New top nightmare

Z

Zklink5150

New Member
Apr 3, 2009
77
Weirton west Virginia. Ohio river MM 58
Boat Info
1983 sundancer 260
Engines
350 alpha
Happy new year all-

dropped my boat off Sept 14th at a local shop for a new camper top. When I got the call to pick it up, I was shocked...very poor craftmanship, very dissappointing to say the least. After a long discussion with owner, they kept the boat another 5 weeks addressing the problems. The second time I go to pick it up, the top looks better, all the snaps matched up nicely, so I started inspecting them up close. That's when I realized instead of moving the out of place snaps on the top, they drilled about 15 new holes in my boat. That's not even the bad part...some of the snaps took more than one try, and have 2 or 3 holes around one snap. I almost threw up. After I screamed at every person I could, I left with the owner offering to fix the holes, and I got the top for free. I don't want those morons to touch my boat ever again. He'll get the bill for sure!! Question is, is this an easy fix? Something I can fix personally? Any product reccomendations would be appreciated. Thanks all.
 
I don't know, a letter from a lawyer is a good scare tactic!
 
Wow,,,, What were they thinking?
If it had been me, I would have not let them do any more the first time and made a deal on what they had done so far and taken it to another shop for the alterations.

Gezzz you are going to need to get that cream color spectrographed in order to match any where close for 1983.
 
Unbelievable! How long have they been doing business???

I feel for you, and your boat.

Are the snaps in an area where you could add a stripe to cover up the mismatch if necessary?
 
I think I would start considering a complete re-finish....using Awlgrip!!! Start all over. Check to see if this clown has liability insurance and start a claim...this is total negligence.

Here in Florida, most businesses are required to carry liability insurance as a pre-requisite to securing an occupational license.

I am serious. Get some quotes on what the cost would be to pull your boat, repair all of the f****ng holes, and totally refinish in Awlgrip. I am not familiar with the way things are set up in your area but here in South Florida boats are re-finished often and look brand new.:thumbsup:

Good Luck.

John F
 
Were I in your shoes, I would be physically sick...and probably want to do physical injury to the SOB that demonstrated his incompetence on my baby. However...

This may not make me any friends, but I was a sitting judge, hearing small claims cases like this for almost four years (although I haven't got all the facts, admittedly). My $.02...despite your justifiable outrage, the legal damages you have might not be substantial in Georgia (not sure where your case would be heard, so things could be different) . The cost to repair the holes and get the color close is simply not going to be that big a number. Your damages are the costs of repair, less something for the devaluation of the boat for the cosmetic consequence (which would be a probably small percentage of the value of the boat). Plus, you contracted to pay for the camper top. Unless you give it back, they probably have an offset against the costs of repair.

Your case should be a HUGE warning and reminder to all of us. The moral here is to use quality people to do the work, carefully contract the scope of the services to be provided, and try and eyeball progress when and if you can...but even if you do all of that, every business relationship has a finite non-zero failure possibility. Good luck, and if there is something I can do to help, let me know. I really do empathize.
 
You got the top for free so it would appear that your only quantifiable damages are the extra snaps and holes that need to be repaired. For a few hundred $ in measurable loss, it isn't worth losing sleep or making life hard for a canvas guy who was doing big league work with minor league skills.......he learned his lesson. Rubbing his nose in the mess isn't going to change your outcome, just make the solution longer in happening.

Repairing a few 1/8" holes in old fiberglass isn't rocket science, but it does take someone who has been there before. Try to find a fiberglass guy with gray in his hair and go from there. You may end up wet sanding and buffing the entire deck, but the sand color gelcoat can be matched. As far as the top is concerned, if you can't live with it, then find a good experienced canvas shop and ask for references, however, based upon your location, you may not find one close by.

Good luck with it.
 
You don't have these incompetent people make the repairs. You hire someone who is competent and have them do the repairs and then send the incompetent people a copy of the bill and a polite letter asking them to pay the bill. If after 30 days they have refused to pay the bill you then file a lawsuit in small claims court.
 
Last edited:
A good fiberglass guy should be able to take care of it so that you barely notice it.
 
All of your responses are appreciated. First and foremost, the shop has been in business for almost 10yrs!! Now that this happened, the horror stories from others are coming out of the woodwork. I'm going to get some estimates from some compitent shops for repair.

I approached the top installer...

He first tried to say that it was like that already!! I guess he thought I wouldn't notice. I told him it was poor craftmanship, that he was working beyond his apptitude, and that everyone will know out of my mouth, what kind of installer he really is. And honestly, I really don't think he cared and was only apologizing to get me away from him. I wanted more than anything, to rip his head straight off, then drill holes all through it!!!!

On the other hand, the owner was scared to death. He left me a dozen messages reassuring me that he will pay for the mistakes. I'm just very nervous about anyone trying to fix those holes on a boat this old. I'll post later with the outcome.
 
JVM225 said:
A good fiberglass guy should be able to take care of it so that you barely notice it.
Click to expand...

I agree. Don't get too upset. If the value of the free top is less than the repair to the glass, chaulk it up to "buyer beware." In other words, good references and examples of prior work are a must on all boat services.

A good fibergalsss repair echnician can mke those hole totally invisible. I saw a job here in Maryland on an old boat with fadded color and you absolutely could not tell anything had ever been touched.

So do your homework when looking for a good fibergalss person to do the repair.
 
First of all, I empathize with your situation. It's not so much the dollars here, but knowing that your boat will never be the same no matter what. :smt009 :smt089

That being said, the good news is that there are competant gel experts out there that can get things so close that you would probably be the only one that knows the repairs are there. Finding one is going to be a work project (hassle), but the bill most likely won't be a large as you might think. :smt038

I had some gel-work done on my 1989 268 Sundancer on the port side just by the 268 insignia. Matching the colour (sorry "COLOR") on an older boat was a challenge, and took about 3 attempts (gel-guy's choice to re-do) but when he was done you could not easily tell that a 3' long x 1' wide section had been re-gelled. Found him by referral and went and inspected some of his jobs started, in progress, and finished before having him touch my baby!:grin:

Also re-did the top on my 268 which cost about $3000 and that was about 7yrs ago. Could have had it done for $1500, but I was not impressed with their work on other boats - so NO SALE. How much was your bill to be for your job?

You have to admit, even though they've created a problem the owner has waived the cost of the top and seems to be open to paying for other repairs. That is a good sign. It sounds like the installer has the wrong job and should be without it. The owner should fire him and hire someone that would help begin the re-building process of a good name in the industry. It would take some work, but it could be done.:thumbsup:
 
Yea, Jim hit it on the head there. What I wanted to say but was holing off..

The owner of the company may have been just as shocked by what one his guy's did as you were.
In the shop it may have gone like this.


Worker: Hey boss, guys not happy.
Boss: Ok let me talk to him.
You: There are new holes in my boat!
Back in the shop:
BOSS: Did you drill holes in his boat?
Worker: No boss they were there.
Boss to you: The were there when you brought it in.
You: No the hell they weren't!!!
Back in the shop:
Boss to worker: You idiot he's piS*d as hell and I believe him and not you.
Worker: I am tellinya boss------
Boss: Shut up you arsss hole!
Boss to you: OK We will give you the top free soory you were not happy.
You. That ain't going to be enough!
Boss: Let me get back to you....
Boss in shop to worker... You M-Fer,,, you may have just cost me more that your butt can cash off.. You had better hope this turns out ok or there is going to be hell to pay............. ANd your going to be paying becasue you know what way crap flows!

Or at least that is how it went here one day. LOL

I have had that happen to me. Had a guy that just said F it on me one day and cost me a lot of money. He had done good work but got a bug up his Arss and left me holding a bag on a job one time. Get the facts on his point before you go kill or sue him. Sounds like he's going to make it right by your standers thus far.
 
WOW !!!!

I'm sure everyone is taking note of this incident.
It's hard to believe you have people that actually work that way.
Having canvas work done in the past that is exactly what I was always worried about and the first thing I always said was:

USE EXISTING SNAPS - IF NOT POSSIBLE IN ANY AREAS, DO NOT DRILL ANY HOLES OR ADD NEW SNAPS WITHOUT MY AUTHORIZATION !!!!

At least it's just a cosmetic repair - Best of luck :thumbsup:
 
Yes, I have and often do use them. Good products and they can match it 100% Give them the HIN and they may be able to send you the original colour of your boat. But given the age, it would be better to sent them something off your boat to match. They request a quarter size sample to spectrograph. Problem is. Most any thing you could take off like a deck locker door to send them is going to be pretty big or is not faded.
 
You may be waiting until all the smoke clears, but will you eventually post the name so that we all can avoid doing business with them?
Or is that not appropriate here?
 
I was thinking the same thing. Post the name and save a CSR member some research or pain and aggravation....
 
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