tired of shops giving you deadlines and blatantly lying.

shop I have my car with now told me 2-3 weeks....back in March, still waiting to get it back. Just yesterday he told me it would be done tonight. As soon as I asked what time I should come by to pick it up I was told " we have a few things left to go and detail, I will let you know when I know".

I think he has told me a completion date over a dozen times. Before this project started I told him I needed it by a the end of the month (July)...here we are and still nothing.

Communication is piss poor throughout this entire process, all I ask for are some progress pics sent via text...I am lucky if I get a response. I have left voice mails but those are never returned.

And here we are at the deadline and I have a feeling he is going to blow it just like he did with every other one he told me and the budget we agreed on

I am thinking of just pulling it since it is so close to being done.

Thanks for the listen

I've gone through this with both of my big resto's. You just need to roll with it. My coupe was promised at the end of April, 2013. We picked it up the week before Thanksgiving.

I just kept showing up at the shop a few times a month "to document" progress for my photo album. I think that helped. I never got mad, yelled, etc. It seems all shops operate in this manner. I know it's hard to deal with, but eventually they get done, and I think they do a better job than if you bich and moan all along the way. Plus I still have a good relationship with them in case I need some touchup or small additional thing done.

And in my case, I had another 'bird to drive during this process, so I'll admit it was a bit easier. These cars are done almost at cost, so they need to fit them in wherever they can whenever they can.

Hope you can stick with them. You may need their help later.

I hope so too, I wanted this car for my wedding but now I am starting to sweat it.

Well, in that case, just postpone your wedding. You will get an idea right away how your future wife deals with 'bird issues.

Body shop paint????? Its almost done let him finish! DEEP Breaths!!! They know people can't do it themselves soooo they piss around LOL GL

Sounds like your car is out of town. I would go out there unannounced and see for your self were the car is at.

Whenever it's MY money is in a project ... I control it, not the hired help. Progress payments yes, but quality is more important than completion date. This is art to some extent. Your car differs from others if the artist goes out of his way to do a great job. Artists cannot keep to a project timeline unfortunately.

Make sure the quality is there and you don't have him over paid his advances. If he has little or no advance payments then that could be why you are the last car to come out of the shop.

Offer a $$ bonus to complete by XXX date...if the quality is there and not much left to do that is critical.

Had the same problem , twice. Two different cars, two different body shops (both friends), 20 years in between. Both times the work was excellent. Still friends with both guys. As someone stated above, they don't make a whole lot of money on these cars, so they do other things in between that they do make a lot on money on. It is hard to be understanding when it is your baby that you are waiting for but most times it pays off in the long run.
I did have another car painted between the two that I listed above and that one moved along quickly,(same guy that did car #1)
With that one we traded labor, I did remodeling on the office of his shop and he did the body work on my car. I was there a lot of days working for him and he did a lot for me. The car was in and out in about 2 months. That was in '95 and the paint still looks pretty good considering that the car gets driven quite a lot.

The "deal" I made on my T/A's paint job back in 1997 was that I would just pay for the materials if they used my car to fill slack time in the shop. My car was there for 9 months and most of the real work was done around Thanksgiving and Christmas - their real down time.

I also told them I wanted the body prepped as though it was going to be painted black, even though I was going back with the factory Cameo White with blue decals. I told him I could not stand seeing nice paint on wavy bodies at car shows.

MAN, you could not find a ripple in that car from nose to tail. Final cost - $1800 and warrantied for life. About the only thing that was really good about that totally wimpy Turbo T/A.

I would contend this is because many don't understand how to run their shops. As someone noted, they are often more artist than anything else.

I used to work in manufacturing, 24/7/365 except for a few down days here and there for equipment maintenance. An hour of unplanned downtime cost me $$$$ as we were booked to capacity 5 to 6 months in advance. I'm not suggesting that these shops can rely on many of the methods we used(we had much deeper pockets) but the inefficiencies are obvious and usually proprietor driven from my observation.

If you are having a classic painted, that work is "fill" work.

As far as promised completion time frame? There is not ONE body shop that I know of that can promise AND deliver a car as promised.

People get caught up with these reality programs where a POS comes in and within a week, it's factory fresh. NOT saying you specifically had this thought of intention in your head when you took your car there, just that these days, thats what most people believe and think.

I personally know of a car that has been sitting at a shop for 2 plus years. whether it is a motivation issue with the body shop, a money issue with the car owner or a combination of both...I don't really know. What I have been told from a friend who works there is "dude, you really don't want Todd painting your car"...Then I thought....and realized. Todd is one of the best in the tri county area and is in demand...and a perfectionist. Perfection and quality take time. If I was shelling out 6-10k on bodywork and paint material...take as long as you want.

Bottom line, spring is the busy season for ANY machinist building an engine (know from personal work experience) and same with body and paint work. Many, if not all machinists/painters will take on as much work as they can plus 10 cars just so they know they have money flowing in. What is not taken into account is the insurance jobs coming in...where the REAL money is made and needs to be handled FIRST and foremost and the guy with a "toy" is pushed to the back of the line...

Just how it is man.

Solution number one..deal with it. Solution number two, deal with it...solution number three...go get your car as-is...and deal with trying to find someone to finish what was started....and wait another 3-6 months.

Essentially, the shop didn't give you a "deadline". They gave you an estimated time of completion. Body shops don't lie...they bend the truth while filling in your job when they can. Essentially, if you push them hard...and you aren't satisfied, they can retort with...."well, you wanted it done by such and such a date"...and you got it.

Then where will you be? What recourse will you have? In my professional opinion, very little to none.

My advice? Suck it up and let them finish it on their terms and time. if something isn't right, you can have it rectified satisfactorily without the shop stating..."you pushed us".

Know 3 guys that do nothing but body work on old cars and trucks.
All have 6 to 12 months worth of work depending on how many and condition thier in.
Every time I get close to 1/2 down payment to start, something else comes up , the $ spent, and someone else gets their car in the door....