Slow ride. Options

[UserDrew]

About a month ago I reached my abilities limit to work on the car so I called around and settled on place called San Diego Classic (vw) Restoration to finish it off. They offered free towing when I asked about the service and I've been down to their place a few times to check in on their work.


I don't have any great shots of my work on it. Just some breaklines, hardware shots, the front end without the gas tank in it but nothing I feel is worth posting. But these pictures were taken I pushed it out of the garage November 19th.

[fiber optic]

I demand you post the other pictures. The internet may come to a stop if it's only filled with text.

[UserDrew]

Ok, I need to get them on Photobucket.

Just got off the phone with the people working on the car, it's almost done! But bad news. The car is in such good shape with such great miles I decided to keep it original, however the rims currently on the car are too shot to keep. So, it's time for some new ones. I'm thinking black Spintstars or BRMs. In a few minutes I am going to cut check for continued work with the interior and the convertible top.

[fiber optic]

Ok, I need to get them on Photobucket.

Just got off the phone with the people working on the car, it's almost done! But bad news. The car is in such good shape with such great miles I decided to keep it original, however the rims currently on the car are too shot to keep. So, it's time for some new ones. I'm thinking black Spintstars or BRMs. In a few minutes I am going to cut check for continued work with the interior and the convertible top.

Either of those wheel choices will look good. I haven't seen a whole lot of people using the Sprintstars so maybe go with those to be a bit more unique.

[Bjorn]

I'ver always been a fan of Panasports for any kind of vintage application, but they may be far too common.

[UserDrew]

I'ver always been a fan of Panasports for any kind of vintage application, but they may be far too common.

5X205 lug pattern. Got the EMPI BRMs, but I am keeping the original wheels just in case. Not much new since I gave them the car a few weeks ago. They've been running it through the parking lot and are fixing the broken hinges on the deck lid and replacing rubber trims. It's occurred to me that nothing I've done to the car matters since they've gone ahead and rebuilt many of the engine parts that I simply cleaned. I would've instructed them not to, however they know what their doing and I'm just an idiot with a socket set.

They've cleaned the surface and discovered it still has a glossy finish. So instead of any sort of repaint I'm having them fix rust on the edges of the body and, pull dents, and fix any sort of chips on the body.


http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/User...ia/DSC01053.jpg

[fiber optic]

I'm just an idiot with a socket set.

Hey, me too. I mostly just listen to music in the garage and pretend to know what I'm doing.

Nice choice with the BRMs, they'll look great on your white car. I'm thinking of going back to the 5 on 205mm to put some og steelies on with hubcaps. If I stay with the 4x130mm I'm thinking of some replica gas burners. Still staring at the motor for now though.

[MustangAficionad...]

Hey, me too. I mostly just listen to music in the garage and pretend to know what I'm doing.

Amen

[goota]

Hey, me too. I mostly just listen to music in the garage and pretend to know what I'm doing.

Amen

double amen

[UserDrew]

I hate taking my cars to other people for work. It feels like a failure. Anyway, pictures of it primed up:

They replaced the rockers per my request. The driver side had a strange dirt/compost build up in it because the plastic wheel well cover had eroded away. They cut out lower portions of the body and welded on new pieces of metal in the rusting spots. Pulled out dents, dings lightly bondoed the larger dent on the driver side rear quarter then primed it and from what I hear it's done being painted. Next up is upholstery and a new top then this pig will be coming home with me. I couldn't really get shots from great angles because the work space was pretty small.


(I don't know what happened with this picture to make it look jagged and pixelated)



Doors & Decklids primed:


Rear quarter


Front side 1/4ish


They had to cut out the entire lower of the front end body.

[fiber optic]

Lookin' good.

You'll probably be done before I will.

[Synesthesia]

Looks good! I wouldn't feel too bad. Whenever I get around to a project like this I will most likely outsource this sorta work.

[UserDrew]

A buddy and I painted a 72 super beatle a few years ago in his garage. It didn't come out too well but it was good enough.

I'll have pictures of the car painted and reassembled up tomorrow night. The people doing this body work are getting everything together for the interior. I've ordered a retrosound stereo system for the car also but I am going have them install it.
I've got a smaller 12v car battery and a solar panel to charge it to run the sound system on.

Note the wheels on the beetle. I ordered a set of those and they where delivered to the shop sometime two weeks ago.

[UserDrew]

Shit wasn't getting done on the car after the body had been done. Things have gone south and I'm probably going to file criminal charges and a police report. It's a long story, regardless to say one of the two partners in the shop apparently stole tools and most of their money and fell off the face of the earth. The other partner about a month ago then declared bankruptcy, stole a bunch of parts and did the same. I only found out yesterday when I got a call from the property manager yesterday and went down there and claimed what I could.

The first few months was going well, they would invoice me and I would essentially line item veto work on the car things that I did with it which they didn't need to do, etc. They would do the work, I'd go down and take a look at it and then cut them a check. Things got fishy in april when they stopped talking to me. I went down there and they had the interior ripped apart to prepare it to go for upholstery work and it sat like that until mid may when I got an invoice to get the interior work done. I paid it, against my better judgment also. I put down about 12k on that car but only got about 6-7 in parts and labor. To top it off, they took many of the original parts from the car. So far I'm missing upper end engine parts like the carb assembly, points and condenser unit, generator, etc. I'm missing original interior paneling, the BRMs and goodyears I had shipped to them, the headlights, wiper motors and rear bench seats. There may be more which I have not yet accounted for.

I spent this morning trying to track down the people who ran this place. I found one, but I don't have a good address. Since I can't work (not an ability problem but space and time issues) on the car I also spent the morning trying to find another place to have work done which turned out to be fruitful. Luckily So-Cal seems to be the perfect place for old vw ownership and found a place which has been in business for a long while to get it to to have the electrical and mechanical bits done up.

[shandyman5]

Shit wasn't getting done on the car after the body had been done. Things have gone south and I'm probably going to file criminal charges and a police report. It's a long story, regardless to say one of the two partners in the shop apparently stole tools and most of their money and fell off the face of the earth. The other partner about a month ago then declared bankruptcy, stole a bunch of parts and did the same. I only found out yesterday when I got a call from the property manager yesterday and went down there and claimed what I could.

The first few months was going well, they would invoice me and I would essentially line item veto work on the car things that I did with it which they didn't need to do, etc. They would do the work, I'd go down and take a look at it and then cut them a check. Things got fishy in april when they stopped talking to me. I went down there and they had the interior ripped apart to prepare it to go for upholstery work and it sat like that until mid may when I got an invoice to get the interior work done. I paid it, against my better judgment also. I put down about 12k on that car but only got about 6-7 in parts and labor. To top it off, they took many of the original parts from the car. So far I'm missing upper end engine parts like the carb assembly, points and condenser unit, generator, etc. I'm missing original interior paneling, the BRMs and goodyears I had shipped to them, the headlights, wiper motors and rear bench seats. There may be more which I have not yet accounted for.

I spent this morning trying to track down the people who ran this place. I found one, but I don't have a good address. Since I can't work (not an ability problem but space and time issues) on the car I also spent the morning trying to find another place to have work done which turned out to be fruitful. Luckily So-Cal seems to be the perfect place for old vw ownership and found a place which has been in business for a long while to get it to to have the electrical and mechanical bits done up.

Dude that is so shitty man. Good luck and I hope the douches who screwed you rectify the situation in the end. Sorry to hear bro, and I hope you can get this corrected.

[Altostratus]

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I fucking hate how shady some shops turn out to be, this really sucks man
Fope you get the fuckers and some sort of compensation.

[speedyK]

What a nightmare

You seem to be coping well – hope it all works out for you so that, when it is finally finished, you can just enjoy the car and forget all the hassle

[UserDrew]

Dude that is so shitty man. Good luck and I hope the douches who screwed you rectify the situation in the end. Sorry to hear bro, and I hope you can get this corrected.

Filed a police report, accused them of running a chop shop and provided a basic list of missing stuff. They're going to contact the property owner, who I've met already, to let me back in to search for things I can re-loot.

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I fucking hate how shady some shops turn out to be, this really sucks man
Fope you get the fuckers and some sort of compensation.

I did research before going there. I had a few concerns because they were only in operation for a short time. I talked to another person having a car done their and they were very happy with the work and they had plenty of projects completed under their belt. Things were going well for about 3 months but after the body work it all just sort of stopped. I went in to check up on the car after they sent an invoice billing me for upholstery and the convertible top and was assured that everything was on track. If they've actually filed for bankruptcy I'm SOL since they'll have protection from creditors. I can still try to get others screwed by them together for a civil case but it would be pretty hard to get any compensation.

What a nightmare

You seem to be coping well – hope it all works out for you so that, when it is finally finished, you can just enjoy the car and forget all the hassle

I had a feeling something like this would happen for a few months, when it did I couldn't muster up any anger or frustration. I got to work on finding another place to get this car worked on. I can't afford any more work so I've appealed to my parents for a loan and my dad's agreed. I just want the work on it to get done so I can drive it. I'm going to hear back from this new mechanic regarding missing parts and recommended work either monday or tuesday. He told me this isn't the first time in his 28 some odd years of working on cars that people have gone through with this.

Pictures of its current state in a bit.

[UserDrew]

Ok, most of the parts are still connect to the engine here. More than I originally thought. Fuel, air intakes and generator are gone.



Looking closer I saw something else that bothered the fuck out of me:



When I went in there to drop the check off to get the car to the upholsters the shop owner was taping up a boat for taping and it was red. There was no red splatter on the exterior of the car, but there was some white which came off with some rubbing.

Speaking of clumsy painting:


Splatter across the dash board. Not sure how that happened, when they were painting it they had it taped over.

This should've been taken care of when they were doing to the body work:


This is just the interior of the car as it was when I got it back to my parent's place. I was happy to find the bumpers and convertible top frame in the shop.

[fiber optic]

Have you looked at craigslist and the classified section at the samba for your parts?