Bill wants to hear some more so I will dish out some more of my experience.
So going back to the time many months back where I was asked for a 2nd payment of my build..
Chassis is built, body less bonnet and doors is built and I'm asked for the 2nd installment to pay for the mechanical parts for the car. I make the payment on time as I didn't with ALL of them.
After doing so my car gets pushed aside and I'm asked if I would like to be the first person to have the "new bonnet" that will be closest to the original mold taken from a real Spyder.
I said what? He said yes I would take the bonnet I'm making for your car and cut it and glass in sections from another bonnet made from a mold that had the closest shape of the rear back bottom half of a 1955 Spyder.
I said how long would his take? He told me that his guys could get started on it in 30-days from now but he can't do anything further to my car in the meantime and the guys are working on other things that he can't pull them off of.
He said its your choice but just thought I'd give you the opportunity first since you like originality and all.
I said ok as long as your starting it in 30-days then let's do it!
Meanwhile 30-days go by quickly, my car sits out in the rain off to the side while other cars are built...
Then another week goes by, then two weeks, then three weeks, then all of a sudden it's been two months..
I finally said dude, there are other things you could do to my car, why aren't you working on my car or this "new bonnet"?
He replies, "if you want me to do it to someone else's car I can or you can wait" I'm like dude! It's been over two months and you said 30-days max. I said I'd rather you just finished my car please, forget about the "new design bonnet".
As all this time had passed there were 2-other cars built and COMPLETED no joke in crazy record times..
Another week passes and I stop by since sometimes phone calls are not answered after you paid a bunch of money already.
I said Greg, why aren't you working on my car man? What happened to the time frame?
He accidentally slips and tells me that a customer in Europe ordered 2-cars and paid full price and I didn't so what do I expect him to do..
Im like what? I said so if Jesse James walks In and orders a car your going to stop building someone else's car and build his? That's not cool. I could tell he slipped and basically told me in other words that he made up the make believe Bulls@@t story about a "new bonnet" design to throw me on a back burner while he built other cars. And with my money that I already handed him even.
Im sorry but I refer to this as BAD business.
One of the many people I spoke to prior to having a car built here is a very successful businessman who was very disappointed and had to take Greg Leach to court just to get his car from the shop and to motivate Greg to finish it after almost 2-years.
I have a letter from this man that reads "under no circumstances should you even consider having Greg build a car for you unless you wanna drive yourself crazy"
He went on to say that you will end up hating the car and he also asked me not to mention his name because he still had things that Greg said he would fix on the car that he never did.
Another previous buyer who is a business owner and now a friend of mine had paid Greg in full for a car and Greg stopped returning his calls. He eventually had to come down to the shop with some other guys and physically take possession of his car.
I live in Orange California, for those of you that don't live around here and are considering a build through Vintage Motorcars all I can say is good luck. And I will see you on this thread in the future.
And if you want to get the opinion of people who have local businesses in the industry then just call ANY VW related business here in SoCal and mention his name, ask their opinion.
The only one who will stick up for him is the man he "currently" does business with and he is in AZ (Seduction Motorsports).
I have no quarrels with him and I see he builds nice cars.