Hello all,
I could also have titled this 'beware of those who call you friend'.
Due in part to health reasons (I have very bad arthritis in my neck,
spine and knees that sometimes really slows me down.) and personal
distress, I made a decision a couple of years ago to have the body and frame
separated and restored at a local shop. I had met with the owner several
times and during these discusions found that we had a lot of common
friends and aquaintances going way back. We even knew each other from
many years ago.
August 2000 life as I knew it completely fell apart. I had to rescue
my sister from a soon to be ex-husband who beat and tortured her for
more than twelve years. This is way off topic but will help set the
mood for this tale of woe.
While this was going on my good friend "Bob" was closing up his shop
which he was operating part time while managing a body shop at a local
car dealership. As far as I knew "Bob" and the owner of the dealership
were good pals from way back and it was understood that "Bob" would be
able to complete my car, it was nearly done, after hours. Knowing that
"Bob" was also working on a car for his son and routinely worked after
hours, everything appeared on the level. Truth is this WAS ok until other
employees were found to be working on the car during business hours and
labour was not being recorded.
Our good pal "Bob" was still operating his own 'business' using the free
labour pool of the dealership's body shop. An alleged theft of many
thousands of dollars in tools and supplies led to an immediate dismissal
with various police agencies becoming involved.
I had a meeting with the owner of this dealership and an offer was made to
complete the work at a huge loss for the bodyshop. The same price that "Bob"
had quoted. We agree on a price and a work order was drawn up for the amount
of hours known to have been spent on the car already. First I had to recover
the downpayment I had given to "Bob". What a piece of detective work it was
to try and located this 'teflon' coated snake. I ran across some very upset
people at the mere mention of his name. When I finally caught up with him
I found he did actually have some friends who used strong arm tactics to
help "Bob" slip away. His body shop only existed on work order sheets and
business cards that were printed up and there was nothing at all to link
"Bob" to anything. Even the business licence was a forgery.
To shorten this up a little. Everything peaked all at once and I met a very
nice team of cardiologists. As you can imagine the time frame I had been
given had expired and my roadster would be scrapped. At this point I really
didn't care. To hell with the cars anyway until I get things sorted out.
There is still a lot more going on that is much bigger and involves hundreds
of thousands of dollars and people worse than "Bob".
I had accepted the fact that I had been ripped off and lost my car in the
process. Until this morning.
The phone rang promptly at 9:00 am. "Here it's for you, some guy." It was
the owner of the dealership. He said he was retiring and had sold his
franchise back to General Motors and what do you want to do with this car
of yours? Stunned I had to sit down. I had been told it was scrapped and
no longer existed. I was assured he still had it safely stored away and
could I come down and maybe we could work something out to clear up the
work order and storage fees before GM gets a hold of it. Giant Corporations
tend to be a lot more difficult to deal with and would not see the real
truth that we both had been taken by our mutual good friend "Bob".
I had two options. Walk away, I tear up the work order and scrap what's left
of your car. (the frame is still missing) or if you can still use it lets
be fair and settle it. I agreed to reimburse my good friend the cost of the
labour, not the actual shop rate, known to have been spent on the car (48hrs).
Even though I may not have to with a good lawyer. I think this is only fair
because I have a completed body shell ready for paint. We overlooked storage
fees and materials used from the shop and came up with a number considerably
less than the actual cost and agreed the matter is closed.
I have been on this list for a very long time and have seen many good
and some bad stories of cars and such. I have been lurking on this list
for a long time now and watching closely the 'for sale' postings just in
case I decided to get in over my head again. The mere mention of cars and
even working on them turned my stomach. Hopefully I will soon catch 'the bug'
again and get on with things.
I am going to make one last look for my frame. If it still exists I will
find it. What's left of my roadster will be delivered to my storage locker
on Tuesday.
Sorry about the lengthy post, I just have to vent sometimes.
--
Frank Roggeband | 67.5 1600, 69 1600, 69 510, 71 510, 75 710, 93 KingCab
Grimsby Ontario | Http://www.hwcn.org/~ae845/Profile.html
Canada | email-->frankr@hwcn.org
Electronics Technician and Datsun Enthusiast.
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