I want to relate to you all a really sad story in the hopes that you will learn from my mistakes and that at you will not fall into the same trap that I did.

The bottom line is this week I had the county Sheriff raid the shop back in Oklahoma where my car was supposedly being stored after it received a complete paint job and some other work like subframe connectors and a new headliner. The only positive news I got today is that my car is still there in the shop. The Sheriff’s deputy told me that my car basically still looks exactly like the photos I took before I drove the car down get the work started.

The other day I read an article on digital Hemmings about how and why a nice paint job on a classic car today is $40,000. Basically it’s the amount of time involved and high shop rates. We hobbyists with full time jobs, families, and mortgages usually can’t afford that kind of money. So we rely on each other in the hobby to be fair and honest with each other as we, on a regular basis, do transactions for parts and perhaps services that are all on the honor/faith system in order to maximize the precious funds we have for this hobby.

Sometimes we need services beyond our expertise and again, because we do not have money to burn, are on the lookout for another hobbyist that peddles auto related services as either a side job or perhaps full time out of their garage or small shop. As an example, my 1980 Turbo Trans Am received a flawless professional paint job in 1996 for just the cost of shop supplies and paint. The tradeoff was that my car was in the shop for 9 months as it was used as “filler” work to keep the shop employees occupied during down times and slow seasons.

In 2015, while still trying to scrape together an estimated $10,000 to even begin looking for a painter, I ran into a fellow muscle car enthusiast at work. He showed me the fantastic paintjob his 2nd Gen Camaro had received for less money than I had already saved up and he highly recommended this guy’s work. Despite this personal endorsement, I still vetted this guy myself by traveling down to rural central OK several times to talk to this painter and view some more of his previous work. I actually had him also work on the interior of my daily driver pickup while I watched. He had his own ’67 Camaro that he had owned since he was a teenager and the black paint job on that car was miles deep and flawless. He said he had gotten into painting because he was just that picky and nobody could deliver what he wanted. I saw a fussy guy with skills and deep knowledge of 1st Generation F-bodys.

So in January, 2016, I dropped my Firebird off at this painter’s house/shop. After that, I got extremely detailed “progress reports” via text messages but no photos. The later was my own fault for most this time as I was convinced smart phones were just plain ridiculous. So any photo sent to my old flip phone was pretty much useless as I could not transfer it to a computer or even make it big enough to see anything.

In the summer of 2017, I abruptly set in motion my 40 year retirement plan after being shafted just one too many times by my employer. My wife and I quickly sold our house in Oklahoma and relocated back to Arizona. The problem was that my car “wasn’t quite finished”. This painter also graciously offered to hang onto my car for free while our new house in Arizona was under construction (and now we all know why).

Finally in March of 2018, I was ready to have my car shipped out. We were going to use the painter’s recommended independent car shipper because they were familiar with each other and he was a bit cheaper than the estimates I got from the professionals.

Then the excuses started rolling like boulders down a mountainside. The weather was bad on his end (believable in Oklahoma). Then my car refused to start and he had to dig into the wiring that I had all replaced. Then he found an earlier repair on my passenger side rocker panel that had gone bad after he painted it and (since it was a lifetime guarantee) he said he would just replace the entire rocker and repaint it. Then his dad had some extreme medical issues…

Finally we come to this past summer and it was just one problem after another with his preferred shipper. 6 weeks ago, my car was supposedly on the trailer (finally) and on its way to me via Dallas where the shipper lives. When the shipper gets to Dallas, there is suddenly a family medical emergency and a couple of days later my car is taken back to the painter.

This is when I said some really choice words and decided to get the professional shippers involved. Everything was set for an afternoon in early October with Passport Transport. After sweating it out at home waiting for conformation that my car is loaded, I get a phone call that there has been a “significant local power surge and outage at the shop.” The professional driver actually decided to overnight there in central OK to wait for the power to come back on, but then “the space saver lift my car is being stored on” had supposedly shorted out.

I was beside myself with frustration and reached back the 1100 miles to a friend and fellow car enthusiast who volunteered to go verify my car actually still existed. After my friend got the same run around, he decided to go check to see if there were any legal actions against the painter. Two weeks ago, my friend found 2 pending lawsuits since 2017 with similar circumstances to mine AND that the painter is on the verge of losing his house and his shop (same property) to a foreclosure.

The bizarre thing is about how this painter has been telling me for ages that my car has been completed and it was ready for pickup. Why would he just not keep stalling with “it’s not done yet”. It’s been like Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the football.

This weekend will be the last ultimatum – either this painter releases my car to my friend or I will have the Sheriff arrest him for auto theft.

Needless to say, I think I will be taking a bit of a break from my car hobby for a while the final part of this plays out and I try and figure out where I am going to go from here. Best case, the paint shop funds I spent years scraping together are lost, worst case is potentially 22 years of work down is the drain.

sent PM

The good news your car is still there and one way or another about to be released. Sounds like it’s time to speak with a lawyer to learn what, if any, options exist to reclaim your funds however sounds like you’re getting in line for what’s likely a dry hole.

I totally feel for you. People don’t understand how daunting it is to turn your car over to someone for paint and body - especially when you can’t drop a zillion dollars. The guy I used was a total PITA. Super reputation. Amazing work on hot rods. He seemed great. He took forever and messed some stuff up but in the end the car looks good. (Following an unbelievable amount of help from an out of town friend who cut and buffed it.) I will not, however, make the “use my car for fill-in work” agreement with anyone ever again. Should I ever do another car, next time it’s agreed upon progress via personal inspection over a set period or I’m looking else where. There are too many bad outcomes. At times I feared I was going to be one of those bad outcomes. As it was, the guy kind of ruined my zeal for the hobby and it took me forever to reassemble the car because of it. One gets passed it in time but I feel for you.

I got screwed REALLY bad on a paint job myself after saving for 3 years to do it. Just seems like all body shops are crooks. It took over a year to get the car back, parts of it had to be repainted twice and a couple of parts a 3rd time. They didn't even use clear the 3rd time. They ended up doubling my price and taking 8x longer than promised plus they never cut and buffed it as I paid for. With a messed up paint job on a car that had been my baby for 20 years and had 200K miles worth of memories, I never put any of the interior back together and I just parked it in a shipping container, been about 4 or 5 years now. I took a multi-year break from the hobby. I was tired of getting screwed literally every time I had someone else help me with my car. If it weren't for my 69 Firebird, which had been my 2nd all-time dream car, I may not still be into the hobby. There are just too many shops trying to screw the home hobbyist.

Maybe in another 20 years my car will be some sort of container barn find. I just can't bring myself to even look at it. Just makes me sick.

My 69 is in primer and will STAY that way. Screw painters. I reported him to the EPA and had him shut down, I threated to sue his wife's business out of existence. I would have burned his shop down if it weren't for other people car's being there. The guy was a human piece of trash and was doing what he did to me to many other customers.

Not all body shops are crooks. I used a local shop, near my business. They were very up-front about it being filler work, and could be 2-3 years for the entire process. My '67 took them 3 years, I would stop by about once a month to see at least some progress. When car was done, it was show quality, and they held to the agreed price. A few years later they worked on my '68 coupe. took them almost five years for that one, but again, entire car was flawless, perfect lines, color and paint was amazing. The shop Owner ended up doing that one for me in his 'spare' time.
I still stop by the shop every now and then when I'm in the area, and it still draws a crowd from his shop.
Neither car had any repaints, repairs, etc along the way. They were way more anal than me about alignment, cutting and re-welding seams for perfect alignment, etc. Both of those cars' bodies and paint were 200% better than from the factory!
Sorry to hear your story, but not everyone is like that.

I too worry that from now on my car will just bring back the memories of this nightmare and the pain of being ripped off.

Yes, I had a similar experience on the '80 Trans Am I mentioned. It was beautiful. You could look edge on down the long flanks of that car and there wasn't a ripple. I had it repainted in it's original white but it could have been painted black. So, yes I know there are good guys out there. While I am back in Arizona, it appears that the guy who painted my T/A has long since retired and his shop has been demolished.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I really need them to start healing these fresh wounds.

I read this and thought wow, it sounds a lot like what happened to me. Made a deal with a local guy to paint my 68 between jobs. 6-9 months he said and a year and a half later I went and got what was left of my car. I realized that I couldnt handle it and bought a 67 to replace it. I will swap the best parts over to the 67 and get what I can out of the 68. So I'm out $2k down payment and the car is seriously de valued due to his crap hack job. Never again for me. Sorry dude. Pics are of the day I took it to him vs how I got it back.

If it's one thing I've learned that I tell people, it's to never trust a "body" shop. Their bread and butter is insurance repair on modern cars and they will not care about your car. Either do it yourself or save for a restoration shop to do it.

The latest:

We have negotiated one final peaceful attempt at a pick up of my car Sunday evening. My friend will drive down a U-haul truck and trailer to minimize potential excuses about broken equipment. The local Sheriff will have a deputy there to broker the transfer. My friend will put the car in his garage and I will have Passport Transport pick it up from him. Our confidence that this will finally work is pretty low.

If this does not happen, I will be pressing charges for auto theft and grand theft (the parts I gave him) on Tuesday when the deputy handling my case is back at work. My car will become evidence for an undetermined amount of time, will be stored inside a warehouse and I will be the only person they will release it to so I would have to go back to Oklahoma to pick it up whenever that is

There was some good news today. I saw my lady GP doc for my annual checkup today and her husband is starting a new business building race cars for rental. So she wanted every detail and gave me a prescription for anti-anxiety meds without really having to ask.

And God decided to show me his sense of humor. After the doc visit I went by the grocery store for a couple of items and a beautifully restored '67 Camaro SS vert drove by slowly in the parking lot.

I wish you the absolute best of luck! I really hope it doesn't turn into a case against him involving the car as evidence. But if that does happen, I hope the bastard gets what he deserves and more.

Why do you assume there will be trouble? Do you think he will not allow the car to be removed from his possession? Unless he has some paperwork indicating his right to hold your car he has to let it go. Not sure if your friend can push his way in there and grab it but you as the owner sure can. It makes no sense for the guy to hold it that's what makes me nervous. He's got other problems and you don't want to get your car caught up in it. If a repossessor comes by he will take all property he can get his hands on and put it in lockup.

You should be able to discuss this with the Sheriff and get a firm action plan based on the law. For example: "if we attempt to remove car from his property are you (Sheriff) going to cut in and hold him back so we can remove the car"? You gotta know that going in.

It's getting late to file a auto theft charge. That does not help you with the car. You have to take him to small claims court to get judgement for any damages you wish to charge his company with. Is this guy licensed and did you enter into a contract with him personally or with his company?

In Canada, you can contact a lawyer and get a few hours free so you can get some advice of how to move forward. BTW: My brother-in-law is dropping by tonight. I will aks him what he suggests.

There are 2 reasons I am working with this one particular Sheriff's deputy. 1) He was one of the arresting officers of this same individual when he sold 2 cars last year for a couple and refused to give them their share of the $$$ (embezzlement). This incident (and all the others) happened long after I provided my car to him to be worked on. He had a clean record and outstanding references back in 2015 and early 2016 when I took my car down to him. Also in the last year or so, this painter (who also flips muscle and performance cars) sold a Porsche to a guy online and then refused to provide access to that car when the buyer made reservations for a professional auto transporter to pick it up. That guy sued and won back all his $$$. This might be a good reason why the painters house, where his shop is located, is being reprocessed by the bank due to foreclosure.

2) This deputy was one of the officers that "brokered" the pick up of a Chevelle from this same individual and this same shop not two weeks ago under very similar circumstances. This painter just dances around making promises to show up or deliver a car and then comes up with some excuse. The Chevelle owner just could not find him around every time he showed up to pick up his car. Medical problems seem to be his most popular "go to".

The only way the Sheriff can "force" this individual give me my car is to charge him with a crime. Otherwise, it is an attempt to voluntarily get the painter to release the car. The presence of the Sheriff's deputy was proven 2 weeks ago to be necessary leverage to "push" the painter to finally be at his shop at the agreed to date/time. The deputy told me that the painter has all the right in the world to demand that the deputy leave the premises (private property) and he would have to do that if asked.

When Passport's attempt to pick up my car was blown off by the painter at the beginning of October, Passport said they would not even consider rescheduling until I had independent 3rd party verification or dated photos that the car was at the location and ready to be pick up. They told me they see this kind of game played all the time by small shop owners. Since that first week of October, my friend has made numerous attempts to go down there for the independent verification AND I have worked on getting some fresh photographs. We finally got photos of just the undersides ("because it's being stored on a lift") two weeks ago. Now we know why there were only undercarriage pictures.

The only way I found out that the painter has not done any body work or paint in the 3.5 years is due to this same deputy, at my request, cornering the painter at his house and demanding to verify that my car has not been stolen. Again, this was a voluntary request. The painter could have told the deputy to take a flying leap unless he was going to arrest him for auto theft. We hoped with all the other legal actions pending, the painter has a reason to be fairly cooperative with law enforcement right now.

The deputy asked me to provide photographs and scans of all my legal documents for him. Of course the photos were of the car in gray primer with e-coated NOS front fenders. After the deputy saw the car and checked the VIN, he called me from his cruiser and told me it looked exactly like my 3.5 year old photos.

These matters are actually really delicate as far as laws are concerned in the US. If the relationship between you and the shop owner goes south, you are walking a tightrope between voluntary cooperation and your car becoming evidence. And it varies somewhat from state to state.

Then there is that really nasty situation where a shop owner can declare your car as "abandoned", get it titled in his name, and then sell it out from under you. Until I got those photos 2 weeks ago - I was thinking this was also a possibility.

And yes, any attempt to collect against the $$$ I paid for work that was not completed would be a civil lawsuit. That's a completely separate nightmare against someone that appears to be heading for bankruptcy.

Many of us have been in similar situations. My car was in auto body hell for 5 years with pcs and parts all over the shop and I felt like I was financially keeping his shop in business. Fortunately I ended up back with a complete car but not without years of sweating it out. Good luck and don't give up, it's not your fault guys like this guy just suck.

OK, my painter cancelled our agreed to 5 pm appointment today to pick up my car. Which is what I and my friend predicted would happen. He told us he was tied up about 1 hour before I estimated he would and went to his "go to" excuse: Medical problems.

I will be pressing charges for auto theft Tuesday morning when the deputy I am working with is back in the office. Otherwise these excuses will jut go on and on. I also have to reimburse my friend for the U-haul truck and trailer now, too.

Good luck. Hope all goes well!
He needs the wrath of all car owners on him!

Sheesh, what a nightmare. I hope things work out for you but I gotta ask why you didn't / don't just go yourself. I mean, you already sent others and it sounds like you've blown some dough that you'll probably never see again. If it was me I think I'd make the drive or just hop a cheap flight for a face to face. Let him tell me in person why I can't have MY car.

Update: I ended up talking to the Sheriff this morning. After hearing my story, considering the other open car related criminal trials against the painter, and realizing I now legally reside in Arizona,

The Sheriff is contacting the FBI.

This may prove to be pretty interesting.

Wow. Got my popcorn! Good luck!

If couldn't get my car out, i would report it stolen and say where its located at...

This is one of my greatest fears and why I've promised myself I won't take the car to any shop that isn't within a reasonable driving distance away from my house. I want to be able to pop in unexpectedly to check on progress and quality of work.

Best of luck in getting your car back. Hopefully it will be over sooner than later!

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.

Wow, that just makes things even worse not getting any of the parts back. At least he does not have physical possession of the car anymore. Such a terrible outcome on this one. I sure hope they got the keys and it will run without much effort. Sooner you have it back, sooner you can regroup and know what direction to go. It took me years to save as well when I did mine so I can really relate to that.

For $10K, do you think it's worth the expense to file a small claims suit against him? $10K is right at the small claims limit and if you can get a quick judgment, the sooner you may see something if you can put a lean against his stuff as everyone else is no doubt before it's all liquidated and split between those involved.

Oh man, your story actually made my hard pound! I went through a similar experience with my body guy, but ended up getting the car done by him, for more$ than quoted/anticipated. I did take him to small claims court, but what was going against me was that I could have pulled the car long time ago. I am sure glad to hear you got you car out of there. I would under no circumstances let him talk you into "getting the work done" anymore. Avoid that [censored] at all cost! If you have documentation and the text conversations with him, I would draft up a letter, send certified mail/return receipt giving him an ultimatum of say 14 days to return your parts or the cash to cover, mentioning you will not pursue legal action for the the time lost, u-haul truck, transporters etc. See what he comes back with. Round two would be have a lawyer draw up a letter, round 3 small claims or even file lawsuit against him. Sure glad you got your car out of there! Hang in there, give your baby a hug and find a retired body man close to you to finish it up. Wish you all the best, and good luck!

My friend went down and working with the tow truck operator got it running. But he checked it out and it's obviously spent significant time outside in the nasty Oklahoma weather. It had been glass beaded and then primered and I put the e-coated NOS fenders on it.

It's surface rusted pretty good on the outside and some of those parts I was after were still in the trunk. Rats got in there apparently. So besides the mess my completely refinished trunk floor is ruined and possibility rusted out.

The completely custom upholstered Corbeau seats were covered in plastic and the plastic fell apart and the white seats are probably ruined.

WAY too much deterioration for me to want to tackle or sink more $$$ into.

Anybody want a nice project car - make me an offer. Besides the photos I am attaching details of the work I had done to it. It will need to be trailered because I can guarantee the rear axle bearing that I think went bad on the way down to this a-holes house in January 2016 has not been fixed either.

That looks terrible. My deepest condolences for your loss. A car guys worst nightmare.

Man, that's gotta go to court! What a disappointment.
Idiot need to go to jail for a LONG time!

So sorry to hear this happened to you. Nearly every car guy’s worst nightmare.

Exactly. I had Haggerty insurance on it while it was under construction and it would have been much more merciful had that $#%#$$#$ painter sold it from underneath me.

I talked to one of the lawyers back there who is involved in one of the other lawsuits. He said it would cost me only $500 and I would most likely get a judgement in only a month or two because of all the other cases. But he also said it would be a symbolic waste of money. I would be in line behind all the other judgements (NONE that have seen any $$$) and the lawyer is certain the painter will not be getting out of this latest foreclosure. The Sheriff's sale is set for 12/5. Because his shop is on that property, he will also be losing his place of business. Thus bankruptcy will be following right behind.

Passport will be delivering my Firebird this coming Tuesday. Besides many of you here, the Passport driver has been very encouraging as he owned a '68 Firebird at one time and so has my brother who has had a lot of struggles with his '64 Valiant convertible. I am also actively seeking part time employment to cover the costs of this renewed undertaking.

I have also decided to mentally start over. I have created a new spreadsheet and a new electronic journal. I am going to act, as best as I can, as thought I just picked up a new project car from a friend (thus my familiarity with the car) that has neglected it for a while. There are still some major "go/no go" gates. The part time job is probably the biggest because I just do not want to take the substantial new hit out of our investments to finish the car. Remember - my expectations were the car would arrive here DONE and I all had to do was install the interior. I am so far away from that now that is is truly heart breaking. But I am willing to take this challenge on under a few conditions.

Passport delivered my Firebird today and it's in the garage. It's been outside for a long time and I am just not up for almost starting over.

Remember, I was expecting a repainted car in primo shape was was just going to install the interior and enjoy the heck out of it.

I need to walk away from this disaster and will be posting it in the For Sale section.

I'm in shock... I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear all of this and how it all played out. I wish I lived closer, I would help you out anyway I could as often as I could.

My in-laws moved to Buckeye last year. So I will check with you any time we plan to visit and would be more than willing to help you out with anything you might need. I know this may be too little too late. But the offer stands if your bird is still around (which I hope it is). Either way, I will touch base with you next time we come down if that's ok with you?

Just take it one step at a time and it won't feel or seem so overwhelming.

I'm so sorry this happened and even more sorry it may take your dream away because of this one persons negligence and unscrupulous behavior.

Again, I wish I could help out in some way that would make a difference right now...

Please keep us posted.

Brett