Need advice and also a warning.

Your what, a 2 hr drive from this car?
Should already be in your posession and moving fwd with legal action, if required.

Body shop hell is self inflicted.
Yeah, bout 2.5 hrs. I know it's close enough to just go get it. But, he moves it into storage and he's "out of town", it's now in his friends garage, now it's at is house, blah blah blah. I'm 100% he's not telling the truth. If he's not, then his life must be hell, the amount of excuses and BS he comes up with is insane. Pathological/professional liar.