atomic orange

[BonzoHansen]

Car looks great. I like that color a lot. What makes me LOL is unfisnished it is getting more 'miles' then a lot of finished cars. LOLx2

[awesometool]

I got the for sure I'm picking it up tomorrow can not wait to see it with the hood on and complete. I Will be posting the tomorrow yaaaaaaaahoooooooooo its been seventeen months since it left my house. Might not be able to sleep tonight.

[formula98]

17 months, that's all (lol) I'm looking forward to the pictures. I'd have trouble sleeping!

[chopshopcustoms]

I got the for sure I'm picking it up tomorrow can not wait to see it with the hood on and complete. I Will be posting the tomorrow yaaaaaaaahoooooooooo its been seventeen months since it left my house. Might not be able to sleep tonight.

It really did come out beautiful.It was amazing on how far it came from the shell it started with all the way to this beauty.

Here is a copy of the slide show of the work done here:

http://www.slide.com/r/7T9l-44y5j9mP...03158277894737

Thank you.

[awesometool]

Well today was one of the worst experience I ever had. When to pick it up at chopshopcustom and it had 8 large chips in paint a couple filled as if it was done with finger nail polish brush, three 1" look likes hairs in clear coat, lots of small bubbles but under clear coat, scratches everwhere and some of the paint is only green no orange and I don understand why it would be green only? After having to pull one of chop-shopcustoms employee away from pushing my wife and all of his guys telling me you only spent 40,000.00 so we can not fix the chip and of stuff and Lenny saying screaming at his guys and me he said he could fix that but it would have to be in the future. I know I'm picky but macco painted my chevelle and it came out PERFECT NOT GOOD BUT PERFECT. Anyways I guess it going to need to be painted again. I have a nice 15 footer paint job. The metal work was extremely good. This is my first time I have ever been taken for a ride and it sucks. To upset to post pictures today so maybe tomorrow. Does anyone know of a good honest place local to south shore in Boston to get it repainted? What a ****ty day.

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

W O A H!.... wtf...

post pictures dude...

[chopshopcustoms]

Well today was one of the worst experience I ever had. he said he could fix that but it would have to be in the future. I know I'm picky but macco painted my chevelle and it came out PERFECT NOT GOOD BUT PERFECT. Anyways I guess it going to need to be painted again. I have a nice 15 footer paint job. The metal work was extremely good. This is my first time I have ever been taken for a ride and it sucks. To upset to post pictures today so maybe tomorrow. Does anyone know of a good honest place local to south shore in Boston to get it repainted? What a ****ty day.

Unfortunately, the end of the job didnt end like I expected either- I thought this would end nicely. The car is a head turner, WAS offered a photo shoot ina Primedia mag (which I will now cancel) and the owner doesnt understand what he has -which is a $150,000 build for less than 1/2 of what should have been charged. A lot of the work (after I ran the numbers) was done for free- I did the entire car for less than $30000 labor. The paint job , which took over 200 hours alone was done for about $3200 labor- who got screwed here? (I had agreed to that price in a contract to get it finished so I could show it on behalf of my shop- that was the agreement-which I guess wont be happening now) I know in the future, I wont put myself in a position of trading off work costs for advertising use- its not the right move and I have learned that the hard way.

I would be glad to show any of the invoices to anyone who asks- again- I have an open door policy in my shop-the actual car work without parts purchased ran about $27K- thats pitifully small chump change.(Which no offense - I wont ever do again...I lost $$ on this car after paying my overhead and staff) We all know that this car should have been 3 times that amount for the metalwork alone.
For those of you who have seen it- the Orange 'Sweet & low' car that has been in a myriad of magazines in the past year was done for $180K + and the builder of that car was amazed at the work we did on this Camaro.

(here is a link to the image of it ) http://www.chop-shopcustoms.com/wow04.jpg

The 'green paint the owner is talking about is the pearl in the orange. (Which is gold) When highlighting areas like roof lines,body lines etc- the pearl will be more prevalent- hence the 'green' (which is the flop color of the gold pearl) the owner is talking about- nothing wrong here- just someone who doesnt understand the paint they chose.

If you think MAACO does a 'perfect' paint job and like the way they do their 'show' paint jobs and what they charge- feel free to go to MAACO.

I run an upstanding business and stand behind my work and my staff.

It sad that this had to end this way- and that the car was taken away with an industrial car hauler yesterday- I can only imagine the damage that was done hooking the tow chain underneath and wrapping the tires and then driving an OPEN trailer down the road after all that work. With no door rubbers on the car yet - I bet the doors banged all the way home -makes me cringe just thinking of it..

One of the many reasons I have an enclosed trailer to haul customer cars with- I would have been happy to take it home, but the owner never asked .

The owner viewed the paint prior to picking the car up yesterday, yet didnt have any complaints then- only when your wife came along to pay your final bill- and proceeded the slam the doors to a newly painted car -not too cool I may add .

In my 25 years of doing custom work, I have NEVER seen someone like this come through ANY shop I have ever worked in- here or on the West Coast, and choreograph such a scene. Again, I commend my staff for keeping their cool and just trying to keep the peace . I had other customers there at that time, and it really was an embarassment (for you).

I have had cars go to Pebble Beach as well as won numerous National awards in large shows, Barrett Jackson auctions and on the ISCA circuit. I dont need to tout my accomplishments on the qquality of work I do- they speak for themselves.


I offered to make right what you felt was wrong at a later date and that offer still stands. Its now up to the owner. I hope he takes a good look at the car, its razor straight body lines,head turning stance and work -calms down and reconsiders because there isnt any shop within 300 miles that can do what I did for him and at at a price that he will accept.( He balked at THIS price). Hot Rod Shop owners are a small group- we all know each other on the East Coast and chat on a regular basis.

With every car I do , I put a bit of me personally into it and treat it as if it were my own- maybe I shouldn't do that ,but I do. Someone has to keep reminding me that this is JUST a job right????


No one was taken for a ride . If anyone would like to speak with me about the job or anything I did to the car- they are welcome to speak with me in person , or via email. I stand behind my work.

[MarkM66]

Lenny, just so you know, the link in your sig to your business's website, does not work.

[chopshopcustoms]

Lenny, just so you know, the link in your sig to your business's website, does not work.

thanks- didnt know- Ill fix it now

[Texan]

So customer says his new car with "0" road miles has chips, bubbles, and scratches in his new paint job yet shop owner thinks hes done a $150K build on a rolling chassis? There are miles between those 2 perceptions! All I know is - sombody lyin'...

[chopshopcustoms]

So customer says his new car with "0" road miles has chips, bubbles, and scratches in his new paint job yet shop owner thinks hes done a $150K build on a rolling chassis? There are miles between those 2 perceptions! All I know is - sombody lyin'...

Texan: I have offered to work with the customer for anything he feels isnt right about the job -I stand behind my work .He was absolutelty adamant about taking the car yesterday so the ball is in his court now.
Again- if anyone wants to speak with me about this build or ANY of the other work I have done (or am doing) in the shop, I have an open door policy and nothing to hide.Ill be happy to talk with anyone.

I wont continue to air dirty laundry on this job- there are many factors about the job that I havent made public as I dont feel its right or ethical to do so .To smear someone publicly just makes you stoop to a low level.

[skatinjay27]

im gonna have to agree with lenny on this one...1- the price is amazing if you consider all the parts an labor!!! 2-i agree with you that it was a HUGE mistake to give him a SET price on a built of this magnitude.

[Travis B]

[Vegas69]

To me if you agree to do a job for a certain price it should be done right for that price regardless. Unless you add things or run into issues. You guys should cool off for a while and try to work it out. I am sure the builder doesn't want a bad reputation and the owner wants the job he was promised. Good luck.

[GT500KR_Vert]

The guy offered to fix the flaws the owner found, I think that's fair. Although to me the car should have been checked over before the owner came or was called to come. But I'm not there and I haven't seen the flaws.

I've had worse; I had one shop up in NJ restoring my old mustang; the guy butchered it to the point it wasn't worth it to continue that project and tried to charge me $5000 to do it. We ended up in small claims court to settle the different. I ended up paying out his materials list and not his labor even though the car was shot at that point, I sold the car and bought a new one used all the parts I bought on the new car which is still being built. I can say though it's hard to keep a client happy. I'm not completely happy with my current builder either, he's done things wrong that I had to call him on and I'm still waiting for him to fix; and some things it's just not worth fighting over even though I don't like what was done.

Strange though, If you are paying someone to build you something, what's wrong with wanting it completed to your satisfaction? I work that way with my clients.

[skatinjay27]

To me if you agree to do a job for a certain price it should be done right for that price regardless. Unless you add things or run into issues. You guys should cool off for a while and try to work it out. I am sure the builder doesn't want a bad reputation and the owner wants the job he was promised. Good luck.

yep that why i said it was HIS mistake to give him a set price... but agreed regardless the finish product should be as good as any of your other work...

[chopshopcustoms]

yep that why i said it was HIS mistake to give him a set price... but agreed regardless the finish product should be as good as any of your other work...

I agree as well. The ball is in the customer's court now. I am willing to work with him for anything he finds unacceptable .

I just have two cars that need to get to SEMA that needed finishing and I cant do anything else right now.

The customer wanted to take the car yesterday- its not my place to stop him .

Again I stand behind my work and shop and have an open door policy to keep everything in the open- nothing to hide.

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

let the pics tell the truth.. or at least SOME of the truth.

[Texan]

Lenny - I don't have a dog in this fight as I don't know either one of you personally and haven't seen the finished product or the alleged paint flaws. I am confused though that you claim 150K worth of work and a 200 hour paint job on this car yet your having to offer to fix paint flaws at a later date? Chips could have happened yesterday morning and you might not have even been aware of them (especially if one of your boys touched them up and didn't bring it to anyones attention ) Bubbles in the clear though? Surely someone noticed them before yesterday? Im just sayin'

[ponjohn]

Sorry to see this fell apart so quickly.