Whitby Motorcars

[jv8]

Anybody have a car at Whitby Motorcars?

Anyone local to them?

I'm trying to find out what is going on over there.

Thanks.

[Chopper]

While I don't have a car there now, nor am I very local, I had my car painted at Whitby years ago (2015 or 2016). I can tell you this...Jeff and the crew are all great guys. They do fantastic, beautiful work. The office communication, however, is not great. Be patient, but keep on them. With that said, I would use Whitby again.

[BEAR-AvHistory]

While I don't have a car there now, nor am I very local, I had my car painted at Whitby years ago (2015 or 2016). I can tell you this...Jeff and the crew are all great guys. They do fantastic, beautiful work. The office communication, however, is not great. Be patient, but keep on them. With that said, I would use Whitby again.

+1with the addition I live in Raleigh & could take a ride down on occasion. Believe that helped moving the car along. Was in their shop from June to the following Feb. While they had the body I was building the chassis. Transported that down to the around Thanksgiving to install. Car was actually ready mid January but bad weather (snow/rain) had me reschedule the pick up a few times as I was using an open U-Haul trailer.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=118289&d=1575132376

Car at Whitby going to the tuner.

[Tooth]

Just purchased a part from them. Had if a few days after speaking with them.

[jv8]

Well, my experience has not been great. Dropped the car off TWO YEARS ago (July 2020). Since then Jeff has been extremely hard to get ahold of... every completion date estimate has been missed. Last May he said July 2022. Now we are in August 2022 and I cannot get any status. Tried for 5 weeks to get ahold of Jeff and finally talked to him a week ago. I had one request: a picture of my car. He said he would text it to my phone. It has been a week and no picture. Of course this week he is unreachable.

At this point I just want my car back in any condition. Sad thing is I don't even know what that condition is. But I know after 2 years I don't have confidence it will ever get done.

I am a 7 hour drive away and I'm thinking I will have to go camp at his door and hope they are still showing up to the shop.

All this time I was trying not to be a pain in the butt with nagging but I suspect my car got pushed to the corner.

[Chopper]

2 years! I got nothin' for that! I know the pandemic must be a factor, but I'd be out of patience as well.

Where are you located? It was about 5 hours for me coming from NoVA to drive, a bit more with a trailer.

[mburger]

TWO YEARS????
I’d say you’ve been patient enough.

[jv8]

I'm in Pittsburgh. I will go down soon and rescue my car in person. Hopefully they are still in business.

This is my life with all contractors. I hate hounding people so I've learned to DIY or not do it at all. I just didn't have time to do the roadster body.

Yes TWO YEARS. Whitby has made me the laughing stock of my friends and family.

[Jacob McCrea]

That's a real shame. I don't hire people to do much, for the same reason. And the communication should be the easiest part of running a business in 2022.

Maybe give these folks a call. I don't know them but the website sure looks promising. http://www.customsbykilkeary.com/ Hope you get the thing back in your hands soon.

[Blitzboy54]

I'm in Pittsburgh. I will go down soon and rescue my car in person. Hopefully they are still in business.

This is my life with all contractors. I hate hounding people so I've learned to DIY or not do it at all. I just didn't have time to do the roadster body.

Yes TWO YEARS. Whitby has made me the laughing stock of my friends and family.

That doesn't make any sense. They have certainly taken on new cars, painted them and returned them to their customers in the time you have been waiting. I would be down there demanding my car for sure. I'm getting upset just hearing this.

There has to be something else to it. That's crazy

[jv8]

Maybe Jeff will post and chime in about what the *** is going on.

I confess I only called every few months. I'm guessing other people were way more aggressive. But I agree this is crazy.

How hard is it to take a phone picture and text it? 30 seconds?

I left a message with the office manager that I would be down there on Monday. She must be sick of saying that Jeff is "unavailable" and taking messages.

[bil1024]

You see alot of good / bad with Whitby on the forum, I would just go get it and give it to someone else, write complete story to the BBB and post on social media for others to be aware, Interesting to know if anyone waited less

[phileas_fogg]

If it's any consolation, I've had the same experience with my local painter. In my case, the paint is a side hustle; he's a full-time teacher. But it's been two years, and he'll go for two-four weeks without returning calls, emails, or texts. Absolutely maddening.

And every time somebody asks about my car, I can feel myself turning beet red & my blood pressure skyrocketing.


John

[rich grsc]

Well, my experience has not been great. Dropped the car off TWO YEARS ago (July 2020). Since then Jeff has been extremely hard to get ahold of... every completion date estimate has been missed. Last May he said July 2022. Now we are in August 2022 and I cannot get any status. Tried for 5 weeks to get ahold of Jeff and finally talked to him a week ago. I had one request: a picture of my car. He said he would text it to my phone. It has been a week and no picture. Of course this week he is unreachable.

At this point I just want my car back in any condition. Sad thing is I don't even know what that condition is. But I know after 2 years I don't have confidence it will ever get done.

I am a 7 hour drive away and I'm thinking I will have to go camp at his door and hope they are still showing up to the shop.

All this time I was trying not to be a pain in the butt with nagging but I suspect my car got pushed to the corner.

Sorry for you, but if you had asked here two years ago, you would have known. That is how they are with painting cars, there are plenty of past posts complaining about the wait times.
I've replied to this issue before Covid, so thats a BS excuse. Why do they want you to bring in your car when they have a bunch ahead of you to do? Put your name on a list, as cars are finished, the list gets shorter, when you're #4 or 5 call and have you bring in your car. What would be the outcome if they had a fire, or a tornado and the dozen or more cars in their shop are destroyed, would they be able to get you a new one, are they insured for that?

[RFracer]

Well, my experience has not been great. Dropped the car off TWO YEARS ago (July 2020). Since then Jeff has been extremely hard to get ahold of... every completion date estimate has been missed. Last May he said July 2022. Now we are in August 2022 and I cannot get any status. Tried for 5 weeks to get ahold of Jeff and finally talked to him a week ago. I had one request: a picture of my car. He said he would text it to my phone. It has been a week and no picture. Of course this week he is unreachable.

At this point I just want my car back in any condition. Sad thing is I don't even know what that condition is. But I know after 2 years I don't have confidence it will ever get done.

I am a 7 hour drive away and I'm thinking I will have to go camp at his door and hope they are still showing up to the shop.

All this time I was trying not to be a pain in the butt with nagging but I suspect my car got pushed to the corner.

There’s no excuse for poor or in this case non existent service.So sorry you’ve been dealing with this for 2 years. It’s time to get get your body and get it into another shop you can rely on. We’ve got Ron Randall Metal Morphus here in CT. He did a car for me a couple of years ago. In and out in 3 months. Was thrilled with the outcome. There must be shop near you that can provide quality work and service. You can also search the regional forums to see if anyone appears local to them you could contact to go by and look.

Hope you get this sorted and moving ahead promptly.

[lenleg]

I am local here in Greensboro and my office is only about a mile from Whitby. In fact I was over there yesterday talking to Jeff. You are welcome to reach out to me if you would like.

Len Leggette
len.leggette@gmail.com



Anybody have a car at Whitby Motorcars?

Anyone local to them?

I'm trying to find out what is going on over there.

Thanks.

[narly1]

This thread really scares me as painting is the one aspect of my upcoming build that I have made a conscious decision to not do myself. That and rebuilding the transmission.

This coming from a guy who rebuilt his own engine from scratch with limited prior experience!


Earl

[legend42]

Sorry to here about your troubles, that must be incredibly frustrating. I was lucky enough to get my car to the painter very shortly after I finished assembly in August of 2020. He told me 14 weeks drop off to finish, sent me a few pictures along the way, and called me 13 weeks later and said it was ready! Very happy with quality of work and communication along the way. He even pointed out a minor "oops" that created a small blemish when the open door accidently pinched an edge. I probably would have not noticed until sometime later and blamed it on something I did, a little dab of touch up paint and I will be the only one that will know it was ever there.

And my painter is: Jeff "da bat" Miller!

[wareaglescott]

For as long as I have been on this forum these threads have been coming up about Whitby.
FWIW I have had two cars painted there. My Cobra and a 79 911 they took down to bare metal and back. Super pleased with both of them and would take them a third one. While Jeff may get knocked at times for his communication he is really a great guy. Brooks and Matt working over there are as solid as they come. They are simply overworked and have a long time line for completion. I have yet to see a complaint on this forum about the quality of their finished project. Only complaints about the timeline. It is certainly a frustrating part of the build to be waiting so long.
Addressing a few things I have seen in this thread, they are certainly still there and working away. While a lack of contact isn't really satisfying in no way does anyone need to up and drive 7 hours there to see if they are still in business. I guarantee they are and are working away.

Im not speaking for them but from what I have personally observed their process seems to be a lot of steps with a couple weeks cure time between various steps. I believe they work on numerous cars through the process concurrently. Once they actually lay hands on yours and get it going then it should be within a couple months of completion but it is going to take them a couple months to complete it. It is not like they start on one body and work it all the way through the process until completion. If you have heard you body has been started on you have waited this long just wait the few more months until it is done. Once they actually start working on it the light at the end of the tunnel is on for sure!

Jeff told me once I am not gonna rush on the guys car ahead of you so I can get to yours just like Im not going to rush on yours to get to the next one. I can respect that and at least you know when you drop your car off when you finally do get it back it will be top notch work.

Can we go on and on complaining about the timeline? Sure but it wont do any good. To me a big part of these builds is research. There is at least 10 years worth of threads on here complaining about Whitby timeline. It is well established by now that is how it is going to go.
To me it is a trade off, you can take your car to Whitby with an unknown (long) timeline but a guaranteed quality product on the backside or you can gamble with someone else with a quicker timeline and you may or may not be pleased with the outcome. It is not like Whitby is the only shop in the Southeast that can paint one of these things but they do a damn fine job of it.

[CraigS]

Just go get your car. It isn't worth the hassle to deal with them. There have been many, many stories like yours over the last 15 years. 8-9 years ago a friend took his body to them. He had cut and fit two roll bars. When he goes to pick up his car they take him to a body that has holes for one bar. He says that is not my body. 20 minutes of arguing later he decides to just pay and leave. Paint was great, he was able to cut new holes in this body so all he actually lost was the time to do that. But the guy standing there and lying to him for 20 minutes was hard to take.

[KDubU]

Agree with others, no excuse for 2 years. Regardless of quality, there are painters on here that will do as or better job and not take that long. Keep in mind body and paint is an art so it will take some time but not 2 years.

[jv8]

Jeff finally called today and apologized. He said not much was done on my car but he would get the car in the body shop post haste. I guess I'll give it a few more months.

I expected a long timeline but not 2+ years. Covid, family medical, etc, happens... but what I couldn't take was the complete lack of communication about where I was in the queue. All it would take is a numbered list that the front office lady could read and say "you are now 5th in line" instead of "I'll take a message and nobody will call back".

I'm still curious if it is a strict "first in - first out" order or if the "squeaky wheel gets the grease" and I haven't been squeaky until this week.

[rich grsc]

Jeff finally called today and apologized. He said not much was done on my car but he would get the car in the body shop post haste. I guess I'll give it a few more months.

I expected a long timeline but not 2+ years. Covid, family medical, etc, happens... but what I couldn't take was the complete lack of communication about where I was in the queue. All it would take is a numbered list that the front office lady could read and say "you are now 5th in line" instead of "I'll take a message and nobody will call back".

I'm still curious if it is a strict "first in - first out" order or if the "squeaky wheel gets the grease" and I haven't been squeaky until this week.

If you had been on list, and you moved up every time a car was finished, you could have had 2 yrs of fun driving your car. NO F'''ING excuse for this. Jeff K did my car, he put me on the list. It was getting close to my turn, something important for me came up. We talked I asked if it would be ok to let the car behind me jump ahead, then I could drive my car on an important road trip. It all worked great. I gave up one space, the car next in line gained a space. I got to drive my car the whole time in gelcoat

[nucjd19]

If you had been on list, and you moved up every time a car was finished, you could have had 2 yrs of fun driving your car. NO F'''ING excuse for this. Jeff K did my car, he put me on the list. It was getting close to my turn, something important for me came up. We talked I asked if it would be ok to let the car behind me jump ahead, then I could drive my car on an important road trip. It all worked great. I gave up one space, the car next in line gained a space. I got to drive my car the whole time in gelcoat
Agree with rich. The way Jeff, da bat, Ken and Mike at Spotlight do it is perfect. You get a phone call when your turn gets close and schedule delivery. Then a few weeks later you pick it up. If I was a business I would be scared to death having that much inventory of other peoples cars hanging around.

[egchewy79]

2 years is a long time...I wonder how many cars he keeps on inventory at a time. and where does he keep all these cars? outside under a tarp? I'm sorry to hear you're dealing with all of this. That's a lot of driving seasons you've missed out on. The Jeff's and Ken Pikes of the world have a much better system. I've been waiting for body/paint for at least a year, but I have been able to drive in gelcoat this whole time.

[BEAR-AvHistory]

Unless things have changed the car shells are kept outside in a courtyard.

[N2mini1]

It has been some years since I have been over there but I was asking about them building me a car. Was told it would take about 8-12 weeks. Granted I didn't specifically ask if that time included paint but would guess maybe not. I'm guessing here but maybe he/they do put the bodies of complete cars they are building to the front of the line. What does it matter if you build the car in 3 months if it is going to take 12 to get it painted so the customer can have it.. Doesn't explain not keeping you in the loop.. They been doing this a long time and should know how long it is going to take..

[mladen]

Checked in recently about body prep and paint. Timing was 18-24 months out.