Back on the forum after many years away. Have the sad tale of a XK 120 body off that went horribly, horribly wrong. Was working with a shop in the Rockies and traveling internationally a lot. Getting good updates and paying in.
Got a call one day from the local jag club president saying I better come to the shop. Got there and found out the owner had died the prior week of a heart attack. Individual suggested I get the car out of there. What had gone in was a complete car with significant issues - what came out was a body, engine, transmission, suspension, brakes systems, axles and almost nothing else. 95% of the bright work - gone. Everything inside - gone, no seat rails, no dash, nothing.
Trying to decide if I tackle this myself now that I am retiring or do I get a shop to do it. If I get a shop, how do I ever trust them?
Looking for advice. I love this car and it was my post-retirement dream. One of the first left hand DHCs built.
A lot of that stuff probably went out to specialist shops and is still sitting there gathering dust. Any chance of speaking to someone from the shop or getting a look at their books to try and track it down. The guy probably meant no harm, just unfortunately passed before completing the job.
Not to accuse anyone of anything but the side chatter I was given is that the parts likely went out on prior restorations. There were indications that finances weren’t great. I was encouraged not to sue to surviving spouse.
A sad tale, others of us have had similar, but I’ve found anger doesn’t do any good.
Scour the shop for anything else missing.
Make a list. You may need pictures to identify parts. We can help there.
Try all the chrome shops within driving distance.
There are a few specialist instrument restoration shops around the country; I would try all of them to see if yours went there.
Quite a bit of stuff is available as repro, or salvage from saloons.
I would keep it at home, not try another shop.
Home restoration is a nice retirement hobby.
The takeaway moral with resto shops is visit your car often.
I only send out small jobs, where the whole job can be defined clearly, like a dozen pieces of chrome at a time, and check up on them every couple of months.
This is truly sad, and my heart goes out to people who have these things happen to them. I still have thoughts about my XK120 drophead, as it was my first Jaguar and I should have never traded it off. Now the prices are in the stratosphere, and even though I can afford it, I would never pay that kind of money for an old car, or plan on a hundred thousand or so for a restoration. So many things in our lives are based upon trust, and there is always the chance of something going wrong. Maybe someone should write a book about restoration horror stories…
I don’t know where you live or what your local laws are, but I would file a claim against the estate. Whether you decide to later sue would be up to you, but your claim is generally preserved if filed within a relatively short period of time (four months?) after the estate publishes notice to its creditors. Filing a claim will give you some leverage with the heirs encouraging them to work with you to find the missing parts and to allow access to their records. Once the claim is time barred, you have no leverage at all.
We finished the restoration of several cars, including a Mark VII, that came out of a similar situation. Turned out the owner of the shop was actually selling parts from customer’s cars to keep his business afloat. Best of luck, grab what you can and move on. Hate to hear stories like this.
As said above, once a creditor claim has been filed a followup lawsuit is optional. If nothing else it will provide some incentive to find, or perhaps offer to replace, some of those missing pieces.
Had our car at a shop in Georgia. For the first three years of the seven it was there, the work done was outstanding. Then work stopped. I am now trying to complete the car with the help of this group. Would encourage you to do the same assuming you do not have too many retirement hobbies. I have some extra pieces (not a lot) that you could have to help move things along. Go for it!