69 Nova

[jeds]

Well...I got to have my turn at a crappy shop experience!

2 years ago, I dropped my car at a shop that was recommended by a few folks. The punch list wasn't long... cage, firewall, rear bulk head, move motor back, box frame.

As of 2 weeks ago, there was still no firewall (hacked out)..or bulkhead (hacked out)...or cage... and the frame hadn't been boxed. The motor had been moved, but the motor and trans mounts needed to be completely re-done.

Every month, week, day there was some excuse as to why work wasn't getting done. So...I finally made a date to just pick up the car and move on.

In the 2 weeks since I saw the car last, the frame was mostly boxed in, 80% of a cage was bent up and tacked in, and the motor mounts were 90% done. 2 freakin' years of waiting for nothing, and a big chunk of work was done at the last second in less than 2 weeks.

Now I have to comb over the car to audit all the work and see what can be salvaged, and what needs to be redone. Everything is covered in 2 years of grinding dust, parts are scattered everywhere, small bits are missing, and on and on....

I need to decide to pick up some tools and do it my damn self, or go find another shop that may or may-not jerk me around.

Silver lining is, I have my car back, and he basically didn't charge me anything for the amazing experience.

[Build-It-Break-it]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. We've all been there at one point. I was always under the impression that you were doing the work yourself at home?? What shop was it? It'll help others avoid the bad experience.

I would try and find another shop on this site that's reputable, since you "saved" all that money getting your car back for "free".

Keep pushing forward tho it's a cool build.

[jeds]

Some of the work was done at home, but most of the metal stuff was done at a shop.

I'm really leaning towards doing the work myself. Writing checks is boring, and I kind of feel like I'm missing out on a large part of the build process experience. I'll gladly pay someone to do body work though, when the time comes.

The shop was Racetech Motorsports (one man shop).