My biggest regret, and I can not stress this enough, was picking out the right body shop. When I first started my restoration, I picked a local, small body shop in La Porte, Colorado, where I lived at the time. We agreed on a price. I rebuilt and installed the engine per the body shop owners recommendation. Once this was done, I took the car to him. Paid him up front (wrong thing to do) and left it there for 12 months. He proceeded to strip the old paint off. patched the rust by welding in panels he made himself and applying a lot of bondo. Once, when I stopped over to inspect, I noticed the car had been left outside with no hood on it and it had been raining like crazy. I found the engine crankcase full of rain water and surface rust forming on various pieces of my newly rebuilt engine. I changed the oil, and covered the engine with plastic. He basically blew me off. I also noticed cars that had come in after mine were getting done quicker. Long story short, I wound up pulling my car out, losing several thousand dollars and parts. I was so mad, I couldn't even touch the car without losing my temper. The car sat in my garage from 1992 til 2007, when I finally found a body shop here in Las Vegas who would do the job correctly, (which they did). I'm happy to say that my car is almost done! Thanks for letting me ramble on and on. I needed to get that off my chest. The moral of this story??? Check out the body shop, the quality of its work and personnel. DON'T pay the full amount up front. and most of all. Be patient!
Doug,
I'm sorry you went through all that misery at first, but am glad you finally found a shop that delivered.What advice you have offered above is very true. Being a pro spraypainter myself for many years, and knowing how the trade and bodyshops opperate, my strong advice to all people wanting body work done would be - Please, please take the effort, time and trouble to do your homework on investigating any bodyshop before you have any dealings with at all. Reputable recommendations from people you know and trust very well, play a big part as well. If you know just about everything exactly how the bodyshop is run, all the people behind it, it's reputation, quality of work done, that is all the battle.
Sadly, in my trade, there have always been too many rip offs, shonky dealers, lousy workers, lousy work done, and time thieves that muck you around for ever while you endlessly wait for your car to get finished. So as a customer, you really have to be carefull who you choose to run with to get your work done. Do your homework and choose carefully!
Greg
I'm really enjoying my resto in an overall way, but there have been four main issues that have managed to annoy and frustrate me and cause me some degree of regrete with my restoration.
Firstly, i've been victim to dealing with differant repair shops that have ripped me off on not doing the job that i aked for properly.(shonky work) and also overcharging me large amounts of money.
Second, i have found it hard dealing with the fact that there are not enough aftermarket parts at this stage available for '71-'73 Mustangs.And a lot that are available are cr*p quality as well. Despite what some people say about enjoying the challenge and the fun of fixing up old buggered original Ford parts, all i want is to get on with the show, have quality parts available for me to buy, enjoy installing them without too much drama, and then enjoy seeing the fruits of my labour in the finished product and result. Is that too much to ask? But alas, that comes down to a so called 'lack of demand and not enough money to be made concept' i guess.
Thirdly, spending money on parts that i thought i needed, and ended up not wanting at all.
Fourthly, owning an American Car in an overseas country is much more expensive than owning and restoring that same car in America. Import costs & taxes are expensive,paying for pro work to be done on your car is expensive, buying parts and waiting a long time for them to be shipped out to your country is expensive. That takes, to some extent, the edge off the pleasure of owning and restoring thing as well.
Greg
