[redranch]

Hi Larry B, It was all verbal...I agreed to give him some money in advance (which he took) which was just to strip the car down and paint it, but he said there was more rust there than was originally thought and I needed to buy more panel (which I sourced and sent to him). The interior was very usable and the engine ran fine, now the interior is trashed after leaving it out in the open...such a shame.

I was always calling him to see if there was any progress, it was always the same...'we are working on it now', or 'my body man quit last week and a new guy should be starting soon and we'll get right back on your car'

I even resorted to sending him a disposable camera plus the money for a stamp to send back to the UK (where I was living at the time)...he took 3 photos from about a mile away!! So when that didn't work I ended up going there to sort it out...that's when I found it in the field at the back of his shop!
But he swore blind he would still restore it for me and apologised for not getting the job done sooner...once again I thought I'd give him another chance, besides where was I going to put two cars in bits.

I'm also partly to blame for letting it get this far, to be honest there have been time when I've forgotten I own those two cars and maybe I should have pulled them out of there sooner, or been on his case each week...but when it's such a long distance and when I actually believe when someone says they are working on a car...they are working on it, rather than telling a big fat lie.

Anyway what's done is done, it's a new year and it's time to sort those cars out one way or the other....thanks again to everyone for all the comments