The good news today is that the Sheriff "persuaded" the painter to cooperate with their impound tow company and my car was successfully recovered this evening.

The bad news is that not a single one of the $4000 in parts were provided. Both the tow truck owner and the Sheriff''s deputy said they could wait and it would be in his best interest to cough them up, but...

So I am out a hair under $10 K and about 10 years worth of saving up for the paint job. The painter made several pleading phone calls with me today admitting he had not done the work and begging that he be allowed to keep it to finish. I started declining his calls after the first two. I asked about some of the mechanical things I had requested (subframe connectors) and he said he had completed them. So it's possible my financial hit will be a bit less. But I doubt it.

I still need to get the car here to AZ. The tow shop owner is going to check it out later this weekend to see if they even got the keys or whether it runs. That is a big factor with the professionals being able to ship.

I will report back when it is actually in my garage. I will probably be away for a while while I ponder where I am going from here.

Thanks for all the kind words.