anyone ever heard of him? hes apparntly in beaumont,calif,about 45 miles before palm springs..
I have my 35 there, and would like to know if he is a first class builder. or con artist :-)
any comments pls
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Elwood:We're 105 miles from Chicago, we have a full tank of gas, half pack of cigarettes, it's dark out and we're wearing sunglasses.
Jake: Hit it.
Never heard of them. I ran thier name through the BBB but nothing came up. That could mean no complaints (a good thing) or it could mean they are new or it's a newer name.
Ran them through the Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) and they didn't come up as having a BAR license.. but some custom shops don't join the BAR.
Ask for references, LOTS of references. I find that more paint/body shop are bad than they are good. lol
Also, never pay up front. At Best Of Show in San Marcos they invoice every two weeks.. Also get everything in writing.
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"A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."
My first concern would be that their building is listed for sale.. the second would be all the cars piled up in front of it. lol
Seriously, I would ask them why the site is for sale. Is it thier landlord selling (my guess)? It would be a bummer to get a car in there and have something go wonky with the property.
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"A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."
Todd -- Your comments remind me of the time I was interviewing someone to build a Nomad for me... there is a shop that is well known in Huntington Beach... seems to turn out a car every other year or so. When I was shown around - MOST of the cars had 1/4" of old bondo dust on them - parts piled everywhere - under the car - hanging out of them - on tables all mixed up with the parts from the cars on either side...
I finally - in my own point blank way, said - "so.... do any of these cars actually leave here"?
There was an "excuse" for each of them -- but the real issue was -- the biggest baddest build was being worked on - while everyone else was just paying "rent". Needless to say - I RAN for the exit.
There was a so called "hot rod" business in a neihboring town that just closed up in the last couple of weeks and left around 25 customers high and dry. They collected as many deposits as possible, ripped apart their cars, cut off body panels, dissasembled engines and closed shop leaving customers with boxes of parts and in my opinion some of the cars are totaled. I saw this coming for the past year and half and I tell any prospective customers to do their homework, make sure they have a BAR license, insurance and plenty of references. If they ask for a deposit for labor -run!
BTW, I'm not saying this shop is anything like this and it may be a reputable place, but unfortunatly this happens all of the time in this industry.