please answer honest and sincere. i know the internet is not the place to pour your heart and feelings as it often is simply a place to go flame and troll, but this is a serious part of my life. if you think its silly and stupid to put so much emotion in a car (heirloom) then i ask you to please hold your tongue and simply exit this thread as i will not appreciate a negative reply that is not honestly trying to help my situation. thank you.
i am not sure where to start, but i guess i will start with the car... its a 1969 fastback mustang, the numbers on the car say it rolled off the line on my mothers 10th birthday, just an interesting fact we learned. my grandfather bought it when it was like 7-8 years old; from some failing college student who had other debts to deal with.... my grandpa drove it for a while, then my dads cougar was having issues so while they were rebuilding its engine in the garage, my grandpa had my father use the mustang. and as time went on and the cougar kept breaking down and being repaired, my dad ended up driving the mustang more than my grandpa did, and when my dad had finally put more money into maintenance and running the mustang than my grandpa had paid for the mustang, he simply gave it to my dad. this is the car my parents dated in some, the car they drove to sonic for dinner the night they were married, this is the car my folks took my sister and me to fly kites and drive around town on sundays in. its survived two bankruptcies. was stored in my grandpas barn for some time, and over the last 13 years has basically sat and deteriorated. but we had always talked about "one day, she will be beautiful again, and one day it will be mine.
well, over the last few years we have been doing work on it. and the fact is, while it had issues, it was never in horrible shape. the thing cranked and ran from the moment we started to think about trying to do something with it. all we had to do was clean the carburetor. shes really a champ, and has held up well to what we did to her, which basically amounted to neglect..
so when we started fixing her up we hit the high points our selves, had the engine rebuilt, the tranny, the whole fuel system from the gas cap to the carb, new front suspension, shocks, you name it we touched it. and finally we got to the things we could not do our selves. we decided to buy a new distributor an electronic msds one, and a 4 barrel intake manifold to match the new carb. so we hired this guy who just recently bought the restoration shop from some other guy here in broken arrow. hes off of elm, and i wont name the name, but he came out to see the car before we started and we told him what we wanted.
of course no one (at least that we could find) gives an honest bid, and i suppose with work such as this, there is no telling what you are going to find till you start taking it apart, so it cant be a bid job. well, at 50 bucks an hour he estimated he could have it done by thanksgiving (my dads birthday) for a little under $20k. so, in she went. we were pleased with the work they did making the engine gorgeous, and cleaning up the engine bay. these guys do great work, no questions there. and they even started off fast and the bills were reasonable. but then they started the body work, and they slowed down, i guess they only have one real body work guy, so we spent over a month looking and seeing no real change to the car, but the bills were small, a few hundred a week, no more than a thousand or not very often that. then suddenly we bitched and they go to our car, and as of this moment the body work is completed, done, and i can say, she looks flawless, all they are waiting for is a new front light shroude and i think they may still be waiting on the drivers side door hinges to come in, but they say the body is done. and i guess they primer coated it yesterday. problem is, we are officially at $21,000 invested in what they have done so far, and the hood scope is off of it, various shrouds and body parts are off of it, the locks and door panels and all are off the car, the engine is not hooked back up as far as the lines, and belts, and the a/c unit is not installed, the in dash vent for the a/c is not in either, the interior is not installed at all, and the entire inside is coated in the nasty filth and dust from working on the car and other cars next to it. must be hundreds of pieces and parts strewn about waiting to be placed back on the car.
when they started this project, they had a budget in mind, and over the last two weeks they have charged them over 7k and it was minor finishing work on the body, i guess you could call it perfection, but the fact is its not done. and its past the date we wanted it and over budget. and they still cant tell us when or how much more its going to take to finish it.. and if they do, how can we know they wont be over budget for that.
fact is the money they had saved up to use for this is gone, already spent on the car. so if we do any more work to it, hes going to have to try and get a loan for it... money they were going to build a shop with, to keep her safe in...
my dads depressed, my mom is too, and also, and everyone is frustrated. we had hoped to be done and have the finished car to take up to see my grandparents this thanksgiving. because grandpas health is declining faster and faster each year now, and we are scared of when we will lose him, and we want him to see and ride in the car, the heirloom he started for our family.
we also wanted to hit the parades for this christmas season, but its obvious neither is going to happen this year.
i know they deviated from the plan some, when we started it was my impression they were just focusing on getting her running reliably, get the a/c working, repair the body, paint her, and replace the interior. i mean we had at least 88% of the parts already. we had the manifold, the plenum, the distributor, the carb, all of the interior we provided already had it new in box. but when they got started he opted to spent a few thousand more on some chrome motor parts and headers, but even with that in consideration we think they have missed the predicted budget by a long long ways. 8-10k easy. and we still have no idea what its going to take to finish her.....
so as it sets, it sounds like we are bringing her home, unpainted, in pieces, monday... we cant afford to drop another 15k in her. .. . and who knows when we will have the funds, and the time will be right, and we will find someone we feel we can trust to work on her more. we all fear whats going to happen letting her set again. i hate to see my dad depressed, but im hardly in a situation to pay any towards it..
fact is, we feel hurt and lied to. they spent way more time than was spoken, went well over a month that they hardly touched the car. and every time we went down there to see them, they workers appear to spend more time standing around shooting the **** and smokeing than actully putting hands on the cars..... so how do we know how many hours we paid for them to "work on our car" and they were actually... to put it blatantly, ****ing off on the clock?
dont get me wrong, aside from the nasty beard and the gaged out ears on the owner, they seem profesional, the we are impressed with the work, just not how long it took, the gaps in time when they did nothing, and the sudden ramp of price that we cant see that time on the cars progess. i mean billed the last week over 60 hours, to finish some bondo work on the hood and wheel well? because that is literally all we could tell was different form the previous week when we paid another 50 some hours for more work we couldent see that much progress on...
i do not really know what i am expecting to hear back from you all. i mean.... it is what it is. if they cant give us a turn key price to get her able to drive out of there done on her own.... we cant justify getting a loan to simply "keep working on it" with no end in sight..
i have my questions as to how legit they are with their hours, but my father and mother have lost near all faith in the place.
like i said... body works done, it sounds like the front seats are done... we just need the minor engine parts put back on and tuned, along with the a/c system reinstaled and brought up to the new gas, and the headliner, carpet, and door panels put back to gether and the various little body chrome and pieces... does anyone know a honest legit body shop, and mechanic that would give us an honest bid to finish this nightmarish of an experience for us. and give us something to show for the money we have invested? because without a number..... she gets put in the shed and forgotten. i seriously doubt she will have the tarp pulled off her till i graduate med school and dad decides if i can pay to finish her, shes mine.... and i hate that thought. i want the car, but i want him to have his moment of glory again, i want him to have his toy for a little while and to enjoy her some more while he can. the man deserves his car.
and i do not know what to do...
the damnedist part is i had finally decided what to do for his birthday/x-mas gift.... but now a custom keychain and the speakers for the hidden updated radio system sounds more like a insult to injury to buy them for his gift now....
thanks for reading. i know its a terribly long post, and my grammar and spelling is horrible. but i do not post often now, and this is sadly the biggest thing in my life right now. and honestly is a highlight of my life.
i love this car... because i love my father.
i am not sure where to start, but i guess i will start with the car... its a 1969 fastback mustang, the numbers on the car say it rolled off the line on my mothers 10th birthday, just an interesting fact we learned. my grandfather bought it when it was like 7-8 years old; from some failing college student who had other debts to deal with.... my grandpa drove it for a while, then my dads cougar was having issues so while they were rebuilding its engine in the garage, my grandpa had my father use the mustang. and as time went on and the cougar kept breaking down and being repaired, my dad ended up driving the mustang more than my grandpa did, and when my dad had finally put more money into maintenance and running the mustang than my grandpa had paid for the mustang, he simply gave it to my dad. this is the car my parents dated in some, the car they drove to sonic for dinner the night they were married, this is the car my folks took my sister and me to fly kites and drive around town on sundays in. its survived two bankruptcies. was stored in my grandpas barn for some time, and over the last 13 years has basically sat and deteriorated. but we had always talked about "one day, she will be beautiful again, and one day it will be mine.
well, over the last few years we have been doing work on it. and the fact is, while it had issues, it was never in horrible shape. the thing cranked and ran from the moment we started to think about trying to do something with it. all we had to do was clean the carburetor. shes really a champ, and has held up well to what we did to her, which basically amounted to neglect..
so when we started fixing her up we hit the high points our selves, had the engine rebuilt, the tranny, the whole fuel system from the gas cap to the carb, new front suspension, shocks, you name it we touched it. and finally we got to the things we could not do our selves. we decided to buy a new distributor an electronic msds one, and a 4 barrel intake manifold to match the new carb. so we hired this guy who just recently bought the restoration shop from some other guy here in broken arrow. hes off of elm, and i wont name the name, but he came out to see the car before we started and we told him what we wanted.
of course no one (at least that we could find) gives an honest bid, and i suppose with work such as this, there is no telling what you are going to find till you start taking it apart, so it cant be a bid job. well, at 50 bucks an hour he estimated he could have it done by thanksgiving (my dads birthday) for a little under $20k. so, in she went. we were pleased with the work they did making the engine gorgeous, and cleaning up the engine bay. these guys do great work, no questions there. and they even started off fast and the bills were reasonable. but then they started the body work, and they slowed down, i guess they only have one real body work guy, so we spent over a month looking and seeing no real change to the car, but the bills were small, a few hundred a week, no more than a thousand or not very often that. then suddenly we bitched and they go to our car, and as of this moment the body work is completed, done, and i can say, she looks flawless, all they are waiting for is a new front light shroude and i think they may still be waiting on the drivers side door hinges to come in, but they say the body is done. and i guess they primer coated it yesterday. problem is, we are officially at $21,000 invested in what they have done so far, and the hood scope is off of it, various shrouds and body parts are off of it, the locks and door panels and all are off the car, the engine is not hooked back up as far as the lines, and belts, and the a/c unit is not installed, the in dash vent for the a/c is not in either, the interior is not installed at all, and the entire inside is coated in the nasty filth and dust from working on the car and other cars next to it. must be hundreds of pieces and parts strewn about waiting to be placed back on the car.
when they started this project, they had a budget in mind, and over the last two weeks they have charged them over 7k and it was minor finishing work on the body, i guess you could call it perfection, but the fact is its not done. and its past the date we wanted it and over budget. and they still cant tell us when or how much more its going to take to finish it.. and if they do, how can we know they wont be over budget for that.
fact is the money they had saved up to use for this is gone, already spent on the car. so if we do any more work to it, hes going to have to try and get a loan for it... money they were going to build a shop with, to keep her safe in...
my dads depressed, my mom is too, and also, and everyone is frustrated. we had hoped to be done and have the finished car to take up to see my grandparents this thanksgiving. because grandpas health is declining faster and faster each year now, and we are scared of when we will lose him, and we want him to see and ride in the car, the heirloom he started for our family.
we also wanted to hit the parades for this christmas season, but its obvious neither is going to happen this year.
i know they deviated from the plan some, when we started it was my impression they were just focusing on getting her running reliably, get the a/c working, repair the body, paint her, and replace the interior. i mean we had at least 88% of the parts already. we had the manifold, the plenum, the distributor, the carb, all of the interior we provided already had it new in box. but when they got started he opted to spent a few thousand more on some chrome motor parts and headers, but even with that in consideration we think they have missed the predicted budget by a long long ways. 8-10k easy. and we still have no idea what its going to take to finish her.....
so as it sets, it sounds like we are bringing her home, unpainted, in pieces, monday... we cant afford to drop another 15k in her. .. . and who knows when we will have the funds, and the time will be right, and we will find someone we feel we can trust to work on her more. we all fear whats going to happen letting her set again. i hate to see my dad depressed, but im hardly in a situation to pay any towards it..
fact is, we feel hurt and lied to. they spent way more time than was spoken, went well over a month that they hardly touched the car. and every time we went down there to see them, they workers appear to spend more time standing around shooting the **** and smokeing than actully putting hands on the cars..... so how do we know how many hours we paid for them to "work on our car" and they were actually... to put it blatantly, ****ing off on the clock?
dont get me wrong, aside from the nasty beard and the gaged out ears on the owner, they seem profesional, the we are impressed with the work, just not how long it took, the gaps in time when they did nothing, and the sudden ramp of price that we cant see that time on the cars progess. i mean billed the last week over 60 hours, to finish some bondo work on the hood and wheel well? because that is literally all we could tell was different form the previous week when we paid another 50 some hours for more work we couldent see that much progress on...
i do not really know what i am expecting to hear back from you all. i mean.... it is what it is. if they cant give us a turn key price to get her able to drive out of there done on her own.... we cant justify getting a loan to simply "keep working on it" with no end in sight..
i have my questions as to how legit they are with their hours, but my father and mother have lost near all faith in the place.
like i said... body works done, it sounds like the front seats are done... we just need the minor engine parts put back on and tuned, along with the a/c system reinstaled and brought up to the new gas, and the headliner, carpet, and door panels put back to gether and the various little body chrome and pieces... does anyone know a honest legit body shop, and mechanic that would give us an honest bid to finish this nightmarish of an experience for us. and give us something to show for the money we have invested? because without a number..... she gets put in the shed and forgotten. i seriously doubt she will have the tarp pulled off her till i graduate med school and dad decides if i can pay to finish her, shes mine.... and i hate that thought. i want the car, but i want him to have his moment of glory again, i want him to have his toy for a little while and to enjoy her some more while he can. the man deserves his car.
and i do not know what to do...
the damnedist part is i had finally decided what to do for his birthday/x-mas gift.... but now a custom keychain and the speakers for the hidden updated radio system sounds more like a insult to injury to buy them for his gift now....
thanks for reading. i know its a terribly long post, and my grammar and spelling is horrible. but i do not post often now, and this is sadly the biggest thing in my life right now. and honestly is a highlight of my life.
i love this car... because i love my father.
