Classic Car Restoration Project Gone Bad – The Shop

One day, a long time ago, I went to shopper’s club to get groceries and a few other things. On my way in, I passed the tire center, and I thought to myself, “Geez, I need some new tires.” There were these two big burly guys behind the counter. I stood there for a while until finally one of them turned his attention to me. I said, “I think I need some new tires.” He said, “So what size does your car take?” My mind went blank; I did not have the slightest idea what size fit my car. I said, “I don’t know.” The guys looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Then the larger of the two said, “So, do you know what kind of car you have?” I died a little bit that day. My conclusion: clearly a real man knows the tire size of his car, and I must not be man enough.

Fear of Shame

So, many of us not only have been regularly shamed, but we live in the incessant anxiety that we will be further shamed. We live in fear of embarrassment, intimidation, humiliation. We are watchful, guarded, vigilant, we keep their distance, we act much more confident than we really are to avoid further shame. When we are shamed, we act out in our own bullying, abuse, and violence to deal with it or avoid it.

We go through life as if we are on patrol in a war zone, and we never know when we might get ambushed. Because we are so frequently ridiculed and mocked and bullied in our daily lives, we come to see the world as a deeply unsafe place.

Some phrases that should raise your eye-brows; does what you see match what you hear

• “We will bring your car into the shop next week to start work”; this phrase used rather frequently
• “Get us another $10,000 and that should be enough to get your car done”; how do they know before the old car is actually finished?
• “If you pay us the full amount left to finish your car (IE $50,000), we will discount your labor rate to get the job done”; never going to happen and now your out even more money and what is their incentive to finish?
• “The parts you paid us for are back ordered, and may include that they don’t know when they will arrive”
• “Things are really tight and if you bring in some money we can push to get some work done on your car”
• “We ran into more work on a section than we figured and it took more time”; did they give you a heads up on the delay?
• “Your next in line for some ______ work, but we need more money first”
• “If you pay us cash up front we will discount the rates”

Get it out in the open

We know what the “not reputable” shops are trying to do to make money so what can we do about it?  Realize that the best course of action is to rip the band aid off quickly, or you will suffer the pain of a thousand cuts.

• The hope is that our blog will help you to understand the process better, and be prepared to handle a classic car restoration project and choose the right shop
• But if you find yourself in this type of nightmare then the first thing is to swallow your pride and realize that you are not alone in this; be strong there are options
• Do not make any further payments; it does not get better and the hole will only get deeper
• Make arrangement to get your car and all the parts either to a safe location or another shop
• Get an attorney involved as needed to send the shop notices and protect your interests; most of these bad shops do not like attorneys and public awareness. It may cost you some money, but not as bad as it could get without legal support
• Do not buy into their further promises or even their threats; stay calm and look ahead for a fresh start

The origin of our blog was our observation that so many people were being taken advantage of by “shady shops” on vintage cars that have sentimental origin or even family roots.  We hope that you will find these posts as a helpful tool in the classic car world to make owning an old car a happier time.  As an old ad slogan used to say; “An educated consumer is our best customer”.

Please realize that thousands; even the best of us; have fallen into the same dismal world in attempting an old car restoration so do not let your pride stand in the way of making good decisions when the time comes.

You do have options to have a rewarding success in restoring and maintaining your classic car; so, stay tuned.