Ok so I went to the shop unannounced and the car was not there, I began grilling the workers for what they knew and got the city they are moving to at least. then one of them contacted the owner and he called me.
He tells me my car is at a metal workers he hires on and off and at one point was commuting to his shop from 2 hours away, the reason he is using him is he lives near the media blaster that was used and the metalwork is actually not that bad or much and he can do it for a better cost, he is saying my car is stripped and the metal work has begun and should be done by this Friday. When I asked where this guy was he told me he was at his ranch that has a private road and gated entrance so I asked for the address telling him I needed specific pics of the strut rods and motor mounts on the passenger side just to see if he would give me the address, and he said oh well I 'll text the guy and see if he is there and if he is i'll call you back and give u the address, of course he did not.
He did talk about the shape of the car and not sure if he had just remembered I dropped off a deck filler panel from AMD but he did describe it and said his guy is installing it now and working it to fit as well as patching the small rust holes around the rear window, so I'm not sure if he just remembered this stuff or actual got an update from a guy. who knows?
So then I asked him about moving his shop ( it didn't look like they were packing anything up) and said I understand you are moving, he said yeah they found a larger spot in another town, an old aircraft hangar that had to get a new concrete floor and there is a delay in that whole deal so he would be where he is at now at least until the end of April. I said oh well a buddy of mine is looking for space up here and we asked the property management company and they said you were supposed to be out at the end of this month? he said well i will be extending my stay, I have since emailed them and asked this question with no response yet. I said ok, so if my car gets here on Friday what is the time line to get it done, he said well, a couple of weeks for body work, a week for paint, could have it done by the second week of March, I said ok cool, I still want to see it what's the address of where it's at? He just kept telling me I couldn't just show up at this guys place he would not know me I said well call him and let him know I'm coming, what's the address, he said I'll call you back. never did. He also claimed the metal guy had been up to at least midnight as he got a text from him around then and may still be sleeping, this is at 1 pm today.
We waited for him to respond back for an hour and a half, walking basicly every spot in his shops to see if there was any evidence of my car with no luck. I had told him the first time I would just hang out at his shop until he got me the address of the metal guy so I could go see my car, he never called.
So we left, calling him on the way out, he called back saying he still had not got a hold of his metal guy, so at this point I said ok just get me the pics, and I will see you on Friday!
Sounded like he was on one hand full of ****, on the other he made references to things that would seem legit if it truly was in metal work stage, but its real suspicious about not giving me the address, one former customer said he did the same BS to him and was lying because nothing has been done to my car.
So I 've come to the conclusion that by Friday if my car is not at his shop and I don't have any pictures of the progress I asked for by Friday I will be calling him informing him that I am calling the police and reporting the car stolen and if that doesn't get the truth out of him if he is lying then I will follow that up with a law suite with the state district attorneys office.
On a side note I called the police in that town and they were like oh you are talking about this place? I said yeah, they we know them well several people have come to us to get our help getting their cars back I said well ****, they said if you need us just call we will send an officer stright over.
I went home empty handed and still not sure what to think except this Friday is a deadline for this guy period end he ethers produces some legit work progress pics or the cops come to the door. I also have filed a claim with our state auto board and that will begin soon, where they will send a nagent out to verify the progress and if its not what he says or they can't find the car it gets reported stolen.
I did trying calling him two more times on the way home asking for the name of the place of the media blaster so my buddy could get quote and he never called back.