A Simply Sorry Saga - SSS Part I
The following is a
Simply
Sorry
Saga (
SSS). For those of you who have done car restorations before or are contemplating doing one, this will make interesting and informative reading. I apologize in advance, it's a little lengthy.
To begin, here is some necessary background information.
From a few years ago, here is a picture of my '66 Corvette convertible
before I had even purchased it.
It was parked in the spectator parking lot of all places, at one of our Pure Stock Drag Races with a For Sale sign in the window. BTW, that's me on the left, calling the phone number on the sign.
It had been owned for the previous 41 years by the same gentleman and since none of his kids wanted any of his old cars, the time had come to sell it.
We worked out purchase details (I gave him a $90 deposit to hold it, that's all the spare cash I had- after all, I was there drag racing - not to buy a Corvette!) and I arraigned to pick it up the following week.
Here's the car when I drove to his house to pick it up a few days later.
It had obviously been well cared for and came with several boxes of original parts as well as the original fabric and convertible top frame assembly.
Over the years whenever he had removed parts and replaced them (water pump, carburetor, brake master cylinder etc.) he had diligently saved all the original parts.
He had preferred using the car with the removable hard top in place and had long ago removed the folding convertible top assembly so he had more storage space in the car.
I had driven up in a van to carry all those extra parts including the top assembly back while I drove the Corvette home.
So far a happy tale, yes?
I has always planned on having the folding top assembly restored along with new fabric and then install it back on the car.
Above is a picture of that convertible top assembly with the original white fabric and plastic rear window.
The previous owner had never really used the folding top, instead it had always been stored for 41 years.
The folding mechanism is somewhat complex and I was occupied with other projects at the time so I decided to have the restoration done by a Corvette convertible top frame restoration
"expert".
As such I did due diligence and researched whom might be best to perform the folding frame restoration.
I zeroed in on a well known company in northern California that had been performing high level Corvette top restorations for more than 25 years and by all accounts was highly recommended.
I called the owner and spoke with him personally. He answered all my questions and gave me assurances that all work would be performed to the very highest standards. All metal parts would be powder coated for durability.
Fair enough, the top was boxed up and shipped to him.
He would only perform the metal frame restoration, the fabric top itself would be made and installed by Al Knoch, a well regarded Corvette fabric top specialist.
It so happened that Al Knoch was coming to a national Corvette event, Bloomingtion Gold, held that year only 11 miles from my shop and could do the installation at the show.
Perfect, what could possibly go wrong?
I got the "restored" top frame back a couple weeks before I needed it. I opened the box but didn't remove it, from what I could see it all looked OK.
Drove the car and the box with the newly "restored" frame to Al Knoch for installation.
A couple of hours later I got a call from Al about a problem with the top frame.
Al told me clearly my car was pretty nice and he didn't think I really wanted to install that top frame on the car. He told me I better come a take a look.
Al showed me several places where the front header metal was all pitted with holes...
...and in some places was rotted away entirely. This type of rust on a convertible header frame is not uncommon but if any was found when the old fabric top was removed, it should have been repaired during the "restoration" process. It's interesting that with this damage un-repaired, it had still been powder coated over as if it was acceptable. WTF if you follow my drift.
I couldn't see any of this when I opened the box and just looked in. My fault for not removing the frame and doing a personal inspection. I just trusted the company to do what they said they would do and relied on their reputation.
A quick call to the owner of the California restoration company who sincerely and
profusely apologized up and down and all over for the shoddy workmanship.
I was told that frame work must have been done while he was away. He said that sort of thing would never have happened when he was there.
He told me to box and ship it back, he would pay for all shipping naturally.
Further, he would
personally do any and all repairs necessary and expedite the work.
OK, fair enough we all make mistakes, but I was still highly reluctant to entrust him with it again.
In the end he convinced me to let him right the wrong and so the frame went back to California for correction.
Once the frame was corrected, I would now have to find someone else to install the fabric top since Al Knoch's shop was in Texas. Al and his crew only traveled and did in-the-field installation work at Corvette shows and he was booked for the rest of the year.
His recommendation for the Mid-West was Clint Coffman of
Coffman Corvette,
http://www.coffmancorvette.com/ in Mansfield, Ohio.
That would be about a 6 hour drive for me one way, but still doable in a single day.
I instructed the California company owner to ship the top frame to Coffman's once he was all done as Clint would be doing the fabric installation.
He apologized again and said he was shocked and embarrassed once he was able to see the frame in person.
He promised a less than 2 week turn around and that I'd be very happy with the results, guaranteed.
It all sounded good to me. Stand by for
Part II. A knight in shinning armor comes to my rescue.
Thomas
