Steve's Ride

[simplyconnected]

Very cool. She looks clean and straight.

[Yadkin]

Skirts, scoop and headlight doors. Hood and trunk lid with black "scratch coat" for block sanding. Next step is to wet sand 220 up to 440.

[Dan Leavens]

Starting to come together and soon the reinstall

[Yadkin]

Final prime coat before wet blocking with 320, 440.

[Yadkin]

Body is now back to its original Wimbeldon white, plus three coats of clear. Hood, trunk, fenders and valence to follow.

[Yadkin]

It's been over a month, weather has been too cold to paint and Mike Boger has been doing some collision work. Snow here is good for his business. We are suppose to have a warm spell tomorrow so I asked Mike if he was going to paint the remaining parts. He said he wasn't sure.

This morning I completed the work on my plate so took a ride over to 190 UPull-it to get some parts. I have a job scheduled to start tomorrow so need to get this done before Mike needs the parts for assembly. They were closed today because of the 1/2" of snow that we had last night.

I haven't been to the shop to pay Mike in a while so I went over there. His business partner gave me a strange look and told me that there was a problem, so I went into the paint room. There was my hood, trunk lid and front fenders, and three guys standing around looking glum, and Mike was one of them. He told me to rub my hand over the hood which I did. It was painted pure white, and rough to the touch. He explained that the sealer he used had done this. He was planning to surprise me and have the stuff completed on Wednesday (tomorrow), but the sealer he used messed up.

The other gentlemen in the room was the manager of the O'Reilly store in Mocksville, and the other was their regional manager. They explained to me that they had mistakenly sold Mike an out-of-date quart of sealer, and that they were going to pay Mike to sand off the junk and then re-do it with fresh sealer. They were going to hold the vendor responsible, because it is up to their rep to remove out-of-date product and keep them stocked with fresh. Both apologized to me several times.

A measure of a man is not just how he does his job but what he does when he inevitably makes a mistake. O'Reilly's has shown me that they are top-notch folks.

[Guest]

Steves ride

They sound like stand up guys snow i NC just sounds so wrong but then again went by jobsite had glacier best of luck with rest of project going to beET today on LI NY so heat wave for us. Jeff

[Dan Leavens]

Looks like Orielly's stand behind their products and understand the meaning of customer service. It also bodes well for your local shop who identified the issue and called them in to resolve the problem. Good Stuff!!

[Yadkin]

I went over to 109UPullit to "my" parts cars and after about three hours managed to retrieve all six inner fender pieces. The weather had warmed up to 45F and I was working up a sweat reaching around the flat tires. I has a sheet of plastic and a tarp to protect me from the soggy ground but still got nice and dirty.

My gal April at the counter was disappointed that her crew was not able to remove the pieces for me. For a piece of seat chrome, the inner fenders and a bumper guard she charged me $20 plus tax. What a sweet heart!

[Dan Leavens]

Sounds like a great deal

[Yadkin]

O'Reillys is now hinting that corporate will want to negotiate the hours that mike spends on redoing the work. Mike can't eat what they don't pay for and I shouldn't have to. I told Mike to stand firm because he charges less per hour than any reputable shop in the area and less than half of a dealers price.

[simplyconnected]

Tell Mr. O'Reilly to send anyone they want, but the work is their fault and it put your schedule back. I bet they stick with Mike's rates.

[Yadkin]

Mike painted the re-blocked parts late last week, so we lost two months since the paint disaster. I'm not sure what his final bill to O's was.

[Yadkin]

The body is scheduled to arrive via flat bed late today. It was wet-sanded and buffed when I looked it over last week, but then covered with a layer of dust from another project. Time to get her home, cleaned, so I can install the interior.

Interested project he's working on now. A 50's Desoto mated to a chassis to a late model Caprice. They're keeping the floor pan of the Caprice so the Chevy interior is to bolt in place.

[Yadkin]

Back in her nest.