After 15 or 16 years of restoration shop horror stories, a few weeks ago, I lined up a guy with a enclosed trailer and we went to get my car to move it to storage until I figure out how to clear space for it at my home.
My car went to a shop in MI in fall '99 and the shop owner soon flaked out on me. After 5years and many excuses, he'd finally gotten much of the metal work done, the car was media blasted and etch primed. Then sat for more years and he wouldn't touch it again. A shop local to him rebuilt the engine in 2011 thinking seeing it done and waiting might motivate him, no such luck! I knew I had to move it to another shop if I ever wanted to see it painted, but in the 2000's my job security went away and I'd been in too unstable of a position to commit to moving it as I have found myself unemployed every 2 or 3 years for many months, or in the case of late 2008, 1-1/2 years.
I knew I couldn't leave it sitting over there forever, I had to do something whether I could afford it or not. So after going back and forth with a Mopar resto shop here in IL that does great work, I committed to moving the car, we moved it in early 2013 and when the bills started coming in, they were higher than I'd estimated. Hashing out time estimates and rates, I'd come up with mid 40s to take the car from much of the metal work done etc to painted, partially reassembled roller. Well, after around 70K in bills, it is a painted partially reassembled roller. I'll never be able to know for sure how much I have in this car, as I didn't keep good records early on, but I'm sure I'm over 100K, on a car I bought in HS for $2300.
The company I have been working for over 3 years at is going downhill fast, so although I planned for overages, I didn't think I'd be at 25K over estimates, nor was I in a good position to absorb that kind of extra expense, as it's not like I can just say I'll recover over the next year or two with my steady paychecks as my future is uncertain. And some of the things I saw on bills really made me feel hosed, 32 hours to prep and install an NOS takeoff fender to replace one I'd bought years ago that turned out to have old collision damage, 2 hours to media blast paint off a commercial rebuilt water pump, 4 hours to remove the trim off the quarter glass and pack for shipping to a glass polisher in CA who apparently vanished with my glass after it was shipped (and my restorer said he was "just as much a victim as I was, as he spent his own time finding this guy"), and 16 hours to install my NOS stripes are a few examples.
So a few weeks ago, we get the car and I was feeling a bit happy following the rig as we drove away from the shop, no more bills from him and monthly horror as I opened the bills!
We get to the storage place, and as we are getting the car out of the trailer, the winch loses its tension, the car starts to roll on the ramp, we are pushing on the rear to keep it from rolling too fast, and I see the front moving out slightly as it rolls, the steering wheel wasn't 100% straight, and I watched helplessly as the left front fender rubbed against the ramp cable.
So the paint is damaged on the fender. This car is cursed!!!!
I still haven't figured out how to clear a space in my garage, I've advertised my '71 with only limited interest, should get more serious with my efforts, but truth be told, I sort of like it better than my T/A!
Storage around here is expensive, around $150 a month is average for storing a car.
Even if the T/A was done, I don't feel too enthused about having a trailer queen at this point. I had a Ram 1500 when this project started, but at this point no truck, no trailer, and my property is too small to store an enclosed trailer so I'd need to pay to store a trailer if I bought one.
And shows like the Nats have gone downhill so far in recent years that towing a car hundreds of miles to win a trophy seems meaningless.
Big layoff at work rumored next Thursday, 300-400 folks. Supposedly engineering not in the crosshairs, especially my group, but still I'm feeling pretty demoralized about work and the future.
I've come too far to quit, but at this point, I feel the car has fought me every step of the way and it's hard to get much enthusiasm for finishing the last 10% of the work which mainly will be putting it back together!
Anybody else ever feel like a project has defeated them?
