Loose gaskets around the plastic body parts.

 

Overspray on 3 of 4 rotors; loose parking-brake cable; buffer scratches; goofy lights.

 

Man, That is a horrible experience.

 

Really sorry to hear this all, especially from someone you called a friend. Karma will get him. There is a god out there, he won't get away with it.
Raj

 

Regarding discussion of estimates, the owner of this shop (Carl) originally had both my mother's 1974 Jaguar XKE and this Porsche. He assessed the Jag and said it was worth $9k, and that we could work something out if I wanted the Porsche repaired and painted at his shop. That was in early January, and I told him I couldn't spend more than $3k on the Porsche total. Carl agreed to that.

Thus, in addition to the paint/body work, I expected his son (Carl Jr., or "Junior") to do some mechanical work and bought the parts for it all. Junior removed a broken alloy lugnut from the driver-front wheel and replaced the pads/rotor; repacked the front bearings on both sides; replaced the parking brake shoes. I gave Junior a $100 tip after he installed an electric brake controller in my Jeep, and I told him that it was a tip for work he had done and still remained to be done on the Porsche: replace the valve cover gasket, change the oil, replace the fuel filter, replace the tranny/diff fluid, and install tie-down hooks. I'd already purchased the parts; he didn't do any of this latter work.

Now, the friend of mine here is (was) Rick, the big red-headed guy you can see in some of the photos in this thread, whom I've known closely for 15 years. I was basically his helper in this project. Rick told me from the beginning that the paint/body shop was his baby and he was responsible for billing. I told him repeatedly that I didn't want to spend more than $2500 at the shop total, because as the project went on I was spending money on parts and labor from other sources for things Rick was supposed to have done (e.g., spending a lot of time taking the rims to Wheel Medic in Columbus - BTW, the center caps are the same color and look nice, but they're not installed yet because Wheel Medic has to remove some of the clearcoat from inside the hubs.)

So with all that in mind, the closest we ever came to even verbal estimates came in the form of a discussion with Carl in early January, a day when I was ordering parts online from JPAM. Carl entered his credit card number on the order for about $1200, and I told him I expected to spend a total of $4-5k on the car, including the tires and stereo I intended to buy. Also, as it turned out, JPAM charged my credit card because it was associated with my online account, so Carl never paid that $1200 order after all.

This past Monday, when Carl told me he wanted $6250 for the work, he also told me that I had agreed to spend $4-5k on the car, and he took that as a "verbal estimate." That doesn't account for a $6700 invoice. The Ohio laws and cases I've been reading this week make it pretty clear that I was entitled to a written, or a written statement agreeing to either an oral estimate or no estimate; and I must be notified and similarly agree to any increase of more than 25% of the original estimate. And the shop must have a conspicuous sign stating all of this.

Well, I appreciate you guys letting me vent here. I'm confident MAG will give me a proper written estimate and do their work very well - my car's probably the cheapest POS in their shop, next to Ferrari's and Bentleys and whatnot.

Otherwise, we'll have to see how it plays out in court.

 

Oh, almost forgot to mention: based on Carl's assessment of the Jaguar, I sold it to Classic Jaguar for the price of $12k including delivery. By the time I got back to Ohio, Classic Jaguar already had the car on eBay in a 14-day auction. It reached a maximum bid of $16,800 with 9 days to go, at which point they cancelled the auction because I complained to them.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=120216707231


Shoot, I could've put it on eBay myself!

And to complicate matters, the estate lawyer may refuse to send Classic Jaguar the title and I'll have to refund them and retrieve the car. The estate lawyer has an obligation to get a fair price for things that are sold from the estate, and the eBay auction proved that this had not been done. I originally thought the car was worth $18k, but Carl told me it needed the transmission rebuilt (less than 1k miles on the rebuild done in 1986, but dried pump seals from 20 years of sitting so it has to warm up before it will engage a forward gear).

 

WOW- I totally feel for you. I can shed some light on some of the gasket issues- having mounted mine more than once.. The rocker fronts and the rocker lowers pull out from one a few things- the groove not being clean, the plastic inserts not being new, or the panels themselves being warped. If they sand and heat them up too much they will warp and then not be tight against the car.

The top of the rear rocker where it seperated from the body means the panel metal retainer arm is not on the car or the slot in the Rocker itself is busted- very common if you pull the panel off BEFORE removing the bolt and retaining arm.

The rear pull off also indicates they did not clean out the groove properlly for the rear bumber seal. I used a dremel tool and then glued the corners to prevent them from moving.

The fronts are always a bitch-- I have seen other shops staple and I also stapled the gaskets into the cover using SS marine statples to assure the gaskets would not move... If you are doing it yourself, don't laugh, it works great.

If I can help you at all I'd be happy to- I assembled my 968 after paint myself and have already been through the learning curve. How about a assembly vacation in Virginia?.. Its free, I have 52" flat screen in the garage and Bass Ale on tap.......?

Hang in there- when it's done you've got a interesting story and maybe you can sit back and laugh... Mike

 

Sounds like something I might consider. I could use a timing belt installation vacation, too, if anybody's hosting...

I'll wait to hear from MAG regarding their dollar and time estimates. Parking brakes, belly pan, and loose side-cladding are issues I want to deal with before I take the car on a road trip.