So...Has Anyone Ever Had Paint/Bodywork Finished On The Originally Promise Time Schedule?
This is getting really discouraging.
My '69 Dart has been an ongoing 9-year project with the first few years eaten up saving up for parts and also bodywork and paint. It took three times of saving before I was finally able to commit to taking the car into a shop for the body and paint work - the first two times the funds got diverted to home needs and repairs.
But the bodywork/paint has been the major source of frustration:
* Paint shop #1 - Found an 'old school' painter who did great work at a very reasonable price. I paid him to buy the paint before I was ready to take the car into his shop. When I was ready to take the car in I couldn't get him on the phone to schedule the body/paint work. I went to his shop and found it empty and my paint gone.
* Paint shop #2 - Found another painter that had turned out some outstanding results while working for another shop. I waited until he opened his own place, took a tour and found he had all the right equipment and waited about six months for a spot to open up on his schedule. When I was ready to take my car in, it was deja vu from shop #1: no answers to my calls. I went to his shop and found he'd moved out of state!
* Paint shop #3 - Based on recommendations from one of my car club buddies and a fabricator that had done work for me on my car, I made arrangements with shop #3. He started right in on my car but then the progress started tapering off after about six months. He had my car for just over a year and then started refusing to give me a completion date. I pulled the car out of his shop about a month before he went out of business.
* Paint shop #4 - Again, based on recommendations I took my car to shop #4 - a well established shop. After looking over the car he told me it would all be done in four months. He's been working for the past eight months correcting all the bad body work from shop #3. Two months ago he told me the car would be finished the end of August. The end of July he told me he had three more blockings to do on the passenger side before it would be ready for the first bit of color - the white for the butt stripe. He said 2.5 weeks and he'd be ready to locate the paint mask for the stripe so we scheduled the date to get that done - supposed to be in four more days. I sent a text yesterday to confirm he'll be ready and just got a reply that the blocking is still ongoing.
Obviously the car won't be ready to pick up the end of August.
This is getting old - and each time my car goes to a new shop the cost goes up.
Just wondering if anyone has ever had body/paint finished on the originally scheduled date - or even close to it.
