The last car I did for a customer was a FJ5 AAR clone.

The owner had the transmission and engine rebuilt by another shop BEFORE he brought the car to me. The engine was never fired, nor was the car ever driveable.
I made 100% certain that the owner knew I would get it running and driveable for him as per his request, BUT I was in no way going the take any responsibilty for the drivetrain.
I was a good thing because the engine had lots of issues...MAJOR oil leak, Oil pump failure, decelleration back firing, timing issues, etc...etc...

I offered to help him out, but I recommended he take it back to the engine builder....
I did get it running and driveable, however I never heard back from him as to whether or not he got all the problems fixed.

I'm in no way saying that this might happen here, I'm just adding this so that anybody considering to take their car somewhere to be restored should have a good insight as to each parties responsiblities when outsourcing any componets...

That's a good point, thanks for making it.
In this case the customer outsourced the trans for a build but he drove the car with the rebuilt engine in it before bringing the car to us. So, we don't expect too much in the way of difficulties.

Tim,
I hope I have made this a smooth resto for you guys, except for that undercoating, LOL
Mike

Sorry guys, no update this week due to H1N1. Mike and Hubert are down right now and I'm staying away.

We'll be back on it next week, we hope.

I wish you were comming to Australia for holiday.Be nice to have a quote from you guys.

Thanks for standing in guys.

$25k is the max on labor. That car doesn't look too rusty. If there's no rust and no undercoating, it would run about $20k plus parts and outsourcing. (If I didn't try to talk you out of that one for myself, that is.)

Mike's nephew has been working on making a website from scratch for us and it looks like he doesn't have enough time to work on it too much. So, since the shop is closed due to swine flu, I got some web site building software this week!

It will probably look like a kid made it but, my plan is to put up a website that has as much info as I can think of, including what our basic services cover and what they don't cover as well as how much we charge for each segment of the $25k rotisserie job.

That way if a guy wants to do part of his own job, he'll be able to get an idea of how much he'll save.

I know we're bucking against the trends here but that's why we're REVOLUTIONARY!

sorry guys that there have been no updates on my car. Tims crew have been sick. I think they got back to work this week on it. They are at the reassembly end of things now. Suspension, motor, etc...I think we are ahead of schedule on his end and the car should be back up north before December 1st for final assembly on my end. I know I keep pitching products that I have used and it has thrown the thread off sometimes. Here is another one. If you need an engine shipped somewhere use engineshipping.com. Very reasonably priced as long as it is crated properly. It was around $250 to send my engine to Tim from NY to GA with liftgate/pallet jack service on both ends. I look forward to seeing the final result just as much as you guys do.

Yes, we're back now.

Seriously everyone, H1N1 is no Joke! We were down for a full two weeks and the third week everyone was still dragging around and coughing - unable to do very much.

My partner's wife went from H1N1 into pneumonia and is still down.

Get the vaccine. If it doesn't kill you, it's better than catching this strain of the flu.

Pics and updates to follow. The engine is being delivered today and we are prepping the K member and suspension to install from the bottom.

Front suspension

Engine by Customer...

Waiting for transmission and a few other parts from customer and then she'll be put back together and on the road!

You guys do all makes all models so I don't expect this to be one of those 100% correct Mopar restos...I realize the owner has done some work and outsourced other jobs.
And the work you do, I'm sure is of the highest quality, so I'm not going to question that...

HOWEVER

You should correct the major brake issue that has already been put into play....

On a 1970 Cuda and most other Mopars for that fact...The brake caliper mounts on the front side of the spindle.
In the picture posted above, you clearly have the right and left spindle assemblies switched.

Just so you know

And the water pump goes toward the front of the car

Thanks for that tidbit of important info. Better to hear that now than when those "wrong" brake hoses show up!

Glad we didn't have the K member upside down.

alan,

I think my car will be pretty damn good when it is done.