Body shop delay
 

How long is "long enough" to wait for a body shop to finish a car that was supposed to take 2 weeks? My grandson left a large deposit to have work done on his car. That was in MAY. He wanted to take it to the POCI convention. He really can't afford to lose the deposit but it doesn't look like the car will ever be done. I think the guy under estimated the price and now doesn't want to finish it. Should he kiss the money good bye and just go get it? The body man has a big following on Facebook. If he goes and gets the car back is there any point in trying to post anything on Facebook. I tried to post something about an advertiser who was trying to rip people off and Facebook wouldn't let me. They told me I was being "unkind".

Has the body shop actually done any work at all? If not I'd think he would have a good argument for getting his deposit back, but of course that depends on what if any contracts were signed as well as your state's consumer laws.

Is the car still together, where it can be retrieved? Or is it a jillion parts?

You are a little light in details, but in Ohio, there are limits on $$ that make recovery difficult. First, does your son have anything in writing? A contract with that 2 week time period spelled out in ink. If it was just words spoken at the body shop, you can consider that they were never spoken. I hope for his sake he has a receipt for the "large deposit" he put down for the work. Again, if no written receipt, in the eyes of a legal proceeding, there was no deposit made. In Ohio, he could go through the small claims court process without a lawyer, but the dollar amount of recovery is limited, something like $1500.00. That may be less than his deposit and takes about a year to resolve in Ohio. Bottom line, he may be in a lousy position getting his deposit back and his car repaired properly. This situation happens so often, I often wonder how any cars ever end up restored.

With shops closing down left and right due to the pandemic, I'd try to get the car and deposit back ASAP

Just this week we had an entire block of businesses in our area shut down all at once

Owner of the property was finally able to evict for not paying rent, so everyone just closed up shop (like 15 businesses)

I've seen this very thing happen a million times after working with production paint and body shops for over 35 years. Never take a classic car to a production shop and expect them to work on it right away. They always get shoved in the back corner and collect the bondo dust from the," bread and butter" jobs that are feeding them. They rely on the insurance money to keep the doors open and will gladly take your deposit and let your car sit on the sidelines!

This is my exact experience. Even friends of friends give you the same treatment. Collision shops enjoy having your car sitting around for ages as a conversation piece to draw customers in. Every trip I have ever made to the body shop has resulted in free winter storage while it languished in the corner of the shop collecting dust.

How large was the deposit? What % of the total? How much work was being done?

If you've given up on him, tell him you want the car back. Once you have it, then you can start fighting over the money.

X20 that taking a classic to a collision shop is a bad idea.

Yes 5 months is long enough, go get the car out of that shop and have your grandson do the work himself. It's an expensive learning experience. dealing with a body shop and not a restoration shop.

Prime example of why I don't have cars painted.

If you guys have just been patiently waiting & not complaining to that shop much, I would consider giving the shop just over two weeks to finish the car seeing thats what they told you in the first place. put a date on it & let them know you plan to pick up the car & the amount of money they should be owed to you. Unless, no work has been done, then might as well go pick it up now, but take a lot of pictures when you get there so you can (hopefully) get your money back. This way maybe he will get what he wanted in the first place & you won't have to deal with going to another shop & possibly loosing a bunch of money & more time? Maybe the shop thinks they can keep putting it off if nobody is complaining, but 6 months seems crazy if they told you 2 weeks. I am also curious what kind of work we are talking about & the money involved.

I am guessing this body shop has a lot of cars sitting around & the bread & butter is likely in lighter insurance work? Sounds like your grandsons car keeps getting pushed aside & the shop doesn't tell anybody they are too busy? Sucks either way. :(

More details needed. What kind of work was to be done and what kind of car? He wanted to attend POCI so I assume its a classic Pontiac. IMO, a 2 week estimate was unrealistic from the start. At the very least I would take a trip to the shop and see IF anything has been done and the state of condition of the car. It may be the guy just needs a fire lit under him to get the work finished. You need to have a face to face and see what the intentions are before you post on social media or anything else. IF the face to face is a negative result by all means have the car removed that day, in pieces or not. Then the fight over the money will start. Likewise hopefully there is a paper trail, if not GOOD LUCK!

I am in a similar situation with my motor. I dropped it off to a trusted shop that does a LOT of work for me. In January! I talked to the guy the end of Feb and at that time the block was in the "machine shop". I was in touch a couple of weeks ago checking on progress and his answer was "I need to check with the machine shop". Not what I wanted to hear. I would think a motor could be cast and made out of scrap metal in 10 months time, let alone a rebuild!!

So what are ya gonna do?

The car is an early 50's Pontiac. It was to be painted. It had been stripped of chrome, lights etc. It has NO rot and NO dents. It needed to be sanded, primed and painted. He gave him $1200 for materials. The shop does NOT do collision work. The guy buys and sells old cars. At present I know he has at least an old gasser, a Barris custom and several street rods. He posts how he helps this person and that person with their cars and doesn't charge them. Mostly women! I haven't seen the car but my grandson says parts of it are in primer. We have tried not to bother him and only contacted him like once a month. When my grandson askes for pictures the guy says he doesn't send customers pictures of their car while its being worked on. I don't think small claims court is worth while. I think even if my grandson got a judgement in his favor the guy would probably never pay. He wasn't looking for a show quality paint job just something nice enough for cruise nights.

I would go get the car. Try to get your $$ back but most importantly get the car, parts and anything else that goes with it.

Not sending photos to the customer is a red flag. You don’t want the guy to claim he has done 6k worth of work to the car and now keep the car.

Avoid the courts, cops and show up with a trailer and get your sh!t.

I have a friend who lost two 70 Chargers and a 67 fastback to a meth head that took them apart and claimed he was owed money for it. He did everything right, sent certified letters, had the cops show up and the shop was even leased in my friends name.

I told him I would go with him and bring a trailer but he wanted to do it ‘the right way’ and he lost everything.

as said - get your **** outta there, the cops ain't gonna help you here, consider it a blessing you only got $1200. invested - could be a lot worse

Remember when the cops used to help people .?

Then they wonder why someone has some good ole boys pay a visit to people. Doesn’t sound like this guy has done too much wrong yet. Sadly, Body shop guys are notoriously slow by nature
Nothing ever looks like it needs as much work as it does before you strip it too

Hope it works out for you, hate to see anyone have issues like this, don’t know why people can’t just do what they say . How hard is it make a deal stand by it.

Must have been before my grandparents time...

Get your car. I've never met an honest or quality body man. I am told they exist and I am sure they do, but I've never met one and only been screwed by body men.

I used to work for a shop that the owner did the same thing. When he got locked up for bad checks I had to deal with customers he was screwing over. The worst of it was he had screwed over our paint jobber and they put everything on a cash only basis. Plus I wasn't getting paid on account of his wife coming in and taking deposit money for other things. I was glad to get out of there and the mess he had.
When I do a job here at home I may be slow but I send progress pictures and the client is free to come check it out.
Get the car out of there and ask for your money back.

First very sorry your going through this you often here this too often. I would suggest going by there at least twice a week and want to see the progress. Also tell them you now have waited patiently for to long and now need the vehicle back. When can you finish the job. If you don’t see progress and can’t get a estimated finish time you should inform him your coming to pick up your car. GET YOUR STUFF BACK!! Anything can happen he can close down his shop, die, your parts can grow legs. Good luck.