Never dealt with a "restoration shop" before until I bought this 68 Dart GTS 340". Just an FYI, never give them a large deposit up front, especially if the owner looks like a 25 year old hipster with horn-rimmed glasses that went to college for vintage automotive restoration.
Bought the GTS in October of 2020 and got it home in February 2021. I had it thoroughly disassembled and on body rollers by May of 2021. No glass or anything. Gutted and ready. "Joe" came and looked at it in May of 2021. He shot me an estimate of $12,500 to $15,000 to do body and paint only on a 99.75% rust free Southern California Dart. He told me it would be early 2022 before he could get started on it and it would take 6-8 month to complete the work. I guess I was good with that because he was local (In Greensboro 5 minutes from my house) and some good friends of mine spoke highly of the quality of his paint work. I figured I could check in on him and his "progress". At that time he and his partner only had 3 big projects in the works. Finishing up a 1969 GTO, had a 1970 RAIII speed Trans Am coming in and a Lamborghini that they had to go to FL to look at and give an estimate on.
After a while, in July of 2021, I looked around for other shops in NC and emailed Clark's Classic Restorations in Greenville NC. A Mopar Restoration guru. He told me he was a year out before he cold take in new work, so I figured I'll just keep it local since the time frame for getting it in to the Greensboro shop was getting closer.
After some significant harassment, I finally got the, "Joe" Greensboro guy to pick it up in April of 2022 and gave him a $10,000.00 deposit which he immediately took to the bank. I only did that to show him I was serious about getting the car done. Well, the car sat until November of 2022 until he took it over to a shop in Burlington to be media blasted. That cost $3000.00 of my budget. The media blasters ruined/broke/stole my 53 year old OEM brake pedal with OEM stainless trim ring so now I need to buy a cheap Chinese knock off. The car was DA'd and put into epoxy and sat again for months.
After a while I asked where my OEM front inner fender splash shields were and he immediately blamed the media blasters again. I wasn't about to buy AMD stuff when I bought and delivered a 100% original steel car to him. I asked for the number of the media blaster and lit in to the guy, because "Joe" didn't want to or have the balls to. After a few conversation over two days and a few hours from hiring a lawyer, "Joe" found the inner fender shields. He never took them to the blasters. So I had to apologize to the media blaster. He was OK with it and I also found out he didn't even blast it. It got farmed out for the second time to a guy he knew.
I continued to check in every 4 weeks or so. The car had some minor blocking and sanding done and they welded up a few spots in the hood. I was told then that my car and a 1965 Riviera, (that showed up after my car and my deposit), would be worked in tandem because they were both rust free cars. I was fine with that. I left him alone for a few months until I checked in on December 14th of 2023. My car has made no progress and the Riviera is painted and gassing out. They had a DeTomaso Pantera they did some blending on the roof of. I was then informed that my car and the Lamborghini, (another car that showed up in the shop after my car and after my deposit), will be worked in tandem. But, the Lamborghini got accepted to be in the Concourse De Elegance in Pebble Beach and had to be done by April, which tells me my car will be pushed to the side yet again.
If I had brought my car to Mr. Clark in July of 2022, one year after I first contacted him, it would almost certainly be done by now.
Car was looked at 4/2021. Picked up 4/2022 with a $10,000.00 deposit. 12/2023, still in primer. Engine is done, Interior is done. My 18x24 garage is packed full of part waiting on his ******* ***. My fiance's 24x24 has a few parts in it too. I'd pull it from the shop but he has not done $10,000.00 worth of work to it and good luck getting a partial refund of my deposit. Very frustrating, but, I've never done this before so a lot of lessons learned the past couple years.
