Hi Everyone - Thanks for checking in on my Six. If you caught my other thread, Cairo's Six, http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=188776 you may have noticed my Six has been at ScottyB's shop in VA for a while and Scotty did a lot of work.

I am happy to report I picked up my car on the July 22, 2017 and it is now in Torrance, CA in the capable hands of Kent Simmons (914350). If you saw Andy's (Socalandy) and Jim's (banananose914) Six build threads, you are already familiar with Kent's work.

Kent accepted the challenge of finishing all of the metal work, body work and then painting my car. Kent will be assessing the condition of the car as received and getting to work. It is important at this point he knows what he is dealing with and everything is rock solid before the next evolution begins.

So stay tuned as my Six gathers speed.

So, for those that don't know, I am the guy in the gray T-shirt.
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Looking forward to seeing the pictures and progress on your car's next step in the restoration (and completion!) process.

Glad you're getting it sorted with Kent, & hopefully you won't have too long of a wait from now. I've seen both Jim's & Andy's sixes, & I think you'll be more than satisfied with his work & attention to detail, as well as the timeliness of his work.

Besides, at least with it here on the Left Coast, you can more easily drive down & visit your baby from time to time!

Good Luck!
Tom
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Hey guys - Yeah, I have to admit, having my Six here in CA will be great. It is a easy 1 hour flight down to LA for visitation. I know I have to go down to pick up a bunch of stuff we will not be putting back on my car, the original Fuchs, heat exchangers, muffler, doors, engine lid, the 3.2 heat exchangers and muffler, etc. I will bring all of those home to get them out of the way. Yeah, this should be exciting.

OK, it took a serious effort but Scotty, my brother and I got my Six into the back of the 26' truck.

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I am happy to hear its moving forward. I can't wait for updates

I'm looking forward to seeing the progress now. I've seen SoCalAndy's car and -- wow -- that's a stunner. I'm sure yours will be equally nice. But in its original gold, right? Please?

Wow. That's quite a trek to Virginia to pick up an unfinished project. Were you able to get all your stuff back? I hope things go better for you with Kent. From personal experience I believe they will. Good luck!

Hey Jim - Yeah, about 2,400 miles from Scotty's to Kent's. I got almost everything, missing a dip stick, some cad-plated parts and maybe a couple other things. Scotty will be shipping that stuff once I get a chance to do a full inventory and get him a list. The trip was uneventful (fortunately) and pretty much nothing happened to the car or the parts during transport. Trying to catch up after being gone for 5 days. Cheers- Michael

Here is the dolly Kent made out of some spare 2x4's and casters he had in his storage space in about 30 minutes to move my car around until it goes on the rotisserie.

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Great to hear!!!!!

Very pleased for you,been missing updates now we will see some...hope the split was friendly and not judging ok.
Michael remember seeing your car on Pelican years ago and really liked it,it will be better than new when finished...just can't wait to see the transformation as I'am a real fan of six conversion and original car (6) rebuilds it takes nuts to do both afterall .
Good luck mate.

Michael N- Thanks. I am very excited to see it making progress again.

Porschetub - Yeah, there were no problems. These projects are definitely not for the weak of heart. Like anything else in life, you experience ups and downs and it teaches you to roll with the punches. I am not one to look backwards, serves no real purpose. I prefer to keep my eye on the ball and move forward. I wish Scotty nothing but the best.

OK, here it is coming out of the truck right before we lift it and set it on the new dolly. Kent had a couple friends from the neighboring shops come lend a hand and it was an easy lift for all- thank goodness.

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Now finally you can paint it gold!

Let's hope Kent can get it into paint soon so you can build and drive the car before you die.

You are doing Adriatic Blue, right?

That is one of my favorite colors.....
So, here is how this works- my wife let me indulge this dream of mine and the price for that, (among many other things she got) is she got to pick the color. Amazingly, we were both in accord on the color choice.

I suspect the cat will be out of the bag pretty soon as Kent does not appear to be one to let things sit around. Kent was excited by our color choice.

Kent and me pushing the car into his shop.

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So your 914 does exist. It's been at Scottys since I joined here. I thought it might be an aberration. Glad to see your "back on track" and more importantly that you took the "high road".

Harsh, but true.

OK - Well here it is sitting in Kent's shop. I look forward to posting new photos as they arrive. I will try to load them smaller to see if I am able to add several per post to make it easier to view.

What is Kent's shops name?

Great to hear it's moving forward, Kent doesn't seem to hang about

Keep those pictures coming

You must be so pleased,ive got another month and my GT should be here in the UK

peteyd - Kent's shop is called Auto Art Customs in Torrance, CA.

Thanks,

Pete

Cool. Is Kent going to be able to build from the work already done, or does he have to go back over existing work? I hope not. That car needs to be on the road as soon as possible. Go Kent!

Hi Michael,

I have been following your build for a long time. As I have been working on my 6 #41 since I bought it in Jan of 2007. And I have been active on this board from 2007 till now with a couple of years where I had other things going on in my life and did not spend that much time on line.

As you know these complete restorations can take a very long time, as huge projects shall I say they ebb and flow?
My original color was cannery yellow and I battled whether to paint it my favorite metallic blue or the factory Cannery that it came down the line as. I have friends that think my six is not real in Utah at PMB Performance.

In the end I am not sure I did the right thing not going with my very favorite color.
You will go with what gives you the most joy. Yes everyone is dogging you with the color. I think the factory gold was a bit dark but rare.

I try to figure what will be the easiest to get out of when I sell it. Always have with cars.


ScottyB did a shit load of work on your body restoring it. His work looks great to this point. Very detailed. Look forward to seeing how it finishes up.

Bob B

That's a great question Jim. I told Kent I fully understand, and quite frankly, expect, him to go over my whole car with a fine-toothed comb. He told me he needs to make absolutely sure all of the previous work was done correctly so we have a solid base to work from. It is my hope, and quite frankly my expectation, that all of the previous work was done correctly and to the level we all knew this car was being built to from the beginning.

The truth will come out, hopefully all good. And, just as I asked Scotty to do, I have asked Kent to photo-document all he finds and does as my car moves forward for paint. I have not and will not hide any of the ugliness, should it exist. Conversely, if this car gets a "gold" star (see what I did there?) from Kent and he can move right into finishing the metal work, body work and then paint, great. I will be a happy dude.

Hey Bob B. - Yes, Scotty did do a lot of work on my car. My position has always been to find the best guy and pay to have it done correctly the first time so you don't have to pay to have it done again. Scotty told me my car was 8-10 hours away from all metal work being completed, then minor body work for panel fitment and finally, color. (I am correcting that statement - Scotty told me 1-2 weeks away from metal work being completed - my mistake)

The last thing I want is to go through all of this to have my car finished and then two years down the road I end up with rust bubbles lifting the paint due to a failure to correctly repair, preserve and prepare my car for paint. So stay tuned, we will experience this together.

Cheers everyone

I got my first peek last night and we have our work cut out for us as with any resto!!! Looking forward to this one and getting you that gold star Michael

Those were TWO big hints right there that the car is NOT going to be painted gold.

I received some photos taken by Andy when he visited my car (thank you very much). These are closer, focused images, of the work. As Andy said, this is going to be a lot more work than I had hoped for. I think I need a

On the bright side, my car is in California now.

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Does this mean there is room for me now ?

Oh no.. That's not what I was hoping to see..

Well, it is what it is. Kent will be the judge of the quality of the work.

Michael - I'm glad your moving forward.

The light is showing off everything. You have to decide just how much you want to spend to primo out your car. If you want a show car body on it could cost you a lot of money. At least you are going with a light color that will hide some of the problems.

My 6 had what I think was a superb body with basically no rust and it still cost $20,000 to get to a show quality paint job from a point after new floors where welded in.

Bob B

You can see how bad it is with the lights off,good luck Michael hopefully this is as bad as it gets with the car you deserve better

Thanks Cal - I appreciate that. I am hoping this is the worst of it.

At Scott's yes. At Kent's no. He's going to be very busy.

Hey Mike. I just saw your car at the shop. It appears he's going to have to go back. Waaaaay back.

That is not good.... makes me sick to my stomach , actually.

Man, this is going to be lots of anxiety until Kent identifies and addresses all of the problems. I had hoped those days were in the rear view mirror after all of the work I had done.

It's inspiring to see you push forward. I'm looking forward to seeing this done!

At least we are here to talk you off of the ledge.

Wow...... so let me step in to address a couple things here

Michael. I NEVER told you there were only 8-10 hours of metal work left. What I told you was that you had a credit on the books and I guessed ( I don't keep my Quickbooks data in my head ) that it was 8-10 hours of work I owed you and I needed to check on that. What I recall telling you as far as the metal work is that there was a week or two left on the metal work. The repairs to your drivers door alone that need to be done are close to that 8-10 hour mark, not to mention the other work it still needs.

Per the front end mess----- You and I had a very frank phone call over a year ago about this very situation. It was to stay between you and I, but now that these pics are being posted with no explanation I need to refresh your memory and let the cat out of the bag......... As I told you in that phone call, I had an employee that I let work on your car while I was trying to deal with my personal issues. IIRC I had the front end and rear cut off, I believe I had the trunk fitted and asked him if he could finish fitting, and weld it all together. He assured me he could. Once he was done and I looked it over, I realized that I had made a major mistake having him work on it. I told you ALL of this on the phone, I told you I was going to have to re-do what he did as soon as I was back on my feet, and that is where that was left. I had been spending time ( as little as it was ) when I had a few hours trying to iron out his mess. For this I have explained and apologized to you repeatedly. I COMPLETELY understand where you were with the project and wanting it done, but I can assure you had I finished it, it would NOT have been finalized in that condition.

Per the mess on the roll bar------ THAT was on the car when I first stripped it. It was an old repair that had not been dealt with and I am fairly certain I even posted pics of that very spot in the initial thread along with some of the other messes I uncovered. This car was taken out of my shop in partial condition on very short notice so no, I didn't finish things I had started on and am quite disheartened to find out from other friends and customers this morning that I was being thrown under the bus. There was, and is a lot left to be done. I in no way indicated I was done with any single aspect of this job. There are cuts left to be welded, welds left to be finished, hammer and dollying left to be done, panels need to be fitted etc.

I don't mean to thread jack, but glad you chimed in, now I feel like crap for not doing a build thread on my car and showing the excellent work you did on my car. I need to get off my duff and upload some info/timeline/pictures in a new thread.

Not many car shops I trust (that I've used) other than Scotty, WillsWerks, and Tim Berrardelli Racing ...aside from all the amazing suppliers here 914Rubber, Mb911, Rich Johnson, & various others I'll thank in my future thread)

Helllooooo Scott! I don't harbor any hate toward you. I don't know you and you don't know me. I have seen your work though and although I don't necessarily have a dog in the race, per se, if someone says they're going to do something to a particular degree, they should do it. I know that in my line of work, that if something doesen't go right, or as I had planned, I'm expected to own up to my shortcomings. I don't have the luxury of putting the blame off to an employee or some outside ailment or force. It's your shop though. Your employees are an extension of your shop and vice versa.
I think you have to agree that five years there is a little too long. With or without an ailment, life challenge or a sub par employee(s). I understand things happen. But you have a business to run. Do it like it appears you once knew how, and move on.
I do hope things get better for you. If you ever make a wrong turn and end up in California, call me. I'll buy you a beer or ten. I mean that sincerely. We both have the same interest, that being 914's. I won't be posting any derogatory posts about you or Cairo's car any longer. I do look forward to any progress on the car. Jim.

Hi Scotty - This "Part 2" was not intended as a "throw you under the bus thread". I explained to you I would be closing the old thread and starting a new thread documenting the remainder of the build.

You are right about the 8-10 hours. That was what you said you still owed me to balance the time sheet. That was my mistake. I also believe you said you had a week or two of metal work left before the car was ready for final body work, blocking and primer which was to have been done by the end of May (2017), so you could then paint it in July. I accept responsibility for those omissions.

You are also right about telling me about the employee who did less that proper work on the front end. I recall you told me you had to take it all apart to correct it. I then remember seeing photos of the front of the car with no fenders on it. I guess, absent additional information from you when I picked the car up, I assumed since the finders were on you had corrected that work.

You and I did speak, as you mentioned, about the fact someone other than you worked on my car- you told me from day one you would be the only one working on my car as you knew the level of work I was expecting and to guarantee my car was done correctly you would be the only one touching my car. Then your employee worked on it. To your credit, you did own up to all of that and I appreciated that then and still do now. You did apologize many times for that as well.

I have just posted photos of the car as it sits. I let the pictures pretty much do the talking. I have, other than expressing disappointment over the appearance of the work done, really not commented, other than to say that whatever needs to be corrected will be corrected and I am moving forward.

I will continue to post pictures as the car moves along. That has been the purpose of my entire build thread. To educate others about what happens when you take an old Porsche and decide to restore it. I see to many projects get started and die on the rotisserie when people realize they have fallen into the deep end of the pool because they never realized so much work and attention to detail is necessary on these builds.

I don't have time for negativity in my life so I choose not to go there. I can not, however, moderate the comments of others.

I believe I gave you 2 weeks notice I was coming to get my Six and all of the parts- I thought that was plenty of time to get ready. I apologize if that put you in a bind.

You specifically called out Jim and Mark. All I can tell you is Jim, aside from being one of the nicest and most gracious guys I have ever met, owns 2 sixes. I have seen both of Jim's cars and his Tangerine Six is 99% finished and completely done to concours standards. His other Six, his "driver", is in better condition than most Sixes on the road today. Jim's Tangerine Six is the bench mark for all to aspire to and the standard I hope and pray my car reaches.

Jim has been to Kent's shop and seen my car in person. I believe he is commenting based upon his personal knowledge and experience after seeing Kent do the metal, body and finish work on his Six. Additionally, he has of course followed my thread from day one to see the photos of the work done. Jim has offered, with no personal motivation of which I am aware, other than to help out another Six owner, to help me finish my car in any way he can. I am absolutely blown away by his generosity, sincerity and integrity. It is people like him who make this Site and 914 ownership a pleasure.

Mark is just another terrific guy who has helped me out on my build several times. No motive other than to help a fellow 914 owner out. I do not know anything about his build other than seeing his car when I was at your shop about 2 years ago and then it leaving your shop unfinished maybe a year ago or so. Mark will comment if he feels it appropriate, but I don't have a horse in that race.

We parted as friends and I hope to remain that way.

Cairo,
None of us know what your contract with Scotty was, or how much money was paid. Seeing the pics of the car, if you paid $1,000, you did all right. If you paid him $10,000, you didn't do so good.
Keeping it positive from here on out, I was at Jim's Sunday assembly party today. Watching the re-assembly, fitting and adjustment of parts was amazing. Your car is in very capable hands. These guys are experts. You will be all smiles from here on....

Thanks. That is my goal.

I live in Virginia and see that your car was "at ScottyB's" in VA. What is the shop name and his last name? Have fun with the six!