After the high park fire in Colorado destroyed our home and garage, along with vehicles and a thirty- year collection of engines, old speed parts, tools, etc.-- well, everything; we moved temporarily to Calif. desert. My wife said "why don't you do another old car" don't you love when they say shit like that? I found a '55 Chrysler 2 door hardtop stripped it down, got a parts car for a lot of stuff I needed. Also found a Camaro for the front clip and asked around about a welding shop to do the front suspension clip. I contacted the owner of a highly recommended welding shop and the owner said no problem, we discussed the work he was to do, JUST WELDING, but a lot of it. Front clip, roll cage, rear axle, mount the fuel cell, tabs for this and that. After I delivered all three cars, etc to his shop I said "what's it going to take to get the ball rolling" $2k was what he asked for and received. I offered him the parts off the Camaro I wouldn't be using, thinking it would sweeten the deal for him. 2 years have gone by and he hasn't done the welding, the Camaro was completely disassembled and some of the parts I needed are gone! I let the shop know I was going to be removing my car, etc to another welder. The shop put my cars and disassembled pieces out on the street, knowing Calif has some of the strictest rules about unlicensed vehicles on the street. At my age, 2 years is along time and 2k is a lot of money. This is where the old fool part comes in. I broke the fundamental rule, you don't pay until the work's done to your satisfaction. You can't do things on a handshake anymore.
I would have taken care of this after the first month of nothing being done. When I bought my car it was wrecked in the front. The frame horns needed a bit of straightening. I asked the shop down the road if they were interested. He does a ton of insurance work and his wife didn't want him to take on work like this but he agreed. Two weeks went by and nothing. I didn't even pay up front but I went in and told him an agreement is an agreement I don't care how backed up he is (he wife smirked at him) and it was done in two days. I then paid him.
I've brought money up-front to people to do work and have been generally happy about it, but these are people I know and trust. It's hard for a shop to invest a bunch of time and sometimes money in parts to do a job for a customer when customers often don't want to pay or don't have the money to pay once it's done, so some money upfront is fairly standard. I feel like there is more to this story than we're getting. Why did you wait 2 years?
Your right, there are to sides to every story. I had to leave the area for periods of time for work, we stayed in touch thru e-mail but my project was never mention and I'm not the pushy type. at a certain point it was apparent I was getting stiffed, it was a lot of stuff to move and store. I stopped by his shop numerous times and heard when I get this or that done, or theres projects ahead of yours. You know the kind of stuff I've read here a hundred times. but that kinda stuff only happens to other people, right?
I think some shops really hate their customers and there stupid projects, but they need money. The place I'm staying now might allow a quite motor assemble or some other work that doesn't require a lot of hammering, grinding, cursing or a runaway front clip rolling down a steep driveway, that's why I needed a shop to do the welding/fab
I know the whole story sounds like a poor me rant, but it gets better, unknown to me at the time the second welder I hired is the arch rival of the first, they hate each other on a grade school childish level. Now I'm thinking what have I gotten in the middle of? Both of these guys are talented welder/fab and could easily done the frame clip in a day. The first guy took my money and gave me nothing and when I complained put my stuff on the street. now we've all had difficult clients/customers but I never took money and gave nothing in return and at nearly 70 years I've been around cars abit and I'm not that difficult. It took two years because I was giving the guy every chance to do right, I'm guessing because of my age he thought he'd just wait till I kicked the bucket. hope you got a laugh.
I figure if a guy can't start a welding job without front money, I don't want to deal with him. I'd be happy to make progressive payments weekly to cover what was accomplished that week, but that's it.
Well there's no fool like an old fool,(speaking of myself) finding parts for a 55 Chrysler isn't that easy . A couple of days ago an old drag racer called me and said he had a 55 331 for me so things are looking up. For the shop owners that think there customers are stupid fools, there not, why? because they came to you, get it? Some of these guys remind me of that bar in Alaska called Chicklute Charlies their motto is "we cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you"
Here's my take on it, it is not uncommon for a shop to ask for a deposit. I have been known to do things myself for nothing if I like someone, but normally unless I know a person real well there is a deposit involved before I start a job. For anyone our age it is just an accepted fact that on custom work it is nearly a requirement. That said while we always say get it in writing, the truth of the matter is that for anyone our age a handshake is golden. Let me tell you a story, those who have taken time to actually know me know that I have a somewhat colored past. Way back when, I was looking for someone who could balance a motorcycle motor for me, I ran onto this guy who for all intents and purposes was just your basic dirty no good, but he is a damned good wrench. We agreed on a price for building everything on the engine but the heads and shook hands. I dropped off my pieces and then had second thoughts and said something to my old man. he asked me about the agreement and I told him, he asked if we shook hands and I said yes, then he asked about his club (most of you would say gang) affiliation and I told him. he said, "Well son he is *Red and White, he gave you his word, his word is all that he has of value in this world. He'll keep his word." It ended up that some of my parts that I thought were good were not good, he replaced those parts and still built the lower end for the price agreed upon. He would not accept a penny more, and he gave me some advice that I live by to this day, three things that are important in this world, two I won't mention as that have no bearing on this thread but one does, "Always keep your word. . ." Basically I said all of that to say this, there are a lot of bad shop owners out there, for what ever reason they don't seem to think that their word has much value. Some of them are reading this thread and they should know that if you take money or not from someone to do something for them, you say that you are going to do it you are bound to do it. End of the day there is not court system or web site that holds you to it, your word is all that you have of any value in this world. *Red and White is a civilian term for a certain motorcycle club of note. I changed the name used in the conversation because I felt it prudent to do so in this setting. By the way I have prepaid for work and had it done to my satisfaction and I have prepaid for work and not had it done at all. I unfortunately have what some have told me is an idealistic view of the world, I think that if I do things a certain way that everyone else will. I have never been to civil court but I have been through the judicial system and found it lacking. I have never lost any money to someone who thought that they would take it from me. For some reason while they have managed steal my time they never see fit to keep my money. Not sure why that is.
The Jalopy Journal
