A buddy who was replacing qtr pnls and repainting my car cant finish it. Had a bad accident(guy with him died) couple months ago, spent a month in the hospital, and thought he could finish when he healed. Now he's give'n up.
Gets worse. We sold my nos 67 camaro sheet metal and extra parts($3500 worth)to fund repop gtrs, paint-n-material, etc, and make some more performance upgrades.
Gets even worse. Either him and/or his brother got into the account and cleaned it out.
Gets EVEN worse. Someone in his family(or key to house) stole my racing heads and intake while he was in the hospital. Cost about $4000 to replace.
Now i'm out of $, have no more stuff to sell and have a shell of a car with no qtrs. So now may have to put a lean on one of my best friends who faces long jail time, may lose his house and race-n-street/strip cars. Just wanted others out thier struggling on thier cars, it can be worse.
Sorry to hear all of this. I am with you though, I've been ready to throw in the towel for about the last 24 months, even more so in recent months. Hang in there man, that's what people keep telling me and I know it's hard to hear that but really, that's all you can do...
Thanks. Besides my buddy and another couple guys, your another i think of. Plus no one knows how long they have. I try'n stay possitive, but its hard sometimes. Especially when my pay check barely covers living expensives, buts thats partly my fault for stay'n in the auto business.
Sorry to hear that man. Try approaching a lawyer about the situation. If he can find an insurance somewhere he might have a case he can pursue and he takes a % of the judgement. Liens are not terribly affective.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Engine Test Stand Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwoxyUwptUcdqEb-o2ArqyiUaHW0G_C88 restoring my 1968 Firebird 400 HO convertible (Firedawg) 1965 Pontiac Catalina Safari Wagon 389 TriPower (Catwagon) 1999 JD AWS LX Lawn tractor 17hp (my daily driver) 2006 Sequoia 2017 Murano (wife's car) 202? Electric car 203? 68 Firebird /w electric engine 2007 Bayliner 175 runabout /w 3.0L Mercuiser__________________________________________________________
you can always offer to help in the labor area as you need his knowledge to perform the repairs!! as for the parts the only recourse is to find the idjit who stole the funds and lean on their knees to persuade them to repay you. if you need help in otherways like parts we may be able to ehlp there also!!
Andy
due to budget cutbacks, the light at the end of the tunnel has been disconnected for non payment.
It is a sad day when your "friend" can screw you over. I had one screw me over for money and in the end i considered it severence for a 25 year "friendship" and walked away from it.
I have been a member here for almost 7 years and at the time i joined in 2004, my 68' had been off the road for 7 years.To this day i have made progress but something or another has come along and taken the funds away to complete my car.I actually had the funds this year to complete but decided to renovate the washroom. LOL Told the wife next spring, after 14 years of waiting i want it on the road
Sorry to hear all the bad news. Seems a little fishy that your performance goddies are missing. Were there more items missing than just your parts? I don't know if you remember but I lost my car a few years back in a fire. My friend who owned the body shop did not have insurance. I had insurance but not enough to even come close to my damages. I figure I lost close to $10,000. It can always be worse. I hope your luck changes soon.
Thanks guys. He's wants to make good, but may not ever again do to injuries. We'v talked about learn'n me to weld better. But its like body work and painting. Have to be really into it to be good. At least at his level. And have to stay there(3 hrs away) several weekends. We'll see.
We know it was 1 of 3 people that had keys and knew the heads where there and thats what they where after. Not his F2 procharger. Not the warrior bath tub intake w/dual carbs. Not the tunnel ram w/dual carbs.
Wow, that's a horrible situation. On one hand he's your friend, but you also need your money back!
I had a problem with family once, a CC was taken out in my name, payments were NOT made, and I found out about it when the original $1,200 balance had balooned to $3,000. It brought my score down to a 560 and I paid it off. I never got a penny back and I couldn't press charges or file fraud, I just couldn't do that. It took me 3 years to get my score back to a 750.
I've also been reading some other guys posts about houses and money and other things and it's just a horrible time we live in right now. I'm a Civil Engineer with almost 5 years of GOOD experience and I've been out of work since Nov. 2008. It actually blows my mind to even say that. I've been working since I was 13. I had 2 jobs in college and have never gone more than a week between jobs. My wife is a vet, so we're OK with money. She lost her job in Nov 09 but got another one in Feb 2010 with a big raise over the last one. I may finally have a new job... for real this time... finger's crossed.
Keep your head up, pray for your friend, and I hope everything falls back into place for you.
Last edited by Jesse James; 08/26/1001:13 AM.
1967 Pontiac Firebird W/ 400 1967 Chevrolet C-10 1999 Chevrolet S-10 2000 Chevrolet Silverado Z71 2011 Mustang V6
Can't say I've been screwed over like that. Most of my setbacks have been self inflicted. I have watched my car sit for years in the garage gathering dust with no progress due to lack of funds, or time or both. I can say it was worth hanging on to the car when I finally got her back on the road.
Forgot to follow up. Went Labor Day wknd(Sunday). Car had been sit'n since 1st week of April without fuel and battery disconnected for welding...which he never got to... Put a charger on it while loading up all the parts and paint, etc. He broke down...
Blew off the dust and removed all the masking paper. Checked the tires, put fuel in, and checked for leaks. Then cranked her over till o/p started to show on gage. My buddy opperated the throttle while i turned the key. She fired right up, o/p went straight to 50, and never missed a beat Shut'r down after a few minutes and got the trailer ready. He broke down again.
I had bought and mounted a 3000 lb winch($59) from Harbor Frieght JIC, which turned out to be a good thing. The tires kept want'n to spin in the gravel and/or one ramp would pop up from the trailer when try'n from a short distance away.
We talked about how to make it right along with what he faces from the accident. Didnt get far. He broke down again, so i left soon after.
Got home just after dark and was gon'a leave everything out back till morning...but looked like rain. With no doors, front end, deck lid, gtr skins, decided to put'r in the garage. She fired right up with 2 pumps and ran great. If there where tail lamps...decided better not. My luck a cop would see me, or worse, rear ended. Started rain'n a 1/2 hour later for about an hour.
Anyway, feels so good to back home. I rewired from the firewall forward last Saturday. Way over do from the hack job last owner did. The ign module was on the rf wheel house with the wiring run along the fuel line, f/p reg., and remote oil filters. And had a 1 wire altnator with old regulater still wired at core support. Now the reg's gone and the module's in its place with all wiring on lh side. The n20 wiring runs inside the cowl panel. All the main wiring is inside plastic conduit. Looks clean. Even fired right up!
Now just have to save $ and find someone to weld qtr pnls. Gon'a try'n patch the fenders myself.
Civil? Or what did you end up with? I am in the commercial / structural field.
I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure. I feel like I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe. 1968 400 convertible (Scarlet) 1976 T/A - 455 LE (No Burt) 1976 T/A New baby, starting full restoration. 1968 350 - 4 speed 'vert - 400 clone (the Beast!) 1968 350 convertible - Wife's car now- 400 clone (Aleutian Blue) (Blue Angel) 2008 Durango - DD 2008 GXP - New one from NH is AWESOME! 2017 Durango Citadel - Modern is nice! HEMI is amazing! 1998 Silverado Z71 - Father-daughter project 1968 400 coupe - R/A clone (Blue Pearl) (sold) 1967 326 convertible - Sold 1980 T/A SE Bandit - Sold
Thanks, been spending quality time every evening. Not sure she likes beer-n-cigars though...
Oh ya, my garage cat already started sleeping on the rear floor board on her old coat again. I keep the front seats covered, or she'd sleep there and hair sticks bad!
I did commercial retail site design/land development. I did quite a few projects for wal-mart, lowes, target, walgreens, etc...
I'm only 40 mins from Clemson University (pumping out 80-100 new graduates per year) and my area is heavily saturated with Civil design firms, all doing their best to stay alive. My old firm went from 28 people in early 2008 to 7 currently. I took the next best thing in this area that's not engineering. I'll be screwing together BMW's. It's only 15 mins from my house and pays surprisingly well. I'm at least past the hurdle of actually working again. It sounds stupid, but we all know how much easier it is to get a job when you have a job.
My wonderful veterinarian wife has been the rock the past [censored] near 2 years. She lost her job once as well and with her networking and good reputation in our area she quickly got another. We've been waiting to pull the trigger because of me, but now in the next couple months we can finally buy the 2011 V6 Mustang she's been wanting. She's been rockin' the same POS for 11 years.
Last edited by Jesse James; 09/16/1006:00 AM.
1967 Pontiac Firebird W/ 400 1967 Chevrolet C-10 1999 Chevrolet S-10 2000 Chevrolet Silverado Z71 2011 Mustang V6