Well I'm just about to lose it with my interior guy. We agreed on December 6 that he was going to do my interior, but he would not commit to a timeframe. He's building a shop at his house and is the general contractor, so he claims he doesn't have much time to work on my stuff. I told him I couldn't wait 2 years for it and I said in November that wanted it done in 6-8 months. He said it had to be on his time so I just asked him to do regular work on it a few hours a week, so there's measurable, visible progress. I asked him to take my steering wheel and finish it.
A month later I got my steering wheel....probably 2 hours of work.
Time went by and I did some work I needed to do on the car so I didn't push him.
On March 23 (see post above) Larry came over and we installed the roof insulation. He told me he would work on sewing up the headliner so we could get it installed. He also took a pattern off of my dash, which I told him should be the same as any other 55 or 56. He argued that no two are the same....I disagree.
Time went by and his old shop (he sold it and rents part of it for storage) got broken into about early April. He called me and told me about it, and told me he was working on the headliner and would have it done when I got back from Montana in early May.
I returned to CO and after I caught up with things I contacted him on May 10 and told him I was back and ready for the headliner installation. He said he didn't have time to work on it while I was gone due to a bunch of issues with his new shop. I told him my schedule for the next 5 weeks and told him that I would be heading back to Montana around mid-June. He said he'd get the headliner installed before I left.
It's now mid-June and I've heard nothing from him for over a month. Six months and a week have gone by since he came over to discuss the project with me. So far I have a steering wheel and roof insulation. Six goddam months later!
I am just about fed up with this but here's the problem.... I contacted Auto Weave Interiors in Denver and they can't get to my car until January. I contacted Recovery Room Interiors in Nebraska and he is booked until next summer, about a year out. I talked to a guy in Indiana and he said he's 4 months out, but he's also 15 hours from me which I don't like. All of them are $80-85 per hour. If I fire Larry now, nothing will get done for months anyhow. Larry is probably getting close to finishing his new shop in a couple months, but I don't know exactly where he's at on it.
Auto weave said they've done 2 Nomads and one took 230 hours and the other 400 hours. The first one was a modified stock like interior, and the second one was a full custom one like mine with bucket seats, full length console, and even leather covered interior moldings. I asked about calendar days for 400 hours and was told it should be about 12 weeks. Since I've done so much of the work already, I doubt it's anywhere near 400 hours left. 400 hours at their shop rate is $34K, which is about what Larry owes me per my calculations, not including the material I paid for. So I might actually make out better having someone else do it.
And the question is how will he settle with me. I've paid for $8200 in materials and owe him a little for roof insulation, glue, and shipping of leather. He owes me many hours of labor for building his frames. I have documented time spent on his two frames, and cost of materials for them. He owes me a finished interior, no matter how many hours it takes. That was our agreement.
If I let him work at his pace, will my interior be done before I can get the car into another shop? I don't know. Maybe when his shop is finished he will spend more time on it, but as we all know there's a lot to do after a shop is "finished". I'm not sure I want to burn bridges and settle at this point, but I don't want to wait another year for this project to be done either.
The guy at Auto Weave figured out who I was talking about when I told him the problem I was having. Apparently they worked together at some shop years ago, and he said Larry has no concept of time. But he said he does very nice work. I've been trying to get Larry to do something on my car for about two years now. His daughter died of cancer over a year ago, so I backed off any didn't pressure him for months since I still had a lot of work to do myself. But now 90% of the work left is his.
So what do I do?
A month later I got my steering wheel....probably 2 hours of work.
Time went by and I did some work I needed to do on the car so I didn't push him.
On March 23 (see post above) Larry came over and we installed the roof insulation. He told me he would work on sewing up the headliner so we could get it installed. He also took a pattern off of my dash, which I told him should be the same as any other 55 or 56. He argued that no two are the same....I disagree.
Time went by and his old shop (he sold it and rents part of it for storage) got broken into about early April. He called me and told me about it, and told me he was working on the headliner and would have it done when I got back from Montana in early May.
I returned to CO and after I caught up with things I contacted him on May 10 and told him I was back and ready for the headliner installation. He said he didn't have time to work on it while I was gone due to a bunch of issues with his new shop. I told him my schedule for the next 5 weeks and told him that I would be heading back to Montana around mid-June. He said he'd get the headliner installed before I left.
It's now mid-June and I've heard nothing from him for over a month. Six months and a week have gone by since he came over to discuss the project with me. So far I have a steering wheel and roof insulation. Six goddam months later!
I am just about fed up with this but here's the problem.... I contacted Auto Weave Interiors in Denver and they can't get to my car until January. I contacted Recovery Room Interiors in Nebraska and he is booked until next summer, about a year out. I talked to a guy in Indiana and he said he's 4 months out, but he's also 15 hours from me which I don't like. All of them are $80-85 per hour. If I fire Larry now, nothing will get done for months anyhow. Larry is probably getting close to finishing his new shop in a couple months, but I don't know exactly where he's at on it.
Auto weave said they've done 2 Nomads and one took 230 hours and the other 400 hours. The first one was a modified stock like interior, and the second one was a full custom one like mine with bucket seats, full length console, and even leather covered interior moldings. I asked about calendar days for 400 hours and was told it should be about 12 weeks. Since I've done so much of the work already, I doubt it's anywhere near 400 hours left. 400 hours at their shop rate is $34K, which is about what Larry owes me per my calculations, not including the material I paid for. So I might actually make out better having someone else do it.
And the question is how will he settle with me. I've paid for $8200 in materials and owe him a little for roof insulation, glue, and shipping of leather. He owes me many hours of labor for building his frames. I have documented time spent on his two frames, and cost of materials for them. He owes me a finished interior, no matter how many hours it takes. That was our agreement.
If I let him work at his pace, will my interior be done before I can get the car into another shop? I don't know. Maybe when his shop is finished he will spend more time on it, but as we all know there's a lot to do after a shop is "finished". I'm not sure I want to burn bridges and settle at this point, but I don't want to wait another year for this project to be done either.
The guy at Auto Weave figured out who I was talking about when I told him the problem I was having. Apparently they worked together at some shop years ago, and he said Larry has no concept of time. But he said he does very nice work. I've been trying to get Larry to do something on my car for about two years now. His daughter died of cancer over a year ago, so I backed off any didn't pressure him for months since I still had a lot of work to do myself. But now 90% of the work left is his.
So what do I do?
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