The Waiting Game

[HeavyFuel]

I am getting a little tired of my body guy not doing squat to my car. 

He accepted my car at his shop in July, only after I hinted around that unless he took me serious and fit my car into his schedule (like he had promised a year earlier) that I would take it to someone else.

Well, he hasn't touched it besides to put it onto a rotissarie, where it has hung for the last six months.  Should I tell the guy to take a hike and remove my car from his shop and look for someone else?  I have seen his work and it is nice, but he keeps putting other less time consuming jobs in front of mine, although my car is in pretty decent shape to start with.

How long have some of you guys had to wait for your body work to get done?  I am just afraid that he really doesn't want to do the car ,and his heart just won't be in it if and when he does get around to it.

[BigBlockSam]

man, i've been in bodyshop hell . good luck. Rene

[TylerCharger69]

Judging from a bird's eye view of the car in the pic.....it doesn't look like there's really any serious work  needed to be done.   I'm not up close,  but the car looks pretty straight to me!!  Unless of course  the other side is crunched...lol     IMO.....It should've been done by now.  Got more pics?

[Shakey]

Tough decision.  If you push him, he might rush into and do a half assed job.  If you don't, it'll sit there until the second coming of Christ.

Without letting him know, I'd try and find another shop that specializes in resto work that can take your car right now.

At the same time, it is not uncommon for bodyshops to push the resto projects aside to work on collision / insurance work that can be done quickly and pays better.

Hang in there!

[whitehatspecial]

Most body shops make their money in production work. Collisions, dealer and insurance repair are their bread and butter. The payments come quickly and the car is gone. Show quality or restoration work take up a lot of time most of which is waiting for parts, decisions, etc. Being on your side I agree it's frustrating waiting but a necessary evil when you're waiting for a good body/paint man to work on your car.

If you're not confident the car is being treated in a timely manner it may be time to move on.

[Charger-Bodie]

make sure if you do decide to remove it from his shop that you have someone else lined up that you are confident that they wont do the same thing otherwise you might be just starting the wait game over

[Old Moparz]

Did you give the body shop a deposit, & if you did, how much?

That's the most important part of deciding whether I'd say pressure him into starting the work, or walking away & forfeiting the money you gave him. It's obvious to me he doesn't want to do the work & I doubt he would miss the car if you took it back. A few things can happen if you badger him into starting, & probably none will be any good.

1)  You'll be at the point of no return & it'll make it harder later on to walk away if you feel you're not happy with the progress or the quality of work.

2)  Whether you're right or not, he'll see you as the pain in the ass customer he wants to avoid. That will suck when you end up not getting calls returned.

3)  The quality might suffer because he wants the car belonging to a pain in the ass customer out of his shop & he'll rush the work to do it.

4)  There could be cash flow problems with his business, & this scenario with your car could be the tip of the iceberg. You might end up giving him money later for work you'll never see.

If you don't think any of this is possible, it's almost exactly what happened to me with one of my cars & a body shop. Work started, then stopped, then after getting on the guys back, the car sat in his building untouched for several months. He avoided me until I showed up to remove the car. Two weeks later he was gone & out of business, & over 20 cars on his property were tied up in court & all had large storage fees. I got mine out & would do the same if I were you.

The car has been there since July? I'd have removed it before September without a second thought.   

[Troy]

I waited a year to get one of mine in a shop. I had done a lot of research and had seen almost every car they ever finished. Any way, they had my car for almost 4 months and never even managed to get it on the rotisserie. I had disassembled the car and I even stripped the paint. Most of what they did was weld in a new trunk floor (which I probably could have figured out on my own). They did fix the trunk opening where it had rusted and it looks great but I think they only spent about 40 hours total on it. If I had waited for them to get it in paint I'd have gone another 18 months. As it is, I took it home where it has sat ever since. Maybe I'd have been better off leaving it there?

Troy

[HeavyFuel]

Judging from a bird's eye view of the car in the pic.....it doesn't look like there's really any serious work  needed to be done.   I'm not up close,  but the car looks pretty straight to me!!  Unless of course  the other side is crunched...lol     IMO.....It should've been done by now.  Got more pics?

I've got lots....here are a few.

[HeavyFuel]

Not crunched, pretty decent really.

[41husk]

It is verry tough to find a good retoration shop,  they make there money doing insurance work and if you can even get them to take an old car, it sits on the back burner for months st a time.

[HeavyFuel]

I gave the dude $2K start up money when I dropped off the car in July.  His business is doing pretty well, although it is small, he has the local UPS contract on their trucks.  It's basically him and one other guy that is really good, the top of his auto body class at college a few years back.

It just torques me off, when I swing by there about once a month, to see another car that he just did and is cutting the clear on, or crap like that.

I guess it does give me more time to get things ready.

[Ghoste]

My cousin is going through the same thing with his 70 Road Runner.  But you want to talk about patience, he's been waiting on the guy for a few years now.  It's a buddy of his and the car is very local to him and the price is next to nothing, but years??   I'd have yanked it along time ago.

[Charger-Bodie]

just out of curiousity are you going to piant it JJ1 again?

[Back N Black]

This is 15 months progress at the bodyshop,its at the point that no other bodyshop is willing to take on a project that someone else started.
On a positive note it gives me time and the room to rebuild all the components while its there.

[HeavyFuel]

just out of curiousity are you going to piant it JJ1 again?

Your car does look sharp, but I'm just not too sure about the JJ1.  It just doesn't do it for me.  Fifteen years ago, I had full intentions of changing the color to something else once I got around to the resto.  Now I'm not too sure, it is a numbers matching R/t.

[69charger2002]

ypur body looks great. i totally understand the heart not in it and possibly half assing it. that would be my biggest concern even over the time to get around to it factor. check around and see if you can line someone else to get on it quicker that does quality work. if so haul that puppy out of there
trav