8/24/09
No entry since the 7/14/09 closing date of the last diary segment, as NOTHING has been accomplished. I have not gone back out to Joe’s place to check on the truck, and he has failed to send me any pix, other than some of the nothing-done from a while ago. This is despite my REPEATED requests for some weekly update photos.
Jerry Lee is anxious for us to take a trip, and we might just do that.
I continue to view other cars at Bob’s Big Boy, read mags, and peruse car shows to get some more refinements on what to do and how.
I am desperately grinding away in the garage to make more room, get rid of stuff, and get prepared to receive the KK back here. I have noted in earlier missives that I intend to use the existing FC Powerglide. It should prove WAY good given the staggering amount of torque I’ll have. So there should be no need for more than 1.76 first gear ratio combined with the 4.30 rear. Granted, the tires are HUGE, but still, this is monster gearing for such monster power. I noted years ago that the one lap I took down the street in my FC clearly demonstrated that 1000+ HP was JUST what a REAL street rod needs. And this combo will have HUGE torque. The mildness of the engines should make it sweet to drive, as it won’t jump up on power like race motors. It will just have killer power from idle on.
The Hemi car is nicknamed the Last Landy Hemi. This one will probably be the last Dick Hot Rod. What else is needed after this? The remaining other two cars (once I get 5 cars sold) will be the 287 HOP tripower 348-powered 58 Impala and the 89 Red Tbird 800 HP Kenny Duttweiler blown 427 Windsor-motored sleeper. All three cars should be perfectly daily drivable.
A friend mentioned tonight I would need a pickup for work, and I noted I WILL have a pickup, except it will already have the bed filled with three Corvette motors!
9/18/09
Randy and I paid a visit to Montalto today. This was a 150-mile round trip into the desert. What I found was hardly a surprise. Joe has done next to ZERO on the car. There have been some passes with a DA on half the cab, some primer on the bed,
and ONE patch panel about a foot long (NOT installed) made for the left side of the firewall.
They put the front motor, trans case, and transfer case back in place. This is about 2 hours work at the tops.
This is SUCH a load of crap. He has had the car EIGHT months and done a few hours of work. OK, let’s call it two days. REALLY!
Randy was so angry he had to keep his distance as he was afraid Joe might ask him what he thought and Randy would have REALLY told him.
The story NOW is that the truck will be in primer BY THE END OF THE YEAR. So this will be a YEAR to do this work. Mind you, it is all PREPAID.
Joe changed his story AGAIN. First it would be done by August. Then in April when Angel and Jerry and I went out there, in front of two witnesses he said he would put EIGHT guys on it and have it out by the end of May. So I waited until mid-September and now he shovels me this load of horse manure.
This is all a VERY bad thing. Joe is not acting honorably. He should pay me for my work, give me back my truck, and let me get this done in 5 months HERE.
10/27/09
It is now almost 6 weeks since Randy and I saw the truck. Joe has called me twice in the last week, wanting a steering column and the actual trans. I told him to just use the bigger 4L80-E and fit for that. ANYTHING will work if it fits that. I went to Brad Anderson’s TransAction and was about to take another case out to Joe, and finally deduced what I need Joe to know to do the enclosure.
Incredibly he still does NOT have the front end back from sandblasting. Such a MASSIVE load of stinking manure.
I will probably have Brad do the trans, if I ever get enough dough together at one time. Meanwhile, we can continue with getting Joe to do the bodywork. Joe says the SAME thing any time I talk to him: Yeah, we’re working on getting the bed done and widening the fenders, and I want to get the floors and firewall finished.” Let’s see, with EIGHT guys working on it that should have taken what, two days? It’s been the EXACT same story for six weeks.
If I could sell the excess cars here and get some funds, I could knock a WHOLE lot of stuff out on the project in a hurry. Hey, even actual contracting work would be a good thing.
Joe could be doing the doors, setting the power window systems, ordering glass for the doors, windshield, and rear window, mounting the electric rams, mounting the air lifts on the rear, etc.
I gave Joe the part# for the tilt column. We’ll see how long it takes him to order it.
12/12/09
John and I went out to Joe’s a few weeks ago, and he had NOT gotten the column, still does not have the front end back from sandblasting (!!!), and had done a couple of days worth of work in the 10 weeks since I last saw the car.
Joe expresses interest and understanding of detail, but the INCREDIBLY protracted time frame is continually insulting. Imagine if I took HIS money after he did my truck in three weeks and took 3 YEARS to do about 1/8th of the work on his shop. He’d be pissed. To work on the Queen Mary with a toothbrush may show interest, but certainly does not exhibit professionalism or honoring of a trade agreement.
I’m stuck there now in any event, so all I can do is remind him a lot, go out there, and try to push this thing along.
12/26/09
Went over to Nick’s shop tonight and watched him work on the VERY long project 40 Chevy which he has been massaging for several years now. He basically has taken a crap-box project from a friend and rather than tune it up (smooth over the rap and paint it), he remade the car. Literally has remade most of the panels on the car. Pretty ingenious on many levels. He is charging perhaps 1/5th of what he should for doing this work, but it’s just a matter of obsessiveness now with him. He noted that his stunningly good helper, Mazo, could knock my truck out in about 3 months. I would SO like to have him do just that. But I have no plan for suing Joe (at least not at this minute), but I will be researching my possibilities soon.
Joe did not answer phone calls or emails about coming out there over the last many weeks, and finally left a message that he would be unavailable until after January 4th. So much for the third deadline not met THIS YEAR.
12/28/09
Saw some reruns of Barret-Jackson Auctions from Las Vegas, and there was Joe Montalto behind Tammy Allen, his Golden Goose. She bought a $320,000 Iacocca Mustang tribute car(and about 30 other cars).
I REALLY should get a hold of her and get her to get Joe on the stick….
1/20/10
Went to Joe’s with Nick Johns from Hamrick’s auto Body on Friday Jan 15, 2010. Joe had done ZERO since my last visit in October with Randy. Additionally, he had left it OUTSIDE, and it was rusted in many areas. All the running gear was show-quality chromed A-arms, the rear end was show quality gold-anodized aluminum and steel. These parts have been trashed by Joe’s insulting disregard for my property and his obligations.
Joe now claims he will have FOUR guys on it FULL time and will have it completed in 6 weeks. Nick asked him three different times about the six weeks, and Joe continued to assert it would be done. This represents the 5th deadline since he took the truck a year ago. First it was end of August, then May, then October, then the end of the year, and now this preposterous BS.
I spoke with attorneys Dennis Smith and Sherman Ellison, and left a message for Ross Stucker. The first two cannot be of help here. Ross might, although I have not heard back from him as yet.
It comes down to filing a lawsuit and proving it up in court.
I point blank asked Joe how this would have worked for him if the roles were reversed, and I had done 5% of his shop electrical in three years. He went on and on about how I was supposed to do this and that, how this takes time, how he is busy establishing a second location 6 miles away, opening a shop in Colorado, etc.
All excuses for not honoring his obligation to me.
3/12/10
Nick and Randy and I returned to Joe’s on Thursday 3/4/10, 4 days after Joe’s last “I’ll be all done” date. Of course it was NOT done. However, Joe did make some progress on the project. I will graciously give him about two weeks of steady work credit on his more than six weeks of work time.
Nick recommended I call him and compliment him, just to give him some sugar. I did. Randy was not impressed, and could not get past the three years of screwing preceding this small amount of progress. I feel similarly.
What did he accomplish? The pix show the present state of affairs. Joe now claims he will be ALL done by March 18th. This is just ludicrous, and another example of how he just keeps lying to keep me placated. He could not be more wrong about placating me. If he maintains the pace of the last 6 weeks, I might see this back in my garage sometime in the summer.
What is still to be done includes some MADDENING oversights on Joe’s part, including NOT repairing his error on the bed rails. The left rail ahs about a half -inch nose over to the front where he pieced it in 3-1/2 years ago. I only reminded him twice in our last meeting about this. Here we see him shrinking panels, straightening metal, and the very FRAME of the whole bedside is still not straight. Incredible!
I have started wading through the Dodge insurance money, and most certainly none will be left by the time Joe completes his primer stage work.
The inside of the cab has progressed:
But he has STILL not even bought the steering column (this is pushing 6 months), has not remounted the pedal assembly/master which he cut out after I painstakingly set this in with Jay, has not done the headlight buckets (he is now looking for VW sheet metal to save him making them). Joe also said the interior frame of the front clip was done. NOT started. He did have someone welding on the hood when we were there:
and had fabricated some darts to blend the cab metal onto the hood:
Joe also tacked some filler panels below the bed, but wants them to be raised WITH the bed AND the bed portion of the running board. I’m OK with this, but it does take by side exhaust design out of the picture.
The hood-to-cowl junction needs some major work, as the hood is now about 2” away at the center. Joe also did NOT take my design which I taped on the fender for him to add a little radius/clearance at the rear of the rear tires.
So I shall be grateful that there is some progress, and continue to hold my third of a decade of frustration and $50K of prepaid undone work in emotional check.
5/19/10
I went out with Bob Sweeting today to Joe’s, and SOME progress had been made. But this is SO clearly just minor time in the three months since I was last there. This is continuing ludicrousness. What Joe has done in this round is tune up the cab jambs, is currently working on the underside of the cab to finalize some seams, trimming, etc., and STILL has not straightened out the bed rail. He shows me each time some little amount of work on the bed, this time the front panel, while building this ALL around the bent bed tube! I would say there was perhaps 20 hours of good work done using him and a helper.
No steering column.
No mounting of the brake assembly.
Still no removal of the hood/front clip bracing.
No headlights.
Still not done with the door jambs and hinges.
He has removed most of what Jay did (firewall, jambs) for several thousand dollars, citing it as horrible. I do not argue this point. As I looked more closely at Jay’s work it is REAL sloppy and hack-like.
Bob Sweeting also happened to have his own (not bad) Salim transmission story. Small world.
Joe is currently working the bed lower side panels and running boards.
Sweeting was concerned as to where he could mount the master cylinder and air tanks for the air brake system. I think we can use the area UNDER the cab on the OUTSIDE of the frame rails. The inside area will be filled with two fuel tanks and the driveshaft(s). There is also room in the “hood” area. Sweeting suggested two or three smaller radiators for cooling, rather than one long one.
Sweeting also noticed there appears to be no caster adjustment on the front end, and feels the kingpin angel is too vertical, and needs to be laid back a bit. I have no idea how that could be accomplished with major surgery.
I saw a little bondo work on the jambs and under one area of the cab, which as these pix show was laid on it back on top of the frame rails. Joe has clearly improved the jambs, and I have no argument with what he has done there. Joe says he will be finishing the underside, including undercoating, in the next few weeks He said 2-3 weeks to come back out.
Right.
At this time I have no budget to pay for the guts of the transfer case.
I really will be out of cash shortly (days), and won’t have any resources to buy parts, headers, etc.
Gary is expressing great interest in building cars for a living (as do I), but I cannot count on him being available for nothing when the time comes. I would give him this project TODAY and finish it together if I could get some money out of Joe and get the truck back.
There are THOUSANDS of dollars of parts to be bought (computers, exhaust, tanks, battery, cooling, brake system, etc.) at this point.
In a possible trade, I am asking that Sweeting take my 62 Biscayne/409 project in its entirely, in trade for air brakes on the KK, Hydro-boost on the Condor, and about $K in cash at some future date. He appears good for this, and says he is looking for a place for the car.
This would be good, and get some more stuff out of here. I am looking forward to having only running vehicles here.
5/25/10
Talked with Ron Rugen, detective investigating Derek Dawson in Missouri, the fellow who boned me for $8500 on the two never-delivered Mercruiser engines back in 2006. Rugen is slow, a one-man deal, and is months behind on a prepaid (of course) fee of $395 to get some info for the attorney in order to collect on the judgment.
Rugen noted I was a hard man to please. I corrected him, saying I was very easy to please as long as someone does what they say.
John and I saw some KILLER cars at the Mullin Museum, mostly French art-deco era, and lots of Bugatti’s. We saw a hood ornament, JJ says from an Hispano-Suiza, which is THE thing we will make for the KK. What an inspiration to see these art-deco cars. Great ideas for the dash as well.
