Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

One of my customers called to day from Tx., big in Model A's, and ordered some poured Model A caps, as he does his own babbitting, any way in the coruse of the conversation he asked me about an article on a resteration shop some where, he didn't know as some one asked him if he knew.

The only thing he did know is the tittle of the article, which he said was,

"Field report about a Ford Model A restoration."

It was supposed to be in Hemmings Motor News, not to long ago. I haven't taken Hemmings in five years, so those that do, have you seen anything like that?

Herm.

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

Damn. Randy beat me to it.

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

That must be the one, How did you guys find it so fast!

I will call and let my customer know in Tx.

Thanks Herm.

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

A fool and his money are soon parted!

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

Wow. That's unbelievable.

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

Hey Herm,
HOLY SMOKE ...77K + hundreds of hours of personal work ..OMG :eek: !
What is the name of the 'restoration shop' in Tn ? How the heck can anyone use a BROOKVILLE body and call any such car a 'restoration' !!!!

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

I don't know he first states "So I decided to have my own car restored in a shop with a lot of experience and a good reputation." How can a shop get a good reputation if it treats even 10% of it's customers that way.

He speaks to "I worked about 400 hours as a personal contribution on my own car..." That's 10 weeks, he says he worked 2 1/2 months but did not pull the plug if nothing was getting done?

And what restoration? "So I decided to have my own car restored.." There was only an engine, "The idea was to look for a rolling chassis, restore all the mechanics.." so the chassis was not his, "..install a reproduction body from Brookeville." so the body was not his.

I don't know about you, but if I received an estimate that some how was 10,000 dollars over the first estimate I'd be out there in a NY Minute.

I could go on with the things that don't make sense in the story.

A bad experience, yes but for the money and time he said was spent, I have my doubts.

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

Wow, I cannot believe this article, ...matter of fact, you should not believe a lot in this article either! ;)

Honestly, I have known about this blog for several years now and since it is written by someone in a foreign country, my legal council has suggested to just move on. Much of it is written as a retaliation because he wanted a car to take back to Switzerland and be undetected by the authorities as a real Model-A roadster. They called his hand. He then acts like he is totally surprised. I have restored several Model-As using Brookville Roadster bodies. If a customer wants that, that's what we do. He did his own research and used Brookville's sales pitch how the Judges at a national meet could not tell the car with a Brookville body was a repro. It was good enough for him during the restoration process but when he gets it back to his country and tries to pass it off as an original body, the purists over there called his hand. Now I am the bad guy so he does not look bad in their eyes.

Next notice how he speaks of picking up a rolling chassis for the project. Yes, he wanted a chassis to use that was donor from a restored car to put his Brookville body on. He picked the chassis he liked, I bid on it thru eBay for him and traveled to New Jersey to pick it up for him. Guess what, ...it wasn't truly restored like the auction description suggested. Yes, I made the purchase, --yet on his instruction. He then made the written instruction to tear it all apart, then rebuild/restore everything. He even made the decision to replace the frame from one Steve Becker at Bert's had (because it was a nice pit-free frame) and it was shipped from CO to TN. Yes, he did come and work right beside my employees for many weeks in my shop. (Yes he was a guest at our house eating meals and going with us in the evening to personal events). While we do allow our customers to work with us as we restore their project, they understand that if their actions impedes or slows the progress, then they are paying for the extra time it takes to do the task. What he wanted, -and received was hands-on instruction on restoring his Model-A, and when someone is a complete novice that wants to "know how to do it themselves", then we show them how and let them do it themselves.

Bottom line for me was much of what you are reading in that article has skewed facts. This customer knew all along it was a repro body. He knew all along how much the invoice was as he was making progress payments every few months during the entire project. Did we go over the amount he initially wanted to spend? Absolutely! I was only acting on his instruction which we still have documented with his e-mails. Did he run out of money there at the end? Yes, ...very possible which also prolonged the completion date due to him not making his progress payments in a timely manner. Therefore believe what you wish in that blog. Hemings Mtr. News did not write that article nor was it published in their magazine. My shop would not have grown to the level it is if what you read in that blog had validity. Again, believe what you choose to believe about me and/or my business ethics.

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

Again, so we are clear, this project started out as a 'I would like you to put a repro body on a donor chassis and paint it in the color I want' project. It was never really intended to be a full restoration when the project was initially discussed. We are a shop that tries to make a customer's desires happen. This one started out no different.

A point that needs to be made. After an initial budget estimate was hashed out between us, it included what parts I felt we would need however at this time, no chassis nor body had been purchased. Contrary to what he claims about us restoring his own car, ...he did not have any car! Therefore all we were working on was a hypothetical best guess situation of what it would cost. Contrary to what he says in that blog, there was never any contractual timelines nor contractural price simply because he/we had nothing to even work with at that time! It was simply a guideline for us to work with. Later, he stated that he wanted to purchase his own parts and pay for them with his own credit card to save money. He ordered many parts from a NY vendor that were in my view junk and we repurchased better ones that fit or were better quality. Therefore he is correct in that some items he purchased, we also purchased and naturally he was billed for them on the invoice. So was that a fair condemnation for us?

There was a delay in the project with the chassis however not for the reason he stated. My customer wanted me to argue with the eBay seller that his newly purchased chassis wasn't "restored" to his standards or expectations. The Seller did say in the auction description that it came from a restored car that he purchased to build a street rod but he also stated he was selling it as-is without any warranty, ....and that is why after 30 days of negotiation back & forth, eBay denied my customers request (thru me) for a refund. Look at the lost amount of time, --and the productivity we lost in just this one situation trying to satisfy my customer. Naturally my customer was not happy with me, and felt compelled to remind me many times throughout the project about this. It did not matter to my customer that he was the one that found the chassis listed on eBay, and he was the one that instructed me to make the purchase.

Actually I never had any issue with him using J&M for the engine rebuild, and this customer actually had them do TWO engines for him simultaneously. One out of the chassis, and a core from me. Yes, I did send a cracked core block however at the time, it was the only engine block I had that I was willing to part with, ...and the J&M guys are crack repair gurus, so after much discussions the cracked engine was not to be an issue. Yes there was a delay, but the confusion was that my customer had put the deal together with J&M and they dispatched a freight carrier to pick up the engines which we had not finished crating. We had no idea they were coming until their truck just pulled in. This made J&M upset with us but we had no idea we were under any deadline for the engines to be picked up.

Another thing that needs to be cleared up, to my knowledge no one at my shop said "...that was the best running smoothest engine we had ever seen." In reality, when the engines were returned from J&M, the customer instructed us to completely disassemble both engines with him there as he was wanting to check the clearances and their machine work. We have photos documenting this with the customer standing in the picture. I know that we commented to my customer that everything looked like top quality work and it appeared they had done a good job.

Something else people reading this needs to understand is we usually have 10-15 Model-A projects going on simultaneously here at the shop. Scheduling is always a nightmare for me, and yes, I do spend long hours working in front of a computer scheduling work for 6 employees, ordering parts for many projects, handling billing, taking photos for documentation, talking on the phone with clients and people just wanting to ask a technical question about their car, and other duties necessary to make a shop run smoothly. Then we have someone such as this demanding client that wants us to teach him how to do the work himself, and felt like me I must be beside him every moment while he is there at the shop just so I can satisfy his requests and answer his questions. He would stay for two weeks at a time too! Hopefully everyone here realizes the delays this causes not only for this customer's project, -but other customer's projects too. Just as in the case with the two engines, we lost two whole days of productivity while we completely disassembled the J&M engines, checked them, and reassembled them with this customer. Did I charge my customer for doing this for him? Absolutely, ...but please understand how requests like this, -or how the repetitious assembly of parts for a customer to learn just slows down the entire scheduling for everybody in the shop. Did this customer's behavior become stressful for me? ABSOLUTELY?? Did I handle this added stress well with him at the end?? Probably not. Again, I'm not perfect and would love to have a 're-do' at some of this but when my employees are complaining to me to make him leave, and my wife is making complaints about his constant presence in our personal life, and my other customers are now complaining about the delays on their project which are directly related to this customer's spontaneous demands, ...then surely 'one can see how relations became strained between myself and this customer. I can tell you unequivocally that during the final stages of his project, that each morning he was there working at the shop I sure did not feel like saying "Good Morning"!! ;) The mood and morale of employees throughout the entire shop during this time was at an alltime low! Every one of us had our fill of his demands.


I could go on but the real sad part of this deal is there is an engine builder from Iowa that really should not care about a restoration shop in Tennessee ...however due to what could easily be termed as 'jealous motives', he chooses to carefully orchestrates a method on a public forum where he can ask just enough questions to pique interest where he feels like it can inflict damage to someone's credibility and reputation. Herm is not stupid, and he can do just like others in typing that title into Google to find the story. It wasn't about him finding it as it has been out there for over 5 years! It was just a way for him get joy & satisfaction making sure YOU found it.

So does his arguably 'deceitful' actions here now prove he is a better than me because he exposed this blog as a way to belittle/slander a fellow competitor? I believe John 8:7 in the 'good book' gives us all guidance in how we are to conduct ourselves in such scenarios. To others who have voiced their opinion, feel free to do so however might I suggest you be slow to judge until you know all the facts, as many things are different than what they seem when you only have one side of a story.

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

Two sides of an interesting, but rather sad story. I don't exactly what's going on between Iowa and Tennessee, it's likely none of our business,either. Brent's given a pretty good explanation of what could have been, but clearly ended up not being, a good experience for everyone. Brent, I hope your wife got something out of all this deal beyond just reclaiming a bed and bathroom. She sounds like a saint!

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

Okay, now we''d like to know why? Your big customer could have Googled it him/herself or contacted Hemming's and so you. I am smelling a fish here that's not very fresh.

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

brent first off,
i am surprised you would let a non employee work in your shop opening you up to a major liability issue should an accident occur. to have someone come in daily like that and to also be apart of your personal life just does not sound like a very good business decision to me. on a personal note my shop its employees and customers stay at the shop and do not come home with me or my family.
that being said the rest of the transaction is,, he said she said and does not really effect either your shop or the customer as at that point. if the customer or shop could not find resolution it would need to go to a court of law so as far as i am concerned it is all mute on this forum.
another thing that came to mind right away when seeing this thread posted and by whom thus just last week from the situation that arisen from the babbitt // shim thread where the OP of this thread was temporarily banned. what is obvious to me is the concocted way this thread started out asking for someone to find the info for a customer who is big into model A's as to deflect it away from oneself as a way to initiate this thread and hurt someones reputation. the OP must think were a bunch of idiots here to read his initial shenanigans in post #1...
for someone that has stated in the past that they have never made a mistake in their professional life and never had any comebacks tells the story. sad

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

I feel for you Brent. We all get that one guy, that person who's never satisfied, that person who's the most important one in your life and shop. Nobody else matters and neither does the logic and reality of previous obligations and running a business. I've had em a few times over my 40yrs of this stuff. Once in a while you have to forget all that's "right" and simply let em have it. Most every restoration being done anywhere is a TIME and material project. That time costs the same per hour whether it's a Duesenberg or a Model A or a Camaro. That time is the same whether you're hunting and organizing on their behalf or swinging a hammer. All I can say that might be .0001 against your side? With enough time in the life you learn to spot those folks, and I'd bet a hot coffee on a Hershey morning you had a few alarms go off before the point of no return. There's a point where it's more profitable to say "No." that it is to say "Let's go for it." Then again, 5yrs ago wasn't really a time to say no to anything considering the state of things. Just do what you do. In today's vernacular, "Hater's gonna hate" and there's nothing worth doing about it. I'm in CU51 thru 57 at Hershey. If you're going this year look me up and let's get that coffee:cool:

Re: Has anybody seen this in Hemmings Motor News, and when.
 

Blue haired women.