Hmmmm .... so which "famous" Cali builder was at Performance World Custom Car Show this year? If you think "proof of builder" will add value to your car, I would suggest searching out the owner that had the work done. I think you said it was only 12 years ago, so the owner at that time might not be too hard to find. I would guess he might have pictures or bills/receipts from the shop. Might be worth a shot. Paying $5,000 is rediculous but getting the proof for the cost of some phone calls/stamps might be well worth it.
Dont be unreasonable... You'd owe him at least a buck, so he can buy a postage stamp to send the paperwork to you.
I'd bet Barris would take credit for building it for maybe a lap dance and $2.00. He takes it for everything else.
Could be heaven or could be hell and I aint goin there just yet, and last I heard they always return the mail to sender. Yup he passed away a number of years ago otherwise there would not be a dicussion on this. He was the one that removed the plaque with the builders name from the dash. Perhaps his way of tormenting future owners from the grave
A couple of things seem weird to me about this situation. There was a plaque with the builders name on the dash? Sounds kinda self obsessed to me, if that was my car I would have gotten rid of it too. ( unless it was a chassis tag, like they put on scratch built racecars ) Despite my earler joke, I'd expect to compensate the builder for his time if he was going to do an authentication for me. ( but $5000 buys shit load of time, and that seems nowhere near reasonable ) I wonder if this is all fallout from the big auction houses ( B-J, etc ), which has everybody scrambling for a piece of the pie. As a comparison, I own a vintage Racecar that was built by one of the Oldest Racingcar companies in the UK. We talked about some sort of certification to authenticate it, but before we acctually got around to doing that, the original founder of the company passed away. So I just left it at that. He saw the car, we worked on it together, and he told me it was one of his. And we also went through the records they had and it was, at that time, one of 11 known survivors of that type. That is good enough for me... If I want to get one, I still could go to his son who is still running the company. And I'm sure he will be a lot more reasonable than the guy you are trying to deal with...
A little detective work might help you. Can you follow the paper trail of previous owners back to the person who owned it when it was built? If so, they might have photos, receipts, etc. that they could copy and share with you as a means of authentification. Sure beats your first option. $5K .... ?? .... really? Edit: borntoloze got there first with this idea. Got to work on my typing skills....
this guy sounds like the supposed "MOPAR GURU" crackerbox.... galen govier who charges people to just ask questions about thier cars codes id tell the supposed builder to pound sand and kick rocks like others have said try to trace its ownership and do some research to see if it was ever a magazine feature get all the proof you need for free , if i was going to buy it it wouldnt matter to me who built it cause id change it to suit me unless it was some very famous car im in total love with (like say the california kid wouldnt change a thing on it) and i wouldnt give ya a plug nickel more just because so-so big name once touched it i really like the looks of the 49-52 belairs love the roofs yours looks like a nice piece
I hope you are kidding - Carfax only goes back to 1981, and will only tell you accident reports, flood damage, emissions failures, and previous owners etc. NOTHING to do with old cars or if they were customized. I don't think the OP was looking for documented written explanations of everything that was done to the car by this so called famous builder, not the complete history of the car (which that guy probably doesn't know anyway) but rather just something that says this guy built it. And that is NOT worth much at all - probably worth more to have his name attached to it then value for the current owner. By the way, back in 1983, I had a Porsche 906 in my shop for a restoration. The car had some questionable history and gaps in it. This is a very rare (50 made) race car and Porsche was very helpful in documenting the history and certifying that it was the real deal - and they did it for FREE!
if they arent proud enough of their work to admit they built it without $5000 tell em to stuff it , and drive the crap out of it
hotroddon It was supposed to be funny ,I guess not ! I don't know what to think of this story.. 5 GRAND seems like a lot to apprise a car, who ever build it ! and thats my 2 cents worth !
Is it to authenticate that the car is still in the same condition as when the builder worked on it? You would think a builder would let the car advertise his skills and get money that way.
It would still be interesting to hear the name of the "master builder" trying to pull that bullshit on you. If he ain't shy about asking for $5000, it's hard to imagine why you should be shy about posting his name now that you have a thread going about it.
I'll guess Foose just to field a guess. I'm not familiar with what builders travel and do show circuits but I figure Foose still does.
If the builder is who I am thinking it is, He quoated 3 grand on another car. He charges for autographs also.
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