Utah woman worries she's being taken for a ride after classic car restoration stalls

Layton — After a Millcreek woman and her husband paid a Layton restoration shop over $16,000 for an engine swap on their classic Pontiac, and nearly six years later, she's still waiting for the car to be done. Worried she's being taken for a ride, she decided to Get Gephardt.

"He decided he wanted to have a Pontiac engine put in it," Jennie Johnson said of what fueled her husband, Len's, decision to send his 1938 Pontiac to a shop.

Delays set in

Len Johnson paid Wasatch Customs $16,200 to replace the car's old Ford engine, a total that included credit for that old engine. But Jennie said delays plagued the project almost from the start.

"There were different reasons of why they weren't able to complete the car," she said.

Reasons given include COVID-19 wreaking havoc on parts supplies, and the shop couldn't hire enough help.

"My husband was checking back with them on a regular basis," Jennie said.

Len died in May 2025, four-and-a-half years after Wasatch Customs started working on his Pontiac. Jennie said the following August, the shop promised it'd be done in October.

"They agreed to give me regular updates of how things were progressing," she said.

But that October deadline rolled past without the car getting finished. And Jennie said those promised updates stopped coming. After months of silence and unreturned calls, Jennie called the KSL Investigators.

"I'd like my husband's dream completed, and the car finished," she told us.

A pattern seemingly emerges

As we began digging, we found Jeanie is not alone in her frustrations with Wasatch Customs.

We found numerous Google reviews from car owners facing a similar situation with the shop. Some complained of having to wait three years while others said they've waited six years — even seven.

And at least four car owners have filed complaints with the State of Utah.

"We have evidence that they have engaged in certain conduct that we consider deceptive at the Division of Consumer Protection," said the division's director, Katie Hass.

In the last two years, the division has slapped Wasatch Customs with $27,500 in fines. In each case, it was cited for knowingly receiving payment for services it failed to deliver. The division also ordered the shop to cease and desist from any act that violates the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act; essentially, knock it off.

"The people at Wasatch Customs that are running that business are not fulfilling their end of the bargain," Hass said. "And it's pretty clear that a reasonable person would see it that way."

We reached out to Wasatch Customs to ask about those fines and about Jennie's Pontiac.

The owner responds

In an email, the owner blamed the engine Len ordered. Mechanics had to "pull out the firewall and part of the floor to make it fit," he wrote. But they "plan on the car being done mid-May" and the "car will be running and drivable."

Guess what? May came and went with yet another deadline missed, and that was it for Jennie. She told us she hired a tow truck to pick up the Pontiac from Wasatch Customs and invited us along for the pick-up.

While there, we met owner Mark Lambert.

"It's been like six years now," I asked him. "Is that a reasonable time frame?"

"Not really," he responded. "Not on a normal job."

Lambert admitted the car sometimes just sits out here for weeks on end. He insisted that he has done thousands of dollars of work on the car beyond what's been paid. Those are costs he told Jennie and me that he's writing off.

Lambert also acknowledged this is not the only project that's gone way over the promised timeline.

"We're trying to get to them," he said. "My biggest thing is just trying to take care of the customer, not incur a lot of extra expense with it."

I asked Lambert about the state citations and the tens-of-thousands-of-dollars he's been fined.

"The word that's being used by the state is 'deceitful,'" I said. "Is your company being deceitful?"

"No, I don't think so," he responded. "It's hard to get parts. It's hard to find people that can physically work on them."

Finally leaving

As for Jennie, seeing the car in this condition, it's emotional.

"It's what Len wanted, and he thought it was going to be completed," she said. "He never got to drive it again."

It was while we were there that Len Johnson's 1938 Pontiac finally left Wasatch Customs on the back of a tow truck in arguably worse shape than when it arrived nearly six years ago.

In Utah, verbal contracts are legally binding but can be very difficult to enforce. Terms about the scope of work, payments, estimated costs and deadlines protect you best if they're written.

"It is not rude. It's not inappropriate when you're talking about tens of thousands of dollars to expect some things in writing," said Hass. "To expect some accountability. To expect some good bookkeeping. To ask for a monthly update on the car."

Hass also acknowledges mistakes can happen, but that doesn't absolve a repair shop of the responsibility to make amends.

"If you haven't done what you said you were going to do, at that point, you have to figure out what is reasonable to make amends," she said. "If you can't … then you have a problem."

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