September 12, 2003 - Well today I finally decided on where I am taking my car for the body repairs and paint.  Off it went and also my parts car to "Corvettes and Classics" in Rochester Michigan.  These are the same guys who kind of used to be Elite Body and Paint in Clinton Twp.  I will post pictures of it's progress when the work starts on it!

September 26, 2003 - The restoration shop today informed me that the insurance appraiser only wants to allocate $475 towards the actual quarter panel part.  I explained to them that this is not a Chevelle or a Camaro, that these parts are almost non-exsistent and that there was no way that $475 is enough.  They will explain this to the insurance appraiser.

October 1, 2003 - Well if anybody has Haggerty Classic Car Insurance, maybe you might want to think twice about it... I am starting to!  The restoration shop called me saying that the appraiser is "not buying it"!  That he will only go up to $575 for a quarter panel (the actual part).  He claims there is not a quarter panel that he couldn't find!  So I said "go for it".  Let him find the part (I don't think so....).  So I am not sure if this appraiser is just trying to be a hard ass or whether this is the insurance companies policies.  The shop says they will get back to me in a couple days after the appraiser tries to find his part.  If he finds one, we will HAVE to use his part.  How many sportroof quarters from the roof line down are available?  Not many in this world.....

October 12, 2003 - Well I finally settled with the appraiser for $700 for the actual part.  I pretty much got ripped off on it, considering what a quarter panel is worth.  Myy sister was in the hospital again and I really didn't have the energy to fight with the guy.  He started talking about buying a patch panel from J.C. Whitney and straightening out the rest.  All of us know that everyone who buys a J.C. Whitney patch panel for these cars... throws them away!  I expressed how dissatisfied I am with the price with Haggerty, we'll see if they pay any attention!  

October 18, 2003 - Talked to the repair shop yesterday and found out they are moving soon.  Apparently the ex-manager measured for a new $150,000 paint booth they ordered from Germany... well apparently it won't fit in the building!

December 16, 2003 - I have just been informed  that the shop my car is at is closing their doors! Apparently they have known this a couple weeks but not not informed me of it. I am so pissed! It has gone from what should be an exciting event to a bad experience. I have till towards the end of the month (next week) to get my car and my parts car out. I will apparently have to pay a towing company since I have no trailer or tow vehicle. Now I have to try and decide where to take it and who I can trust at this point. Needless to say I pretty much don't trust anyone anymore. I guess I am having a gut reaction at the moment and will sometime to digest this whole stupid situation.

I need to try to understand my options. Apparently these restoration shops are not real stable (at least it seems). The tech working on my car is going to go to another shop (I found this out from the other shop that a couple of the employees have gone to). I need to talk to him because the manager of the shop that is closing mentioned that the tech working on my car could probably work on it the tech's own shop (not sure what that exactly is, I am waiting on a call). Or I could take it to the shop the tech is going to which is an upper end resto shop, but it is doubtful that it will be done by spring. Or I could take it to a local collison shop that I had checked out originally and they seemed confident that they could do it. They have been in business for years and years and when I checked them out they were working on a 65 Galaxy, doing the entire body.

I am not sure who to trust anymore, and my head is swirling at a mile a minute. I have to figure out who to trust, how to transport, when can it be done, who can do it right, etc.

December 20, 2003 - Well after the initial shock of the shop that my car is in is closing, I started thinking about what I should do. I called the shop and told them I wanted to know what the bill was at this point. I had given them the $4000 insurance check as a down payment on the whole job (complete exterior, floor pans, etc). Well they called me back and said "well at time and materials we figured it out to $5975, but we'll just keep the $4000 and call it even". What? Are you out of your frickin minds? You cut a quarter off and put one on, no paint, no cost for the part, no paint, no finishing, no gas tank? I called the insurance company and got a copy of the "fixed" quote they had signed off on, then called them back and told them to refigure or I would be sueing. They called me back and said "Ok, we refigured and your bill is $2070, and we will be refunding you $1976". Much better, that is about what I figured. That was Wed and by Friday I had a check Federal Expressed to me.

I checked into a couple of shops in the area, MasterWorks on Stephenson Hwy for one. I talked to the body man who was working on my car and he was really dismayed about the whole thing. He had found out the place was closing Dec 1st and thought that I had known and was taking my car elsewhere. After talking to him I have found out that he is going to work at MasterWorks. It seems that he has a vindictive ex-wife and 3 kids. He works a "normal" job just to pay child support and then he has his own shop on 21 Mile road and Gratiot that he works at every evening and weekend, 7 days a week. He has been a body man for 24 years and really wants to "finish the job I started". "I would really hate to have someone else finish my work", "I am very, very good at metalcrafting, and all I can say is that you won't be sorry". He says he does show quality paint, that we can work out a price that would be agreeable to both of us.

So after thinking about it for a day, I have decided to go with him. Maybe fate has taken me this way on purpose, I don't know. I told him to take the car to his shop (he said he can arrange to have it moved), go over it with a fine tooth comb, completely! Figure out exactly what it would take to finish and then we will agree on a price. No open ended contracts. He said that that is fine with him, and that I will find his price most agreeable. One evening over Christmas we will meet and go over it and agree to a price. He said that when he found out they were closing that he wanted to try and finish my car, but the owner said "no", to not do anything more. He sounds like a guy who takes pride in his work, and if he is going to work at MasterWorks (from what I hear a very upper-end type shop) he must be good.  By the way his shop is called "Jay Bird Restorations".  So we will see what happens again my friends, thanks to all who emailed me with advice and options! I greatly appreciate it!

March 7, 2004 - Well I found out yesterday that the new place doing my car will be closing their doors April 1st. If anybody wants to go out of business, just start working on my car!  Jeez!  Anyways I just talked to the guy and he said "never fear" that the car will be done by April 1st.  He says that he is just too tired to be working 2 jobs anymore.  He assures me that no "shortcuts" will be taken to just get the car into paint.  God, nothing like making me nervous as hell again.  Seems like I just can't make the right decision with this car no matter what I do!

March 20, 2004 - Today is D-Day for my car! I am going to go pull my car out the shop it is in (if I can get in). As you guys know I have been dealing with this crap for 6 months now. The first shop went out of business. The guy working on my car at that shop talked me into letting him finish the job he started at his shop that he works in on nights and weekends. After all the bull I have heard on how my car is the top priority and he works there every night and weekend, last weekend was the final straw. The weekend before that I found out that he is closing his doors (hasn't paid the rent this month), but "I am still going to get your car done and I'm not going to cut any corners just to get it in paint". Well last weekend I went there on Saturday and he was working on another car. He told me he was going to do the metal patching on my car that day and to stop back by tomorrow (Sunday) to check on it. Well I went there Sunday and he wasn't there and my car once again had not been touched!

This guy is apparently the master bull$hitter! He told me he works there every weekend and night, but he is never there. Apparently aniother guy lives in the shop so that is how I get in. The times I have seen him there, he is working on someone elses car. 3 weeks ago my car "will probably be in primer by Thursday" then it was "Saturday". I have had enough of the bull and the lies, today about 1:00pm I will go there and hope that someone is there and then I am having my car towed. It will be a ligistics nightmare because it is in a lot of pieces, hoods, doors, trucklids, trim, etc that I have to move and all I have is an Aerostar. But somehow me and the kids will figure it out. We have to move everything from 21 and Gratiot to 9 mile and Telegraph to the place I am now taking it.

If anybody listens to WCSX in the Detroit area, they are bulding a "Stonesoup Road Runner". Basically what that is is that they restore a classic car (last year it was a Mustang) and then they raffle it off for the Children's Leukemia Fund. All the auto businesses donate their time and materials to this worthy cause. Well anyways I am taking my car to GLAC of Farmington, which is the place doing the whole body for them. I went and checked them out yesterday with a friend (who is a real estate agent and she thinks with her head, I think with my heart sometimes especially when the car is concerned), and we both liked the place and their commitment. They are very high end, and it will cost me big time, especially to have it done by mid-June, but so far I have made every wrong decision possible with this car, so hopefully this time with somebody else's input that I value I am making the right one!

If this doesn't work out this time, I may end up parking it and quitting! Don't know how many more disappointments I can handle. This is suppose to be a "FUN" thing!

Wish me luck that I get in the place, get a tow truck there, etc....

March 20, 2004 (Part 2)- I got to the shop and the guy working on my car wasn't there but the guy living there was. Apparently he is taking over the shop, the other guy hasn't been seen. Anyways I got a flatbed tow truck to tow the car to the new shop 35 miles away. Me and the kids filled up my Aerostar with 5 doors, a deck lid, some trim and odds and ends. I will be going back next weekend to get the rest and have my parts car towed also. It worked out ok, no problems.

Got the car to the new shop and all the guys came out to check it out, they were impressed with the motor but as soon as they saw the body it was like" oh no, what did that guy do to your car". "He was a butcher" and "this car looks like Frankenstein"! Now, your talking about a guy who knows pretty much NOTHING about body work (me). One guy was asking me why the guy would be fiberglassing and bondo-ing right next to each other (apparently you do one then the other but not both at the same time?), and yes even though the guy told me that he welded the quarter seam from inside like factory, he didn't! He welded it on the outside on the seam. I am pretty much starting from scratch, except for the fact that they will have to fix what the other guy screwed up!

I was watching their (GLAC) body guy working on the Road Runner for the radio station (WCSX) and he is like watching a sculptor or a painter at work!

Anyways, the car is coming along nicely, they are currently wet sanding the primer to get the body perfectly straight.  All the lines look very good (to me at least), the shaker hole and the twist lock holes are cut out.  They are saying that maybe by the end of next week they will have cut with the paint, and maybe by the end of the next week, it will be painted and we can start putting it back together!  It won't be long.......

"Hey Vern it's mike with the Torino"

"Hey man, you gotta get down here"

"Well I planning on coming down there on Saturday"

"No man, you gotta get down here now, you gotta see this. What time do you work to?"

"3:00pm, but I gotta pick up the kids from school"

"Well grab them and come out here, it's not out of the way is it?"

"Well no, only about 40 miles in rush hour traffic, why what is up?"

"You gotta check out the car, it is painted!!!"

"Your kidding?"

"Nope it is painted, just needs to be wet sanded and the black needs to be done, but it is painted!"

"WELL I GUESS I WILL BE TAKING A REAL LONG LUNCH TOMORROW!!!!"

As McFord would say "WooooooooHooooooo!!!!!"

Anyways I went out there today and took some pictures. The wet sanding was already done by the time I got there!  Car is looking good!  Straight as an arrow and great paint!  They said that the valances and the black on the hood would be done by this Saturday.  The hard part (for me at least) starts soon... putting it back together!

At this point I need to express to everyone that what a joy it has been to deal with the people at GLAC of Farmington!  After all the heartache and turmoil I have gone thru with this car in the last 9 months, these guys have been nothing short of wonderful!  When I go there, I never get the feeling that I am intruding or that they think I am looking over their shoulder.  Mike and Vern (the owners) are always friendly, inviting me for coffee and Lebanese pastries.  They have been nothing but honest and a joy to work with!  They treat you like you are important to them (and I sincerely believe that I am important to them), and that my friends is something that is greatly lacking in this world when dealing with people for services.  That is something that truly makes a difference!

My impressive arrival!