Smoky Hill Restoration Pro Touring Nightmare

[Stevcom]

I have been restoring a 69 Chevelle SS for almost two years with Smoky Hill Restoration in Granbury, Texas. Finally, with the help of my attorney we got the car out of Smoky Hill Restoration last month, December 07, and moved to a new shop to complete the car. Smoky Hill Restoration in Granbury, Texas would not return all of my original parts needed to complete the car so I am now being forced to find and buy many of the original parts that Smoky Hill Restoration refused to return to me. Very expensive and hard if not almost impossible to find NOS parts for this car as so many have been restored.

Smoky Hill Restoration made unreasonable demands for advance payements throughout the time my car was there and when I would give them advances they would never meet any time schedule for work on my car that they agreed too. And, when questioned they would get mad and would not take my calls. They wanted me to order all of my parts which was fine however most of the time the parts were not what we needed or would not fit what they were trying to build. On one occassion they encouraged me to send the crate 502 I purchased out to have balanced and printed for 1400.00. When the engine was ready to be picked up by them the bill was 4400.00. They told me they were surprised as well. No accountability at all.

I have found another shop in the Metroplex (Fort Worth) who is doing a great job finishing the car for me. I checked them out much better than I did Smoky Hill and have seen several of their "finished" cars. We are now in a battle to get all of my original parts back from Smoky Hill as they refused to give me all of my original exterior trim and interior parts. We have even had to file a law suit against them. Unfortunately, to keep the progress going on the car I am going to have to start buying a lot of NOS parts next week that my new builder has located so we will be relagated to other means of reimbursement from Smoky Hill.

Smoky Hill Restoration in Granbury, Texas did not seem to have any desire to ever finish my car. I cannot speak for other customers they have but in almost two years of going there I never witnessed a complete restoration leave their shop. In fact, some of their restorations have been there over three years. They never gave me a completion date for anything that they kept and every time we got something completed it was after I had raised a lot of stink. I think a lot of people who have cars there just "give up" and hope the phone doesn't ring with Smoky Hill on the other end asking or demanding more money for something but never delivering on a promise or committment.

I think that Smoky Hill Restoration sold a lot of my parts from my original car to raise money and then tried to hoodwink me into buying a lot of new aftermarket parts to replace what they sold. I say this because for several months before we got the car out of the shop I would ask about these parts and whether or not they needed to be sent out to be refinished etc. and I always got the answer that they were going through everything and would never let me look through them myself. Then, when we were able to get my car and all the new parts I had purchased guess what. No original parts.

Smoky Hill Restoration and the people who own it, Bill and Wanda Hart, are about the most dishonest people I have ever met and I have met a lot of people. I have been in business for myself for over 30 years and built several companies from scratch. This beats anything I have ever seen. My goal is to try and prevent some other person from finding themselves in the same place I was. People work hard for their money and do not deserve to be treated this way.

Thanks for reading and responding.

Steve Haines
Granbury, Texas
817-776-4320
254-631-7730

[Bowtieracing]

So sorry to hear for your loss. Lets hope this will spread a lot and warn as many as possible.

[deuce_454]

hmmm we should have a list... i have a transmissionbuilder id like to add to the no buy zone...

[Fluid Power]

nice first post dude....

[Blake Foster]

What was the name of that shop again??
it is definatly too bad............. and it is also too bad that i hear this same story atleast once a week!! i really don't know what the problem is, and honestly 95% of the time it is BODY Shops that are trying to do restorations and Collision work at the same time and the restoration ALWAYS gets pushed to the back of the shop. MY advise for some one who wants to get a car restored or built is take it to a builder NOT a Body Shop that does collision repairs!!! you car will most likley never get finished!!
and if you do supply parts for the project make sure you have an inventory list that is signed by the shop when you drop off parts.
sorry to hear about your luck, hopfully this new shop will finish your car for you.

[crazycarl]

I feel for you and your loss. However, this is only one side of the story and there are always at least three sides. I'd advise you to be careful what you say, although you've already pretty much said it all. If you plan to pursue legal action in this matter, there is a good chance that they will find this thread and use it against you. I'm not up to date on Libel/Slander laws and how they apply to the internet but I can bet it's not very favorable.

Good luck with your car.

[Beegs]

I have a feeling this will be his first and last post.

[Vegas69]

Originally Posted by Fluid Power

nice first post dude....

Agreed......no one ever said it would be easy. I got stuck with a previous builder that was not a bad guy just couldn't deliver anywhere near what came out of his mouth. Not even close. I think alot of the problems could be sidstepped if builders would put a window in there estimates. Between 6/07-9/07. Once you have exceeded that deadline on the estimate it's only human nature to think you are getting ripped and takin advantage of especially with all the money involved in most of these deals.
Research your builder thoroughly. It sounds like you ran into a real deadbeat and that seems to be more the rule than exception. There are many great builders here.

[XcYZ]

Steve, I feel for you and your situation. Sounds like anything that could go wrong, did.

Although this is your first post, I see you've been a registered member here for almost 2 years.

I'm going to lock this thread because this Forum and this website doesn't exist to be a tool of recourse for deals gone bad. You have a lawyer involved which is the best thing you can do, go through legal channels. Coming on here and throwing gasoline on the fire isn't going to help and this thread is only going to get ugly. I see nothing productive coming of it.

I hope that this issue gets resolved.

Good luck,