Rudy's B5 AAR Cuda resto update !

[AARudy]

Last year I got into it with the shop owner as he was screwing his employees on the cost of labor on my car-telling them my resto cost one price and telling me another- (and when a body shop keeps your car for FOUR YEARS, you tend to become friends with the guys in the shop) so when the cat was let out of the bag, he went nuts, he tried hiding a ten thousand dollar payment, forged my name on estimates, locked up all of my parts, and it took a battle with my attorney to get my car out safe and sound.. it was at this time I had major problems with my quarter panels... when the car was pushed out in the sun during the battle for my car back, lines appeared along the body seams on both sides along the roof pillars... so they were ordered to fix this before the agreement was ended and I was to take the car back.. the shop owner lied to me and said it was fixed but his painter called me and told me it was not and he is lying to me.

After the nightmare was finished and I had my car back I really did not know what to do or where to go so I went to a guy that I knew and I always saw the quality of his restorations over the years and I should have went to him in the first place. I took the car to Ken Mosier at The Finer Details to fix the tops of the quarters and that is when he noticed a real problem. The trunk extensions were welded in wrong and this caused the bottoms of the quarters to appear "fat" and the whole rear end of my car was 4" wider then it should have been.. so wide that the last shop took my rear valence and cut it down the center and stretched it and bondo'd it back together to hide the mistake. The rear bumper was nowhere even close to fitting. So after a discussion on fixing the quarters and blending the paint, they were removing the AAR stripes to start and the paint started popping off of the car.. so after throwing up several times, I decided to let Ken redo the entire car- concourse restoration top to bottom.. Here is what Ken and his team have accomplished in one year- they have redone EVERYTHING the other guys messed up in almost five years time..

(I am glad my old thread was still up and you replied- I was going to dig for it and update it soon)

posting pix in a minute-----

[AARudy]

OH- AND IT WAS THE WRONG B5 BLUE ALSO.... It has been over a year, and I am now just starting to feel better about my car again. Ken is doing a amazing job, nothing is overlooked or hidden like that last shop.

[sadil340]

Wow that is nice work! And shows a real understanding about how these cars are supposed to look. I saw three mistakes in my own restoration just from these photos.

Have you considered a lawsuit with the previous shop? He wasted a lot of your money.

[AARudy]

Thank you for the compliments.! For the past 5 or 6 years I have done nothing but study 70 Cuda restos and oversprays and paint marks.. it is good to work with a shop that specializes in it and doesn't argue with the things you want to do like this. Yes I am kicking around what you mentioned. It is great to be back on the forum again..!

[moparmaniac59]

OMG!!  I've heard some body shop nightmares, but that has got to be one of the worst I've heard especially considering how bad they screwed up the resto. Glad you got it in a good shop. It looks absolutely amazing!! I'm drooling here and know you must finally be relieved and proud of the quality of workmanship. That thing just snaps at ya!! 


                                                                             Matt B.

[dutch]

good to have you back.  I was wondering what happened, but could not have imagined anything like this crazy story   
I`m glad things worked out, car wise... she looks sooo good 

[AARudy]

yes, and as much as I know about these cars I couldn't see the problem in the rear quarters.. I never noticed it and the car looked good to me. When I compared it to a few other E-body's sitting in Ken's shop it was so obvious..

[AARudy]

Here ya go- before and after- the first shop pulled the tabs out on the trunk extensions causing my quarters to stick out 2"

[4 speed fish]

I would file a  lawsuit against the previous body shop.You could recoup all the money you gave him plus the money you spent to fix his mistakes.You are talking 25k plus.You could put a lien on him and his business.Just from what is workers said you would destroy him in court.

[AARuFAST]

   "Sweet!"
I was getting knots in my gut reading ur story,

I mentioned it before.
Get a written estimate, time frame, cost per hr, pictures as work progresses.
Its a wonder he didn't charge u for storage for 4 yrs.........   

[bb71challenger]

Wow, what a nightmare! Its obvious now that the pics are side by side that the paint was way off. Sorry this happened to you but better you found out like you did than trying to cop gold at the Nats or something similar. Beautiful work, your car has always been one of my faves, good luck and take that bastard to court and bleed him for what he cost you!

[vinb]

Man, that is looking really great....   Good job!

[wally426ci]

So glad to see you back Rudy! I am so sorry you had to deal with this.

I think about your car often because it was so amazing looking. Very glad to see it moved into good hands. 

[tx9aarcuda]

Sorry to hear about all the problems you had with your old body shop I know how you feel I'm putting mine back together and find alot of stuff that isn't correct  my 1/4 panels were not hung correctly either I may be taking mine over to Ken also. The car looks great keep posting picture.

[4 speed fish]

It takes a ton of hours to get quarter panels to fit right.You will test fit them 5 to 10 times.Someone that has never hung cuda panels will not know the hours involved to do it right,that is why you see terrible work like the first guy.he got to a point and he was not going to go back and correct his mistakes.