Venting;
A couple of years ago I start looking for a shop that could finish the car, at the time had no garage just an open barn to work in. Research around and find this recomended Vette expert in SoCal,6 hours from me (Yea, I know, it should have never left the barn!Stop yelling at me.)
To make this long story shorter,after 9 months I get my baby back, that was June and I'm still re-doing the half *** work. I sent the guy a rolling chassis, undercarriage and almost all motor compartment done. Needed interior,paint and misc.
I sent him a email after having her back, see below.
Below is a list of whats been found so far:

1; 375.00 to polish the paint, 7 big areas still were wet sanded, I could see them on the shipping truck before even being unloaded. Spot painted a complete missed area on driver rear fender lip. Sloppy!

2; no interior lights worked, repaired.

3; one tail light worked, no brake lights, one front running light out(not plugged in),national backorder on the blinker assembly huh,took me 3 days and he had no idea what backorder. repaired.

4; 7 interior screws missing,most from t-top area,very visible,and an extra screw drilled through a panel to hold it rather than taking apart and doing it right. Didn't I pay you 2000.00 to put the interior together?

5; Drivers side door must be slammed shut,you said just rubber breaking in, wrong, my new door panel was not put on right and the metal tab is broken off. Now I have to buy another panel and have the custom leather insert put in. Quality!

6; Had to replace hood release cable, it broke, thats strange because I had a new one you were to put on. That was alot of fun getting the hood open, your ears should've been on fire.

7; Lets not forget the antenna left dangling in the fender well, that's fun installing after the mufflers are in place.

8; Put real tips on rear exhaust after cutting that 7 inches of okie pipe hanging out, what the hell was that, I've never seen a vette like that.

9; Had motor tuned by a professional,not by ear, 6 degrees out and had to replace 2 plug wires,they were installed against the headers. Those are bendable boots, so you could have avoided that dumb ***...

10; the stereo bounced in the dash, the rear stabilizer bracket was not installed. repaired.

11; This however has got to be the best! Did you check the headlights? Did you rebuild or replace the vacume acuators like I paid for? Cause the passenger light jambed going up or down, kept getting hung up. Why, well, when I got down underneath to see, it was easy to fix, just cut off the ZIP TIES holding on the Fu*&^%$ grills, forget about any brackets or screws.

12; Oh, dont forget about the interior plate not installed, just a minor thing,thank god I got it back. Where are my nose/hood original flags? Since there not on the car?

13; The air cleaner covers you sent were both remakes, where's mine, factory original does not mean after-market piece of ****, so find it and send it back.

14; Good call letting you put on a "real good" alternator for 125.00, that junk Kragens 50.00 rebuilt peice went out.The belts were not even routed correctly,so the wrong belt was on it,did anybody notice it squeal? No, that would have taken effort.

15; cleaned out sandpaper and sanding dust from dash and rear compartments, I did not need extra..

It's looks like you just don't care about quality, it wasn't like I was going cheap, or was hard to get along with, or didn't give you enough time. You where so worried about being a star on Overhaulin you threw my car together. Terrible job superstar!
END-
Here's the email he sent back;
I wish I new you were having problems, I will always help you.
This is the first I have heard of your situation.
Remember you brought me a primered up car with all kind if hidden problems and
all the parts in a dozen boxes that you thought just needed to be put on.
That is were the fun began.
You know there was 3 steps forward and 1 or 2 steps back!
When a corvette comes in boxes it's 3 times longer, harder and more expensive every time!
Wrong parts, missing parts non fitting parts and yes parts on back order.
Bring it back and I'll help with the finishing touches.
If you don't ask I will never know. A project like that is impossible to put together
and never have to adjust or redo some things. I told you to get the leak fixed and plan on brining it back!
I won't go down your list of 15 because some of them may have been overlooked,
but we could have talked about them and we still can if you want to call me tomorrow.
END-

So are house was built and I have a great garage to work in now. Last night we installed the rocker panels correctly,after being painted, they were still raw! Just frustrated at the little things...Thanks for listening...

 

if you have a list of things for them to do and they quoted you and billed you for it, i would argue that........ i had the same issues with my painter.... luckily the only thing that anything else did on the car

b

 

Debating issues with him now, his email confirmed to me he dosn't pay attention, the parts in boxes were new! Working on her next to tractors and such, I went as far as I could. Maybe I should have left her in boxes until the house was done. I cut his okie exhaust off last night, will drive to shop next Saturday with open headers, Oh Yea!

 

68ratvt,

I'm sorry to hear about your problems. Years ago, I had a bad experience with a now defunct speed shop. I feel your pain.

 

I know you do not want to hear it but noone will ever put in the time and effort that you will on your own car. To them it is just a job. To you it is a personal expression of your blood sweat and tears. I have and will continue to do all the work on my cars. The only thing I did not do is paint, because I do not have the facilities to do it. Now it sounds like you are setup to "fix" it yourself. Good luck

 

Good luck getting everything fixed and on the road, sorry to hear about your problems.

On a side note, the time to email him and complain about the problems he left you with is not after you fix them. I know he stiffed you but you could have given him the chance to pony up and make it right or refund you some of your money. If you didnt want him touching your car again and wanted to fix it and just let him know how much he screwed up then I understand.

 

After finding the obvious problems, I decided not to trailer it back down to his shop and let him touch her. He had plenty of time to get it right, don't get me wrong, nothing is perfect and I did not expect that. I did however give them cart blanch(sp?) on time and dollars to do it properly. Simple things like last night on the rocker panels, how many screws are on them couple of dozen,right. At least 15 were mis-matched, rusted, very simple to get stainless. And I expressed those points before he got the car. All in all it's my fault, I couldn't check the progress weekly, being he was down south.

 

Yeah, that sounds like a slop job. No offense, but it is WAY harder to assemble a car that someone else took apart and everything is in boxes.