Paint Jail...how long is too long?

[slimjim]

I'm a plus 1 for picking it up, and/or negotiating a deal to go out there for a day and with his helper or himself, assemble/gap the car with them to get it on a truck that afternoon. If he can't spare himself or his helper a day to free up a whole lot of shop space then I'd be confident that he has no enthusiasm to see it through.

On the bright side I see 2 huge positives.

1. his work looks really good! as far as body shop nightmares go, it looks like you're at least getting some quality, and not a total hack job. (based on those photos alone, and not knowing what's underneath).

2. If you're willing, learning the cut and buff stage yourself is a great skill to take forward in maintaining your show quality car, take it from someone with no experience, who learnt this week.

[redbull396]

I'm a plus 1 for picking it up, and/or negotiating a deal to go out there for a day and with his helper or himself, assemble/gap the car with them to get it on a truck that afternoon. If he can't spare himself or his helper a day to free up a whole lot of shop space then I'd be confident that he has no enthusiasm to see it through.

On the bright side I see 2 huge positives.

1. his work looks really good! as far as body shop nightmares go, it looks like you're at least getting some quality, and not a total hack job. (based on those photos alone, and not knowing what's underneath).

2. If you're willing, learning the cut and buff stage yourself is a great skill to take forward in maintaining your show quality car, take it from someone with no experience, who learnt this week.

Thank you. Per our last convo, he is going to get the inners, etc. painted soon, and front end assembled, and lined up. I told him not to worry about cut and buff, that I would take care of that. It's not something I want to do, but something I feel confident in doing, as I have done it before, and have all the materials/tools to do so.

As far as quality, it has been superb. The guy is very good at what he does, and is super meticulous. However, "bedside" manners and business skills are severely lacking.

[thumper877]

Hopefully he sticks to the painted soon agreement since he didn't the first time

[TheJDMan]

Stories like this are why I have never gotten too excited about getting "Dust Off" repainted. That and the fact my paint is chipped enough that I'm not too worried about a few new chips after a track day.

[Alwhite00]

I didn't pay up front, stated that, I have paid him installments as work has been done.

You said you were at 85% I don't know but let's say 20k. You paid him 17k so he doesn't want to do all of the remaining work for 3k. You should be at about 50% payment at this point. I don't know what the answer to your problem is but I can see what happened.

[redbull396]

You said you were at 85% I don't know but let's say 20k. You paid him 17k so he doesn't want to do all of the remaining work for 3k. You should be at about 50% payment at this point. I don't know what the answer to your problem is but I can see what happened.

Yea, I see what you are saying. This is my first rodeo with a project like this, and had no clue what a ratio of progress to payment should be. You're numbers aren't far off. I was quoted 15 for the job, plus material. New quarters, smooth firewall, had all new front end sheet metal. Obviously, fit everything first and tear back apart. He has done an excellent job, just slow. At this point, he has 12k, and half the front end on. We had some down time due to getting AC lines/fittings to run through the pass fender and hide from the engine bay.
Dude has actually been cool, and seems eager to finish after we had it out. Maybe he was just in a bad place, and I was short on patience. Either way, will be 3 years in April, and no matter how ya slice it, that's too long!

[Kevin Campbell]

Yea, I see what you are saying. This is my first rodeo with a project like this, and had no clue what a ratio of progress to payment should be. You're numbers aren't far off. I was quoted 15 for the job, plus material. New quarters, smooth firewall, had all new front end sheet metal. Obviously, fit everything first and tear back apart. He has done an excellent job, just slow. At this point, he has 12k, and half the front end on. We had some down time due to getting AC lines/fittings to run through the pass fender and hide from the engine bay.
Dude has actually been cool, and seems eager to finish after we had it out. Maybe he was just in a bad place, and I was short on patience. Either way, will be 3 years in April, and no matter how ya slice it, that's too long!

Not to detract from your concerns. From the images you've shared, and the work you described, you got a killer deal on what appears to be some excellent quality work.

Unlike so many stories that we hear often about shops that not only do not complete cars, but outright steal items or disappear, yours seems to be coming to a pleasant conclusion. Congrats, Beautiful car.

[redbull396]

Not to detract from your concerns. From the images you've shared, and the work you described, you got a killer deal on what appears to be some excellent quality work.

Unlike so many stories that we hear often about shops that not only do not complete cars, but outright steal items or disappear, yours seems to be coming to a pleasant conclusion. Congrats, Beautiful car.

Thank you. That is the one silver lining here, dude is doing a killer job, and is well known for his quality work. I am finding out now, after the fact, that he is well known for taking his sweet time on things. I have encountered a couple of people that have dealt with the same in the past from the builder, and of course, ya never find this stuff out until after the fact.
There's light at the end of the tunnel, but yes, he is doing a phenomenal job quality wise.

[Kevin Campbell]

You can tell by the work he puts out that he has a passion for it, and likely makes little per hour on restorations or completes compared to insurance jobs. Even a conservative 500 hour build at a low end $75/hr would be $37500 in labor alone, and out of that labor, rent/ mortgage, utilities and such are gone before he even sees a dime.

All those insurance jobs likely subsidized him being able to tackle your job simply because he loves the sense of satisfaction seeing the finished product. He could have easily concentrated on fender benders and made more money.

At the end, hopefully, you’ll get the car you wished for, albeit later than planned, but it isn’t hacked together and needs to be completely redone at three times the price.

[gto406]

Only $12k - and you have received this level of work/finish?! Screaming good deal IMHO. Paint jobs - especially looking that nice (these days) are usually well above that. Hell, paint and materials are ridiculous. I have statements from my ‘69 Bird (finished Oct ‘22) to corroborate!

One idea: consider awarding him a finishing ‘bonus’ of 10% - if he finishes the car per your ‘reasonable’ deadline - payable at completion / with your final draw amount.

That would be an act of goodwill, on your part - and may motivate him to get the car done.

If he doesn’t meet the deadline (based on agreed version of ‘done’) then he forfeits the bonus. Your no worse off - 1 way or the other.

Car is looking really nice, I am sure all the heart-ache will fade once your driving/enjoying the car!

[redbull396]

Only $12k - and you have received this level of work/finish?! Screaming good deal IMHO. Paint jobs - especially looking that nice (these days) are usually well above that. Hell, paint and materials are ridiculous. I have statements from my ‘69 Bird (finished Oct ‘22) to corroborate!

One idea: consider awarding him a finishing ‘bonus’ of 10% - if he finishes the car per your ‘reasonable’ deadline - payable at completion / with your final draw amount.

That would be an act of goodwill, on your part - and may motivate him to get the car done.

If he doesn’t meet the deadline (based on agreed version of ‘done’) then he forfeits the bonus. Your no worse off - 1 way or the other.

Car is looking really nice, I am sure all the heart-ache will fade once your driving/enjoying the car!

I reckon that's one positive thing about living in BFE WV, we don't have big city prices on many things. Yes, 12 in labor so far, and I have about 4k in materials. This paint was 1800/gal.
Funny you mention the deadline bonus, I tried that and offered another 2k on top to have the car done by end of January, this was beginning of November. He was very put off by that, and informed me he doesn't do deadlines. I know why, bc he currently has 3 insurance jobs sitting in his shop.

[dhutton]

Guys who are telling you that you got a great deal when it’s still not finished three years into the job must be young. At my age 3 years is a significant portion of the time I have left. It’s complete BS imho and that’s why I started doing my own body and paint.

Never trust a one man shop with multiple cars in process….

Don

[2gofaster]

Oh man, I'm living this scenario too. That said, I'm only going on 23 months. The guy came recommended by everyone around me. That said, its coming to a close as it's being assembled now. In June I came back from a 6 week out of the country trip to find he'd only moved it from one slot to another. I went over there spoiling for a fight. It's still taken 7 months to near completion. The silly thing is I outsourced it because I was busy and it would have taken me 18 months to get the paint done. So now Im 5 months over that and my wallet is $50k lighter.

What's too long? Anything where the timeline is not communicated properly. And that is what was happening with me. He is terrible at estimating deliverables. I wasn't even asking for cost estimate. And he is terrible at staging work in his shop. He'd call me and say "Ok, we're out of hours." And within 24 hours I'd show up with a stack of $50s. Only to then have it sit for 6 weeks. That's a no interest loan, in my book. Just a bad business man. Nice guy. But a bad businessman.

Sorry to hear someone else going through it.

[redbull396]

"Ok, we're out of hours." And within 24 hours I'd show up with a stack of $50s. Only to then have it sit for 6 weeks. That's a no interest loan, in my book. Just a bad business man. Nice guy. But a bad businessman.

Sorry to hear someone else going through it.

To a T the same thing I have dealt with!! It has been very frustrating, as I am sure you know all too well. Are we sure our cars aren't at the same shop?!? lmao

[redbull396]

Seeing some progress… (never mind the horribly offset front wheels, just rollers for now)

[Hopperj7]

what is a decent amount of time to wait for a paint job? I am curious as I look to get mine painted next year.