'65 Valiant Convertible: Mostly ignored for over 20 years
In 2013, I agreed to do body and paint on a 1965 Plymouth Valiant Convertible for a friend and fellow member of our local car club. He bought the car in 1998 as a rusty but mostly complete slant six automatic in DD1 blue with a black top. He had a flaky guy do some rudimentary rust patch work but the guy just disappeared and left him with a stripped down car and no skills to complete it.
I recall going by the owners house occasionally and the car was always in the driveway, under a tarp. He would sometimes talk of the plans he had for it. 340 4 barrel, 4 speed, 8 3/4 axle with 3.55s, bright metallic orange with a tan convertible top. He wanted to use a '65 Barracuda grille and Formula S emblems to build a car that was never built: a Formula S Barracuda Convertible. It was going nowhere though because....He had mechanical skills but couldn't weld, do bodywork or paint.
One day, he spoke of the car again. He was at a crossroads. He saw the stillborn project as a bit of an eyesore and was thinking of selling it. Out of respect, I offered to do the body and paint when he told me that he would give me all of the spare parts that he had accumulated over the years. He told me about the good parts and I got excited thinking about the money I could make!
I'm talking parts like emblems, lenses, grilles, headlight bezels, V8 center links, 8 3/4 Sure Grip 3rd members...Plus some 71 Road Runner parts. Fenders, grilles, hoods and some interior parts. All of it was good for selling at swap meets so .....I rented a tow dolly and proceeded to tow the car to my place along with 3 truck and trailer loads of parts. As I started loading all the stuff (By myself, this guy never carried a single thing), I started noticing that A LOT of it was useless....13" wheels, rotted door panels, rat chewed seats, rusted bumpers, 9" drum brake assemblies, 2 barrel intakes, plugged radiators, 2 dead 273 engines...Oh well. There are a LOT of good things to sell and the other stuff can be sold for scrap to make a few bucks.
It seemed a bit strange when he insisted that I also take parts unrelated to body and paint. Interior parts, exhaust, the 340 he was going to use, the 4 speed and rear axle, etc. I recall saying..."Why take this?" He was insistent that I take everything.
Occasionally when we'd talk about the project, he'd say things like When we build the engine or When we get around to doing the suspension and brakes...I simply thought he was including me rhetorically.
Fast forward 2 years.
I had other cars I had in the schedule to restore and sell first. He was okay with that. I was putting together some money to buy the Wife a car and I didn't want to make payments. I sold 4 cars and a bunch of parts, saved and worked some side jobs. We ordered the Challenger in January 2015 and it was delivered in March. This was the first new car that I ever paid for outright. It felt great!
By Fall 2015, it started to dawn on me that this guy was expecting more from me than just body and paint. Somehow in his mind he either developed the belief that "Paint the car" actually meant bodywork, paint, assemble, suspension, brakes, steering, engine, clutch, trans, driveline, axle, exhaust and every other dang thing.
I finally confronted him one day and found that my guess was correct. He really did misunderstand me. He thought I was going to do everything on the car except the interior. I made maybe $2500 on the sale of the extra parts and somehow THIS is enough to pay for building a car for a guy? He seemed shocked when I reminded him that I only offered to paint it. He was stubborn too...He refused to accept that he misunderstood me.
I started a thread on this forum asking the opinions of the members. The overwhelming majority of the responses were on my side.
I wrote an email, stating my side as clear as I could. I included the opinions of the members of FABO, FBBO and a few other friends. I told him that I was still willing to honor the original deal. I'd tow it back to him painted and ready to assemble, along with all the best parts he had given me.
In 2013, I agreed to do body and paint on a 1965 Plymouth Valiant Convertible for a friend and fellow member of our local car club. He bought the car in 1998 as a rusty but mostly complete slant six automatic in DD1 blue with a black top. He had a flaky guy do some rudimentary rust patch work but the guy just disappeared and left him with a stripped down car and no skills to complete it.
I recall going by the owners house occasionally and the car was always in the driveway, under a tarp. He would sometimes talk of the plans he had for it. 340 4 barrel, 4 speed, 8 3/4 axle with 3.55s, bright metallic orange with a tan convertible top. He wanted to use a '65 Barracuda grille and Formula S emblems to build a car that was never built: a Formula S Barracuda Convertible. It was going nowhere though because....He had mechanical skills but couldn't weld, do bodywork or paint.
One day, he spoke of the car again. He was at a crossroads. He saw the stillborn project as a bit of an eyesore and was thinking of selling it. Out of respect, I offered to do the body and paint when he told me that he would give me all of the spare parts that he had accumulated over the years. He told me about the good parts and I got excited thinking about the money I could make!
I'm talking parts like emblems, lenses, grilles, headlight bezels, V8 center links, 8 3/4 Sure Grip 3rd members...Plus some 71 Road Runner parts. Fenders, grilles, hoods and some interior parts. All of it was good for selling at swap meets so .....I rented a tow dolly and proceeded to tow the car to my place along with 3 truck and trailer loads of parts. As I started loading all the stuff (By myself, this guy never carried a single thing), I started noticing that A LOT of it was useless....13" wheels, rotted door panels, rat chewed seats, rusted bumpers, 9" drum brake assemblies, 2 barrel intakes, plugged radiators, 2 dead 273 engines...Oh well. There are a LOT of good things to sell and the other stuff can be sold for scrap to make a few bucks.
It seemed a bit strange when he insisted that I also take parts unrelated to body and paint. Interior parts, exhaust, the 340 he was going to use, the 4 speed and rear axle, etc. I recall saying..."Why take this?" He was insistent that I take everything.
Occasionally when we'd talk about the project, he'd say things like When we build the engine or When we get around to doing the suspension and brakes...I simply thought he was including me rhetorically.
Fast forward 2 years.
I had other cars I had in the schedule to restore and sell first. He was okay with that. I was putting together some money to buy the Wife a car and I didn't want to make payments. I sold 4 cars and a bunch of parts, saved and worked some side jobs. We ordered the Challenger in January 2015 and it was delivered in March. This was the first new car that I ever paid for outright. It felt great!
By Fall 2015, it started to dawn on me that this guy was expecting more from me than just body and paint. Somehow in his mind he either developed the belief that "Paint the car" actually meant bodywork, paint, assemble, suspension, brakes, steering, engine, clutch, trans, driveline, axle, exhaust and every other dang thing.
I finally confronted him one day and found that my guess was correct. He really did misunderstand me. He thought I was going to do everything on the car except the interior. I made maybe $2500 on the sale of the extra parts and somehow THIS is enough to pay for building a car for a guy? He seemed shocked when I reminded him that I only offered to paint it. He was stubborn too...He refused to accept that he misunderstood me.
I started a thread on this forum asking the opinions of the members. The overwhelming majority of the responses were on my side.
I wrote an email, stating my side as clear as I could. I included the opinions of the members of FABO, FBBO and a few other friends. I told him that I was still willing to honor the original deal. I'd tow it back to him painted and ready to assemble, along with all the best parts he had given me.
