Smoky Hill Restoration Pro Touring Nightmare

[Stevcom]

I have been restoring a 69 Chevelle SS for almost two years with Smoky Hill Restoration in Granbury, Texas. Finally, with the help of my attorney we got the car out of Smoky Hill Restoration last month, December 07, and moved to a new shop to complete the car. Smoky Hill Restoration in Granbury, Texas would not return all of my original parts needed to complete the car so I am now being forced to find and buy many of the original parts that Smoky Hill Restoration refused to return to me. Very expensive and hard if not almost impossible to find NOS parts for this car as so many have been restored.

Smoky Hill Restoration made unreasonable demands for advance payements throughout the time my car was there and when I would give them advances they would never meet any time schedule for work on my car that they agreed too. And, when questioned they would get mad and would not take my calls. They wanted me to order all of my parts which was fine however most of the time the parts were not what we needed or would not fit what they were trying to build. On one occassion they encouraged me to send the crate 502 I purchased out to have balanced and printed for 1400.00. When the engine was ready to be picked up by them the bill was 4400.00. They told me they were surprised as well. No accountability at all.

I would not recommend Smoky Hill Restoration based on my experience. If anyone else has had experience with this shop or would like to know more about my experience I may be contacted at 817-776-4320.

Steve Haines
Granbury, Texas

[Z06killinSBF]

Noted, thanks for the heads up. Sorry you had to go through that. I've heard alot of horror stories like yours. Thats why I do my own work.

[Benoit23]

I've seen SmokyHill on lateral-g.net, someone from that shop is a member over there.

Good luck with your project, I hope things start looking up for you. There are plenty of good shops in Dallas/Ft. Worth I'm sure you'll have no problem finding someone else to finish the build.

[Benoit23]

Is this your car? I found this pic on SmokyHill's myspace page.

[Restomod]

Glad you got it back but this is why NO ONE works on my stuff but ME!!

[72Z/28]

Well I am sorry to hear that, but I had the same problem with Aero Automotive in Houston. The engine was built by that shop, and I had to take the engine which had only 300 miles apart due to oil leaks and crap. In fact, i found out that there were some piston rings missing, that really sucked..

[Stevcom]

Hey, thanks for the comments. Yes, that is my car.

I have found another shop in the Metroplex (Fort Worth) who is doing a great job finishing the car for me. I checked them out much better than I did Smoky Hill and have seen several of their "finished" cars. We are now in a battle to get all of my original parts back from Smoky Hill as they refused to give me all of my original exterior trim and interior parts. We have even had to file a law suit against them. Unfortunately, to keep the progress going on the car I am going to have to start buying a lot of NOS parts next week that my new builder has located so we will be relagated to other means of reimbursement from Smoky Hill.

Smoky Hill Restoration in Granbury, Texas did not seem to have any desire to ever finish my car. I cannot speak for other customers they have but in almost two years of going there I never witnessed a complete restoration leave their shop. In fact, some of their restorations have been there over three years. They never gave me a completion date for anything that they kept and every time we got something completed it was after I had raised a lot of stink. I think a lot of people who have cars there just "give up" and hope the phone doesn't ring with Smoky Hill on the other end asking or demanding more money for something but never delivering on a promise or committment.

I think that Smoky Hill Restoration sold a lot of my parts from my original car to raise money and then tried to hoodwink me into buying a lot of new aftermarket parts to replace what they sold. I say this because for several months before we got the car out of the shop I would ask about these parts and whether or not they needed to be sent out to be refinished etc. and I always got the answer that they were going through everything and would never let me look through them myself. Then, when we were able to get my car and all the new parts I had purchased guess what. No original parts.

Smoky Hill Restoration and the people who own it, Bill and Wanda Hart, are about the most dishonest people I have ever met and I have met a lot of people. I have been in business for myself for over 30 years and built several companies from scratch. This beats anything I have ever seen. My goal is to try and prevent some other person from finding themselves in the same place I was. People work hard for their money and do not deserve to be treated this way.

Thanks for reading and responding.

Steve Haines
Granbury, Texas
817-776-4320
254-631-7730

[absintheisfun]

I live in Carrollton, so thanks for the heads up on the bad businesses in the area. I know there are a bunch of them--this is my main motivation to take my time and learn to build as I go. The web is an amazing tool for research (provided you look past all the crap).

The only down side is time. . .I have very little, so my project is on the VERY SLOW side.

[72Z/28]

Hey, thanks for the comments. Yes, that is my car.

I have found another shop in the Metroplex (Fort Worth) who is doing a great job finishing the car for me. I checked them out much better than I did Smoky Hill and have seen several of their "finished" cars. We are now in a battle to get all of my original parts back from Smoky Hill as they refused to give me all of my original exterior trim and interior parts. We have even had to file a law suit against them. Unfortunately, to keep the progress going on the car I am going to have to start buying a lot of NOS parts next week that my new builder has located so we will be relagated to other means of reimbursement from Smoky Hill.

Smoky Hill Restoration in Granbury, Texas did not seem to have any desire to ever finish my car. I cannot speak for other customers they have but in almost two years of going there I never witnessed a complete restoration leave their shop. In fact, some of their restorations have been there over three years. They never gave me a completion date for anything that they kept and every time we got something completed it was after I had raised a lot of stink. I think a lot of people who have cars there just "give up" and hope the phone doesn't ring with Smoky Hill on the other end asking or demanding more money for something but never delivering on a promise or committment.

I think that Smoky Hill Restoration sold a lot of my parts from my original car to raise money and then tried to hoodwink me into buying a lot of new aftermarket parts to replace what they sold. I say this because for several months before we got the car out of the shop I would ask about these parts and whether or not they needed to be sent out to be refinished etc. and I always got the answer that they were going through everything and would never let me look through them myself. Then, when we were able to get my car and all the new parts I had purchased guess what. No original parts.

Smoky Hill Restoration and the people who own it, Bill and Wanda Hart, are about the most dishonest people I have ever met and I have met a lot of people. I have been in business for myself for over 30 years and built several companies from scratch. This beats anything I have ever seen. My goal is to try and prevent some other person from finding themselves in the same place I was. People work hard for their money and do not deserve to be treated this way.

Thanks for reading and responding.

Steve Haines
Granbury, Texas
817-776-4320
254-631-7730

I guess you are doing the right thing making other people to be aware of that shop. 3 years in the shop not being finished, that drives me nuts.

Hopefully you get all that sorted out..

good luck

[Young Gun]

your lucky...the people over here are a whole lot more receptive than over on lat g...at least the mods wont lock it just beacause its slightly controversial....thanks for the heads up though man!

[Larry Callahan]

With that said, I think this thread has run long enough. For now I am just going to close it. While I don't want to discourage negative posts there is a fine line that needs to be walked at times and I think this has run it's course.