Thanks for the replies guys, here is the exact picture I showed Tedd of the cruiser as it sat before sending it up to him... Now, with all it already had as a rolling chassis and all the work it took to get it to that point as well as all the other miscellaneous parts removed, many bagged and labeled, before even sending it to them & he was still able to fudge the build cost so over the top? You decide... I guess if you can sleep at night and live with your self it's all ok. All they were tasked with doing was to finish the mock up, tear it down, dip the frame, paint the body, refurbish old steel parts & put back together... Install an ARB bumper with a WARN 8274, which they did not install the winch, a soft top, rear heater, better break booster, a Kaymar rear bumper and a "new" hood which I specifically discussed leaving my old one at home for a new one, Tedd instead goes and installs an old dented hood with dry rotted windshield bumpers. When my mother and I went to pick this thing up she asked why the windshield bumpers were so cracked and old looking, Tedd's main shop foreman then proceeds to tell my mother right in front of me, "You can't get those any more so we had to use the old ones." Well as we all know, you can still get them brand new from various Cruiser parts vendors out there... They are not even the correct style windshield bumpers for my year cruiser!!! Really? Am I on candid camera? Ive been tooling on vehicles since 1989, everything from my first CJ7 to Vannagons to my 88 4Runner and 3 Land Cruisers, 76, 77, & 85, so it's not like I have no idea at all what is involved in restoring these things. I knew what it would take me to finish it my self but just no longer have the space since moving to Colorado in 2010. It really is a shame when you trust a man's word and he takes advantage of you, any man who does not live by his word has nothing in my book. I have emailed Tedd multiple times now with no email response, he doesn't seem to like anything with a record of what he says, the only response I ever get from him is a phone call where I repeatedly half to listen to him say, "I'm shocked... blah blah blah." He even went as far during one of our phone conversations to berate me multiple times and tell me how it is all my fault for, "getting in to this mess", and even went as far to insinuate that I was spoiled and used my parent's money, His exact words to me at one point on the phone were, "It's not even your money Grant, it's your parent's money." It is true that all the payments were made through my parents account, as if it were not for them, their kindness and generosity I would have never gotten a loan for such a project & he would have made no money. So with that bit of understanding and thanks from Tedd Brown... I finally sent him an email stating all the things I was shocked about and have not yet to hear back from him. I would just like to know what it was that I left out of our original discussions last October that caused this project to go so far over budget. I showed him this picture, described what all it had and what I would not be sending along with it. The picture I painted was a "very detailed" one and I specifically made it clear that I needed to keep the project under the 30k mark, deleting many of the options originally discussed. This build has been in my mind for probably 15+ years!!! All you cruiser heads out there know how that is. Again... Tedd has been doing this since 1992 and still managed to underestimate the build cost by $30,000.00, delivering nothing close to what was discussed feature wise or workmanship wise? I can only figure that he saw dollar signs in his mind, told me what he thought I wanted to hear in order for me to trust him enough to send the project up to him where he fully planned on getting as much money out of me as he could, again... "bait and switch".
