24 classic vehicles and over $2 million worth of car parts reportedly found stolen in Galveston Co. This guy was said to be operating a classic car repair garage-could/would do anything on a classic. Some owners paid, on the front end, up to 28K to get the work done, then the car disappeared-and the dude couldn't be reached (duh?). He would move 'em to several storage locations and strip the good parts and sell them, leave the car. He was found and they located 24 cars, but not all. Some of the owners said the money loss was not as important as getting the car back (missing stuff i'm sure). My past was finding parts in a junkyard and trying to get the owner to drop the price no matter what it was. I never took a car to a garage but I just can't imagine paying the front end money some of these folks did-one guy paid 10K up front, when all this hit he said the money loss was not important at all.
Totally agree. These are the guys I see at every big car show. They are dressed in white pants pulled up to their chests ,white shoes, a flowered shirt and a big panama hat. They bring a mega buck car that they don't know what motor is in it and one guy I came across didn't even know how to open the hood on the car.
I don't think how much money someone spends having work done in a shop has any bearing as to if they're a "car guy" or not. Not everyone has the talent or even physical ability to do work on their own cars, and honestly, $10K down on work to get done on a car won't even really get you all that far anymore, that could be eaten up ordering parts in an hour or two. If it weren't for other car enthusiasts spending money, I'd be out of business. No way I'm going to blame the victim here for what this thief did, I think that's ridiculous. Shitty thing this shop owner did, it really illustrates the demand there is for work and the lack of available skilled people/shops to do that work.
Back in the late 80’s I bought Tri-Five Chevy parts from a guy in Rialto Ca. He would buy vehicles and part them out from his home. He got bigger but I never went to his new place within a business complex. I’d just deal with him at the Pomona swap meet instead. One Sunday I went to his space, he wasn’t there. Another swap comes, not there again, hmm? I continue shopping and stop at another vendor from Arizona that in Tri-Fives and asked what’s up with Kelly? (if memory serves me right). Turns out he got cought up selling other peoples good cores that he’d have rebuilt or plated and sold them at top dollar to those that would pay then turn around and give bad refurbished cores back to the owner of the good core. It cought up with him and got into hot water. He shot himself in the head at his place of business.
There were a couple of brothers in Montana that used to do this. Pre- internet. They would advertise all the time in Hemmings. Junk scabbed together, pictures taken from at least 20 feet away. People would buy, then when they showed up to get their purchase,see what a pile it was and how misled they were. Other cars they'd take in from clients to restore and they'd strip and sell off all the parts. Can't remember their name right now. One went to prison. The other one was still operating a used car lot. May still be. I don't know. Edit: I believe one is named Michael Crocker.
That's pretty harsh. There are lots of people who are not part of the inner circle of car building. They can be ordinary folk who happen to have an older vehicle that has some family history or sentimental value to them. Because they don't know diddly how to accomplish a rebuild personally they mistakenly put their trust in a fast-talking dirtbag and get burned. The big-money boys are typically not the ones getting scammed.
It seems like every part of the country has or has had one of these guys. I've also seen a couple who just flat could not manage a business and were using those pre payments to pay for parts for someone else's project that they had blown the money that was paid up front on that project. Several guys ended up loosing a bunch of money with one of them when they picked up their partially finished cars when the handwriting was on the wall. On the other hand I had a buddy who had a storage building full of partially finished cars waiting for the next payment so he could proceed on the next step. Way too many guys who wanted work done but didn't come up with the money when they should have were customers of his.
I had a friend in Massachusetts that had a model A restoration business. He would work on your vehicle, and present your bill at the end of the month. he would give you 30 days to pay.. If you didn't pay on time, your vehicle would go into locked storage, and your vehicle went to the back of the line to be worked on. Then, and only then, after your bill was current did your vehicle get back in line for more work.
That’s good for both parties, the shop gets current on $$ and the customer can pull the vehicle out if it starts hitting the wallet too hard.
When I worked at Jaguar I had a ton of customers with older cars that wanted the under carriage , or engine compartment cleaned up . so , some elbow grease , spray paint , wiring loom , connectors etc etc What to us simple stuff to clean everything up and make it look presentable does not seem like a lot but 1-3 days of farting around can be $1500 - 3000 bucks . I would ask myself , what did I really do ? But to the owner of the car the money doesn’t really matter to them , they make a lot of money , time is money . they would rather pay the mechanic , gardener , pool guy , handy man . Then do it themselves not out of greed or being spoiled , but because they work dumb hard to make the money they make . going to work to pay for a “ blue collar “ guy to do this work is much easier and cost effective then doing it themselves . it’s just the way it is . Nothing wrong with it , just a different way of life
Funny, I’m considering buying a shop and advertising the hell out of doing mechanical work on old cars, lots of owners who don’t want to or don’t know how to do the work themselves. That does not make them less of a “car guy” in my book.
One of the local guys has a mobile business. He will go to anyone's garage, and do any mechanical repair, installation or fabrication that they may need done on their classic or specialty vehicle. He advertised on Kijiji a little bit, but mostly word of mouth, and has all the work he can handle. I asked him if he had to haul a ton of tools around and he said he did at first, but then found that a lot of these guys have more & better tools than him and are happy to see them being used. I could put you in touch with him if you wanted to chat about his business model.
That would be awesome, if you don’t mind sending me a message, there’s a shop for sale in a small town close to me, if it were to work out I would have someone doing the work on new cars and I could manage the shop plus work on old stuff…we will see
Labelling people as "not car people" for accessing the hobby in whatever way makes the most sense for them is nonsensical. We celebrate guys on here that have shops that build cars for others, but cut their customers down because they don't do their own work. What?? Does the person have an interest in cars? Then they're a car person. That can look very different for every person in the hobby, but what works for me doesn't work for everyone, and it's not up to me to decide what being a car person means for everyone. I agree with you. I do my own stuff and elevate my abilities continually to do better work and stuff I never thought I could do. Does that make me better than anyone, nope. I'm building a Model A, and as you said $10K in parts isn't hard to reach. I nearly have that in some sheet metal and a new I-beam front end. Shaming people because they don't have years to spend working on something or want to drive the car as soon as possible is pretty narrow-minded in my opinion. Exactly.
I know a guy who has a million dollar Duesenberg that had 85 grand worth of parts taken off from a reputable shop. They thought he wouldn`t notice. He took time off to fly out and take them to court.
Car people is a huge generalization. there are traditional hot rod guy ( us ) prostreet Drag guys Touring cars Perfectly restored concourse cars Muscle cars Race cars Euro cars Import cars Drifting cars Show cars Low ryders Rat rods ( gasp) Art cars Classic cars Factory tuned sport and muscle cars . this is really just the tip of the iceberg . all car guys if you ask me , all with varying interests in the hobby . I’ll agree , some “ Gold chainers “ are annoying . heck some guys who build cars are annoying !! the way I see it is , it’s not that I don’t like people , but I seem happier when they are not around . If I don’t like you , that’s your loss . But if you have a car that peaks my interest I could not car less if you built it or bought it . So , I bought my 40 merc as a complete driver , I’ve done work on it and a few custom touches . Does this make me any less of a “ car guy “?
Gotta love the HAMB and how threads morph. Yes, I’m guilty of adding on as well, but if someone read the first post, then did the fast forward to the end, they’d be “WTF”?
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