VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Anyone ever deal with Jim @ Autowood Restorations?

I ordered a wood kit for my '31 Chevy pickup cab back in early August from Autowood Restorations in Hanna, Indiana. Jim, the owner, told me it would take about 3-4 weeks to make the sill pieces which were the only parts that he didn't have on the shelf. Ok....no problem.

I mailed him a $1200 check to pay for the kit. The check still wasn't cashed for about 2 weeks after I mailed it. I emailed him to make sure he received the check.....never got back to me. Called several times to make sure he got the check. Never called back. I was not trying to bug him about when I would get the kit, I wanted to make sure he got the check since it hadn't been cashed yet.

About another week later the check was cashed, so I started calling to find out when the kit would be shipping out since now it was about 4 weeks after the order was placed and that was about how long he said it would take....he never called back. Emailed him too....no response.

He finally called me on 9/7 and left a message saying the kit would ship out on 9/9 or 9/12. Ok....no problem.

Well, the kit still hasn't shown up and now I am calling him for a tracking number...but he does not answer the phone and I have not received a call back.

Has anyone on here ever done business with him? I got his name from some guys here on the VCCA forum who highly recommended him, but now I am starting to get a little irritated with his lack of common courtesy and not giving me a call back. I don't care if the kit is delayed or if it is taking a little longer to get the pieces made, I would just like a call back telling me so.

I've done business with Jim on numerous occasions . He usually doesn't do well on emails-I believe he says that on his website . If he called everyone back that called him , I doubt much wood would leave there . If you sent him money , you'll get your wood . I generally want mine before I order it . I also can make the wood components for myself , but I've chosen to wait on Jim as he usually gets the orders out pretty well . You may feel he's not being courteous , but he is honest and you'll get what you paid for .

I have dealt with Jim Rodman in the past on a wood kit for my 1930 coupe. It took three or four months to get the wood kit and it was a fantastic kit. I knew going in that he was slow on shipping the kits but I did receive the kit in a reasonable amount of time, and as I said, the wood kit was a work of art.

His wood kit was so nice that I really hated to cover his craftsmanship with the body sheet metal.

Jim built a wood kit for a car he didn't have all the patterns for. He's a little slow but the quality of the product is great. He's been doing this for years. He's hard to contact because equipment is running & he probably doesn't hear the phone. I would call him about 8am his time if you need to talk to him......Joe

That's fine if he is slow. He told me the kit shipped two weeks ago, but I haven't seen it yet. I am not trying to be a nuisance. If the kit is going to take longer than expected, then please tell me that. I don't care.

I also own my own business and I am extremely busy, but I always call my customers back. If I didn't call them back I wouldn't have any customers left.

Good Day All
I purchased a complete wood kit from Jim a two years ago. I had exactly the same experience you did. The two pieces that were not done in my case were the front door pillers. He would answer my calls until I gave him the money. He would always give me an excuse and tell me to call back in a couple of weeks. I called back for three months. One VCCA member told me I should call and say I wanted to buy another kit. Then he calls back right away. I got so frustrated I drove 400 miles to his shop to pick up the parts. I was going to stay there until my kit was done. The parts he makes are very good. But I wouldnt give him any money until the parts were loaded in my truck. Other VCCA members have had problems with Jim loosing brackets they mailed to him. One vcca member sent Jim their doors. It took two years to get the doors back.
Bye for now.

I purchased my new wood about 7 years ago. I went to Hanna Indiana to pick my wood up---I could not believe his shop-He has his own personal involvement with every piece--great inventory and he knows his stuff. I would highly recommend his work. You will be glad you waited.

And waited.And waited. And waited. The shop that installed my wood kit insisted on getting the wood from Jim as they did not want to wait for me to make my own. After waiting six months it finally arrived via Parcel Post special delivery. After waiting six months the extra expense for expedited shipping to get it a couple days quicker was beyond comprehension. The wood was a work of art,but delivery was way past the 4-6weeks promised and the non response and failed shipping updates were aggravating to say the least.

I need to order a kit for my roof and I don't do well when I can't get a vendor to respond in a timely manner even if the work is first rate. I have been given a recommendation for KC wood, how are they to work with?

I took my metal to him shop from Arizona and worked with he and his worker for two weeks putting the wood kit together, nailed the metal to the wood and hauled it back to Az.. It was a great experience. Wood was fabulous. Now if I can only get the last piece that he did not have, it will be wonderful.......

langer, It would be better if you tell us who you took your metal to, Jim or KC?
Thanks

Recently bought a piece from KC and was very happy.

The question was about Jim @ Autowood Restorations. Not sure where the confusion came in.

I knew what you were talking about but sometimes MrMack doesn't catch on. Anyway, your post was in reply to todd3131 who was talking about KC Wood, so that is probably where the confusion arises.

I talked with Jim Rodman last year to get a ball park figure on what it would cost to bring a 33 4 door master to him to have a complete wood kit installed. He told me it would be about $10,000.00 but it would be at least a year before he could do it.

hoppy

Can anyone supply me with phone numbers for both Kc and Jim Rodman or web addresses? If I have to wait months I should get them going so I have the wood when I'm ready for it. Now that I am forewarned.

KC Wood has an ad in the Generator & Distributor with the contact information. It is located under "Services Offered" in the back of the magazine. They also have a web site and you can find them on Google.

Autowood Restoration has a web site. Go to Google and you will find the web site with the contact information.

Thank you, I enjoyed the article of your first junkyard adventure.

Cool! Glad that you enjoyed it and there will be more coming as well.

The main item of Confusion was that you didn't say...Which one you were talking about, and since there were two woodcutters mentioned on this thread, I asked which one?

The English language is a nice communication tool, you just need to drive the nail all the way in, know what I mean? If not, I will try to make myself clear on the matter.

While venting is sometimes productive, it is usually not. We in this hobby have few sources to go to who provide high quality products at reasonable prices. It appears from past topics that Autowood Restorations is one of an awfully small number who provide wood frames. When we recognize that high quality woodwork only comes from very dedicated hands on workmanship, we would be naive to think it comes like fast fries at MacDonalds. Never dealt with Jim, but those who have his components regularly speaks raves about his work. So lets not discourage such crucial suppliers by piling on personal venting. Having made my own wood components for my '31 Coach, I admire anyone who can do so at a price as they are very complicated pieces and need to be bang on. I would much prefer someone who is carefully hand-making my pieces versus someone who is constantly on the phone answering inquiries. Patience is a virtue and if Jim is following this topic I hope he has plenty!

I believe what you said is correct and I have heard nothing but good about his work. But being a business owner and having to rely on outside vendors I have learned a long time ago that communication with the client is more important than the product most times. clients will wait for a product as long as there is communication about deadlines and production schedules and post sale follow up and tech advise, but when calls are not returned and money has been paid up front it creates a whole set of problems for both sides. Communication with the client costs nothing but lack of it can cost everything. If a wood kit is going to take four months to produce then I can plan on that but at the end of the four months I would want it in my hand. As far as not taking calls or emails that is a cop out there is time in each day that should be set aside to return calls either early or late in the day.

I think that you guys are wasteing a lot of breath and typing time, Jim has the business, maybe more than he wishes for, and can't be too concerned about the bitching.
Take him as he is, he don't appear to be driven by words on this site!
I don't have way more business than I can handle, but I won't put up with a bunch of hot air that you all seem to consider communications. Don't call me!

Perhaps this thread should have been posted in the Supplier and Vendor forum. Maybe then we would be able to relate our experiences as "legitimate" criticism rather than hot air which I understand is in abundance in Texas. No offense meant but when someone ask my opinion I try my best to be accurate when responding. I think after reading the above responses one can only conclude that Jim makes the best wood one can get, but he's hard to do business with. Perhaps knowing that upfront would prevent a lot of frustration. Some businesses are glad to get customer feedback so they can adjust their business practices to better suit their customers. I don't know any that would rather say to hell with the customer let him go elsewhere. Perhaps you are that exception.

As for customers, the good ones are smart enough to recogonize a good product, and how to find a good provider, Then there are those wannabe customers that are never satisfied, because they often fail to recognize a good product and a good service provider. For those, a good vendor has to do like Paul did, shake the dust off of your shoes and keep going down the road, and finding someone that will listen to your good news.

There is certainly enough hot air in Texas for me to know when it is blowing and from where it is coming!