More interior work done

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

[WagonCrazy]

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.

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I've been busy with stuff at home and still haven't mailed the letter to Larry but I plan to do that Wednesday. I have to go to check out some siding for my shop so I can run by the post office and send it registered mail. I'll see what his response is before I make any other plans. The other guy he screwed over contacted me Sunday and sent his phone number. I want to see what his situation is.

Today I got a call from the other shop Gary and I visited a couple months ago. He really wants to do my interior but I told him I had some concerns, the first of which he's 2 hours away. Also, I need a good shop that can do metal and fiberglass work and he claims they can handle it, as his son does a lot of metal work. It makes me nervous turning that work over to someone I'm not familiar with for some reason. I may ask to see some of his work before I commit. The upholstery work I can't do so I don't have a problem with that.

I told him I'm not ready for anyone to take the car yet, and I'd really like to get everything done on it except the interior work. I tried to get him to come up and take a look at the car, and he said he might want to do that. Then I tried to get him to bring stuff to install the dash on that trip and he balked. It would really help me to get that done as I can install the windshield and assemble everything under the dash then. Since he really wants to do the car I might make that a condition and see if he'll do it. I also told him I couldn't have the car ready for him until around October/November since I'll be gone for around 4 weeks.

I'm going to talk to Ron on Thursday and see if he wants to do any of the work. He's half the distance and has a lower shop rate, but it seems like he's hesitant to do any more than the seats.....we'll see.

Anyhow, getting rid of Larry seems to really have taken the chains off of me. I have been waiting for months for him to do something, and now I can determine my own destiny. LOL!

[Custer55]

Suggest: Talk to him Lazslo; if he's willing to compromise, then do so... and put it behind you!

Agreed, sometimes it is better to just cut your losses, Get all you can from him and move on.

[BamaNomad]

Suggest: Talk to him Lazslo; if he's willing to compromise, then do so... and put it behind you!

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Got an e-mail from Ron this morning saying Larry dropped off my visors, carpet, dash, and the rest of the leather at his shop last night. I have the settlement spreadsheet done crediting him for what little he's finished at today's interior shop rate, my timelogs for his frames, and have written the letter to go with it. I did the calculations two ways, first charging him interest on a personal, unsecured loan for the amount of the projects using my shop rate at the time I did them. The second method is using the hours worked and today's shop rate for custom chassis work. Both methods end up just about the same. He once told me he wasn't paying interest but he can't expect to just pay my shop rate from ten years ago so this may end up in a battle. That's also why I did it using today's shop rates. I have to pay today's shop rate to get my interior done.

I feel pretty disappointed that I had to do this with Larry as we became good friends over the years. The tension has been mounting over the past 18 months, however, culminating in this "divorce". That's what it feels like to me but I had to do something to stop this endless waiting that I've documented here. Now I have to go back to finding someone else and probably waiting for them.

[WagonCrazy]

Moving foward now Laszlo. This is good...

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Well I finally did it. I told Larry that I'm done with his bullshit and he needs to get the dash leather and all the rest of my materials down to Ron's shop this week, and if he can't do that I'll come by his house and pick everything up by Friday. I told him I'll send him and invoice for his frames in a few days and if I don't hear from him in 30 days I'm taking the "next step".

I've been back in Colorado since last Wednesday. I haven't heard a word from Larry in weeks and he's never answered my text from 10 days ago asking him what was going on and why he's not doing anything. Gary got a text from Larry last Monday and here's what it said, but he hasn't said anything to me....

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I'm so done with this crap. I'll probably not finish this car anytime soon now, but I may get some nice seats from Ron. I may even be able to have him do the door panels and rear side panels and armrests. I really need to find someone to install the dash pad, or do it myself....or just paint the damn thing so I can install the windshield. This guy has jacked me around far too long and I know I've let him, but it's ending. Gary still told me Sunday that I should wait and I said what for? He won't do anything and he's seen it first hand. So he agreed that I need to tell Larry I'm done with him.

I'm going to focus on doing what I can with the car. Everything seems to work fine but I may get it off the blocks and try driving it without the windshield so I can check if the steering, brakes and clutch are working right. Hopefully Ron can get the rear seat foam done so I can fit them and start shaping the rear console. I am going to talk to Ron about the rest of the interior soon, and I know of another guy in Denver who I'm going to go see too.

[BamaNomad]

Good advice... but I'd think about sending him your invoice 'certified mail'....

[WagonCrazy]

Honestly man, I wouldn't count on this Larry loser guy to do anything more you ask of him. You need to go pick up your materials from him in person (unannounced or he'll just be gone which will add to the drama). That way you make darned sure you get it all. Hand him an invoice for what you believe he owes you while you're there. Then move on.

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Pick up your materials and move on. That's the only way the upholstery will be done in 2024.

Yes that's the plan. I'm going to tell Larry to take all my shit to Ron's shop and I'll either have him do the interior or pick everything up and take it somewhere else.

[WagonCrazy]

Pick up your materials and move on. That's the only way the upholstery will be done in 2024.