Kayo
Well-Known Member
After a year and a half, my 67 Satellite convertible (383 V8 auto) started restoration today--YAY!!!
Here's my story--the original restorer I took it to sat on it for the better part of a year without touching it.
A friend referred to me to that shop, which had a good reputation--did great work. However, from the start, I seemed to get push back on it. The immediate delay was the need for rear quarter panels. The passenger side had been in some kind of accident where the repair job was really bad. Both sides needed replacing and as just about all 67 B Body owners who have needed to replace the quarter panels know--there are none available in the after market. Within a week of putting the car in the shop, I had a chance to buy donor quarters from a hard top in great shape from someone on the forum for a reasonable price. Resto guy refused them because he insisted on convertible donor parts only. We'd discussed it when I brought the car in and I told him I'd already looked for those and was told repeatedly that there wouldn't be any--too rare (only 1700 67 Satellites were made so how many rear ends would be parted out?) That was last March. In June he was sure AMD would come out with 67 quarter panels and they'd use my car as a test bed because he was friendly with them (and geographically close). Didn't happen because AMD said there wasn't enough call for those parts. So I waited and waited and kept asking what was the plan next? In late September, he called to tell me he found a donor car and he needed me to send him $1300 for the car and transporting it back to his shop. When all was said and done, it turned out to be a hardtop afterall. Shortly after he got the donor car to his shop, he had his guys cut my parts off it and he parted the rest of it out, selling everything else on Craigs List, pocketing the profit from that himself. I asked him if there wasn't anything else my car might have needed and he said no. I knew there are some things I was going to need, but without ever seeing this donor car or what shape it was in, I had no idea whether any of the other parts I needed were any good on it.
After that, I thought the project was going to start in October, but I kept getting push back--next month, next month, next month. All of the 2015 calendar year I was prepping my house for sale, selling it, packing it up, and moving from PA to Florida. The car was in GA and I would call and ask when the work was going to start. When I moved in November, I was told it had been bumped for a soldier's car in some sad story--well that's not important--it was just another unnecessary delay where my car would have been started and finished by then. The last thing I heard as I physically moved my household was my car was supposed to start in December. It didn't. In January, shortly after New Year's, I called about it and when I was told it would be another couple weeks before they started it, my head exploded.
Rather than put up with the run around anymore, I looked into restorers near me. I found a guy who specializes in MOPAR and it's a match made in heaven. It's a two man shop where they do one car at a time and they are Chrysler/Plymouth specialists--lifelong love of the brand so it was perfect. They were also ready to start their next project so it was meant to be. I arranged transport--became the queen of the prom amongst those vultures--and had the car moved. It was only when I called the first resto guy to let him know the car was being moved that I found out he was seriously ill and had been for a while. I felt badly, but honestly, if he'd said something, maybe I would have been more understanding because I'd been through all that with my late husband. Although, not like I hadn't been bending over backwards understanding already... Turns out he was okay with me moving the car and he said he just didn't want me to be mad at him. We had a good talk about it. The only problem was I could get the car transported right away, but not the quarter panels, which wouldn't fit inside the car and the transporters wanted more to bring them than the car so I arranged to have one of my friends in GA bring them down a couple weeks later.
Here's the problem I have and where I need opinions. As I said earlier, I paid $1300 for the donor quarter panels that the original resto guy got for me back in the fall. My friend in GA picked them up for me a couple weeks ago and brought them down to the new restoration guys here in FL. I got my first look at the parts when we dropped them off and I was very upset at their condition. They were rusted junk! I couldn't believe it and said as much at the time. I was not surprised a week later when the guys here called to tell me they couldn't use them. I'm trying to figure out how to go back to the original resto guy about it. I can't believe he was ever going to use those parts on my car. The quarter panels on my car are better than these so it doesn't make sense! Key areas were completely rusted through and the interiors of these are all rusty. How was he going to use them or expect anyone else to use them? I don't want to think he sent crap that was sitting in his yard rather than good parts just because I am not his customer anymore. I don't want to accuse him of doing that, but I don't know what to think--I know he could never have used those parts the way they are. I'm very upset, but also I just don't know how to approach this. With this guy's health situation, it complicates it. However, why should I be out $1300? What do you guys think? How would you handle it?
Here's my story--the original restorer I took it to sat on it for the better part of a year without touching it.
A friend referred to me to that shop, which had a good reputation--did great work. However, from the start, I seemed to get push back on it. The immediate delay was the need for rear quarter panels. The passenger side had been in some kind of accident where the repair job was really bad. Both sides needed replacing and as just about all 67 B Body owners who have needed to replace the quarter panels know--there are none available in the after market. Within a week of putting the car in the shop, I had a chance to buy donor quarters from a hard top in great shape from someone on the forum for a reasonable price. Resto guy refused them because he insisted on convertible donor parts only. We'd discussed it when I brought the car in and I told him I'd already looked for those and was told repeatedly that there wouldn't be any--too rare (only 1700 67 Satellites were made so how many rear ends would be parted out?) That was last March. In June he was sure AMD would come out with 67 quarter panels and they'd use my car as a test bed because he was friendly with them (and geographically close). Didn't happen because AMD said there wasn't enough call for those parts. So I waited and waited and kept asking what was the plan next? In late September, he called to tell me he found a donor car and he needed me to send him $1300 for the car and transporting it back to his shop. When all was said and done, it turned out to be a hardtop afterall. Shortly after he got the donor car to his shop, he had his guys cut my parts off it and he parted the rest of it out, selling everything else on Craigs List, pocketing the profit from that himself. I asked him if there wasn't anything else my car might have needed and he said no. I knew there are some things I was going to need, but without ever seeing this donor car or what shape it was in, I had no idea whether any of the other parts I needed were any good on it.
After that, I thought the project was going to start in October, but I kept getting push back--next month, next month, next month. All of the 2015 calendar year I was prepping my house for sale, selling it, packing it up, and moving from PA to Florida. The car was in GA and I would call and ask when the work was going to start. When I moved in November, I was told it had been bumped for a soldier's car in some sad story--well that's not important--it was just another unnecessary delay where my car would have been started and finished by then. The last thing I heard as I physically moved my household was my car was supposed to start in December. It didn't. In January, shortly after New Year's, I called about it and when I was told it would be another couple weeks before they started it, my head exploded.
Rather than put up with the run around anymore, I looked into restorers near me. I found a guy who specializes in MOPAR and it's a match made in heaven. It's a two man shop where they do one car at a time and they are Chrysler/Plymouth specialists--lifelong love of the brand so it was perfect. They were also ready to start their next project so it was meant to be. I arranged transport--became the queen of the prom amongst those vultures--and had the car moved. It was only when I called the first resto guy to let him know the car was being moved that I found out he was seriously ill and had been for a while. I felt badly, but honestly, if he'd said something, maybe I would have been more understanding because I'd been through all that with my late husband. Although, not like I hadn't been bending over backwards understanding already... Turns out he was okay with me moving the car and he said he just didn't want me to be mad at him. We had a good talk about it. The only problem was I could get the car transported right away, but not the quarter panels, which wouldn't fit inside the car and the transporters wanted more to bring them than the car so I arranged to have one of my friends in GA bring them down a couple weeks later.
Here's the problem I have and where I need opinions. As I said earlier, I paid $1300 for the donor quarter panels that the original resto guy got for me back in the fall. My friend in GA picked them up for me a couple weeks ago and brought them down to the new restoration guys here in FL. I got my first look at the parts when we dropped them off and I was very upset at their condition. They were rusted junk! I couldn't believe it and said as much at the time. I was not surprised a week later when the guys here called to tell me they couldn't use them. I'm trying to figure out how to go back to the original resto guy about it. I can't believe he was ever going to use those parts on my car. The quarter panels on my car are better than these so it doesn't make sense! Key areas were completely rusted through and the interiors of these are all rusty. How was he going to use them or expect anyone else to use them? I don't want to think he sent crap that was sitting in his yard rather than good parts just because I am not his customer anymore. I don't want to accuse him of doing that, but I don't know what to think--I know he could never have used those parts the way they are. I'm very upset, but also I just don't know how to approach this. With this guy's health situation, it complicates it. However, why should I be out $1300? What do you guys think? How would you handle it?
