Hopefully getting a shell together
 

I haven’t started the Tempest rebuild thread yet because I’m trying to see if I will have a good shell to start with. We found a guy just north of Toronto here that will hopefully fix the rusted out parts of the floor, etc. This was the only body that I could find.
We dropped the car off at the guy’s place and I guess that we’ll find out if he’s a fluke or a flake. There’s not much in between. Either way, he’s the only guy that we found that will still do this kind of stuff around here, for a decent price. He seems like a good guy. Wish me luck.

I hope you don't mind. I rotated and cropped your picture to better show the car. I hope it works out and you get the project going. Have you picked out paint colors yet?

This looks like a fairly solid and great candidate for the task.
Keep us posted.

Sorry had to mess with the image as well ;)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4c90555e_c.jpg

Thanks, guys. I keep trying to post these pictures rightly but they always seem to end up sideways.

I thought it was your car wanting to head south away from that white stuff! :D

Got that right. It was warm for a few days, but then right back to the cold. Sometimes it seems like spring will never arrive.

We’ll, I’m waiting on the guy that was supposed to have my shell ready weeks ago. I kind of expected it. A lot of the guys that do this kind of stuff are not normal.
Supposed to have it back this weekend. Fingers crossed. I’m going through all my stuff and it boggles my mind just how many parts and fasteners and things I have. Plus the wrecked car for parts. I can hardly wait to start putting this thing together.

Well, getting the shell together for our Tempest rebuild turned out to be a disaster. The car is worse than it was. The guy that was supposed to do the work turned out to be a complete scumbag. He was supposed to weld in the floor pans and such, but just stuck them down over top of the old ones with caulking, etc. What a mess. There was not much we could do. We did give him some money but it's not worth the hassle of chasing it down. The guy is a total flake. We just wanted to get the car back and get the hell out of there. I researched the guy after and found that he went to jail for killing a bunch of animals (horses, hogs, chickens) that he was supposed to be looking after on his property. He ripped off his church and fellow parishioners (snowplow scam) and various other private parties and businesses. My son wanted to kick his face in, but I told him that it's not worth the trouble. Besides, sooner or later, someone will. I'm sure that we'll see his name in the paper some day. So the rebuild of the Tempest is shelved for now. No worries, just a project for another day.

Did you get the car back?

There are a few guys like that In my area- just looking for the next person to fxxk over. If you get the car back consider yourself lucky

Unfortunately, this is not an uncommon tale. I hear stories like this on occasion, and personally know people who've had to rescue their cars from someone who did very little work after being given big money. Having body & paint work done is unquestionably the worst part of the classic car ownership experience. So many people are cash only, off the books, no documentation or invoices, pay up front rather than in bi-weekly or monthly installments, etc. It's just a perilous situation to be in.

Sounds like you were able to get your car back, thankfully. I guess the silver lining is that you won't be spending any more time with someone who sounds like a truly terrible human being.

Yes, we got the car back thankfully. Went and registered it, too. So now I've got clean titles on the original Tempest and this Tempest as well. They're even plated, but deemed unfit until a certification ticket is obtained.