[daleone3]

I worked in a shop that was notorious for this, get the car out as soon as you can. worse case is this guy is a bad business man overall and does not pay his taxes (this was the case with a local shop) and state or feds come in and drop padlocks on the doors and you have to fight to get your car. There is no reason that you should have to go there to work on it, get someone local and get it out. This is the problem with bodyshops in general. We would use the money from cars that came in to buy parts for cars that had been there for weeks (collision work mostly). On occasion they would take in a resto and fleece the customer out of the initial "get started" money. I watched the owners kid cut quarters off a nice 68 camaro and every time the owner came in to check on it, they would clamp on quarters to show him the progress. this went on for almost a year before he pulled it out. As a matter of fact, he did the same thing to me on a 67 Gran Prix I had, I somehow thought things would be different for me but I got treated the same crappy way. To this day, I give him the one finger salute when I see him.
good luck but bottom line is get your car away from them.