How is your "Project" going?

[awr68]

I hired a guy in May to do My car (body/paint), he started on it in June, came out of the gate hard, but a week or two later he decided going fishing every weekend (3-4 day weekends) was way more fun than making good money. I put up with this for a few weeks before I fired him. It cost me $600 for his labor and another $400 in materials that I purchased myself, which I can still use most of them when I do the body work myself. And this was after telling him I didn't want the car to be in jail as I was trying to make a show next March, he agreed that that was doable...but thanks to him I lost the whole summer and never will make the show!!

I had a couple other guys come look at the project but since the car was mostly skimmed in bondo they really couldn't see what they were getting into. So I sanded the car totally down for the second time, nothing quite like sweeping up $600 worth of labor!! The funny thing is that seeing the car in bare metal again actually made me feel way better, it allowed me to move on and try to forget what has happened in the last few months.

I have now decided to do all the body work, paint the bottom and inside myself and get the car basically ready to paint the exterior, then have a local shop shoot the color and probably polish it as well. I figure it may take a little longer, maybe not, doing it this way, but atleast I can pretty much control the schedule and quality better than just taking it to a shop and rolling the dice, and I should have a good shot at driving it next summer...that's the new goal anyways!!

So If I were you I would go get your car, but not untill you have a new painter lined up and make for sure the new shop has an opening and don't beleive them when they say they will get to it in a month when things get caught up...that will never happen as you found out. I'm all about second chances, but come on, you can only try to put the fear of God into somone so many times!! GO GET YOUR CAR!!!

[Steve Chryssos]

All very good points (and far more useful than my ideas). I pulled my car. Aside from just being pissed and feeling insulted, I had a tight magazine deadline to deal with. So I waited until the car was in primer and then pulled the job.
To me, rule number one is to take the car to a shop that specializes in restorations and customs such as Prodigy Customs in Orlando--not a general collision shop. The lure of insurance claim money is just too great for them. Actually you could crash into your own car at his shop, put in a claim, and get it done faster!
Going to a custom shop usually costs more per hour--and they usually adhere to their hourly rates (no flat rate). But the results and total experience are usually worthwhile. I learned the same lesson with fabricators:
-Got a quote from the pro: $75/hr. Said no way--can't afford it.
-Went with the meat-head who quoted a flat rate that should have worked out to $35/hr. But then the guy banged me on the way out the door. Total charge from the meathead worked out to $75/hr anyway.
-And then I had to pay the pro $75/hr to fix the problems caused by the meat-head.

Total charge for my naive ignorance? Cha-ching: $150/hr for $75/hr value in work. Brilliant.

[awr68]

The crappy thing is that this was the first time I had to hire anyone's help on this project...kinda scared to take it anywhere now...but it still needs paint, headliner installed and back seat recovered....they aren't all flakes...are they??

I just whish Prodigy (Frank) was in the NW!!

[XcYZ]

A few weeks ago, Bouncer and I visited AutoKraft which is only a few hours from us. I really liked what I saw, and Kurt and company only deal with building cars, not doing insurance claims. As said above, working with a shop that deals specifically with restorations and custom cars may be more expensive up front, but it will be worth it in the long run.

See, that's proof that I may actually finish my car someday.

[Steve Chryssos]

Originally Posted by awr68

....they aren't all flakes...are they??

Not at all. Plenty of great shops out there. Funny thing is, the quality guys frequently have no b.s. personalities that might rub you the wrong way at first. But now, it's the "super nice guys" that make me leary. You know, that guy who practically offers to polish your pepperoni and promises you the moon.

[awr68]

Originally Posted by streetfytr68

the quality guys frequently have no b.s. personalities that might rub you the wrong way at first. But now, it's the "super nice guys" that make me leary. You know, that guy who practically offers to polish your pepperoni and promises you the moon.

That's funny cause the two other painters I recently had look at the car(highly recomended by the way) were all about business and didn't really want to just hang out...they had places to be. They looked at the car and shot me a price...plane and simple. The first guy who wasted my time and money on the other hand, just wanted to hang out and be more of a friend.

[ProdigyCustoms]

Interesting topic. Just 2 weeks ago I was all in my interior guy's face about being 3 days late on Bill's GTO. Star Jones telling the shop don't touch that Hyundai. Ask Bill if I wasn't ready to push a Volkswagen out of my upholstery mans shop! Basically I explained he was not touching anything else until my car (Bill's car) was done, and I would personally push the car out of the way. It's real damn simple. Do what you promise, and everything will be just fine!

We have a renewed understanding now, and he spends a lot of time trying to kiss and make up.

A suggestion for all of you. Ask a shop how long they need, offer them an additional 25% more time, but tell them you want a penalty clause if they run behind. $50 a day is what we do. Baring natural disasters or disablement of a key person, like me or Mike.

If the shop is not willing to commit to a penalty clause with a 25% added time to his best schedule estimate, he is lying or not confident. Nether would justify leaving your car there.

Which reminds me, I have 17 days to finish a 55 Chevy I took in 73 days. Gotta go now!

And oh yeah, that collision shop advice is well spoken.

[rockdogz]

Would that turn around to bite you though? Once the shop runs into its penalty phase, wouldn't it either rush it to get it out and throw craftsmanship out the window, or else back out on the deal? I know they wouldn't if they were a good shop, but then a good shop would likely not get into that predicament to begin with.