Two More Months Wasted ..............

.... we sent the Thames to a new, highly recommended shop in Trinity to have some small sheet metal items cleaned up ............ that was mid November .............. having heard nothing by the first of February, I had Brooks go back and check on the progress ............. this was all that had been accomplished in two plus months :mad::mad:

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............. the explanation given was that he couldn't figure out exactly how to make the repairs :rolleyes::rolleyes: .............. obviously this guy didn't have a clue

So the car is back in Asheboro at the Martin Brothers shop ............ the decision having been made to correct these types of small blemishes with fiberglass and body filler putty ........... not what any of us wanted but we have to get on with it and make some serious progress ............ the pictures below show the start of the fiberglass and putty work being done ........... Brooks won't let any mechanical sanders hit that old body ......... the "Grunt Work", as he puts it, is all being done by hand ............ hopefully we're finally on our way

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man what a rip off. glad to see that you got it into alot better hands.

Sounds like it's in good hands now... Outside of the initial metalwork I don't like to use power tools on stuff I really care about.

We've all had these kinds of "Professionals" who promise you the stars and the moon, then sit on your project for weeks or months without doing anything. I don't get it...........why don't they just tell you up front they don't want to do your job, or aren't sure they can get it done quickly? Worst thing we can do it take a car in and tell them "I'm in no hurry, work on it when you get time." :eek:

I've learned to be very blunt up front and tell them exactly what I am looking for and then ask them point blank if they can do it and how soon. Then there are no gray areas when they drop the ball, and I can complain that they didn't keep their word.

Don

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...s020609-04.jpg

Looks like duraglass to me... stuff is strong as all get out... I wouldn't fret over that... you should be just fine!

You're bringing back my blocksanding nightmares! I used the duraglass on my entire Model A, sanded by hand for weeks but it is strong as heck and looks good now. That's a cool looking ride and it looks like they're making good progress.

Sean

Service is still the key to a successful shop IMO... People expect you to do what you say you will do in a decent time frame, and they should expect no less... Don't know about the rest of the country, but now that times are (again) a bit lean the shops with the "in by 9, out by November" mindset are dropping like flies.

Hate to see when one of our CHR members becomes a victim of one of these shops who think that the customer's time frame doesn't matter. Hope they didn't waste a bunch of your money along with the two months of time you invested in them, Coyote!!!!!

I think the only good news in this whole economic issue now as that a lot of these shops won't make it through the lean times!!!!

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Hope they didn't waste a bunch of your money along with the two months of time you invested in them, Coyote!!!!!

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They're being paid exactly $0.00 ............. Nimrod said he couldn't figure how to get the sealing primer off the body to do his work :rolleyes::mad::rolleyes:

Guys like that make ya scared to ever take anything to any shop.

Glad you got it back . Nice ride you got there.

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Originally Posted by klutch

Guys like that make ya scared to ever take anything to any shop.

Glad you got it back . Nice ride you got there.

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Good point Klutch.... and this makes it extremely challenging for the legitimate shops to generate new business. Word of mouth will always be the best advertising, and I really hope that Coyote and all the others experiencing similar situations with other shops put "the word" out!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by Old Coyote

They're being paid exactly $0.00 ............. Nimrod said he couldn't figure how to get the sealing primer off the body to do his work :rolleyes::mad::rolleyes:

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That's good! Think I'd be tempted to bill HIM about $50.00 a day for slowing down your project so much....just like a contractor who finishes a project late and has to pay a daily penalty!!! Doubt he'd ever pay you anything, but I'll bet you'd get his attention!!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by Old Coyote

They're being paid exactly $0.00 ............. Nimrod said he couldn't figure how to get the sealing primer off the body to do his work :rolleyes::mad::rolleyes:

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sounds like they did not want the job or was more work then whey wanted .i have had stuff sit in my shop . i have also told the customer there job is not my only job in the shop so i juggle jobs in the shop BUT if i tell you a done date i try very hard to keep it

do them 1 at a time , do them right and charge what it's worth. i only need one at a time since i'm the only one working on them.

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Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

We've all had these kinds of "Professionals" who promise you the stars and the moon, then sit on your project for weeks or months without doing anything. I don't get it...........why don't they just tell you up front they don't want to do your job,

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Yea I had this on my Mustang. The shop did mainly semi-tractors for their main business. The owner was into street rods too and turned out some nice work. But it took forever. I had made arrangements with him - aka an appointment months in advance. So I stripped it down before I dropped it off and outside it sat for months as I drove by e v e r y day. . . . When he finally got on it he did a nice job. Frustration ! ! !

The second time I did the same.. Made an appointment and got the car ready and dropped it off. He understood I wanted to get it done quick so I could get going finishing it. It was just a couple of spot fixes and new paint.. Again the car set for a couple of months. Finally I called him and said I would be there on such and such day to pick it up. When I got there it hadn't been touched. He had to dig around to find the trunk stripes even. So back home it came and a couple of guys I worked with at the time did it and it turned out super.

Exactly the reason that I ended up painting my own car - it for sure isn't perfect but at least it's painted and is more then presentable. Now, if I could convince my upholsterer to finish a couple of big boat jobs, maybe I could even get the car on the road this spring:HMMM:

That's got to be frustrating. I agree with IC2; I've had a couple of these over the years and have got to the point where I'd rather take a shot at doing the work myself than put up with jokers like that.