Question about paint job? Need

Hey guys so a couple months back i took a 82 ford mustang to get painted at a shop and the owner said it would be about 300 hours to work on the car at 50 an hour and it would take about 3 months to get the job done, so i told him yea seems reasonable i was getting the whole car painted and engine bay, so he quoted me between 15k - 20k so i agreed, so they took about 6 months to get it done because the guy said the had other projects to do at the same time also, so they ask me to come in to talk about hours and the bill and i go in the guy says that were at 600 hours now and that the bill is now 42k for the paint job. I do not have 42k to spend on just a paint job that guys is crazy so now there saying that i can't get the car back until i pay those 42k, ow we never had a written agreement on the original price so what can i do in this situation?

Didn't you even think to get a few estimates first? And for that much money get something in writing? The guy did a $5,000 dollar paint job and is now hustling you. You are SOL.

They saw you coming, and took you to the cleaners. A cheap paint job is $500. A good paint job is $5000. You don't spend $20000 on a paint job unless the car is worth $100,000 or more. You could take him to court because you had a verbal agreement, but without witnesses, you probably will lose. If the car won't sell for $42000 now, forget about it and chalk it up to experience.

Hopefully, you have a written agreement with the painter. If not, it will be your word against his as to what the two of you agreed on.

Btw, you must have more money than sense. Agreeing on 300 hours to paint a car at $50 an hour was very poor judgement.

Six hundred hours to paint a Ford Mustang? That must be some paint job! Take this as a lesson learned. Always get a written agreement and always get a couple of estimates.

You sue in court and let a judge decide what is reasonable. No contract, it's now up to a judge.

You are insane for spending more than a couple thousand on a really nice '82 Mustang.

I tried googling average cost to paint a classic car and did not get anything specific (except) this site which talks about painting mustangs. Most state the max is about $10,000 and one other went as high as $13,500, so the original $15,000 to $20,000 (might) have seen a little bit high, but w/in reason.

As a retired auto claim adjuster, what I remember is $50 a hour labor was the norm. But with any repair/replacement of parts, labor and paint could be determined, since we have computer software that states if you for instance, replace a door, the estimate will break down each step, the cost of the part, the labor cost, and the cost of the paint to match the rest of the car etc. But with that estimate is what the insurance would agree to pay and the shop agreed with it. Now one of the problems with body shops is that many times they take in too many jobs at the same time, thus many times we would have to get after the shop to finish, since we maybe on the hook for rental, thus needed the shop to complete.

But lets say that the original (verbal) agreement of max of $20,000 was ok with you. So, in "effect' when the original 3 months turned into 6 months and double the labor would seem "reasonable" to be double and now $42,000, so now the shop has your car and won't let you have it till you pay in full and they do this all the time.

So the question is, during this time, if it was me or someone who is into classic cars, would guess would have called weekly/monthly on the status of the paint and (expected) time when it would be done. Or, my guess is that you would go to the shop and see how far along they were on the job. Did you do this? Or did the shop call you and tell you that the (expected) time to complete it is taking longer than your original (verbal) agreement? You never had a estimate in writing of what they were going to do and should have had pictures of what they had to do, like fixing dents, sanding, rust etc that would add extra time to complete the job.

The odds are that you will have to pay this guy, so that you can have your car back, then hire a lawyer and sue him in court for overcharging you. But you will need experts to challenge him, which once again will cost you money.

My guess is that no one talked to each other on the additional costs and labor, and by being silent and maybe not checking up on the status or questioning him on the time on any problems, you in "effect" allowed him to screw you over.

Now, if you don't pay him, then he "might" be able to sell it to recover his costs, thus the reason to pay and then fight him later with a good lawyer and hope you win.