I have a true story to tell. How I lost my GN @ Gbodyparts

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Nasty Wendy

Perverted Lurker
Joined
May 24, 2001
Bowling Green 2011. Man I was excited to be going. I'd been prepping my car for months getting it ready for the drive from New Orleans to Bowling Green. I had BIG plans for it this year. I'd just put in new custom bucket seats for the drive. I had just put in a new headliner. I had just put in new upper door panels. I had just put on a mint GN steering wheel. I'd installed retrofitted HID projector headlights. I brought with me a V1 frontmount and a TE45a turbo to put on up there. I'd just recently installed 60lb injectors, 3.5" downpipe, and Cotton's exhaust. I had very recently installed the production 4.1 blocked engine with forged pistons. My plans were once there I'd install the IC, Turbo, and FAST XFI so that Cal Hartline could tune it for me. After all the years of owning this car I was finally getting it exactly like I wanted it. I'd even arranged the date at the paint shop for when I returned. But first I had to drive over to Gbodyparts to have Brian install his stainless steel T-Top metal parts replacement kit. I'd worked out being away from my family for two weeks to get all this done. One week at Bowling Green and one week at Gbodyparts. Brian confirmed that he could get the kit done in that time frame so plans were made and carried out. While in Bowling Green I also installed one of Cal Hartlines fiberglass hoods and sold off my older fiberglass hood. Cal's hood is really nice and my old one was not so much. While in Bowling Green I scored a pair of aluminum front and rear bumper reinforcements to go behind my fiberglass bumpers that I'd been driving around with no reinforcement in. I was really trying to get the car right in every way. I even had an LED third brake light that you could program scrolling messages on. Of course being from New Orleans my message was 'Who Dat'. So with help from my friends in the TR community at Bowling Green I accomplished everything I'd set out for. The car had the TE45a, V1 IC, Hartline tuned Fast XFI, and a brand new fiberglass hood. Cal finished tuning it just as everything was wrapping up and it was freaking awesome. Cold start up needed some tweaking but that wasn't going to be an issue. On the test drive I pulled it out to the interstate and broke the tires loose at 60mph aggressively merging onto the highway. I was a happy TR owner. Forgive me for leaving out how much fun I had while doing this with my friends and BSing with TR crowd. I spent lots of money with different vendors getting stuff I'd put on either at Gbodyparts or once I got home. Paul Ferry's roll bar was notably on the list of items I was hauling with me. And a picture of me working on my car even made it into the Bowling Green News paper. Nasty Wendy was stronger than ever. After the event I followed Brian Weaver of Gbodyparts from Bowling Green to Bethel NC. My car got better fuel economy than it ever has and that included the parts through the mountains. I calculated a little over 20mpg. I was impressed.
Arrive at Brians place and crashed for the night. Next morning we head to GBodyParts to get started on the installation of the Stainless T-Top metal parts. GBodyParts is something I had to see to believe. I'd never seen so much GBodyParts and complete cars in one place. I'd bet he has more inventory there than some sizeable car dealers had back in the 80s. It was impressive. So I pull my car in and start unloading it so that Brian can get working on it. After he took care of some other matters that he had to do he began on my car. I was there it help him as needed as we had agreed through our emails leading up to this job. I did the PIA work saving him valuable time. He was doing everything else. He'd grind and cut and weld, I'd clean and sand, scrape and play fetch for him. I thought things were going rather slow but I figured he knew what he was doing so I just did as I was told and had faith that he was on schedule, after all he's done this before. Well things started to not go so well. He couldn't get a good weld going. The welding was so bad that he made stop taking pictures of it. I was taking pictures of everything to document the whole experience. I intended to put it together for him to use on his website, kinda like an in depth look at the work you can get done at GBodyParts. It became clear that he wasn't going to make the deadline and he had plans to go to the SEMA show the upcoming week so I couldn't just stay the extra time because he was leaving for Las Vegas. So now I have to book airfair to fly home because my car is in no way driveable with T-tops unusable. I told him to stop working on it because he was starting to rush and had already had to re-do some stuff because of that. I said just stop. I'll get a flight. I'll come back when you get back from SEMA and we'll finish it then. I wasn't happy about that but it was the best thing to do in this situation. By the way I purchased an American Bulldog Puppy from board member USMC_Turbo6 and had planned on driving back with him. Now I have to fly the puppy back which added significantly to the airfair. Now I was the 'Fire Watch' for Brian as he welded on my car. Everytime he welded a fire started somewhere and we had to put it out. We did that and suffered no damage. So after stopping Brian from welding on the car I left to go to his computer and get the airline tickets in order. Brian decided that he was going to make one more weld while I was doing that. When I returned back into the shop I saw a glowing in the back of the shop where my car was. WTH is that? When I got to the area my car was in I couldn't believe my eyes. My car was engulfed in flames. The interior was fully ablaze and the fire was getting bigger. I began shouting for Brian. I did not know where he was. I was in fear for his life. Did he fall trying to get out of the car? Did he black out? I was so afraid that Brian was burning to death in my car that I scared the crap out of his dogs running around there hollering for help. Brian comes out from somewhere completely unaware of what was going on. I told him that my car is on FIRE. We go back into the shop and grab fire extinguishers but that fire was to big for those extinguishers when I first saw it. We tried to control it but to no avail the car burned until the fire dept. arrived. A little background about me: I was an industrial fire fighter. I captained my emergency response/fire/rescue squad at the refinery I worked. I am TRAINED at using extinguishers properly and effectively. After the fire dept extinguished the car with their hoses Brian was apologetic. The interior of the car was crispy. The windshield had been burned out and the flames had rolled onto the hood. They were just beginning to get through the hood when the fire dept got it out. My coolant reservoir AKA AlkyConrtol tank was full of methanol. The fire had also started making its way into the trunk where my methanol container was located. The fire dept got it out just in time. Brian told me that he'd replace my car. He said he had the perfect body for the job and that he'd give it to me for me to put my own engine/tranny and still usable parts on. Man that was fine by me. All I wanted was to have what I came there with. He said he'd replace what I'd lost in the fire and I was fine with that. He said that he'd rather use his inventory to replace my stuff than to file an insurance claim because of how much it would cause his rates to rise. Fine by me as long as I was made whole. By the next morning Brian had a change of heart. He called me to say that he didn't think that the fire was his fault and that he wasn't going to honor is offer. I requested his insurance information so that I could file a claim but he won't give me the information. I considered Brian a friend before this happened. I've defended him when others attacked his credibility. I've been away from the boards since this happened because it is depressing to be without my car. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I arrived home and stood in my garage in my car's parking spot and realized that it was gone. I live on a fixed income and I didn't fix it. It took a long time to save the funds to get that car how I had it. My plans were to sell my motorcycle once my car was sound again because I'd prefer to drive my car with the tops out than ride the motorcycle. The sale of the motorcycle was going to fund the car's paint job and that would have finished the project. How he could figure it wasn't his fault is beyond me. My car had been in his shop for a week getting this worked done before it caught fire. Brian needs to do the right thing and replace my car. Not the engine and transmission and rear end as all that is usable but he needs to replace the body, wiring harness, and components lost in the fire. I'm not looking to make a profit. I never was. Had he stopped welding when we agreed that's what he'd do this wouldn't have happened. EVERYTIME he struck an arc it started a fire somewhere and he decided on his own against what we'd discussed to make a weld on my car without a fire watch. All things considered Brian could replace what he costed me rather easily. His out of pocket costs for the items burned up is chump change for him according to what he told me he sells per month. This is a true story. I have pictures/emails/text messages that are consistent with what I've told here. I am still willing to allow Brian to simply replace what he costed me. I am not looking to make a profit, I simply want to be made whole again.
 
WOW - i wondered where you'd been - haven't seen your screen name in a while and i'm sure TB3 missed you.... thats crazy and i am sorry for your loss... Hopefully Brian posts up and you guys can work this out. Brian has always taken care of me and whatever issues i may have had.


aaron
 
I'm hoping he is thinking a little clearer now and decides to do whats right. Good seeing you again.
 
wow that sucks dude.
hope it works out for you.
Fire dept. report contact your lawyer and he can find the ins. company to file a claim.
but this appears to be 2 years old, the ins. company may have time limits on claims.
why would you wait so long?
Bowling Green 2011. Man I was excited to be going. I'd been prepping my car for months getting it ready for the drive from New Orleans to Bowling Green. I had BIG plans for it this year. I'd just put in new custom bucket seats for the drive. I had just put in a new headliner. I had just put in new upper door panels. I had just put on a mint GN steering wheel. I'd installed retrofitted HID projector headlights. I brought with me a V1 frontmount and a TE45a turbo to put on up there. I'd just recently installed 60lb injectors, 3.5" downpipe, and Cotton's exhaust. I had very recently installed the production 4.1 blocked engine with forged pistons. My plans were once there I'd install the IC, Turbo, and FAST XFI so that Cal Hartline could tune it for me. After all the years of owning this car I was finally getting it exactly like I wanted it. I'd even arranged the date at the paint shop for when I returned. But first I had to drive over to Gbodyparts to have Brian install his stainless steel T-Top metal parts replacement kit. I'd worked out being away from my family for two weeks to get all this done. One week at Bowling Green and one week at Gbodyparts. Brian confirmed that he could get the kit done in that time frame so plans were made and carried out. While in Bowling Green I also installed one of Cal Hartlines fiberglass hoods and sold off my older fiberglass hood. Cal's hood is really nice and my old one was not so much. While in Bowling Green I scored a pair of aluminum front and rear bumper reinforcements to go behind my fiberglass bumpers that I'd been driving around with no reinforcement in. I was really trying to get the car right in every way. I even had an LED third brake light that you could program scrolling messages on. Of course being from New Orleans my message was 'Who Dat'. So with help from my friends in the TR community at Bowling Green I accomplished everything I'd set out for. The car had the TE45a, V1 IC, Hartline tuned Fast XFI, and a brand new fiberglass hood. Cal finished tuning it just as everything was wrapping up and it was freaking awesome. Cold start up needed some tweaking but that wasn't going to be an issue. On the test drive I pulled it out to the interstate and broke the tires loose at 60mph aggressively merging onto the highway. I was a happy TR owner. Forgive me for leaving out how much fun I had while doing this with my friends and BSing with TR crowd. I spent lots of money with different vendors getting stuff I'd put on either at Gbodyparts or once I got home. Paul Ferry's roll bar was notably on the list of items I was hauling with me. And a picture of me working on my car even made it into the Bowling Green News paper. Nasty Wendy was stronger than ever. After the event I followed Brian Weaver of Gbodyparts from Bowling Green to Bethel NC. My car got better fuel economy than it ever has and that included the parts through the mountains. I calculated a little over 20mpg. I was impressed.
Arrive at Brians place and crashed for the night. Next morning we head to GBodyParts to get started on the installation of the Stainless T-Top metal parts. GBodyParts is something I had to see to believe. I'd never seen so much GBodyParts and complete cars in one place. I'd bet he has more inventory there than some sizeable car dealers had back in the 80s. It was impressive. So I pull my car in and start unloading it so that Brian can get working on it. After he took care of some other matters that he had to do he began on my car. I was there it help him as needed as we had agreed through our emails leading up to this job. I did the PIA work saving him valuable time. He was doing everything else. He'd grind and cut and weld, I'd clean and sand, scrape and play fetch for him. I thought things were going rather slow but I figured he knew what he was doing so I just did as I was told and had faith that he was on schedule, after all he's done this before. Well things started to not go so well. He couldn't get a good weld going. The welding was so bad that he made stop taking pictures of it. I was taking pictures of everything to document the whole experience. I intended to put it together for him to use on his website, kinda like an in depth look at the work you can get done at GBodyParts. It became clear that he wasn't going to make the deadline and he had plans to go to the SEMA show the upcoming week so I couldn't just stay the extra time because he was leaving for Las Vegas. So now I have to book airfair to fly home because my car is in no way driveable with T-tops unusable. I told him to stop working on it because he was starting to rush and had already had to re-do some stuff because of that. I said just stop. I'll get a flight. I'll come back when you get back from SEMA and we'll finish it then. I wasn't happy about that but it was the best thing to do in this situation. By the way I purchased an American Bulldog Puppy from board member USMC_Turbo6 and had planned on driving back with him. Now I have to fly the puppy back which added significantly to the airfair. Now I was the 'Fire Watch' for Brian as he welded on my car. Everytime he welded a fire started somewhere and we had to put it out. We did that and suffered no damage. So after stopping Brian from welding on the car I left to go to his computer and get the airline tickets in order. Brian decided that he was going to make one more weld while I was doing that. When I returned back into the shop I saw a glowing in the back of the shop where my car was. WTH is that? When I got to the area my car was in I couldn't believe my eyes. My car was engulfed in flames. The interior was fully ablaze and the fire was getting bigger. I began shouting for Brian. I did not know where he was. I was in fear for his life. Did he fall trying to get out of the car? Did he black out? I was so afraid that Brian was burning to death in my car that I scared the crap out of his dogs running around there hollering for help. Brian comes out from somewhere completely unaware of what was going on. I told him that my car is on FIRE. We go back into the shop and grab fire extinguishers but that fire was to big for those extinguishers when I first saw it. We tried to control it but to no avail the car burned until the fire dept. arrived. A little background about me: I was an industrial fire fighter. I captained my emergency response/fire/rescue squad at the refinery I worked. I am TRAINED at using extinguishers properly and effectively. After the fire dept extinguished the car with their hoses Brian was apologetic. The interior of the car was crispy. The windshield had been burned out and the flames had rolled onto the hood. They were just beginning to get through the hood when the fire dept got it out. My coolant reservoir AKA AlkyConrtol tank was full of methanol. The fire had also started making its way into the trunk where my methanol container was located. The fire dept got it out just in time. Brian told me that he'd replace my car. He said he had the perfect body for the job and that he'd give it to me for me to put my own engine/tranny and still usable parts on. Man that was fine by me. All I wanted was to have what I came there with. He said he'd replace what I'd lost in the fire and I was fine with that. He said that he'd rather use his inventory to replace my stuff than to file an insurance claim because of how much it would cause his rates to rise. Fine by me as long as I was made whole. By the next morning Brian had a change of heart. He called me to say that he didn't think that the fire was his fault and that he wasn't going to honor is offer. I requested his insurance information so that I could file a claim but he won't give me the information. I considered Brian a friend before this happened. I've defended him when others attacked his credibility. I've been away from the boards since this happened because it is depressing to be without my car. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I arrived home and stood in my garage in my car's parking spot and realized that it was gone. I live on a fixed income and I didn't fix it. It took a long time to save the funds to get that car how I had it. My plans were to sell my motorcycle once my car was sound again because I'd prefer to drive my car with the tops out than ride the motorcycle. The sale of the motorcycle was going to fund the car's paint job and that would have finished the project. How he could figure it wasn't his fault is beyond me. My car had been in his shop for a week getting this worked done before it caught fire. Brian needs to do the right thing and replace my car. Not the engine and transmission and rear end as all that is usable but he needs to replace the body, wiring harness, and components lost in the fire. I'm not looking to make a profit. I never was. Had he stopped welding when we agreed that's what he'd do this wouldn't have happened. EVERYTIME he struck an arc it started a fire somewhere and he decided on his own against what we'd discussed to make a weld on my car without a fire watch. All things considered Brian could replace what he costed me rather easily. His out of pocket costs for the items burned up is chump change for him according to what he told me he sells per month. This is a true story. I have pictures/emails/text messages that are consistent with what I've told here. I am still willing to allow Brian to simply replace what he costed me. I am not looking to make a profit, I simply want to be made whole again.
 
hello people; That's quite a story and it's from 2011? Someone is dropping the ball big time and it's not you.
good luck
IBBY
 
Dude, call a lawyer or YOUR insurance company. That's what insurance is for. Let your insurance company fight the battle with his insurance company.
Why on earth would you wait so long??
What a shitty story.
 
Did you claim it with your insurance at least, so they could have got the legal ball rolling. Only problem now is that it might be too late, for not acting right away.


Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app
 
WOW! I've got the popcorn ready...this should get interesting. Sorry for the loss of Wendy...I can't even imagine how you feel bro...
 
Wow!!! Sorry to hear that. I hope you get your car fixed. Why can't you just file a claim through your insurance and let them go after the other insurance!
Prasad
 
Wow!!! Sorry to hear that. I hope you get your car fixed. Why can't you just file a claim through your insurance and let them go after the other insurance!
Prasad
My initial thought too.... but only works if Wendy had full coverage.
 
Yes as other have said, its a really heartbreaking away to loose your car. I really hope its a case of you had more than liability only, and claimed it with your insurance. I know the modifications may not have been covered depending on the policy, but still is the avenue I would go.

Posted from the TurboBuick.Com mobile app
 
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