Vertigo is now at Gearhead Garage!

[Flash68]

Originally Posted by WaterCooledNelds

I've really enjoyed reading your posts tonite, even if one of them in particular probably scared Jason into immediately going back to the shop to work on your car all nite!

Ha, I think I may have! He is probably not liking this thread anymore with my "public timelines"

But in all seriousness, Jason and his crew have been kickin ass on this car while running a very busy and popular shop up there. I'm glad to see his business doing well in this tough economy. Speaks volumes....

[fleetus macmullitz]

Originally Posted by Flash68

I'm glad to see his business doing well in this tough economy. Speaks volumes....

Agreed.

We hear enough all day about businesses laying people off. so it is good to hear about a quality shop thriving.

[R67Chevelle]

I do not mean to offend or maybe I need some understanding. I have a 67 chevelle that it appears that I may have the finances again in the next 6 months to completely redo the way I want but time is the issue.

I don't want to wait 1 to 3 years either for someone else to build for me. I could do a complete redo on my chevelle myself in 2-3 years easily (did it back 20 years ago).

Gearhead seems to be a very good company as well as fesler, D&Z and some others. But your car seemed to take an aweful long time for the to finish up. Your prior was just plain redickulous.

As long as things are not too radical is 6-8 months for a project even possible?

You have seemed to have waited for an aweful long time and way exceeded your original budget.

You do however have a great looking car, and it has turned out very nice.

Blessings,
AMS

[Flash68]

Originally Posted by R67Chevelle

I do not mean to offend or maybe I need some understanding. I have a 67 chevelle that it appears that I may have the finances again in the next 6 months to completely redo the way I want but time is the issue.

I don't want to wait 1 to 3 years either for someone else to build for me. I could do a complete redo on my chevelle myself in 2-3 years easily (did it back 20 years ago).

Gearhead seems to be a very good company as well as fesler, D&Z and some others. But your car seemed to take an aweful long time for the to finish up. Your prior was just plain redickulous.

As long as things are not too radical is 6-8 months for a project even possible?

You have seemed to have waited for an aweful long time and way exceeded your original budget.

You do however have a great looking car, and it has turned out very nice.

Blessings,
AMS

No offense taken.

To clarify some details of my saga, I let the first guy have a crack at it (a 1-man operation with experience building fairly simple muscle cars with bolt-on mods). I had problems with progress on the car from the start, and even though some of it was his doing, his subcontractors (fabricator, painter, interior) were pretty much worthless. I am not going to name names - it's a small town and no one on Lateral G even knows these people anyway. But I let things go on and on long enough and finally pulled the car from him in late 2008. I also let it go on too long because I had become friends with the guy, went to SEMA with him, hung out with him and his wife, bla bla bla. My mistake there, but what can ya do.

And, like many guys who get into a project, I kept adding cooler and better parts here and there and extending the budget. I have extended my budget, yes, but only by choice, not because I was given a low bid on work or labor. I have no beef with the guy's pricing - I had a beef with his progress, or lack thereof. I wasn't building a Ridler car here, just a nice street car with mostly bolt-ons and a few new cool parts, or so I thought.

Since taking the car to Gearhead Garage, things have been rolling and progressing to my satisfaction. The only times things have slowed down a little is when they had shows or something to go to and get cars ready for them, which I completely understand. I also slowed the project down at one point a few months ago for financial reasons. The parts and labor management has been pretty good as we have worked together to make sure there have always something to work on with the car and we weren't waiting for parts.

Also, I can't expect to have my car brought in to their large shop and instantly take priority. And of course we have run into a few unanticipated snags here and there, and I have added a couple new minor things here and there, but by and large, things happen on my car every week. My car had no progress for weeks and sometimes months in my previous experience. I get pissed just thinking about it.....

I cannot begin to estimate a timeframe for your build as I do not know what exactly you are looking to do or how much work you have done so far.

I admit the building of a car from pretty much scratch is more work than I had anticipated, but my car should've been able to be built in less than 1 year easily if in the right hands from the start. I don't think anyone will disagree with me on that.

Thanks for the kind words. I love the 66-67 Chevelles... I sold my 66 last year to a guy in the Netherlands!

[gearheadgarage]

Generally, a restoration or ProTouring car takes roughly 1 year to build. That is a pretty generic statement though.....How far off the deep end is the car? Are we talking full show car w/ all the bells and whistles? Then it's longer. If it's a regular pro-touring driver car of highest quality, the add-ons will likely not be as extensive.

We perform ALL of the required services that make up a build. As such, we can schedule much of the work to happen at the same time. PLUS, if we know what we're building, and how then we can order EVERYTHING in advance- as long as money isn't a limiting factor. This allows cars to fly together. Didia 1968 RS/SS conv't w/ candy paint and EVERY add-on in 6 mos.

It is important to understand that a car must be assembled, disassembled, reassembled at a minimum to get a good build. Paint & body needs time to cure and outgas, that cannot be rushed.

Unfortunately, we live in the real world, and most people are scraping up the money to build these projects. It is very seldom that a guy walks in and signs over a check for $100-300k to build his car quickly. As long as parts and funds are there, building a car is pretty straight-forward.

Last note: Remember this......develop a build plan & try to stick with it!!! Otherwise, throw timeliness out the window!! It is cheapest & fastest to stick to a build plan

[R67Chevelle]

FLASH68 & GEARHEADGARAGE

thanks for the clairity. Like I said I was not trying to say something negative either way, but just courious. When Im ready I will follow the suggestions and advice. Appologize if I did a hyjack here... again awesome car and awesome work....Thanks...

Blessings,
AMS

[Vegas69]

It looks really easy from the outside looking in. These are custom builds. There is an old saying. Custom ain't cheap and it ain't easy. If you're in a hurry to build one of these cars, you best find a new hobby. I have to add that once the car is complete it's not done by a long shot. There are going to be things that need redesigned, tweaked, and tuned on every car.

[fleetus macmullitz]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

I have to add that once the car is complete it's not done by a long shot. There are going to be things that need redesigned, tweaked, and tuned on every car.

What you're doing Todd, updating your threads when you do the above is a big help to alot of us. Same when Steve Rupp and a number of others do. Much more educational and fun for us onlookers than just seeing the finished product pics.

[Flash68]

Word.

[R67Chevelle]

Originally Posted by Vegas69

It looks really easy from the outside looking in. These are custom builds. There is an old saying. Custom ain't cheap and it ain't easy. If you're in a hurry to build one of these cars, you best find a new hobby. I have to add that once the car is complete it's not done by a long shot. There are going to be things that need redesigned, tweaked, and tuned on every car.

Never said it was easy or in a hurry either. Iam not looking for undercarriage perfection that you can eat off of. Ideas though out a build can change and so does the budget. You right about one thing "once a car is complete it not done".

Like Jeff hanson's TECH9 is a work of art. If I had bought that, I don't think I could not drive it because its almost in my opinion TOO nice. Even your camaro in my opinion is almost too NICE. ) in a good way. (I lived in Vegas for 10 years up until the end of 2007 and the construction trucks and debris on the roads ate the crap out of my daily cars.)

If a chip or a small scrach happens I don't want to have a melt down over a 20-30K paint job either.

I give credit where credit is due... Thanks for the suggestions...

Blessings,
AMS