[DeTomaso] FW: weird situation with my car, need your help

Larry - Ohio Time Corp larry at ohiotimecorp.com
Wed Jun 3 14:36:33 EDT 2009


Chris,

Call the police right now!  If it turns out to be a mistake oh well. You do
not want to give this creep a minute more time.

Talk to the old land lord. Talk to all of the close part stores, junk yards,
Snap-On guy, dealer parts departments. Your story is he paid you for your
tool box (you know how a divorce can be) and you are trying to deliver it to
him. He is a nice guy and you want to do him right.

You need a plate number, bank name, etc info to track him down.

This should be filed on your engine builders insurance. It was in his care.

I have my .45 on my belt today and my hand is ready to draw over this story.

Larry - Cleveland



-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
Behalf Of Christopher Kimball
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 1:47 PM
To: Pantera List Serve
Subject: [DeTomaso] FW: weird situation with my car, need your help


I recently had a new engine built for my Pantera (dark green, #3846).  It
leaked oil, so the engine builder said he'd have his mechanic take care of
it.  I left the car with the engine builder, the mechanic apparently picked
it up from there, and I haven't seen the car since.  It's been three weeks.

 

If you see anything on Ebay or Craig's list that looks suspicious (including
a great deal on a '72 Pantera with a new engine), please let me know.

 

Also, if you know the location of the mechanic, Randy Norwood (possibly in
the Buckley area of Washington State), please let me know immediately.

 

At this point, it looks as if I won't be driving my Pantera to Reno, which
is heartbreaking since my youngest son and I have been working on the car
all year, preparing for this trip.

 

If you want the full details of this sordid story, feel free to read the
information below.  It is a summary of what I sent my insurance company,
plus an update of events that have happened over the last few days.

 

Sincerely,

 

Chris

 

 


 





 







From: chrisvkimball at msn.com
To: auto at hagerty.com
Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 19:47:35 -0700



Dear Hagerty,

I recently increased the agreed value on my Pantera.  The main reasons for
this were the frame repairs and reinforcements ($4000) and the new engine
($9300) I just had completed on the car.

After driving only 200 miles on the new engine, I noticed an oil leak.  It
appeared to be a rear, main seal problem which is really a pain.  Especially
since it took six guys all afternoon to install the new engine, and to
repair the rear seal would probably require another engine pull and
reinstallation.

Fortunately, the engine builder stood behind his work and told me he would
take care of the repair, including the engine removal and reinstallation, if
necessary.

The engine builder (Dale Green of DG Machine, in Auburn, WA) doesn't have
facilities at his engine shop to work on cars, so he told me he had mechanic
he's known for 30 years (Randy Norwood I think is his name), and he would
pay the mechanic to do the repairs.  He said the mechanics shop was only a
block or two from his own.

I dropped the car off at Dale's shop on Wednesday Morning, May 13th.  He was
going to have Randy look at it and take it back to his mechanics shop,
ostensibly nearby.  I told Dale, and he told the mechanic, I needed the car
ready for the monthly Panteras Northwest club meeting on the 21st.  The
mechanic said he'd try to have it done by then.

I spoke to Randy the mechanic once last week on the phone (5/12), and told
him to please be very careful with the paint, as I had just detailed the
entire car in preparation for the Pantera meeting and the POCA Fun Rally
(after all, showing off our Panteras is one of the main objectives of our
club gatherings!)  He assured me he'd be careful and have it repaired as
soon as possible, and would keep me apprised of the progress.

I heard nothing for several days, and tried to call the mechanic Thursday
and Friday of that week, but he never answered his phone (I believe it is a
cell phone) and the message informed me there was no room left for leaving
messages!

I tried again to reach Randy on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week
with the same result.  Dale, the engine builder, was out of town until today
(5/26), so after another fruitless attempt at reaching Randy this morning, I
called Dale and told him of the situation.  I said he should walk over to
Randy's shop and talk to him in person.

At this point, Dale told me Randy had moved his shop to another location,
Buckley or Black Diamond (Washington) and was no longer located close to
Dale's shop.  Black Diamond and Buckly are about 45 minutes away.  I asked
Dale for the name of the shop, and he said he didn't know.  I asked if he
would be kind enough to get in touch wih Randy to find out what was going on
with my car.  Dale said he only had the same number I did, but he would
certainly try to contact Randy.

Dale assured me he's known Randy for 30 years and all would work out fine.

Well, all I know is the annual Pantera Fun Rally is taking place June 9-16
in Reno, and I was planning on driving to the event with 8 other Panteras
from the Northwest.  After putting so much time and effort into the Pantera
in preparation only to miss the trip would be a huge disappointment for me.
What's worse, however, is that I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE MY PANTERA IS!!!

I'm optimistic this will all work out, but I want to alert you to what's
going on for two reasons:

1) because as the insurer you have a vested interest in what happens to my
Pantera, and

2) I'm wondering if you can suggest an apapropriate course of action I
should take.

Dale, the engine builder, and I have a good rapport and have always gotten
along well.  I want to do everything possible to avoid souring the
relationship, but at this point, I must confess, I'm becoming concerned.
 
Dale (the engine builder) said before he left for the weekend last week
(Tuesday) he reached what appeared to be Randy's (the mechanic) girlfriend.
Dale told her to have Randy call him asap.
 
When Dale got back yesterday, he had no message from Randy.
 
Meanwhile, I'd been trying to reach Randy several times per day with no luck
and continued to get the same stupid "voice mailbox is full" message every
time.

 

UPDATE FROM THIS WEEKEND:
 
Sunday morning Randy's voice mailbox was no longer full and I was able to
leave a voice mail, which I did, imploring Randy to call me back.
 
I left another message Sunday night, and another this morning (6/1).  Dale
also left a message yesterday, telling Randy I was talking with my insurance
company about filing a lost vehicle report.  Dale and I both thought if
Randy heard that he'd respond for sure.
 
Still nothing, so this morning I told Hagerty (the insurance company) to get
to work on finding my car.  They are now going to start trying to track down
this mechanic guy.

 

Today I again spoke to Dale (the engine builder) and he is very frustrated,
too, and has a friend looking for Randy's new location.  I told him I'm
filing a police report on Monday, the day before I leave for Reno.
 
At this point, I am pretty much (sadly) resigned to the fact I'll be driving
the Magnum to Reno.  After a year of preparation, to be denied the
experience of a lifetime for my younger son and me because of some
mechanic's incompetence, is very difficult to swallow.
 
The way I figure it, there are several possibilities for what's going on.
 
1) The mechanic is completely lackadaisical and hardly ever checks his voice
mail
 
2) The mechanic has screwed up the car so badly he doesn't want to face the
engine builder or me until he figures out how to fix what he's ruined (which
may be impossible if he doesn't have a clue about working on Panteras)
 
3) The mechanic is a charlatan who is selling my car piece by piece on
Craig's list

 

4)  (and I hope this isn't the case) Randy has been injured or is sick and
in the hospital
 
I think it's probably a combination of #1 and #2.  I'll be very interested
to find out the real story when all of this is over.
 
I would appreciate any help you could offer me.  Thank you.

Sincerely,



Christopher Kimball

 






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