TLDR
Skip to the next post. There are progress photos below this relatively long update post.
Nearly every free moment I have had over the past 2 months has been spent working on this thing. It’s been a journey. It’s had some pretty big setbacks, mostly outside of my control, but I’ve continued marching on and focusing on the vision.
The paint / body shop screwed me
The biggest setback has been the paint shop I’ve been partnering with for 3+ months. After they came to see the car and discuss my project goals and ensure there was a “good fit” for both of us, I then visited their shop to pick up paint samples and see their work. From that first visit back in the middle of November, I’ve been sending the occasional photo to them at milestone stages of the project – mostly to confirm where I was in the project but also to ask the occasional question. They have been very aware this project was approaching them and all I kept hearing was, “we are so excited to get this car here.”
Finally getting the car to a rolling chassis state and ready for them, they were supposed to pick up the car on Saturday morning Feb 5, and haul it back to their shop ~35-40 min away. We had a confirmed schedule of events. That’s when things when sideways.
After talking to the painter one last time on that Saturday (Feb 5), I have not heard from them since. Not a single word. They will not return my texts, voicemails or answer the phone directly when I call – they route it to voicemail. I have absolutely no idea why. I first thought something happened to either the painter or someone at the shop. A car accident? Death in the family? Death of someone at their shop? Absolutely no clue.
So here I am, left with a car I have spent 3 months almost completely disassembling and have no painter. Despite me being meticulously careful, this is a 20 year old car. I broke plastic tabs, cracked the inner bumper structure removing it (old, brittle) in such a way that repair would be difficult, paid to have the AC evacuated, ordered $x,xxx in replacement parts I would otherwise not need, etc. etc. etc. In other words, because of what I’ve done, I’ve spent beaucoup bucks just in replacement parts alone. And these guys knew this dismantling was going on all along the way. One example: I talked to them about the cost differential and pros and cons of repairing the existing bumper vs. me buying a new one. They cannot claim a lack of communication, intent, organization, professionalism or anything else on my end. Their actions are utter shit.
Looking back on that original shop, there were so many red flags I ignored, or more likely didn’t know any better, that I now see so clearly.
My heart (frustration + anger) tells me to go show up in person and “get crystal clear” on the situation with these guys face-to-face. I have friends who tell me they’ll go with to bear witness and to be able to corroborate the events – that is, their replies to my questions.
My brain kicks in and I realize this will get me precisely nowhere. At this point, there is no way in hell I’m leaving my car with these clowns.
So I pivot. I start the search for a new shop – again. I call countless shops, all who either say “we are booked 6-9 months out” or “we don’t do full resprays”. All told I’ve called probably ~50 shops within a 100 mile radius, so many that I began to lose track if I called them already and realized I called one shop twice asking the same questions. Woops.
Boiling this down, what have I learned? The shop you want doing a project like this is the shop that’s booked 6-9 months out or longer. That packed schedule is a really good indication they are worth their salt.
My luck turns
I find a place that does restoration work and that is all they do. I call them and by some fracture in the universal laws of body shops (like gravity, but stronger), they say, “You’re in luck, we actually have an opening right now if you can get the car to us ASAP”. So I immediately visit them. I’m stunned. Their work is next level good and their shop is impressive as hell. It’s clean, extremely well organized by zones and absolutely zero clutter anywhere. They have a mix of EVERYTHING in there – old Lincolns, Camaros, murdered-out hot rods, a late 60s Bronco, unibody pickups and muscle cars from every era. They’ve been in business for 20+ years. Their level of professionalism is on an entirely different plain than the OG shop.
So we organize a plan, agree on the details, I get the car to them and fast forward to today, they started work on the car Friday Feb 18.
I dodged a bullet
Remember the red flags I mentioned about the OG shop? In contrast to this new shop, the OG shop felt like a bunch of dudes hanging out at a buddy’s garage drinking beer, ripping on and throwing things at each other. Which to be clear, is totally in my wheelhouse and one of my favorite things to do. But I wouldn’t dream of doing that in front of customers. It made their shop look like a film shoot for Jackass 6 (and let me go on record: Johnny Knoxville is absolutely one of my heroes).
So I dodged a bullet. I’m not yet willing to say who that OG shop is – I’m an ex-small business owner and know how exactly how damaging 1 person’s review can be. The public is fickle and sometimes get it wrong. In this case, this John Q. Public (me) doesn’t have it wrong. However, despite their complete incompetence, unethical behavior and total lack of professionalism, something won’t let me publicly bash them.
That said, for all of those who have asked in a thread or PMed me about the shop I was planning to use in the Winston-Salem NC area, shoot me a PM and I will tell you who they are so you can avoid them.
Thank you Mayan-Viking for helping me keep my sanity. He's a local I met him on this forum when I first started dropping hints about this respray. He’s helped me with a few projects on the car and has turned out to be an incredible friend in a relatively short period of time. That’s a good dude right there.
Skip to the next post. There are progress photos below this relatively long update post.
Nearly every free moment I have had over the past 2 months has been spent working on this thing. It’s been a journey. It’s had some pretty big setbacks, mostly outside of my control, but I’ve continued marching on and focusing on the vision.
The paint / body shop screwed me
The biggest setback has been the paint shop I’ve been partnering with for 3+ months. After they came to see the car and discuss my project goals and ensure there was a “good fit” for both of us, I then visited their shop to pick up paint samples and see their work. From that first visit back in the middle of November, I’ve been sending the occasional photo to them at milestone stages of the project – mostly to confirm where I was in the project but also to ask the occasional question. They have been very aware this project was approaching them and all I kept hearing was, “we are so excited to get this car here.”
Finally getting the car to a rolling chassis state and ready for them, they were supposed to pick up the car on Saturday morning Feb 5, and haul it back to their shop ~35-40 min away. We had a confirmed schedule of events. That’s when things when sideways.
After talking to the painter one last time on that Saturday (Feb 5), I have not heard from them since. Not a single word. They will not return my texts, voicemails or answer the phone directly when I call – they route it to voicemail. I have absolutely no idea why. I first thought something happened to either the painter or someone at the shop. A car accident? Death in the family? Death of someone at their shop? Absolutely no clue.
So here I am, left with a car I have spent 3 months almost completely disassembling and have no painter. Despite me being meticulously careful, this is a 20 year old car. I broke plastic tabs, cracked the inner bumper structure removing it (old, brittle) in such a way that repair would be difficult, paid to have the AC evacuated, ordered $x,xxx in replacement parts I would otherwise not need, etc. etc. etc. In other words, because of what I’ve done, I’ve spent beaucoup bucks just in replacement parts alone. And these guys knew this dismantling was going on all along the way. One example: I talked to them about the cost differential and pros and cons of repairing the existing bumper vs. me buying a new one. They cannot claim a lack of communication, intent, organization, professionalism or anything else on my end. Their actions are utter shit.
Looking back on that original shop, there were so many red flags I ignored, or more likely didn’t know any better, that I now see so clearly.
My heart (frustration + anger) tells me to go show up in person and “get crystal clear” on the situation with these guys face-to-face. I have friends who tell me they’ll go with to bear witness and to be able to corroborate the events – that is, their replies to my questions.
My brain kicks in and I realize this will get me precisely nowhere. At this point, there is no way in hell I’m leaving my car with these clowns.
So I pivot. I start the search for a new shop – again. I call countless shops, all who either say “we are booked 6-9 months out” or “we don’t do full resprays”. All told I’ve called probably ~50 shops within a 100 mile radius, so many that I began to lose track if I called them already and realized I called one shop twice asking the same questions. Woops.
Boiling this down, what have I learned? The shop you want doing a project like this is the shop that’s booked 6-9 months out or longer. That packed schedule is a really good indication they are worth their salt.
My luck turns
I find a place that does restoration work and that is all they do. I call them and by some fracture in the universal laws of body shops (like gravity, but stronger), they say, “You’re in luck, we actually have an opening right now if you can get the car to us ASAP”. So I immediately visit them. I’m stunned. Their work is next level good and their shop is impressive as hell. It’s clean, extremely well organized by zones and absolutely zero clutter anywhere. They have a mix of EVERYTHING in there – old Lincolns, Camaros, murdered-out hot rods, a late 60s Bronco, unibody pickups and muscle cars from every era. They’ve been in business for 20+ years. Their level of professionalism is on an entirely different plain than the OG shop.
So we organize a plan, agree on the details, I get the car to them and fast forward to today, they started work on the car Friday Feb 18.
I dodged a bullet
Remember the red flags I mentioned about the OG shop? In contrast to this new shop, the OG shop felt like a bunch of dudes hanging out at a buddy’s garage drinking beer, ripping on and throwing things at each other. Which to be clear, is totally in my wheelhouse and one of my favorite things to do. But I wouldn’t dream of doing that in front of customers. It made their shop look like a film shoot for Jackass 6 (and let me go on record: Johnny Knoxville is absolutely one of my heroes).
So I dodged a bullet. I’m not yet willing to say who that OG shop is – I’m an ex-small business owner and know how exactly how damaging 1 person’s review can be. The public is fickle and sometimes get it wrong. In this case, this John Q. Public (me) doesn’t have it wrong. However, despite their complete incompetence, unethical behavior and total lack of professionalism, something won’t let me publicly bash them.
That said, for all of those who have asked in a thread or PMed me about the shop I was planning to use in the Winston-Salem NC area, shoot me a PM and I will tell you who they are so you can avoid them.
Thank you Mayan-Viking for helping me keep my sanity. He's a local I met him on this forum when I first started dropping hints about this respray. He’s helped me with a few projects on the car and has turned out to be an incredible friend in a relatively short period of time. That’s a good dude right there.
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