I need some input. I resently purchased a 1979 corvette and put together a plan for the renovation I was wantig to do. One of the biggest parts of my plan was to have it repainted. So, after stripping the interior I decided to send it off to paint. I searched and searched to find a vendor who would repaint it a diffrent color for a reasonable price. I found a company who would do the job I wanted to the quality I wanted and for the price I wanted ($3500). I got to see some of his work before hand as he dose paint jobs for a local restoration company. When he came to pick up the car he told me he could have the car complete in 3 weeks. That was in January. I call him at least once a week to put preasure on him but he always has some excuse as to why it is not done. About a month ago I decided to take a trip out to his shop to check on the progress. It had been sanded and primed @ that time so I figured maybe another couples of weeks. So I called him two weeks ago and told him I had a corvette ralley to go to in two weeks and I need the car back in one week so I could put the interior back in. He said no problem it was almost done . Tomarrow is the dead line and I called him to make sure we were on task and he told me it will be another week. Normally I would unload on him and put a #%$% load of preasure on him but I feel like my hands are tied as he has my baby, a thousand dollars of my money and I have put so much work into this car I would be devistated if it was damaged. part of me says go pick up the car and cut my losses and part of me says you have waited this long just let him finish. What should I do?

 

If he does really good work and you like his product I would just leave it and eat the loss of time. $3500 is really reasonable and some would say low for a nice quality job if that is what he is offering.

If you want to go get it now you can figure the $1000 you already spent is well worth the time for them sanding and primering the car. You have to ask yourself if you could find someone else to paint it for $2500. If you did go and pick it up I would cut my loss on the 1k but I suspect he will try to get more out of you for what was performed.

Do you have a contract with him stating the time deadlines or any of the work he is supposed to perform? A contract or the lack of would be the major deciding factor in what I would do.

Just my opinion. Good luck.

 

The same thing happened to me. I would tell you to just suck it up and wait. I would call and kind of nicely nag him but I wouldn't go crazy or anything. I had mine done by a guy who has done body work for me before. I gave him the car in Oct and he finally had it done in June, only 2 month's later than I wanted it. I will say that the paint job was great. I've had people ask me where I got it painted and I tell them if they don't need their car then he would be a good bet. He only charged me 2K and he stripped it down to fiberglass before it was painted.

Hang in there, it will be worth it in the end. It's a long summer!!

 

Forget the rally. If you rush him, the job will be sloppy...That price is very low (if it's good quality), so I wouldn't push it...

 

The scenario you describe is typical with "low-ballers". They lowball the price ($3500 is low-ball for a color change) and then get so overwhelmed (especially with their "full-price" customers), they can't perform.

I call it "lowest-bidder syndrome" and it happens with every trade. I see it in my trade and enjoy (with a smile) giving estimates to clients who need the "low-baller's" work un-screwed. Hopefully, your paint will turn out nice.





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I'm going through the same thing right now myself, I dropped my vette off with a guy three weeks ago with a deadline of the end of may. He agreed to that and quoted $3500-4000.

I checked today and seen he hasn't done a thing to it and I asked about the deadline, now he couldn't commit to a date and didn't know when he could get to it. Wasted 3 weeks of my time that could have been spent elsewhere...

I then called a tow truck to go get it and had it taken to another shop, I told these guys when I needed it and they said it would be no problem....hopefully they stick by thier word.

I can understand you wanting to get your car and I also know how it feels to keep getting the runaround. My advice is to give it a week and if no dice be prepared to pull it, it's been long enough.

 

When you deal with other people you ocasionally get screwed. We all do. It is especially irritating when you do your home work and think you found a stand up guy. He's got you by the webbles, so now what? I think the best thing to do would be to keep talking to him. Sounds like he will finish it eventually, and you don't want to really **** him off, but you can't just roll over either. After you get the car back, you can bad mouth him all over town. Oh and by the way, this doesn't only happen to budget jobs. Some of the high dollar guys think they are above worrying about good service.