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Just watched a show on the Velocity channel called "FantomWorks". Not sure exactly what all the shop does -- appears to be a bit of everything in the old car realm.

In this episode a guy had brought in a "restored" 69 Camaro for some spruce up and to look at weak brakes and something with the engine. Didn't say where or how he had bought the car but it did look nice. New paint, upholstery and exhaust among other things. Don't think they mentioned what the guy had paid for the car but IIRC, figure mentioned for the "repair" was around $33K

What they found after getting it on the lift to start brake work was an almost totally rusted floor that had been "repaired" in a few spots. A main side to side brace on the unibody was cut out and instead of replacing the rusted floor and the brace, they had just put in some metal pieces here and there. The metal was held in by some tack welds and hot glue with silicone sealer to fill in the gaps. The emergency brake cable had been stretched over a frame member instead of going thru a hole so was chafing and barely worked while rear hydraulic brakes had been totally disconnected with tubing blocked off. There was something about the front stub frame attachment. Apparently it was put together during the restoration without the structural brace because after they put the new floor and brace in while it was on the frame machine and then put the car down on the ground afterwards the doors were considerably out of line with the fenders. That had to be fixed with some kind of shims on the stub frame.

I knew there were some shady people out there in the resto business but that kind of takes the cake. Just thinking of the problems found with that really good looking 55 Patrician that was mentioned a few days ago, all the more reason to thoroughly inspect a car before buying.

I recently heard about a 1966 Mustang for sale with the desirable K- Code engine. Sure enough the VI.N. was correct for a K code car. The car looked very nice from the topside as well with a nice paint job and interior. I looked underneath the car and could see nothing but rust. The floors had been replaced with new metal but poorly done as were the rear quarter panels and fenders. . The sub frames were rotted through in places and reinforced with welded on rebar . The car had been a 4 speed but was now an automatic powered by a more recent 302 engine. One must be very careful when looking at a so called restored car.

"Fantom Works" is the best show of its kind on TV, IMO. They do excellent work and the time frames shown are realistic. The prices are reasonable. If they say something is wrong with a car, it is. Too bad a lot of those kind of TV shows are not up to their standard.

Good advice above on buying a "restored" car.

yeah Fhantom works is a great show and they do amazing work to the cars they do and its done right. That Camaro was horrible the guy was the original owner of the car and had some guys moving the car and they told him they could restore and sup up the car for $50k and the only thing that was done right was the paint job. That car was extremely dangerous to be driven down the street

Like the old Fram commercials said: You can pay me now or pay me later. My Stude was the victim of ham fisted pot heads, the stuff I repaired would have run 10K+.

My Panther is done right because:

1) I am the owner.
2) I know what I'm doing.
3) I care.

I'm not doing anyone else's though. LOL!

Craig

Some are shady but some just don't know what they're doing. Once they find how much time and money, they end up cutting corners or no money in it.
This, cleanup/fixup, used to be the perveyance of the "used car dealers", we all loved to hate, so why would we think things have changed?
People watch TV shows like Phantomworks, etc, and think they can do this in a week, believe everything they see. Some of these shows do things that are not quality technique also. How boring would it be if they showed every hour of sanding? Don't over estimate your skills.
Always go to the shop where the work is being done and see how they do things, tools, etc, and get a cost estimate, if you can't do it yourself. Don't just take they're word and make sure you specify the parts to be used.
Auctions are another source of concern. They won't let you test drive or get a professional survey done, and once you win the bid, you own it, regardless of the condition/price. I won't buy like that, if I can't be present and crawl over it. I drove two hours to look at some "museum" cars going to auction and they looked great from the outside, but after I crawled underneath were held together by bondo, too long sheet metal screws, and paint. The mechanicals looked nice but were a mess/inoperable. The interior trim didn't match, etc. So "museum" quality varies also. That's the 20 foot rule. They don't let you look inside the ropes, for a reason.
You get what you pay for only if you're a careful buyer.

I watch Fantom Works all the time. It is rerun all the time so you can watch your favorite shows more than one time. If you watch closely they will flash what day they are on. I have seen 147 days to as much as 9 months. They can do some jobs fast depending on how much work it is. I see lots of old cars in the back ground scenes that I would like for them to show but I guess they pick out the cars that have the most interest like Mustang or Chevrolet.

I am very familiar with the car. cust. talked to me about fixing it a couple of months ago. [after the show.] good adage to live by. DON,T BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU HEAR AND ONLY HALF OF WHAT YOU SEE. just saying.

If I ever have another person tell me my business, and their sole base of knowledge of vintage, antique and classic cars comes from watching basic cable package TV "car" programs, I don't know what I am going to do. It won't be pretty.