Steering wheel restoration

[John Hertog <crossram@xxxx>]

Pete Fitch's comments to the list, about Dennis Crooks having to raise his
price, reminded me of what happened to me when I had my gold 300G's wheel
done. I located, using Hemmings, a gentleman in my area that advertised
this service - restoring both the clear and solid portions of the wheel. I
liked the fact that he was about 70 miles away, as I could go drop off the
wheel, meet him, discuss it with him, etc. ; also, I felt that I could go
pick up the wheel when it was done, which would allow me to see it, done,
before paying for it !

This person, an older gentleman, looked at my wheel, said "no problem" and
quoted me a price of about $800 bucks. I left the wheel with him and went
home. His promised deadline of about 4 weeks turned into 6 weeks, then 8
weeks, then more... he kept calling me, though, and explaining to me that
he had never restored such a pesky wheel ! He had to remake the mold three
times, recast portions of the wheel more than once, as he was not satisfied
with the results. He further explained that the fact that the '61 wheel is
far from being round complicated matters immensely.

After over 2 months, I did get my wheel back - and it's beautiful. The
gentleman only charged me what he had quoted me. I then asked him if he'd do
a couple more for me, and he started laughing ! "not at that price", he
said.. "next one I do will cost you $1500.00, no offense, but it did take me
that long and that's what I should have quoted you in the first place"

Perhaps Dennis Crook's price is not entirely out of line !

I did speak to John Veatch recently. I came away with the impression that
he does not want to restore any more wheels .

John