[chiefpontiac66]

The body shop is making nice progress. Just down to a few items before turning the car back over to me. I will finish with the door, window and trunk rubber seals and then the interior install. I ran into a bit of a problem with the interior.

The upholstery shop has had many of my interior intems and seat/door panel designs for a year and only just finished the seats in September. They needed to make a 10 minute ride to the body shop to measure the doors for nail placement for the door panels, but they just kept delaying. They had given me a great price for a "package deal" which was to include doing the seats and door panels, intalling the headliner, and an install of the interior, except carpet, when completed. I asked for a bid on the carpet back in August and the guy just tried to hose me ($500), so I said forget it. In order to get them going, I offered them a modest increase in the balance due as an incentive to finish up the door panels and told them I would take care of putting the interior in. No luck. Its a father and son running the business and the other day, the son called me, got really nasty, and said it would take an additional $500, over the balance I owed, to finish, plus a storage fee. If not, I needed to pay them another $450 for the work already done, and come pick up my stuff asap. I asked to speak with his dad, but he refused and said that the dad didn't know how to get "forceful" with me. Well, I'm not a guy who will allow someone to try to strong arm me, and I'm not sure what "forceful" meant to the guy, but honestly, I'm retired law enforcement and it would have been a really bad day for him if he put his hands on me.
Anyway, I got a local police officer to go with me and picked up my stuff. To be honest, most of the work done was ok, but some will have be redone, and of course, I have to pay someone else to have the door panels done. Basically, they had already put in the headliner last year, and they had the seats and rear armrests done. So, I don't think they stung me that bad. Its more about the fact that they didn't honor the original agreement, and the son's horrific customer service. Really a shame, since I have done business with the shop on and off for 20 years. I have heard the business' reputation has really suffered as a result of over pricing the jobs and the son's tendency to snap off on customers. My plan is simple, I going to throw this experience out there as a buyer beware for Pontiac guys in southeast MO. The shop is in Jackson, MO. Unfortunately for them, my wife's uncle happens to be one the oldest and most trusted muscle car mechanics in that area, and I am sure he will pass this experience on as need be. Even though I am going to throw this out there for readers here, it won't do nearly as much damage as the son's dealings with the customers. IMO he is standing in his sinking ship, blowing holes in the bottom with a cannon. I asked the dad how we went from me offering them more money and less work to finish the job, to this crazy behavior from his son, and he just said, "I really don't know. He's my son and I just can't work with him." Feel free to PM me if you want the business name.

At any rate, the rest of the car is looking awesome. The body shop in going to put a red pinstripe on the front fenders and doors to help draw out the red in the redline tires and the emblems. I am quite a distance away from the car, so I get pics from the body guy's phone. I hope to get some better pics soon.