UPDATE – THE GOOD METAL WORK WAS DONE BY CHUCK SHEEN, not Greg. He doesn’t know much about repairs as you can see by the pictures. The hood and radiator support – professionally done by Chuck Sheen (Greg’s Dad).
When we talked about this car…
I said it was rough and some pieces need to be replaced. Hood would be custom, radiator support was tweaked and rocker panel was dented in. It was all agreed to and there were no complaints, but I also posted how impressed I was with the work when it happened.
Everything changed once Sakura Garage failed a 2nd time to finish my car.
The falsehoods of “only had 3 days to work on it” and “I’ve eaten the costs” were NOT TRUE. That is what sparked the debates.
When it came to the metal work, I have always maintained “I don’t mind covering costs”. The portrayal of me asking for anything free is BS. The only reason why suddenly everything is an issue is to deflect from the real issue that after 17 months and an additional 2 months, Sakura Garage waited last minute to paint the car. When I mean last minute, I mean the last day to try and RUSH finishing the car. I seen this in person. So the car’s outcome in both instances, looks like SHIT.
Of course he starts deflecting and blaming everything and every issue since I called him out on a half ass job on painting (everything else was perfect IMO).
This comment irked me:
YOU’RE A RESTORATION SHOP!!!
I can’t stress how sad it is for a restoration shop to complain about.. well restoration. My car wasn’t an impossibly mangled car. The areas that needed to be fixed (sans the hood) were pretty straight forward. I didn’t give impossible metal to fix. The hood I definitely understand as it was a concept. But I paid what was asked and there were no complaints on my end OR THEIR’S.
But let’s knock them down.
- Caved in rear quarter
- Hood
- radiator core
- piss poor condition of the parts.
- Rocker panel
1. Caved in Rear quarter
Nobody knew about this until the bumper and tail lights were removed. When Chuck told me this and said it was intact, I said it’s okay, don’t worry about it. I didn’t have a spare rear quarter to cut.
2. Hood conversion
This (in my opinion) was probably the biggest hurdle. It was a concept nobody had done. Chuck and I discussed it and I would send reference pictures. After my 1st trip to AZ and seeing the car not worked on, I decided to come back in May 2021 and try to help get things going. I was really going to try and do that myself, but Chuck decided to do it and did an amazing job. Greg did a lot of work and I NEVER took that for granted. I still think the hood is one of the best work I’ve seen.
Wandering Leopard in the Desert part 2 – Don’t ever take your car to Sakura Garage in Arizona
The hood cut was definitely horrible condition. During that particular time, I was in Japan in February trying to get my zenki hood shipped to Osaka. Greg was set to pick up the car May. But I couldn’t secure the hood, so Nagahama-san cut up a spare hood that was rusting. Not only that, the hood was an old Kaido Racer style, so had the cowl on it and underneath it, was rusting. I know Greg did put some time into cleaning it up and that is definitely worth appreciating.
The hood cut was definitely suppose to be for the hood as intended. It was the last ditch effort because I thought the car was going to be paint soon after I returned. Then the pandemic hit and shipping got super expensive during that time. If I would have known my car would sit for a 1.5 years, I would have just paid for my hood in Osaka to be shipped. Again, when my car was picked up in May 2020, it was suppose to be painted within 3 months.
When it was completed, Greg sent me pictures of the hood (two weeks June 2021) The problem is, it stayed in Arizona and was not part of the agreed “completely done and delivered” car. Greg said he was still working on it.
It wasn’t until Hung picked up the hood in AZ in late 2022 that it was finally put on the car. At this time, the paint was taken off.
While I was in AZ the other weekend (July 22nd/23rd 2023), Greg did get the hood painted. Yes there are fish eyes and all that from just spraying it, but the hood looks amazing.
I do want to acknowledge that they did put a lot of work into this and again, something I always appreciated. So I will NEVER knock him for this.
3. Radiator support –
Project Leopard’s radiator support was tweaked and we didn’t know until we looked at it before he picked it up.
While we did try to straighten it out, Greg said if I could get a cleaner one cut, he would replace it.
December 2020, I was in Washington state and there was vert. So I spent that morning cutting up the radiator support.
May 2021, the radiator support was completed.
5. Rocker panel
The Rocker panel was pushed in and I wanted that addressed. After Greg took the car, I was able to cut a rocker panel from a junkyard M30. He told me his process of fixing it by cutting and welding it. When Greg brought the car back to LA, the rocker panel wasn’t touched (still damaged) and he just painted over it. Hung asked why he didn’t fix it and Greg said the side skirt covers it.
Again I didn’t agree to that. I want to be able to take my side skirts off and have a decent look to the car.
After Greg picked up the car, I mentioned that I tried to get it done by pushing it out. Greg actually addressed the part by doing it properly. After our fall out posts on IG, he posted the work he did on it.
He said it was “free work“, but it felt like there was an undertone to it and he was forced to do it. Again, I had to reinforce that I didn’t expect it to be free and even brought money get it taken cared of.
After the IG debates/back and forth:
June 27th, 2023
This car was suppose to be completed that weekend (July 22nd) and when I walked into the shop, my car was apart. I stayed overnight to try and help sand down the car and all that. Of course it a rush to get it painted, exhausted, fatigued, no paint booth and shop lighting, it’s gonna be flawed. But that was the top half of the car (white) the bottom half where this repair was, still putty.
But the rest of my aero and my better condition spat all needed to be painted. These parts have been with Sakura Garage since May 2020.
*These parts were suppose to be delivered with the car completed in Oct 2021. These parts HAVE NEVER BEEN PAINTED. (Picture from July 22nd, 2023)
To end the argument.
I paid for any work that was invoiced. I knew this was a big project and I knew it was a lot of work, and that is why I said let’s pay step by step (get something done, pay for it). I would never ask a friend’s business for free work. I show the receipts for evidence of payment. I never haggled or ducked any payments when ask for and I paid right away. The metal work was amazing, but waiting last minute to do stuff to my car knowing the deadline or timeframe, is disrespectful to me and unprofessional on his part. But hey, we live in a time where people don’t like to keep their words.
For a restoration shop (Sakura Garage does chop up junked Z cars for parts and Chuck seems to be the welder) to complain about metal work is again, just deflecting from the fact that Greg didn’t do his job of painting the car in the timely manner.