[Rich Z]

Well, I have to look at this from Aaron's perspective, too.

Quite honestly, if he were charging me time and materials on this job, not only would he have owned the car LONG ago, he would have had to stop working on it and scrap the thing, because we would be losing money hand over fist on it.

So my presumption is that he is necessarily giving priority to the money making jobs he has come in, and working on my car inbetween those jobs to keep from having the above scenario take place. I think that if that were to happen, it would be quite a black eye to him, all things considered. So he is doing this to HELP me out of a real jam I am in after Harwood had his way with me and my car.

Another extenuating circumstance is that Jim Smith is not local, so there is a lot of down time between visits when Jim can work on my car. Necessarily, he certainly does not come up to Aaron's unless there is other work pending there to make it worth his while. His bill on a time and materials basis could be monstrous as well. I'm sure both Jim and Aaron don't want to be in a position where they couldn't get a customer's car running without charging him so much that they had to take that car away from him. That would look bad in anyone's book, in my opinion. So right now I believe they are just trying to keep from being frustrated to death by my car, and sticking it out hoping for that "hero" moment when it is finally finished.

That being said, I asked Aaron that if the time comes that they just flat out give up on my car, to at least have it in the position where I can drive it home to sell it or trade it in.