A sorry tale

[Dingbat]

Hi all,
on my little estate is a body shop, yesterday the guy that runs it was put on remand after being found guilty of receiving stolen goods, in his case used car parts, now left behind are a bunch of half finished cars, sadly it would appear that their owners had paid a substantial amounts up front, there is no chance of them getting their money back. If your leaving your car somewhere for work do a little checking up prior to spending your hard earned cash, ask to see pictures of previous finished jobs and ask if there are any previous customers that can offer some sort reference and dont just trust in what your told, if money is being left dont leave a large percentage of the finished cost, at best leave some and dont pay any more until work has been done, be wary of anyone who can take your car straight in and when you do leave it make sure the garage and yourself know exactly what is supposed to be done. As for unexpected costs anyone who has been around old cars for any length of time should well know they are nearly always worse than they look this should be factored in at the beginning , extra issues do come to light but not big ones once the job is underway.

[adrianc]

Good advice.
We have three cars here in our shop that we 'rescued' from restorers. Same thing on all three with varying degrees of fibbing. Unfinished but billed. There are good folk, and the journey from start to finish can be really nice. Just choose with care.