is that he guys at Best Of Show had been doing great work on thier projects and I did make some progress when I worked on the car yesterday.

this is a long shot, but try scott, he use to live here but live sout there and works for spectre. worth a shot. 402 680 8853. tell him brian refured him.

Thanks, will call tomorrow.. I can do it but I just don't have the time off work to take and next weekend I am covering the Super Chevy show in Fontucky..

Super chevy show in Fontucky? Where? When? Im bored I want to go. 5 miles from Fontucky.

If you want it done right... the first time...

E&J Wireworks
14045 Kirkham Way, Suite 102
Poway, CA 92064

Phone: 858-748-3494

They are about 15 minutes south of Coachworks.

Thanks, will call them tomorrow.. the shop needs to find a good local source as well. :)

I put two tenths on my odometer with the car ideling.. my speedotachometer is the newest and latest craze!!

Wow that sucks. I would have someone else do it, and ask them if this other guy should be paid. Don't feel too bad, my car is not going to make the deadline either. Just found out I have wrong supercharger parts and some stuff had not been sent yet.

That sucks.. I was going to arrange for your car to be parked by my old '69.. that would have looked super cool :)

Going to come down and check out the event anyways?

The sad part is that I have a whole new American Autowire rear loom, he could have just spliced it in.

It should be noted that my car doesn't have the stock wiring, there is no OEM fuse panel, so it's a bit trickier.. but it all worked before the rebuild.

My car has a new wiring system as well, and had a few light issues with it, (ie horn, fuel pump, head light door) but other then that everything is neat and works fine. I doubt that I will be down there if the car cannot be finished. I will be there for the next major show whenever that is, let me know and Ill make plans for it. I'm an electrician and I would not touch the wiring in these cars either, and I charge a lot more then $30 per hour. Having your car and my done would be the reason why I went down in the first place, and now both cars won't be there. At least mine won't. Sorry to hear that Steve.

Just to give you an idea of the quality of the work they do, here are some pictures of their typical work. These pictures are of McMillans prerunner for M&M PRO truck. You can also find more on their web site, http://www.enjwireworks.com/

During:
http://www.enjwireworks.com/photo/ph..._MMtruck03.jpg

And what it looks like when completed:

Finished:
http://www.enjwireworks.com/photo/ph..._MMtruck05.jpg

Damn Steve sorry to hear about that! :mad:

For a complete wire install I budget 40 hrs for a hotrod type install. For something with a computer etc, maybe another 10 hrs. So for 50 total that thing should be completely wired, troubleshot, and to your liking.

And I'll second Scott for the work. He builds Megasquirts and wiring for cars, and is a computer geek. Nice combo for wiring...:yes:

The computer was all wired already and the car ran, there were only a few leads for the speedo and tach. Plus my car has very few "bells and whistles"... no ac, heat, audio, dome light, etc.

43 hours and nothing works yet was just unaccepable.. the tachospeedometer just blew my mind as did the inop trunk latch that only needed one wire hooked up to work.

At CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY.. next weekend :)

Drag Racing and a car show all in one.. I'm shooting it for the mag.

wire,wire,wire
 

Steve,
Big Bummer, For car with a harness already in it a person shouldn't have over 40 hours to do the job and that is taking your time. A complete rewire with new custom harness takes about 40-80 hours depending on systems needed FYI. In regards to Mike's car we just don't have enough time to get it done, even if we get the parts needed by tomorrow. Not with Good Guy's Pleasanton and then Del Mar. For Del Mar we have to put cars in the boxes on the 27th, Good Guy's wants us venders with trailers in ther on the 28th.
Well we see you there and are you coming to the shoot and testing?

Kevin
CAR

Steve -

Sorry to hear about getting the electrical "shaft". Sounds like the guys on this board have given you a good electrician to contact. It probably doesn't give you enough time, but any major boat manufacturers in So Cal will know great electricians. Wiring a quality boat is a pisser because you HAVE to make sure everything is grounded correctly. No shortcuts. Fiberglass just doesn't work real well for grounding...lol.

Hey Kevin, believe me, you guys are not the reason why my car won't be done. It's all a parts thing. Ill do other shows down the line. I was hoping to have it done so Steve could shoot it, but Ill get together with him when we both have time and or a show together.

call me strange but over 40 hours to completely wire a car.. im really hard pressed to believe it! either way you need to fire your electrician and try someone else. the whole tach/ speedo thing is just rediculous..

Your electrician isn't the same guy that was on Monster House a few years back, is he?



_______________________
- Dan

The "electrician"
 

hate to hear about your predicament Steve. First thought that came to mind is to figure out what the faulty work is worth to you and pay the guy clearly marking "Paid in Full" on the check. It will then be arguable that he has no claim. It would really be bad for him to put a mechanics lein on it considering the crappy job he did.

Just a thought.

You might try SoCal speed shop. See if they have a guy that might want evening work.

Sorry to hear Steve :( .

David

That sucks, sorry Steve

What happened to the guy that posted on here about starting a business for wiring jobs. Used to do race car stuff? Sorry to hear Steve, it sucks, and no I would not give him more money just to be a nice guy. He F'd the wiring up make absolute stupid mistakes it sounds like. Cut your losses.

Mike

I would not pay him anymore money
 

if anyhing I would ask for a refund. Apparently he does not know what he is doing.

I feel for you dude, really!

What kit is in that car originally...painless, ez wire or AAW? Did you pull all fo the wiring while you were working on it?

I will start wiring mine tomorrow. I will put mine on hold, ship yours out to me, and I will do it for free. You can pick it up at the Year One event, after I take a few hot laps at Road Atlanta.

seriously man, give scott a call, he will be more then happy to help you out im positive. he loved doing that kinda stuff when he lived here.

Ok, I'm lost on who "Scott" is? E&J?

I must still have jet lag.. lol

Thanks Payton.. I just boxed up Penny and shipped her to you via UPS next-day air.. it cost me eleven million dollars, but I know you do good wiring :yes:

The wiring in the car wasn't a kit, it was custom but done fairly neatly and everything worked when we tore it apart.

Oh, I see now.. duh! lol

But his area code shows that he's in Nebraska...

Our electricians take less man hours to wire a whole house!! And I am talking a 4500 sq foot house too. Big fat a$$ bummer Steve.

yea, i live in nebraska, and so did he. he moved out to so cal and is working for spectre and still has his nebraska number. hope that helps. :)

Thanks! I did get in contact with E&J and have an appoitment for next Monday. He says he can do it all in one day, maybe two. All I need for Good Guys is the basics like brake lights, head lights and cooling fans. Seemed like a good guy and they are swamped with work, which is a good thing.

He laughed when I told him the other guy had 43 hours in the car. He said that on a car as simple as mine (not many accesories) it should be a couple days max.

I will keep Scotts info ready though.

This gives me this week to finish mechanics and install the stock interior back in, monday/tuesday for elec, wed for final cleanup and detail then take to Good Guys on Thursday. After GG I will get her tuned and the nice interior.

Ahh, gotta love deadlines :)

WEW I'm tired after readding all that!!

Sounds like you got it handled though!! :thumbsup:

FWIW, a couple summers ago I hired a bodyman/painter that pulled the same thing with me. Didn't show up enough and did shotty work! I paid him for his time and with all the materials I bought to use I had $800 into it...and in the end I sanded all his work down and put it all in the trash...yeah I was PISSED!!

I cleared a space in the garage
 

next to my 1:1 die cast of a pro-touring 69 camaro and just need to put the plexi-glass cover back over it. What is the tracking number?