2004 Castlemaine Street Rod Carnival April 2 & 3

Dollys Boyfriend · Post by **Dollys Boyfriend** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 1:13 pm

Carps wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Know Carps but what the hell does everyone else look like huh?
UGLY!!!!

except mr brootal coz he is kinda cute

Carps · Post by **Carps** » Thu Apr 08, 2004 5:13 pm

Guess that explains Brootal's extended absences. He's gone into hiding!

ripper · Post by **ripper** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 9:22 am

Heya Carps,
I warned Rod Rider(tm) about getting into cars with strangers, but he didn't listen...

he wound up in Bunbury as a result...when will the youth of today ever listen? haha

snooze · Post by **snooze** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 4:59 pm

We picked up Danny's Plymouth from Waddington's as we came in on Friday. Very nice job, but were not expecting the size of the bill! However, there were some complications and the work is very good, completed on time and they actually communicated with us during the process. They found a rather large bit of damage in the roof that had been filled with lead. Filled the badly done Jag sun-roof with HT station wagon roof. All doors, window moulds chopped, doors lined up and all pimered. Got some great comments on the trip back from curious on lookers and rodders.

So when are we gonna see some pics of this chopped sedan.
Come on you have had enough time.

Snooze :peelout:

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Apr 14, 2004 4:44 pm

snooze wrote: Very nice job, but were not expecting the size of the bill!

You're not the only person I've heard of the shit themselves at the amount of the bill

I know a guy that was charged a lot more than the agreed guesstimated price, once he got the car home he pushed it the shed and hasn't done a thing to it since, he was so pissed off

choco · Post by **choco** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 11:53 am

Anonymous wrote:
snooze wrote: Very nice job, but were not expecting the size of the bill!
You're not the only person I've heard of the shit themselves at the amount of the bill I know a guy that was charged a lot more than the agreed guesstimated price, once he got the car home he pushed it the shed and hasn't done a thing to it since, he was so pissed off

OK, maybe I should clarify what I said. When Danny and I bought the car a few months ago, we had already arranged to drop it off at Waddo's for the job. He came to his shop while on holidays, on a Sunday, and opened his shop for us so we could drop the car off (it was New Year's). I asked him for a "ball park" figure, and his response was what Danny was expecting.
He told us he would keep us informed as to when he would commence the work, which he did. In fact, he took many images of the work in progress, but he is a bit computer-stupid and had to rely on someone else to send us the images. Danny paid a deposit and a progress payment, which was our arrangement.
Danny was quite explicit with his requirements - fill the roof (where a badly executed Jag sun roof had been installed), chop 3 inches out of it and do the doors and window garnish molds.
During the process, some very early damage to the roof was exposed, which had been filled with lead. Lots of lead! This, plus the worse-than-expected Jag sunroof fitting, caused an extra bit of work, (probably about a day's extra). Of course, it was at the tail end of the job, and it had to be done, but he did inform us.
Danny received the full, detailed account a week before we left for the Castlemaine run. He reserved his decision on the extra cost until we could see the car. What we saw was exactly what was described. The work that was carried out was very good. All doors are aligned, all garnish molds are chopped and fitted to the doors, the roof is filled with a HT Station Wagon roof, and the damaged area primered ready for someone to pull the old lead out. He also louvred the bonnet. At the end of the day, the cost was reasonable and fair, particularly considering that it is difficult to find someone to do this kind of work, especially in Canberra. I know how hard it is to do a top chop, as I did my last hot rod with a little help from my friends, but I still needed to pay for professional help to get it right.
My exclamation that the bill was a shock to the system may be taken out of context. It cost a lot of money to do the top chop, but we don't posess the skills, the tools or the time to do it ourselves, so it was money well spent. I would recommend Waddington's to anyone who wanted professional work at reasonable rates and timely delivery with a no-bullshit business man running the show.

peddro · Post by **peddro** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 12:26 pm

People seemed to get pissed with tradies 'cos what they do seems easy to Average Joe: that's when they're GOOD at it!! If it's so easy, do it yourself!

A good friend of mine does panel work. Many times I have been to his shop when he has been working on jobs REPAIRING other tradesman's shitty low-priced (and sometimes high-priced & high-profile) work. He refuses to give quotes (which annoys some but it also filters out the people that he doesn't wanna work for) and it generally results in an enjoyable job for him where he goes the extra mile for no charge.

When finding a tradesman to do panel work (or paint), do the research to find the right person. Appreciate the work involved and make it clear what you want....and especially what you won't accept standard-wise. Money comes and money goes, so at the end of the day you've gotta be the one happy with what you did or didn't pay.

Sounds like you and your son had a pretty good experience Choco, which is good to hear.

choco · Post by **choco** » Thu Apr 15, 2004 1:07 pm

peddro wrote:Sounds like you and your son had a pretty good experience Choco, which is good to hear.

Yeah, and isn't he chomping at the bit to get started? It's going to get a big block, EFI Mopar, maybe a 5 or 6 speed, maybe an A518 4 speed auto. The chromed 8inch diff gets a 4 pin 9inch LSD, etc. But he has to wait until my coupe is out of the garage and his Mum's 56 Vicki is well on the way before he gets his turn. As it is right now, we're on the tail end of a V8 conversion on his VJ Charger, which got a new front end, new K Member, rack and pinion steering conversion, new V8 diff, etc. Weekends are even more sacred these days!

Carps · Post by **Carps** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 11:15 pm

Anonymous wrote:
snooze wrote: Very nice job, but were not expecting the size of the bill!
You're not the only person I've heard of the shit themselves at the amount of the bill I know a guy that was charged a lot more than the agreed guesstimated price, once he got the car home he pushed it the shed and hasn't done a thing to it since, he was so pissed off

This was NOT me!

Waddington's does quality work and quality work comes at a premum price. Fact is, a tradesperson can give an estimate for a job on an old car, but reality is that once the paint and shitty old metal is cut away there's a pretty good chance that the job is going to be much bigger and take longer than the original estmate.

Often amazes me the number of people who charge exhorbitant rates for their own labour yet get shitty at others who simply charge a fair price for theirs. All most trades people have to sell is skill and time, thus they should get reimbursed a fair rate commensurate to the time they spent on the job. If their skill level is below par, then they should charge a rate, commensurate to their skill level. Thus it can always be assumed that if highly skilled tradespeople like Waddington are involved in a project, the cost to the owner will be proportionate to the quality of the finsished job. And likewise, it should be understood that a quality job takes longer than a shoddy one.

choco · Post by **choco** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 8:44 am

Carps wrote:This was NOT me!

er, obviously!

Carps wrote:Waddington's does quality work and quality work comes at a premum price.

Which is why we chose them. All you need to do is look around his shop and you can tell why he has such a good reputation.

Carps wrote:And likewise, it should be understood that a quality job takes longer than a shoddy one.

Well, they didn't take long at all. We dropped the car off over the new year holiday because it was convenient to do so. The work was not scheduled to start until early March. So it only took them a few days to do the job, and they did it when they said they were going to do it, which is something that is rare in this part of the world when dealing with automotive trades-persons.
Two big thumbs up for Waddington's!