‘You done robbed me’: Second customer claims City Classic Cars took money, never restored vehicle

HOCKLEY, Texas – A second customer is claiming City Classic Cars took his money and has yet to restore his vehicle after having it since last April.

“Please, please, please, thank you. No, you please. You done robbed me of $61,000,” Chase Tadlock said in an exchange with the company owner Sabra Johnson.

Tadlock and his family came to the restoration company to get their 1972 C10 Chevrolet. He said he has paid $61,000.

“After I saw your story, they’re doing the same thing to me. They’re doing the same thing to other customers,” he said.

Tadlock called KPRC 2 after seeing our story from earlier this month with the Smiley family in a similar situation.

RELATED: ‘That was his dream’: Grieving family still waiting on car restoration year later, told they owe money

“I truly believe that they hadn’t done any work on this car,” said Betty Smiley, who is working to restore her late husband’s car.

This week, the Smiley’s sent City Classic Cars a demand letter. They are asking for the following:

• The vehicle will have been reassembled in the condition in which City Classic Cars took possession of said vehicle, specifically the engine and transmission will have been reinstalled in operational conditional as it was prior to delivering it to City Classic Cars.
• The vehicle will display the restoration, and enhancements to include the removal of the rusted sections as agreed.
• All doors and body frame parts and accessories will be reassembled and reinstalled as the vehicle was delivered.

If they are not completed, the letter said it “will result in an immediate civil suit being filed and any other relief which may be due.”

“You’re not going to restore anything under $100,000,” Johnson said. “I get it you got a big dream. You want to get your car built. I just don’t work for free.”

Tadlock said he had a verbal agreement with Johnson and his company for the work to be completed for around $60,000.

Johnson said he has all of his clients sign contracts stating the true cost of restoration is unknown.

“In the restoration world you do not restore a vehicle for 40,000. You do not restore a vehicle for 60,000. You do not restore a vehicle for 80,000. I am not saying it cannot be done. At the pro level at the high level it’s going to be very difficult,” Johnson said. “This is a process. You have to determine what is in your financial scope.”