A few months ago, I purchased an Allante with high hopes that the car would hit the street fully functional. To this day, I am not able to use the car .. best estimate is another week and even then, the car will need additional work to get her as the beauty she was meant to be.

The man continues to sell cars and Apple computers, from Dallas TX .. I caution anyone buying from there w/o finding out who this guy is.

The seller came highly recommended but turned out to be a pretty dishonest guy with a long track record of shady business deals. The people that recommended him have been made aware - stunned is a good word.

Before finalizing the deal, I asked one last question: " is there any body or undercarriage damage that cannot be seen in the pictures? " .. his response: "No, it is a good basic car" ...

The man counts on people being ashamed to admit the mistake and gets away with it, again and again .. not no more. What he did with the Allante, he also does with Apple computers he probably picks up on junk sales.

Keep in mind that he does ALLANTE RESTORATIONS .. he cannot play dumb or ignorant. Having done many, many Allante cars, he knows what he has and condition thereof.

After my run in with the seller, other buyers made contact to inform me of how he takes people's money by barely skirting the law. I foolishly ignored my own rules in buyig a car sight unseen, without an inspection. Didnt think it was needed .. wrong .. WRONG .. WRONG !

One other buyer spent over $5,000 to correct problems with a 1993 Allante, I expect that my costs will easily hit $2,000 and THAT does not include the non use of the car.

He always declares "CLEAR TITLE", yet he never really holds titles to the car, again skirting Texas law on vehicle transfers and usage. It took me several months to be able to legally use the car, while the DMV in my State obtained clearances from two other States and .. READY for this? .. the car was NOT emmissions labeled for US sales .. it was made for delivery to Canada. The man knew all this, and did not disclose it. He choose to not restore this one, now I know why.

All of this will slowly and painfully develop as I make repairs ..

[align=center]I will provide you the facts, the pictures, everything ..
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[align=center]You be the judge.
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This is the description below .. pay close attention to "bumper with scratch" .. actually, the bumper was nearly broken in two (see pictures) .. THAT is #2 on the list of issues of this dishonest seller:





Here is the bumper .. when I opened the hood, this was surprise #2. Will get to the #1 later (hood)






Removed bumper and this is what I got:








When I called him he said "If you dont like the car, ship it back"
My cost both ways of course ..
I asked him to find me a bumper and we call it even, no response.

That was the end of that ... Bob is a Hardman to work with when it comes to Allante Restorations ...
.. hint .. hint .. hint ...


PAYPAL said, they are not responsible for quality, only delivery.
eBay .. same thing.

" out of luck buddy "




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7 hours later ...

Repaired per FSM, Section 10.1, Repair of BUMPER ...

I didnt know this section outlined the repair .. run into the section by accident when I was looking for
the how to remove bumper so I could haul it to a Corvette shop.

Dont even say it .. because .. I HATE ORANGE PEEL ...
This baby, the whole car, is going to be LACQUER, buffed to a mirror shine.
with a couple of LACQUER CLEAR COATS ...

not that new urethane orange peel crap ...

fiberglass matt, $2
GEL Super glue, $1
Epoxy in a syringe, $1
Wax paper, $1
spray gun, $4
paint, $14
sandpaper, $6

mtl = $29

repair labor = $210 @ $30 / hr .. I know .. too cheap.

sub-TOTAL = $239 + reinstall (2 hours?) + buff ( 1 hr ? )
TOTAL = $329

Other issues to come, one by one.

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We have had the conversation so many times, do not buy a car from e-bay or sight unseen.I'm not rubbing it in, the guy was recommended to you. I know everntally you will have a fine auto but if you had to do it over again ? Good luck. Also Mr. Hardman, I have friends in DFW.

Lacquer....hard to find guys now a days that have the know how to do it right. But they are around.

 

if I had to do it again, I would call on someone to stop by and inspect it .. live and learn. I would never buy a car in this manner unless I had a lot of trust .. this guy used and abused trust ...

He stood by the DESCRIPTION (snap shot in opening post) right up to the moment of shipping the car ..
I will let pictures do the talking every step of the way .. pictures dont lie!

I am making a big deal of this, so that others wont get burned by this guy, at least those that frequent our websites.


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the LACQUER ...

you and I know that lacquer has the quality of NO ORANGE PEEL when applied and finished correctly, most people today havent a clue what lacquer is. Sad that Chinese furniture makers are better at painting than auto shops.

Some call lacquer "old school" ? ? ? one should compare a "modern paint orange peel job" with the "old school glass surface lacquer" .. I bet the vintage Vettes didnt have orange peel on the OEM paint.

To those that dont know, lacquer can also be done with optional clear coats, 1 or 20 coats, no problem. One can put enough clear coats to make a car look like it has a 1/2 thick sheet of glass melted over it.

I once knew a guy that only custom painted Rivieras, applied 10+ clear coats but you had to sign a contract that the car would not sit outside at night without a cover as the thickness of the clear coasts could spider crack - havent a clue how he enforced that. When you saw his cars, you almost wanted to reach into the paint, the thick clear coats. The man had a waiting list, took him about 2 weeks to do one car. Last I hear of him he was doing fuel tanks on bikes with an air brush.

Every single Allante repaint I have seen, is orange peel, w/o exception.
Every new car I have seen, has orange peel.

Exceptions? the Italian and German cars, the Black Cadillacs, the Shelby, Lincolns - the '08 LA Auto show.


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This is a marked up description that I am working to.




1. "Scratch on the hood" - There are several deep gouges and several deep dents. replacement value: $300+

2. "Scratch on bumper" - Bumper broken in the middle, pictures already posted. Replacement value: $600+

3. "I suspect the speaker AMPs are bad" - there were NONE, missing. Replacement value: $500+

4. "Passenger side vanity is broken but looks like it could be glued" - its beyond broken, it is missing the internals. Replacement value: $125

5. "The seat back releases do not work, usually the result of the lever coming lose" - the seat backs are seriously busted up, will need to replace. Replacement value: $125

6. "Current Texas Inspection" - damn ..he got me here .. it does .. but no registration. misleading? I had to pay the late fees for having the car registration expired since '07. Cost: $95 if I remember correctly.

7. "This 92 is in excellent mechanical condition and drives very strong", "The interior leather is exceptional, no tears or rips" - told the truth here. This is very valuable to me, but the man lied about the other items so these pluses dont excuse it.

If I find more hidden issues as I start going through the car, I will amend the list. When I took delivery, I changed fluids that weekend and has been in the garage except for road testing. The bumper damage was so serious that the grill would bend when closing the hood. Luckily, it didnt break before I removed it.

I wont even mention the little things like missing ash tray, missing spare jack, busted plastic door jams, busted spare tire - all of which i would consider wear and tear, yet he also failed to disclose these.

The man got caught in a severely declining Allante market and decided to get rid of all the cars ASAP, whatever it took so that he could avoid further loses. He is now doing the same with a load of Apple computers, similar descriptions and complaints.



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I feel for this particular Allante buyer - I too got scammed by Mr. Hardman over a year ago. He advertised an Allante on Ebay as "Restored" and even outlined many of the items that had been replaced during the restoration. The car might have been restored at some time, but it had been well over ten years since any restoration took place, and since then the car sat in the Hot Texas Sun baking....you can imagine the results. The dash was so badly warped, its unusable, the rubber all over the doors was pretty much gone, the seats wear cracked so badly the leather would separate more every time you sat in the car, and the mechanical condition of the car was even worse.

I sent Mr. Hardman a registered letter co-written by my attorney and myself, along with my attorneys' name and address. I outlined all the lies he posted in the ad on Ebay, and mentioned that we had no problem flying to Dallas from El Paso and filing suite in his backyard. He sent me a check for about ten percent of my purchase price by return mail.My attorney advised me that we probably wouldn't net much more than that in a lawsuit after expenses, though she was confident we would win the suit, so it made sense to accept Mr. Hardman's check and write him off.

The reason Mr. Hardman has been able to keep going is at one point early in his Ebay career, he apparently did sell some nice Allantes, and he also had some great recommendations from a couple of Allante experts in the US.....there was no reason to doubt his ad on ebay, or his honesty. A big mistake.And a big lesson...for me, and anyone else buying a car. DON'TBUY THE CAR SIGHT UNSEEN! Get an independent inspection if you don't livenear the car and make sure you hire the inspection service...don't take any recommendations from theseller.

I too have all the do***entation on the Hardman scam, if anyone would like to see it.

 

I feel bad for both you guys especially my buddy Zal. There is a good lesson to be learned here from all future buyers and especially bidders on e-bay. DON'T DO IT.

The only thing I can do at this point is to advise any member of this forum, if you need a car checked out in the North Dade, South Broward Florida area I will have no problem doing that. I have a shop and if the seller can get it to me I can really check it out for y'all.

Good luck.

 

Stomps -

Looks like you did a great job -

I do have to wonder about the lacquer route - I just got done looking at a 70 camaro out in the shop that was lacquered - and needs to be taken down to metal because it is actually peeling, large pieces of the paint surface are coming off.

Oh - and I need to rub it in a little (don't get to excited now - I do have on rubber gloves) to quote your earlier post...
Exceptions? the Italian and German cars,

Last I checked my Allante was painted in Italy. - I am not too worried about the paint job - the Italians do seem to know how to paint a car.

 

duhhh .. lacking proper surface prep .. anything can happen, including peeling off.





Fox,

u having a stressful day?

we is now mixing apples and oranges?

the APPLES ..
Allante repaints = orange peel

the oranges ...
NEW cars = orange peel .. EXCEPT Italian and German cars, the Black Cadillacs, the Shelby, Lincolns..
which includes NEW Allantes from Italy .. OEM paint.




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80% or there abouts of a laquer paint job is in the prep. Corvettes were always the hardest because of the paint chemicals mixing with the glass. Spider webs etc. There are still a few guys out there that can do laquer, and there won't be a deeper glassy look then a good laquer job.