[robz]

Wow...Sad to hear this....He was a great restorer that probably got in over his head with too much work at once and got tempted to take the easy way out....

[Greg Reid]

Yeah, sad to see for sure. A talented, young guy who had a bright future ahead of him and a lot of people who were on his side. A real waste.

[The Boss]

Had heard some of this from people who had cars there - some pretty rare cars were involved in it.

[6 Grrrs]

I went on their site http://www.transformationrestorations.com/ and found this about the Judge:

http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...s/70Judgebarn/

Evidently it was finished before all this went down.

It is a shame to hear stories like this. I think 'Chop Shop' is a little bit overkill in describing what was going on. I could see VIN swapping as a better explanation. A Chop Shop IMO would be more about modern high dollar stuff (Benz's, Jag's, Vette's, Porsche's, etc.), being cut up & parted out. Regardless, it was bad business practices for someone who obviously has some talent.

[OVERULD]

I thought Larry "Lars1nyc" on the board here bought the Judge??? If you back up a page or two there are several posts indicating that - did the sale not go through?

BJ

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by OVERULD

I thought Larry "Lars1nyc" on the board here bought the Judge??? If you back up a page or two there are several posts indicating that - did the sale not go through?

BJ

I think that Tod just missed that part of the thread. Unless I missed something too, the car was finished and sold to Lars1nyc while this thread was still current. As I recall, he was very pleased with it too...
All the mess came to fruition some time afterwards.
I actually heard about it shortly after the Judge was completed when I recommended the shop to someone on this board who was looking for a resto shop in the northeast somewhere.
Someone familiar with what was about to go down pm'd me that all was not as it seemed over there and that I MIGHT not want to recommend that shop... I went over to TAC and sure enough, all of Jason's posts were gone and his personal forum section was no more...like he never existed and he was almost worhipped over there...Later, the full story came out.

[OVERULD]

Thanks Greg- I remember Larry winning the ebay auction and taking delivery of the car so I was a bit confused. I believe one of our members from here in GA actually took a car up there but then had to go get it back. Sad story after all the accolades Jason received over the quality of that restoration.

BJ

[formula400]

Trust me, there was absolutely no talent with him at all. I was first hand to see most of the work as I pulled it from him, what a complete mess some of the cars where in. the only cars that were ok were the ones he didn't touch.

[Jerry H.]

All to often, persons who have some talent in restoration attempt to go into business for themselves but have absolutely no business skills. You can be the best resto guy in the world, but if you don't know how to operate a business, you'll find yourself in this position every time.

[OVERULD]

Originally Posted by formula400

Trust me, there was absolutely no talent with him at all. I was first hand to see most of the work as I pulled it from him, what a complete mess some of the cars where in. the only cars that were ok were the ones he didn't touch.

Really? Was the Judge an exception? The photos he posted of that resotration sure looked like quality workmanship to me and pretty much everyone else who followed this thread. To my knowledge Larry never came on here criticizing the quality of the work on the Judge at all.

I think Jerry is right, perhaps Jason made a name for himself with the Judge but really had no business acumen and that lead to the financial trap he fell into. Someone else posted that he was well known over on the Trans Am forum and was almost a "legend" among that group, so I would think he had the talent, but then again, the only car I saw that he restored was the Judge which is the subject of this thread.

You obviously have seen more and so I would therefore defer to your greater first-hand knowledge, but if what you claim is true, how do you explain the level of quality on this Judge?

BJ

[formula400]

I never seen the judge first hand, so i cannot comment on that car. But i know for a fact some others seen the car and were not overly impressed, and i think if you go back on this thread you will see those comments.

Second, he did not restore that judge by himself, his father and others helped.

all you have to do is talk to the owners of the cars he did, or started on to see what "talent" went on. They are the ones who had to pay to have it "redone" because of the poor quality.

For example, Gary Mruz's SD....he just about destroyed that car.

Also, did anyone see how many cars he actually restored on his own before the judge. He never really did alot of cars for anyone to see his quality, he had cars he was working on for over 3yrs and they were not even painted.

I have pictures of the metal work alone that would make you just sick and wonder what the heck was he doing.

[Greg Reid]

Well, I would defer to someone who actually saw the work of course and some of us on TAC may have been fooled by great looking photos and a smooth narrative on what was being done...
In fact, one of his biggest supporters over there said in the thread that he actually even fooled the guys on that forum that he ever even had any special liking for Trans Ams or Pontiacs. Just saw it as an opportunity to increase income from a bunch of TA lovers...then came over here with the Judge pics.
Then, on the other hand it's possible that the work suffered as a result of the bad business practices Jerry mentioned. If he got in over his head it's not a stretch to think he may have just started throwing things together to give the appearance of progress.
There's only one person that I recall way back calling him out and accusing him of shabby work and everybody thought he was crazy....Remember OPH (Ol' Pinion Head)? I'm talking 5, 6, 7 years ago...

[formula400]

Greg, i agree with you to a certian point you made. I pulled cars from him that he was restoring and that were there for years with not alot done. Where i can debate his quality is that these cars were in works before anything ever came out. To me, there was no good quality just alot of bondo covering shadey work. As i said if i posted pics of what we discovered you guys would **** yourselfs.

I pulled over 15 cars, and for example he had 2 SD cars from the beginning when he was new to the sites 3-4 yrs ago?, both cars were a disaster and both had to be completely redone.

[Greg Reid]

Well, I certainly wouldn't disagree with you formula 400. You were there.
I think you are the one that Ban One over at TAC was speaking about in regard to saving a lot of guy's cars, right?

[formula400]

correct...

I happened to click on page 18 of this thread, just look at the detail of the frame, all the rust pits are there in everything, right from his camera.

Jason was also taking pictures from other jobs and faking other people into believing that the pics he posted were thiers, when infact he never even touched thier car.

I'm sure you guys know Matt (Tellyshavilli) on here, he has also seen most of these cars first hand. I have been storing the ones i have not gotten too at his place.

[6 Grrrs]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

I don't know what has happened to the car but a LOT has happened to Jason in the last two years.
http://transamcountry.com/community/...?topic=34238.0

Originally Posted by OVERULD

I thought Larry "Lars1nyc" on the board here bought the Judge??? If you back up a page or two there are several posts indicating that - did the sale not go through?

BJ

BJ/Greg:

Sorry for the late response, but I was kinda replying to Greg's post. I was unaware that it was bought by a forum member (possibly forgot that detail in this thread). I guess I was just stating what the car's condition was. Tell you the truth - I had no idea the car was finished.

I visited this thread back when it was started (and subscribed), but I guess I never got any notifications for it until just the other day. I would have remembered the finished car & that it was sold to someone on here if I would have kept up on the thread.

[allen smith]

WOW, I had no idea this was going on when I revisited and reinitiated this post! So what's the current status of this guy who did this restoration?

[formula400]

in court right now for fraud and other charges. next will be IRS for not claiming any income.

[feb69judge]

Sounds like the butchered pontiacs can/have been restored properly since then. Good intentions gone bad. I always enjoy watching frame off projects progress until they are finished here on the tech forums. That may have been why the 70 Judge didn't hit 6 figures in the auction also.
*** The Shelby resto. shop here in Carrollton,TX (Unique Perf.) was busted about a year and a half ago for similar indcidents: Rebodies, Vin issues, taking in lots of upfront $$$$ for cars ordered that were never started or delivered. Too much demand for the business. They would up having a Fed. auction on all the cars left in the shop including a few 65,66,67 GTO's that somehow made it in there??

[6 Grrrs]

Originally Posted by TEG

Jason:

Did you find any carpet tags on the car when you pulled the carpet up? My 1970 had tags that read "McGee Carpet" and were dated. I bought carpet tags from In-Line and they are nothing like what was on my car. If you found them, could you photograph them, please?

I have partial photos of mine and no longer have the 1970. FYI--the tags were stapled into the carpet under each bucket seat.

Thanks,

T.

Originally Posted by JasonD

When we took the carpet out it was so smelly from the mice that were living inside that we immediately threw it in the dumpster. I remember seeing carpet tags on it too......but I didn't think to photograph them.

Originally Posted by Held for Ransom

Those are really hard to see if they've ever got wet...
Also pictured is the tag on the rear seat.

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Here's a good pic of an original '68 carpet tag. From an HPP article.

Funny story:

Today I was out with my dad in his mostly original 1969 Catalina convertible. When we returned to my house, I got out of the car to find the carpet tag was laying on the floor mat. I remembered seeing something posted on the PY forums just recently, so I took a photo of the tag with my cell phone. I searched and searched recent threads that I was looking at (except this one) and didn't find what I was looking for. Then I used the 'search' function and low & behold the posts I was thinking about were in this thread. It was right at the top of the results for searching "carpet tag".

Nice to know the search function actually works sometimes

Anyways here is a photo of the original carpet tag that was stapled to the carpet. It was built in Linden NJ (E in VIN) and built the 4th week of September (094 on body tag). Of course this is a full size, but I thought maybe there was interest in this photo.