legal help?

[kepperly]

Please help me to do the right thing. My brother has been bugging me for two years to help him find and restore a mid to late 60 muscle car. Three months ago I found a 68 ss396 El Camino, rust free 4 sd car advertised for $11k, we looked at the car three times and then he agreed that if we could get it bought for under $9k we could partner on it. After I did some research I discovered the car has a 70 LS6 450hp 454 cu.in. mtr. We then wrote the owner a check for 8500.00/ 4250.00 apeice. I started working on the car to strip in down to be media blasted and ready to get into a paint shop we both agreed upon.His help in the dissasembly was very limited by his lake house and lack of knowledge/ committment The thursday evening I was notified by Kansas dry strip (excellent work) that the car would be ready on Friday to pick to take to paint. I called my brother and told him to meet at the stripper at noon on friday. 15 m later he drives down the five houses to mine and tells me he wants me to buy him out!!! I didn,t want another muscle car! I,ve got an 87 911 slant cabriolet carrera and only a three car garage. I have already delivered the car to the painter now I can,t get him to return the calls. My brothers wife is an accountant and took care of the title work since she dos'nt
work outside the house. Now since my brother just sent me an invoice for 4900.00 and I can,t get the painter to return my calls
I am really at a loss what to do. My brother explained tuesday night in front of an attourney porsche club friend the agrement and I have incremental reconcilation statements from his wife during the disassembly. now what the fxxk do I do with the whole deal. I was so mad I could of actually gone agent orange postal on him and his wife and then sucked off a shotgun. I believe in god and couldn,t do it but there will always be bad blood over this and I want to handle the whole thing correctly.
Please I hope none of my porsche brother ever have to go through this.

Keith Epperly 87 slant nose turbo look carrera cabriolet and 68 ss396/454 4sd El camino

[afterburn 549]

family peace is more important. Eat It!! or suffer a greater loss then $$

[jrdavid68]

Paint it, sell it and move on.

[aigel]

I would not even go as far as painting it. Sell it as it sits and give your brother half of the money. That way you will get some money back and you won't have to pay any more either.

Then scratch him off your phone list and move on. No need to kill anyone, this stuff happens. Better have it happen over a few grand than something really important, where you'd have trusted him - cause he's family. Now you know.

They say you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family. If it comes to a brother, nobody says you HAVE to be friends though.

Hang in there.

George

[Neilk]

Can you somehow make a profit on the project? That will show him!!! What is your brother going to do if you don't pay the invoice? Do you have anything showing that you split the car evenly?

I personally wouldn't pay a cent until the project is over with unless he is in a dire financial bind. You went in this together, why should you know take 100% of the burden?

[Randy Webb]

Kill your brother. Unlike the puny trunk on our 911s, the muscle car has a nice big one for the body.

[Alan Cottrill]

did you have a buy sell agreement speeling out how the partnership in this investment could be terminated? I didn't think so, who would need that with their brother.

anyway, I vote sell it as is. this is an investment. as with any investment there is no guarantee on the return of principal invested. sell it at a loss and give him his half of the proceeds. tell him thats your interpretation of the buy/sell arangement.

BTW... If that was my brother I'd already kicked his a$$

[dickster]

i take it theres no written agreement. always bad news.

sounds like you should sell it and split the proceeds.

good luck.

[DavidI]

Your brother sucks! Take the car back from the paint shop and take it to a cheap painter. You can sell it for more money after it is painted. Give your brother his share and be done with him. Although it may cost you some money, you will not have the problems of dealing with your brother and his wife for the rest of your life.

If you did something rash, you will end up doing some jail/prison time taking you away from the rest of your good family.

If you want, buy him a plane ticket to LA and I'll use him as a full-contact sparring partner. I always like fresh meat!

Good luck, David

[gerard vaglio]

Thats too bad but if I were in your shoes I would just follow through with the paint job. Tell your brother he will get his money as soon as the car sells. There is no reason for you to "buy him out". You purchased the car together, you sell the car the same way. Simple.

This part is a little harder. Don't get too mad at your brother but never, ever enter into any arrangment with him that involves money. The next time he has a "big idea" just listen and smile, but keep your wallet in your jeans.

Good luck.

[RANDY P]

Your brother is a d@#k. Considering that he's been hassling your for two years -

Sounds like he's bent on the fact it's a non number's matching car after all and he's letting you take the hit. If you can't sell the car as a paint to your preference sort of deal there's always small claims court. At the tab you guys are running up and what you're into it it's gonna be a loser if you try to continue to finish it. Try to bail now - either way he's not getting his full investment back. If you need to finish it to be marketable deduct it from his end of course. Then there's the issue of releasing the title - back to court...

Glad that my brother and I aren't like that - that's definitely hell. One thing's for certain, he needs to pay...

rjp

[moazam]

Originally posted by Alan Cottrill

BTW... If that was my brother I'd already kicked his a$$

If that was my brother, I'd kick my own ass.

[E30Mracer]

good or bad, he is still your blood. That to say, you have to still retain some dignity. Do what you must in order to finish it with the car in the best financial way and give him half. It would make you feel that you did everything right and you can move on with it. If anything, it is a good lesson not to ever deal with him. It's a shame but what else can you do?

[look 171]

do you guys really think that it is the brother's choice. It may be the wife's. She may not want him to have the car for whatever reasons, they can ***** and ***** and ***** to drive you isane. Sometimes, men will do stupid stupid things to just end the *****ing. Even w / another family member. If your brother didn't want the car. he wouldn't be trying for 2 years.

[ChrisBennet]

Ask him if that arrangement seems fair and if he thinks it does, ask him to buy you out.
-Chris

[JNadal]

Originally posted by look 171
do you guys really think that it is the brother's choice. It may be the wife's. She may not want him to have the car for whatever reasons, they can ***** and ***** and ***** to drive you isane. Sometimes, men will do stupid stupid things to just end the *****ing. Even w / another family member. If your brother didn't want the car. he wouldn't be trying for 2 years.

I completely agree.
Take him to a bar, buy him a beer or twelve and then ask him if his wife is to blame.

Hey if he says she's not to blame, at least he might be drunk enough to sign a statement saying he will pay you for the car

[Rot 911]

I agree that the brother's wife may be the one pushing the issue here, so she is the one you need to watch out for. There is no doubt in my mind that if you give her less than their invoice that she is going to cry foul, so you better be able to justify the lesser amount. I am not going to get into the legal issues on this open board, but I am an attorney and have dealt with these matters before. I can't let a fellow Pelican Head just hang out there. Not to mention a fellow Kansan! (KU undergrad and Law School, assistant DA in Wichita 1989-1990) Shoot me a PM.

[Jgordon]

Why did your brother send you an invoice for $4900? doesn't that seem a little overboard?making a quick 15% off your brother, in being a dick at that, doesn't seem like the way to handle yourself. I'd extricate yourself from this as quickly as possible, maybe even just cutting him a check for $4250, and then do as some others said and shut the door to that part of your life. I don't think the "eat it to preserve the family relationship" line works, because that's already ****ed. And it wasn't you that did it.

[jmohn]

All animosity and family intrigues aside, if you can afford to complete the re-paint, and the car is in otherwise good condition, you can certainly better your "investment". Buy him out, paint it and sell it. Just from watching "Barret's" and other markets/auctions, 60's-70's "retro-rods" are the hot ticket in older cars and you've got a very good candidate in that El Camino (not as good as a Camero or Chevelle, but pretty good none-the-less).

Jerry M
'78 SC

[aigel]

Guys, guys, guys. You are true gear heads, all right. You can not paint that car and get MORE money for it. A good paint job will cost you on the order of 5+k. It's only been bead blasted. It's either off to Earl Scheib or the auction block as is.

And as far as saying, it's probably the wife, yes, probably. But if my wife would start raising hell against my family, she'd get a pretty short and quick explanation on how nothing ties people closer together than blood. Your wife can divorce you, your family can't. If one of your family members becomes a slave of their significant other, it's a sign of a weak character. He may divorce this one at some point, but it will happen again - likely.

Glad to see that Kurt will be able to give advice from the legal side! Kudos Kurt!

George