Body Shop Horror Stories & The one to stay away from.

McPherson is a good school.

I have never hired a kid from there but have hired kids from other schools. (none of them a four year)

I think school is just a sign that a kid is interested in cars. A graduate from any school needs to work at a shop for a while in a real world situation to see if he can cut it. Then he needs to study business for awhile.

Building a car is one thing, running a business is another. You give a kid (or any one with no ethics) a deposit, he thinks he is rich. You give a business man a deposit, he knows the amount of hours he has to work before it is really money he has made.

I have two cars in the shop right now that have come from other shops. Sad story for the owners. Paid for something they didn't get and then have to pay to have mistakes fixed or buy missing parts.

I have been at this awhile and heard a lot of horror storys. This business is not unique, there are good shop and bad ones. I always feel sorry for the guys who get hooked up with the bad ones.

 

You have "gotten" the real meaning of this posting. It is all a learning curve. Even the ones who get bit. In all my projects farmed out for paint or upholstery over the last 30+ years this was my first burn job, But there will not be another one.

 

My neighbor just had his 69 Cougar Ragtop done.. he paid 14,000 for the body inside out.. to be done.. 6000.00 over what he was quoted.. from what I seen the car was trashed before.. the end result is really nice.. the guy completed the task and then sum to make it real nice.. My neighbor did not have to wait 6 months to get his car back.. he did complain about the extra charge.. but he got way more than he asked for.. the guy did a awesome job.. the bodyman just has talent and loves working on cars..

Ive worked in a few resto shops.. they are very high and mighty about them selves.. I have not heard to many kind responses about there workmanship or there honesty.. Ive seen one in action.. It was my time to leave.. I cant get caught up in **** like that.. I watched a 58 Chevy go from a 40,000 dollar job to well over 125,000 , the customer refused to pay any more.. the car sat out back and withered away to square one again.. if you have to wait more than a year to get the job done by a shop, they are not into doing the job.. I think some times they get to much on the go at the same time and end up making empty promises..

 

Sorry for telling you to alert the BBB. You already did. Sorta like me checking out Angie's list and finding out that the guys who stripped my roof and spread guano over it are acknowledged as good roofers. Sometimes the only way is to let your HAMBers know and hope the others catch on.

Thanks.

 

Man, no sweat. I am glad you brought it up because someone may not know it's that easy to check. Even from out of state!
Heck, even I did not know you could check out side of the area on small business!

But it was great info. Sorry if I sounded testy!

 

Thanks for the post, my self I can not climb all over the old trucks anymore, not with out the aches and pain for the next week.
at the same time I am not able to build rearends or fab metal so this gets farmed out.
my pickup is in the shop and along with the rebuild and maching work being done on the banjo rear, I am also having to fix what was done wrong at the first shops because it will affect what I wanted and this guy not only knows what he's doing but how to do it, the other shops do not know or were not capable of doing the work I wanted.

 

That's why I learned to do bodywork and fab.The only way to do something right is do it yourself.I took my 69 fire bird to get inspected friday. The pitman arm was loose.Had it aligned last year .Only put 300 miles on it.A little strange huh.At first I thought it was me,but now I Dont.

 

Nobody does it all by themselves,

I never see any 'traditional rodders' coming into the tire plant where I work just to rattle off a set of tires for themselves.

 

6 months took 2 years for me for my '56 chevy in High School. Got the first estimate of $7500 for paint and body a the best shop in Tulare, Ca. Thought ahh I bet I can get it done cheaper...found a shop for $2500. He went broke after about a year, body work completed...all my money gone. Then aftera few more tries at other shops painting it, it finally had some color on it. I ended up getting about $7500 in my paint job, and it was only a 20 footer. Based on my experience, it's money well spent when you go to a reputable body shop.

 

I have a really good body and paint guy. He has done 4 cars for me all of them turned out excellent. But what bugs me is I have to keep the pressure on all the time. He is about 100 miles away so it is inconvienent to check on the progress. I make it a practice to go every Friday afternoon 4pm to check in. I can see the work I am paying for so when I write the check every Friday I know what I am getting for my money. Why it bugs me is he knows I have another project that will roll in his shop when the current one is done. I almost always have another car to follow. I think some of his other customers have wondered why he is always working on my cars? Possibly I am to picky!

 

Thank you for this. I`m starting up my own shop next month and I think I`ll post this in the office for all to see.

 

I had a friend's shop paint my OT 55. He was a best friend & managed the shop. A collision shop at that. In goes the car & it sits. 15 months later & untold thousands- I picked the car up- sorta painted. We didn't speak for 2 years. Took it to a well known shop where I wasn't friends with anyone & they wound up stripping most of the previous work off & starting over.
Things like braized fender extensions that the flux blistered the paint, someone placed a solivent soaked shop rag in the door jams & deck lid to prevent metal to metal contact & it lifted the paint, Poor paint adhesion at drip rails, 2 dents that appeared AFTER paint that weren't there before, runs, tiger striping, uneven pearl- it looked like a kid shot the car.
The new shop- I was just a paying customer. No friendship, no favors, no ****ing ****. I had appointments for other work & was kinda agains't the wall. They bent over backwards & gave me a timeline I could live with & actually finished early. Start to finish was 7 weeks. We are talking a mile deep pearl on flat as gl*** panels. I couldn't have been more pleased, it was beyond my expectations & I'm a picky guy!

As far as work to my cars- I don't do well using friends. I'm way too picky about the final result. I'd rather be a paying customer who can ***** if it's not to my standards & our agreement.

 

what it comes down too is, if you do not like the way it's going!!!!, do it yourself!! sometimes it's quicker and less painful. lots of people think it;s so easy to do this work. you can not live off a few grand for a job especially if it takes more than a month. spread it out you will be working for free!!!!!!

 

Thank God for ambition and a wire feed.

 

there are no friends in my buisness, only customers. u will lose friendships. they always expect u to do something for free. especially when ur trying to make money.

dont get me wrong, i will do trade work. but only for something worth it to me.

 

Had a friend has an OT pontiac, took it to a shop in upstate SC.

Heres how it shook out.



Expectations of customer

• Decent paint job, better than maaco not up to barret jackson auction standards.
• Spend no more than 7K on the paint job
• Time not to exceed 3 mos.
  
  
  
  [/LIST]What he got
  • painter took entire interior out, against wishes of customer
  • runs, dirt, fisheyes, sags etc all over car
  • plastic parts not painted properly or not painted at all
  • over 12 months in the shop
  • over 12K invested
  • shop owner held the car til an additional 2K was handed over
    
    
    
  Needless to say the customer should have gotten in writing
  • time expectation
  • cost expectation
  • final quality expectation
  • deadlines and milestones
  the issue is that according to some locals "they dont do that round here" nobody does written contracts.
  
  I told the guy to RUN like hell from the beginning.
  
  The painter's name is TOM HEAD

 

Looking at it from the other side.
Don't take your project to a collision shop. They are using it for fill in
dont put up a deposit.
check progress every two weeks or less.
more than two weeks w/o progress, take the car somewhere else
estimates are just that. There is no way in hell I can tell you what a full restoration is going to cost.
I take no money up front
bill every two weeks.
customer inspects the car at each billing
nobody gets behind on payment or progress.
haven't had any problems for years. Everyone has paid, everyone has been happy.
A few have had a hard time with the total cost,(I'm not cheap, but you only have to do it once) but came to realize the quality is worth it in the long run.

A general rule in life, no one can **** you if you don't in some way let them.

 

I've seen your car in the shop when I've stopped by.
I'll stay out of this and not mention names....

There is a guy right next door that does really good work and another that I know,PM me for more info.

 

jeez....
Can't anybody say anything GOOD about us body/paint guys.....?

 

I wish I could.
But then again, I didn't have you paint my car.
r

 

The problem I've seen with a lot of bodymen is that they will stop on your project to do a job that will get some quick cash. Our stuff is generally rusted and entails some actual bodywork, as opposed to the relatively rustfree collision work on late models. When your car is gonna be there a while, as filler work, it gets real easy for them to lay off and work on the quicker jobs.

 

About 91 0r 92 when the nationals were in oklahoma. I did a deal with a guy at a hot rod shop. He would paint and do all the body work on my 37 dodge, and in exchange. I would chop two cars and rough in the finish work for him. I completed my end in about a month. And it took him about ten months for his end of the deal to be finished. along the way I heard from a friend that had gone to the nationals, that he could have sworn my car was running around there at the show exactly the way I had given it to this hot rod shop early on. I always wondered why he was in such a hurry to get my car the first part of july. Anyway the body and paint was perfectly done when I finally got it back from him. With a few extra miles...John

 

I wish I could, the guy that painted mine is a complete ***.

of course I have a list of stories about bad customers, got 3 I'm dealing with right now.

 

Ask anybody in Hickory N.C. and they will tell you I'm too high priced and I take too long. I'm glad I don't have to do bodywork for anybody anymore. Nobody ever knew what they wanted, and usually had goldchainer taste. I only do my own stuff now.

 

as a long time body shop owner, ive seen way too many times the situations posted here. hell, im sure i pissed off a customer or 2 over the years myself,lol

for those of ya that went to the bbb to complain, you wasted your time. they are bought and paid for by the bizness. and they could care less if you are satisfied. and if the shop is not a member, there is absolutley nothing they can do punitivley speaking.

here i cal, as has already been posted, its the bureau of automotive repair (b.a.r.) thats scares the hell out of body shops. usually a threat of a call will get the shop owner standing at attention.

also in cal, its state law that the repair order has to be in writnig, and have line by line listed repairs and parts. parts have to be spec'd new, used, re-con, aftermarket new, etc.


if the repair order is filled out incorrectly, or not signed by the customer, guess what?.... you owe the shop nothing, period. the shop can unbolt parts, but cannot undo any work done. im sure other states have a similar agency, check it out, but dont waste time at the bbb.

many of these painters-body men aren't crooks at heart, but are imcompetant, or under estimate the difficulty in a job, and expect the customer to pay the penalty. not cool, or legal (here in cal)

actually the laws are very bent toward the consumer , so if ya got burned, do something about it. of course when the guy has hit the road with your $$ there aint much left u can do.


skull

 

Had it happen to me once, 23 years ago, a friend and former employee of the place I worked at opened up his own body shop. I gave him my chopped 40 Chevy PU to finish and paint. Long story short I had to cut a lock off a fenced in area to get my truck back. I paid him half the money up front so that was gone. Funny part is I wound up doing it myself and painted it in my driveway. Turned out very nice and I learned that if you really want to do it you can. I'm no body man but I got alot of thumbs up on my driveway paint job. So a very bad experience turned into a learning experience for me. I sold the truck in 95 or 96 and saw it about 5 years ago and it was still very nice. I think the paint jobs on most of the hot rods you see today are waaaayyy overrated. 6 8 10,000 dollars, Jesus Christ, it took me 6 weeks in my spare time and about $300.00 (1986 dollars) but still. Maybe I'm just getting to old and to tight with my money. I'll spend it on another project car rather then on a ****ty paint job. I'm not building show cars anyway, I drive em!!!

 

yes i can. Swindler Sam and the Har**** are aces in my book. plus, they are great cuddlers

 

Sorry But I have to call ******** on shooting a guy in the nuts and no cops,hospital or jail involved and I dont give a **** who she was,you shoot somebody in the nuts and live or die ,police will be involved and besides guns can be checked for microscopic differences of the same brand

 

I know exactly how you feel with so called "body shop/restoration shops" There are good ones out there. But here in Austin there is a real crook. His name is Neil and he owns Uncle Neils wheels. I needed some stuff done on my car and found out really quick that he is a total looser. [He took over Bodylines old shop around Febuary]. Neil is a hack and cannot repair or fix anything. His quality of work is horrible and I would not reccomend him to anyone ever! I could write for a long time about this idiot....

Sorry to hear about your issues with your ride. Hope you get things worked out..

 

true, ballistics would be able to compare riffiling marks on the bullits, if the cops got called..........also they'd do a gsr test on his hand to verify that he fired a gun recently.......


skull