A.G.A.R. 1970 Barracuda Convertible.....IMPORTANT UPDATE !!

[Mymcodebee]

Looks great!!!   

[ViperMan]

DAMN those underside pics are amazing.     GEEZ...  I need more money...   

[Shane Kelley]

What a great feeling for everyone involved. Looks outstanding!

[anlauto]

I just want everybody here (in the world) to know that @ErikR is VERY upset with his car, and I am certainly NOT the expert that I apparently tell everybody that I am...The car is a total disappointment to Erik and everybody else that has view the car.

Erik has had several experts agree that the metal/paint and body work are total crap and unacceptable even for in a daily driver. I don't understand the concept of nice paint, because when it left here I thought it looked pretty nice. I understand now that the experts have found shrinkage happening and some "checking" showing up, terrible gaps, waviness and even dents. So obviously my idea of a nice driver quality paint is wrong. I've posted dozens of pictures and reviewed every one, but the pictures I guess don't tell the story.

From the moment it rolled off the truck and the belt molding was popping off the clips, to a laundry list of issues with the car from running poorly to electrical items not working. However, it's my understanding that the car drives nice and that it made the Carlisle trip effortlessly. The car has over 1000 miles on it already in the last month, but now the problems are mounting, from lights not working to brakes fading and everything in between.

I've really failed on this one, my abilities certainly did not meet the customer's expectations. I've offered for him to bring the car back so I could address all the items, but I can't be trusted...I'm just a fraud, if I can't do it right the first time, certainly don't get a second chance to make it right.

Thankfully the car has been moved to Mike Ross's BE&A shop in Ohio to get everything sorted out. Mike and his experts will determine just EVERYTHING that is wrong with the car and fix it so Erik can at least live with the piece of crap that I delivered to him.
I guess our lawyers will have to determine who's going to pay to bring the car up to snuff so Erik will be happy.

So my advice to everyone:
Don't ever think I'm an expert at restoration. I have my bad days too.
Make sure the company you choose can meet your expectations. My abilities are very low, and nowhere come close to meeting Erik's expectations unfortunately. 
I don't ever search people out begging them to let me restore their car....people come to me, people want me to turn out their perfect dream car...I in turn, do the best work I know how, but sometimes that work doesn't please the customer. Unfortunately Erik is one of those very disappointed customers....I'm sorry.

[76orangewagon]

Well I have never seen what kind of body and paint work your shop put's out in person (just lot's of pictures posted here) so I cant and wont comment on what you said about it but I can tell you from a person who expects the best quality when I pay good money and put my trust in someone else to do my paint and body work and those expectations aren't met its very disappointing, my Black Pro touring Duster had several issues that needed addressed more than once and even though I tried to make the rest of the  car the best it could be it crushed me to have sub-caliber body work under the shiny paint. I am still friends with that painter and would have him do paint work for me again on my daily driver or to do some small repair work if needed but never, never again on a Top level Restoration for me, he was so proud of his work and bragged about all the cars he's restored but missed the fact that it wasn't top level.
As you know my car is currently at B/E& A and I visit Mike every few weeks to see my car and all I can say is I'm very impressed to see him and his crew perform their Magic.... not only on my car but the others that are in the shop...the man is a perfectionist and it shows in his work so I'm sure Eric's car will get straightened out and if the B5 Blue AAR " Dream Restoration" goes there it will be top notch as well when done.
I hope tomorrow's a better day for you.   

[RUNCHARGER]

"Driver quality" is a murky area. I didn't think BE/A did 'driver quality" and I believe that was what was requested of Alan.
If the owner wanted BE/A quality why didn't he go there for the job originally $$$?
I haven't seen the car in person, was not privy to what was said and therefore pass no judgement.
There are 3 (perhaps in this case 4) sides to every story.

[70 Challenger Lover]

I don't think I could ever do this kind of work for money. I've had lots of offers but I know it's only a matter of time before I'd fail to meet someone's expectations. With money involved, lawsuits are sure to follow. I've even lost friendships after providing free labor trying to polish turds that could not be polished. So I've learned to offer advice instead and only offer free labor to my closest friends who recognize I am just a novice and my help is only worth as much as they are paying me.

Everyone defines levels of quality differently. I guess it doesn't help that there are shows highlighting half million dollar SEMA quality cars. That probably becomes the standard of acceptable for many people. Not sure what sort of problems are really there on this car and how much of it is your body mans blame, if anything. I know sometimes customers make choices on parts, techniques or materials (against a businesses advice) to save a little money or speed the job along only to get pissed at the builder later when the gamble didn't pay off. Not sure of exactly what went down here but I hope folks realize there are oftentimes a lot of details in conflicts that never become public so better not to judge a situation unless you are sure you have all the facts.

[76orangewagon]

"Driver quality" is a murky area. I didn't think BE/A did 'driver quality" and I believe that was what was requested of Alan.
If the owner wanted BE/A quality why didn't he go there for the job originally $$$?
I haven't seen the car in person, was not privy to what was said and therefore pass no judgement.
There are 3 (perhaps in this case 4) sides to every story.

I don't know how much money was spent on the car but the fact that I'm currently going through a top quality restoration I do have a pretty good idea what it takes to restore a car to this level and I guarantee nobody spends that kind of money and says I just want a "Driver Quality" paint job. You don't paint the bottom, detail the suspension, ect....and then leave bad body gaps or block out the car to make it laser straight before paint. It sounds like the body shop failed Alan on this one but it should have been thoroughly inspected before it left the body shop to make sure it was a quality product. I'm going back to Mikes in a few weeks maybe I'll get to see it in person.

[AH1S]

Went to look at Eriks car last week. I am not an expert but you don't have to be. The paint was not acceptable. Alan should not have accepted the car from the shop. I'm surprised Alan who has a very good eye didn't notice what looked like crows feet impressions in the clear or the burn though the clear.

[JH27N0B]

I'm sorry to hear about the issues.  I will give you credit for sharing that a customer was unhappy with your work and you are upset that you apparently didn't meet his expectations.
I've posted that I had disappointing results on my T/A from a experienced higher end Mopar shop, and the owners response was to get mad at me that I'd posted online about it, even though I never have posted the name of his shop (because people will figure it out, or PM me he said).  He tried to blame me for some of the issues, and even though he finally admitted there was no excuse for many of the issues, he never offered to do any work,  any help whatsover, or reimbursement for thousands of dollars of work I had another shop do to fix the mistakes.
So your response to this seems better for sure.
Hopefully you and Erik can come up with something that will satisfy you both.

[anlauto]

Went to look at Eriks car last week. I am not an expert but you don't have to be. The paint was not acceptable. Alan should not have accepted the car from the shop. I'm surprised Alan who has a very good eye didn't notice what looked like crows feet impressions in the clear or the burn though the clear.

Thank you for chiming in. I'm not sure who you are or if we've met, but I'm very thankful that you've actually seen the car and can offer your opinion.
I think you've kinda proved my point that it comes down to personal opinion. I'm not an expert either, if I thought there was something terribly wrong with the quality of the paint then I wouldn't have passed it on to Erik. When I picked up the car from the body shop, during the weeks I spent assembling the car, and even the times I spent cleaning and detailing the car, I never saw any of the issues that the experts have now pointed out. I've had friends look at the car and thought it looked really good, the car went on to win an award at Carlisle voted by many people that viewed the car ??? Erik himself told me during his first phone call to me that he thought the paint looked good for what he paid??

If I thought for a minute there was issues with the body and paint, then why would I give the same body shop the third car ? If I thought for a minute that Erik's car "looked like shit" and was "totally unacceptable" why would I give out his name and number for a reference to the owner of the blue AAR ? It's like business suicide, these cars I turn out are my business card...they speak for themselves.  Was this the BEST paint job I've had done, probably not, but it wasn't the most expensive either.

It was my impression from the beginning that Erik wanted a nice driver quality car that looked good and he could drive the wheels off of it. That's what I delivered, but I now understand that his idea, or his expectations, were way different then mine, and it all boils down to personal opinion 

This situation really does weigh heavy on me. In the past I've restored dozens of cars for people from all over, and with the exception of this one car, generally I've had nothing but happy customers.
I've yet to see current pictures of the experts issues with the paint quality, however if there is "crows feet" or other issues coming out now that weren't there when I had the car, then certainly I would want the car back here so that I can take it back to the body shop and have it fixed correctly. I offered to Erik to bring the car back and that I would address all the issues and have a look at the paint. Other then that, I'm not sure what more I could offer 

[Moprr]

Paint is a tricky thing to different guys, I had my car painted to my painters driver quality level and everyone thought it was gorgeous but the car being my own I noticed all the imperfections slowly but nobody else ever noticed these things.  My painter will not put "show paint on any diver as he says the cost is not worth it he says show paint is for trailer queens as you don't want the stone chips etc.

[69CudaFan]

There are two sides. @ErikR should chime in, in a civil fashion.  Not to flame the issue, but if it wasn't right, a good vendor would make it right. Period. Having met @anlauto in response, I don't suspect he would short change a customer.

It sucks because I am not sure what was communicated with regard to expectations. I also know if i dumped a ton of money, and these cars usually command that, if I was unhappy...I would have reasonable expectations it would be fixed, and not on my dime for rework.

"Trust but verify."

[HP_Cuda]

I can tell you from many experiences of my own is that there are a certain number of folks who will pay X and expect Y result. One thing that probably should have happened is for Erik to actually fly up to Canada to take possession of the Cuda. If he had done that then he could have seen the car firsthand and corrected any issues he may have found.

I for one would have never accepted a car without seeing it first.

[Wayne]

Beautiful!  White goes with purple perfectly in my opinion!