Damn sick of it all. What do I have to do?

I hope to god this pans out. I want to see this f*ckin' car in a shade other than "minty fresh".

BTW
I dug the piece on the new Dodge truck. I couldn't agree with you more on the whole thing. I can't wait to see those on the road. You do good work .....

 

So, bad luck with body shops?

I never trust a shop. Engine shop, body shop, hell, I don't even trust a barber shop.

I trust people.

Develop a relationship with a person. They don't have to be the actual guy doing the work, but they have to know how to do the work. If my new barber moves shops, I'll move with her. I stuck with the last one 'till he died.

When I'm ready to paint a car, I've got a long relationship with an excellent metal/body/paint guy that I trust to the ends of the earth.

As far as the sugestion of grabbing a spraygun and doing it yourself, in the time of laquer where all it took to get a good paint job was more labor and no intelligence or experience, that was good advice. But if you want a good GOOD paintjob these days, with modern paints, you really do want to find someone with experience doing the type of job that you want done. The dangers posed by modern paints are not something you want to experiment with. The best advice that someone gave if you want to persue the DIY paintjob is to enroll in a class. Paint CAN kill. I've got a friend with a malfunctioning liver and another with one lung and a poor liver that hurt themselves with modern paint.

Paying for a paintjob. This*****s. Most shops want it all up front. Most shops also do colision work. Don't work with either of these guys. Also, watch out for small shops with a huge number of cars lined up at the shop. They've taken deposits from those guys and you'll go to the end of the line while your disassembled car and all it's parts wait at their fairly unsecured shop.

The most equitable billing situation that I've come across is that the painter only does restoration type paint jobs He usually keeps three cars in his shop (one being metalworked, one being bodyworked and one being****embled). He supplies the customer with a materials list about two weeks in advance of needing it. The customer can supply the materials before the day they are needed, or can pay the painter the estimated materials cost. The customer is billed at the end of every week for the work done that week. If the customer doesn't pay that week, the painter doesn't do any more work untill he is paid.

He's got other projects to work on while he waits for the cusomer to make payment, but not so many that he never gets around to working on that customer's car, or so few that the customer chokes on a 40 hour bill every week. That way the painter isn't holding throusands of your dollars before he has done any work. That way the painter hasn't invested weeks of his time without being paid, and if the two of you should split the blanket, neither of you is indebted to the other too much. As a bonus, because they weren't paid up front, the painter has no reason to accept other work in front of yours. He's paid by the hour to bodywork and paint the car, so as long as he's got work to do, it might as well be yours. The customer can pay a weekly visit to the painter to check the progress of his project and make sure that what he is paying for is being done.

A lot of this advice comes from my paint and body friend. It's no accident that I've kept a relationship with him. Not because he's a good painter, but because he's a conciencious person and a good pal. Anything he chose to do would be done right. He's told me a score of stories about customers being screwed by shop after shop before they came to him. I've seen it too. Some of the work was just criminal.

 

Modernbeat-

Your advice obviously comes with wisdom on the side. It's much appreciated and I dig the "weekly billing for work accomplished during that time period" plan. It's fair, and should things hit the fan, both parties know the score.

Luckily, I work with Fortier, and he's got someone in mind to help me out. This whole mess won't be cleaned up until the car is in one piece again, but I'm getting a feeling things are looking up. I'll be pulling everything out of the half-ass shop(s) soon, and the next chapter will begin.

Broman-

Thanks for the compliment on the Dodge truck story. It may require a Part II, as I recently saw a Hemi-powered Durango in the posession of a Chrysler VP. It was a pre-production vehicle, and the new Hemi fit beautifully. This means a Hemi version of the Dakota is next, and it'll be an outstanding "little brother" to the Viper-urged SRT/10 fullsize truck...at a much more affordable price. Keep an eye out for the "Hemi 'Kota" !!

Scotch!~

 

wow.

 

This was sent to everyone in my roadster club...

I met a guy that has a 2003 Dodge Truck with the new Hemi engine in it. The truck has been rolled and totaled. The engine runs and has 1188 miles on it. He wants $7500 for the engine, trans and rear axle including wiring harness. He can start the engine. His name is John Mosley 713-203-7438.