More interior work done

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  • WagonCrazy
    Registered Member
    • Mar 2012
    • 1881
    • 530
    • Santa Clarita, CA

    all good news Laszlo. Carry on my wayward son! Ther'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest. Dontcha cry no more.
    1957 Nomad- LS1/T56 on C4 chassis
    1959 Fleetside Apache 1/2 ton, shortbed, big window, 327ci.

    Comment

    • chevynut
      Registered Member
      • Nov 2011
      • 11030
      • 115
      • Fort Collins, CO

      I went down to Ron's today to talk to him about my interior. I took a door panel, console sides, valences, and a few other parts so he could look at them.

      First we talked about the situation with Larry and Ron said he cautioned him about getting an attorney involved. He also cautioned me but I told him I would if I had to because I won't let Larry screw me over. I asked him if he did an interior for me 10 years ago and didn't pay for it, if I could just settle with him today and pay his 10 year old shop rate, and he said no. I told him that's what I think Larry expects. 10 years ago Larry was charging $40 and hour and I was charging $65. A year ago Ron was at $80. Today Ron is at $90. I used a shop rate of $130 for chassis work which I was told is the going rate....$125-140. I told Ron I think that's fair and he said he agreed. Interesting that it's also double what I was charging 10 years ago.

      I sent the letter Certified Mail today to Larry with the charges for his frames. I gave him 30 days to reply to me.

      Ron asked if I had talked to Dave, the other guy who wants to do my car. I have, and I told him my concerns. I still prefer that Ron does my car because I've seen some of his work, and his reputation is the best interior shop in Colorado. He's also half the distance from me, and Dave's shop rate is $100 even though he works out of a shop at his house. When I talked to Dave I asked him to come look at my car and give me an estimate of time to complete it. He said he'd do that but it wouldn't be a quote...fair enough.

      Ron looked over my parts that I'm not quite ready to release to a shop, and he said he could work with them. He said he could tell I did a lot of work on the interior already and said he was impressed with what I had done. I told him I still want to do some more fiberglass work on the door and side panels, and more metalwork on the console. Not sure how that's going to happen.

      Ron's big concern is that he can't get my car into his shop until "spring" which he said was April or so. A year ago I could have gotten it in early this year. A couple months ago he said December. I told him depending on how much work I can do, and when, that might still work for me. I asked him to pencil me in.

      He also offered to see if one of his guys would come up to my house and install the dash. I told him that would be awesome, and it would give me a lot of work to do after that. He said he couldn't get anyone up there until mid-September or so, but that works great with my schedule because that's about when I'll be coming back from Montana.
      After that's done, I can assemble everything outside the car and under the dash, and all that will be left is interior work.

      Ron said that the person doing the seats should be the same as the one doing the rest of the interior too, so he isn't going to do anything on them until I decide between him and Dave. Not a big problem for me except still no foam on the rear seats.

      My plan is to get either Ron's guy or Dave to come up to my place and install the dash leather. I hope Ron's guy can do it, because I don't think Dave will do it unless I commit to having him do the whole interior. I don't want to be stuck there until I decide.

      I picked up my visors which as I thought Larry didn't do a damn thing with. I got the cloth for the visors and picked up the seat boards to put in the car so his guy can see everything installed if/when he comes up. In retrospect I should have left the visors there and asked him to do them if he had some slack time.

      So I still really don't know where I'm going with this, but at least there's hope of getting the dash installed. I did pick up the dash leather and brought it home. Oh, Gary asked how many hours Ron thought it would take to do the dash, and he said 3-5. That's EXACTLY what I estimated....I've always said 4 hours or about half a day. Larry couldn't even find that, but it would probably have taken him 3 trips of 4 hours each.
      56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


      Other vehicles:

      56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
      56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
      57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
      1962 327/340HP Corvette
      1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
      2001 Porsche Boxster S
      2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
      2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

      Comment

      • chevynut
        Registered Member
        • Nov 2011
        • 11030
        • 115
        • Fort Collins, CO

        Well it's been almost a week since I sent the certified letter to Larry and have heard nothing. I'm not going to do anything until 30 days has passed, but I at least expect him to come back and negotiate the settlement. If he totally ignores me, I will see an attorney about going after him.

        I asked Ron to verify that he had all my materials and he said he did. I also asked Ron if he had talked to his guy about installing my dash pad at my shop and he said they prefer to do it at their shop. So I'll have to trailer the car down there if I can't find anyone else to do it. He said I can make an appointment and they'd have the car 2-4 days......for 3-5 hours of work. What a pain.

        I prefer to have Ron's guy do the dash because it sounds like they've done this before. He said they need to put the 1/8" foam on it and sand it smooth before they glue the leather on.

        If I have to take the car down to Ron's shop I'm going to have him also install the foam on the rear seats. That way I can finish the rear console the way I want to. I plan to take it down with the entire interior installed so they can see what it looks like now, and tell me what I need to do to get it ready for them to finish it.
        56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


        Other vehicles:

        56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
        56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
        57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
        1962 327/340HP Corvette
        1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
        2001 Porsche Boxster S
        2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
        2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

        Comment

        • chevynut
          Registered Member
          • Nov 2011
          • 11030
          • 115
          • Fort Collins, CO

          I've been up in Montana since August 20th and Larry's response was due to me September 5th. I had forgotten to send the letter via e-mail to him as as I intended (as well as certified mail) so I sent it to him on August 27th and mentioned that I hadn't seen anything since was gone. He replied and said he was sending a response within two days.

          What he sent me was a joke. He just re-hashed everything about the past, his shop problems, and his daughter's passing 2 1/2 years ago. He explanined what our agreement was, and went on about how I changed things, and it took me so long to finish the car, and on and on. The bottom line is he claimed I still owed him for the charcoal leather, which is paid for. He claims that his work is worth as much as mine, and his hours should offset mine, despite the fact that at the time we made the first agreement, we agreed to offset hours based on our differing shop rates...his was $40 per hour, mine was $65, consistent with other shops doing chassis work. He claimed that he had 20 hours cutting out and sewing up my headliner, and that the steering wheel took him 4 hours. I was told sewing up a Nomad headliner was 6-8 hours of work if you had a pattern, which he did. I was also told that covering a split steering wheel was maybe one hour. It's a few screws, cutting leather strips and gluing them on, trimming it, and re-assembling it. He also claimed he could have bought a Morrison chassis, and showed me what my frame conversions cost from a post on this site. Bottom line, is he claims he owes me less than half of what I calculated.

          I replied and told him I wasn't going to argue about the past anymore, and that our first agreement to exchange labor was superceded by my agreement to modify his 59 Corvette Morrison frame in exchange for unlimited labor on my interior to "finish" it. I told him that he owed me an interior, and we needed to figure out how I was going to be compensated for my work so that my interior work would be covered. His accounting of everything was all mish-mash with charges and credits mixed up. I rejected his offer and told him I would send him another letter when got home, and this had to be settled soon or I was going to take legal action if we can't come to some agreement how to do this.

          I'm going to force him to finish the accounting for materials because he actually owes me. There is no way I'm going to let him credit me at below my shop rate at the time I built his frames, nor will I pay an equivalent shop rate for his work. Chassis work is a lot more expensive than interior work, even today. I'm going to counter-offer for everything he did at a reasonable number of shop hours, as well as the actual hours I watched him do work at my shop. No way does cutting and sewing a headliner take 20 hours. I think he's trying to make me pay for his first botched attempt.

          At least we have two stakes in the sand, but we're a long ways apart. But he admits he owes me.
          56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


          Other vehicles:

          56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
          56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
          57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
          1962 327/340HP Corvette
          1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
          2001 Porsche Boxster S
          2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
          2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

          Comment

          • chevynut
            Registered Member
            • Nov 2011
            • 11030
            • 115
            • Fort Collins, CO

            Significant changes in the past month. I have been working on settling with Larry and we debated lots of things in my settlement offer. In the end, he offered me a couple of options. First, he said he'd pay me what I billed him down to the last dollar. His other offer was to keep working with me on the interior. He said he is almost done with his shop and that he would be moving in in November, and could start working more or less full time on my car. He was having his floors epoxied this week so he said he could come and install my dash. He also said he would enter into a contract with me, which he has always pushed back on. He said he would work with Ron on getting the foam on the rear seat boards by Thanksgiving, which is what I told him I wanted. I agreed to have him install the dash, and work on a contract. The contract will itemize the main elements of the project including time or cost, so if he bails on me before he's done we know what he owes me. I have to say, I have been impressed with his cooperation.

            On Tuesday he came over and picked up the dash leather that I got from Ron. He said he had to trim the seam and get it ready to install. He came over today and did the installation. I'm ecstatic with the way it turned out. I love the colors and the workmanship is top notch, as I knew it would be. He installed it in about 6 hours. I hope the next step goes as smoothly.

            IMG_8135.jpg IMG_8136.jpg
            56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


            Other vehicles:

            56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
            56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
            57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
            1962 327/340HP Corvette
            1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
            2001 Porsche Boxster S
            2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
            2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

            Comment

            • Belair-o
              Registered Member
              • Jun 2013
              • 664
              • 1723
              • Franktown, CO

              Chevynut,
              Amazing his change in attitude! And your new shop moving right along now!
              Have you considered buying a lottery ticket? You may be on a roll!
              Regards, Doug

              Comment

              • chevynut
                Registered Member
                • Nov 2011
                • 11030
                • 115
                • Fort Collins, CO

                I decided that I wanted to keep the fresh air vents since the Vintage Air has no way of getting outside air into the car. So I used a pair of Danchuk cardboard kick panels and cut them to fit, then used them as a pattern to make a pair out of .050" aluminum. I'm using the stock grilles and cables, and I removed the flapper valves, cleaned them up, painted them, and reinstalled them. The seals were good.

                IMG_8152.jpg

                I've been doing some more work to finish the console. I cut the holes for the window and lock switches and installed them. I'm now working on final touches on the top, which will be covered in orange carbon fiber (orange kevlar and carbon fiber weave). I felt the Hurst shifter was a little too tall, so I cut it down 1" and welded it back together. I also machined a stainless bushing for the leather shifter boot. My machinist friend will cut the shifter boot bezel out of stainless steel. There will be three screws in the stainless trim where the cleco is, which I can remove and remove the front half of the top panel to access my fuses and other electronics. The rear half comes off easily with the shifter knob removed.


                IMG_8145.jpg
                Next projects are to assemble the A/C ducts, A/C and heater controls, glove box, and instruments. I also need to figure out how to mount the fresh air vent cables.
                56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


                Other vehicles:

                56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
                56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
                57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
                1962 327/340HP Corvette
                1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
                2001 Porsche Boxster S
                2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
                2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

                Comment

                • chevynut
                  Registered Member
                  • Nov 2011
                  • 11030
                  • 115
                  • Fort Collins, CO

                  i could see my wiring and the Vintage Air ECU so I wanted to black out the area behind the speaker grille. I also needed a plate with nuts on it to screw the bezel screws into that normally went into the speakers frame. So I fabbed this plate to kill two birds with one stone. I still have to paint it flat black.

                  IMG_8182.jpg IMG_8183.jpg
                  Last edited by chevynut; 11-02-2024, 02:17 PM.
                  56 Nomad, Ramjet 502, Viper 6-speed T56, C4 Corvette front and rear suspension


                  Other vehicles:

                  56 Chevy 2-door BelAir sedan
                  56 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
                  57 Chevy 210 4-door sedan
                  1962 327/340HP Corvette
                  1961 Willys CJ3B Jeep
                  2001 Porsche Boxster S
                  2003 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD Duramax
                  2019 GMC Sierra Denali Duramax

                  Comment

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