jimigisme

For any of you in the Washington State area, do not take your car to
Bel-Aircustoms in Longview WA - Josh Evans


Josh Evans has completely scammed over 20 people, and ruined several dreams.


He was hired to do work on several vehicles, including my 1967 CS. Josh essentially ran a chop shop, most of the new parts that I ordered were either sold to other customers, used on his personal car, or sold on Craigslist.


Josh Evans also sold other customers parts, including engines, transmissions, and even attempted to sell a customers vehicle.


J

MDchanic

Whoa. That's pretty low.

Sounds like someone to watch out for, no matter where you are, as that type tends to wear out their welcome and roam around.

- Eric

rustyroger

Is there a warrant out for his arrest?. Surely there should be if the allegations have any truth to them. I'm not suggesting they don't btw.


Roger.

Jetstarjim

You have to be very, very, careful when choosing a shop, and do your homework. There are so many "wannabe" restorer's out there, it's amazing. My best advice is to contact local paint suppliers in person. They won't generally comment over the phone, but few will look you in the eye and say "no problem with the guy". If the shop is on "cash" or "COD" only, run like your pants are on fire. They tend to use deposits for cash flow, and your deposit goes to try to get someone else's to a payment point, and so on. I have seen it time and time again.


I am generally not a fan of deposits, but would never pay more than the amount equal to 80 hours labor, and 50% of a part cost, before completion/installation of that particular phase. Reputable restoration shops generally bill every two weeks for parts and labor up to that point.


These problems usually end up being a civil matter, and are very tough to get criminal prosecution for.

edzolz

Back in the 90's, in a Dallas suburb, There was a guy posing as a restorer of Oldsmoblies. The problem with him was, he would take your car, never work on it and when you would try to get your car, he would file a mechanics lein citing storage charges that were more than your car was worth. He finally got caught buy trying to scam a lawyer and spent some time in Huntsville State Pen.

toro455

Tell us more...was he referred to you by someone else or did you respond to an ad ? Did he scam you out of money ? D-Bags like that need to have the spotlight put on them so they can't scam anymore.

47 Convertible

[QUOTE=jimigisme;748010]For any of you in the Washington State area, do not take your car to
Bel-Aircustoms in Longview WA - Josh Evans


You went a long way down state from Bellvue to get scammed. Why? There are a number of good shops right in the Seattle Metro area so why would you go 120 miles to Longview?

Name search in that area turned up three different Josh Evans shown living in Longview WA. and Kelso WA. which is right next door to Longview. Unless I wanted to pay for more details, which I didn't, that's all you get doing a search by name online.

I looked under car restoration, streetrods, auto body repair, custom cars and every other kind of listing I could think of including the name Bel-Air Customs and nothing turned up. If there is a Bel-Air Customs in Longview WA the search engines I use have never heard of it. So when did this happen? What is/was the business address? The place must be pretty obscure. Does the guy have a criminal record? If he is stealing stuff as you allege did you ask the County Prosecutor, Sue Bauer, or the Longview PD for help? You need to provide more details/verification. before I'm wanting to jump on your bandwagon. What you are alleging is criminal activity-- lot more than shoddy work, taking too long or charging too much which are the common complaints about auto body and paint places.
Jerry

oldcutlass

Great post Jerry, x2 on details.

Dan K

No business license either according to Wa State Dept of Revenue - a place I always check before getting into business with anyone for any significant work. The only business under that name in Longview is Evans Handy Services - closed in 2012

I agree with Jerry - Longview is a long haul, must have been a great price to make the trip - if this is a legit post. No offense, but also agree with Jerry something seems off here.

lemoldsnut

There is a similar story about a guy named Tom Sabatula who had a shop in Madras Oregon. he took in several Dodge Chargers and some other cars. Did basically the same thing. He even sold one car without a title. He is reported to be in Pennsylvania somewhere and also has ties in Albany Oregon. He took a dear friend of mine for over $12000 and then he ended up with a car that was stripped.

It is a shame these guys are around. We should all make it public who does this. But, we should all also make sure small swables with shops are not a part of this. A misunderstanding is just that. But a theif is another.

Brian Gerson

I can verify that this is all true that Josh Evans has scammed a bunch of Hot Rodders in the Cowlitz County area ..he had a shop set up in down town Castle Rock that he used local teenagers including my son to work small jobs on the side to make it look official but in the mean time he was taking an stripping down others..and he even had a car just disappear from the shop. .of course the kids all got blamed and next thing you know he has disappeared and everything gone over night for the kids to wonder if they were going to get paid or arrested..
I saw about 5 yrs ago that he had set up another small shop in the Winlock/Toledo area but it has already shut doors too..
I just saw today in the Daily News Paper that they are looking into a local man accused of doing the same thing but because of not being arrested yet they have not said names..we can only hope it is him and no more Hot Rods will be destroyed.

jimigisme

No..
Simply put, the police said "it's his word against yours".

Of course I have a contract, receipts, etc, but it's not evidence that he stole from me.

Read further down this thread and you will see another post regarding Josh.

jimigisme

To Jerry and Dan..
Yes Longview is a "long haul".. But, I have a beach house in long beach, WA, which is not far from Longview Kelso, and the location where I keep several classics..

Also,
Read the other post regarding another victim, for your proof..

Dan K

Jimi - Gotcha, that makes sense. Sorry for your troubles.

Jeesh, this has been going on for a while - there must be a way to put a stop to the guy...

Professur

Smarter choice, sue. Small claims court is civil, not criminal. There's no presumption of innocence.

wr1970

This thread should be maybe a buyer feed back type thing except this is down right theft by a post left by op and one other poster. Just plain sad.

Brian Gerson

Kelso man suspected in vehicle parts thefts
http://m.tdn.com/news/kelso-man-susp...ile_touch=true
We are really hoping that this is Josh because a lot of the information is the same as what we know about him.

koolkatprez

Just to let you all know, the Josh Evans I had an encounter with is in his early 30s and now living in Vancouver, WA.. He had my pickup at a shop in Vancouver and I finally pulled it out due to learning all about his activity. He almost got me to "partner" with him in the restoration business at that shop but I fortunately caught on to what was happening.
He claims to have been to West Point Academy and to have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. All BS!! In fact his speaking of this kind of service is an insult to all that have served, me being one of them although my service was Vietnam.
Anyway, his last employer that I know of was Kevin's Restorations on St. Johns Rd. in Vancouver. I think Kevin found out about him and fired him.
Oddly enough, my wife and I were having dinner at Billigans on Saturday night and he and Kathleen were right in front of us going into the restaurant. My wife asked me to be cool so I was. They saw us on the way out and totally avoided saying anything. Good thing...LOL
Anyone coming into contact with them should be careful when it comes to having him do any work for you.

Paybackforscammers

Please forgive any formatting issues- I'm dumping some initial information about these scammers. I'll give a personal account of our situation over the next few days, after we’ve begun other avenues to curtail their shenaniganry. For now, I can at least provide this information. Their provided business card is an attached file to this post. I have photos of their faces too, but will not post those unless moderators are ok it.

They claimed to be concours auto restorers, and invited my wife to the Portland Roadster Show around the end of March 2016 to smokescreen, and support his claims of previous work to convince us to participate in business with them. Josh even claimed that his father had previously won a Ridler award, and threw his arms out to point at cars and say they were his work.

He spoke to the VFW rep who was there at the Roadster show (Ken Kraft, VFW Jr. Vice Commander 2015-16, Dept. of Oregon) as well, in an effort to play an act – my wife is an OIF combat vet, 100% disabled. Kathleen Evans showed my wife two purple hearts at their home, among other medals that he clearly did not earn. Josh did not serve in the military. He never once produced a DD-214 and would not on request, to prove what he claimed.

Originally, my wife posted an ad on craigslist to trade fine woodworking for auto restoration. We are fine furniture builders (woodshrew.com, you can see the furniture pieces they tried to get away with). We sold three pieces for $6600 total, and performed onsite work for them equating to more than the $10,000 that they quoted us (verbally, through text and email, never on an official invoice) for the body restoration work on our 54’ Chevy Truck.

After they tried convincing us to work on things that required a permit (they knew we were furniture makers, not licensed contractors), we cut the cord and said that we were only going to continue other work they wanted us to complete off-site (at our home, our woodshop). We never planned to do onsite work (their house) in the first place, but they convinced us to help them out. We were well-meaning, and wanted to help because we thought they were genuine.

We charge $30/hr for Joinery/Woodworking/Design at our home shop, and did the on-site work for $15 an hour. This is a hobby business for my wife, as she doesn’t leave the house much due to severe PTSD issues. These people were actually going to be her first big clients, or so we thought. She had recently finished a Masters Woodworking program with Gary Rogowski over an intense, 3-year mentorship. The on-site work was just off the fly, small things for Kathleen. Things like fixing a birdfeeder, squirrel feeder, garage trim, bunkbed ladder, a park bench, painting cabinets, house trim, and garage trim.

Then, it switched to changing out doors in the house. After that, they wanted us to move stairs, and replace and reframe front windows to a smaller size. This was more work that required permits, contractor licensure. They wanted to do this illegally. We later learned that serious foundation work was recently done, and that’s when I looked to see if a permit was pulled with Clark County. It wasn’t. We became more suspicious.

It turns out that the person who actually owns the property they operate from is on his deathbed right now. The older man (Timothy David Lange) had an older truck that was being worked on, and they convinced him that they would work on his house while working on his car. I don’t know if they’re trying to scam this guy out of a house too. I’ll be touching base with Timothy to see if he is benownst of all these details.

I know that Timothy told them to stop working on his truck before having to go to the emergency room, and that Kathleen and Josh discussed selling his vehicle afterwards to “pay off the debt he owes them”. This was on the 2nd day my wife was working on-site for Kathleen and Josh (March 2nd). She was taking apart their park bench when Timothy arrived to talk to them on his way to the hospital. Timothy could hardly stand as he was leaving, and was very sick.

---------

Bel-Air Customs

aka jkstreetrodsperfomanceanddesign (currently used name)

Not “Bel Air Customs” – interestingly, an innocuous name is what I think they try for, in order to remain confusing to others. Anyways- their names are listed further below.

They are running an auto repair shop without an active license (I think, someone please correct me on the legitimacy of the shop operation if I’m wrong) next to Sacagawea elementary school in Clark County, WA. The fumes vent out the garage door and directly into the parking lot where kids are picked up at the end of the school day. The house they are at is being modified heavily, and without permits being pulled.

They are working on/storing 5 different vehicles right now, owned by different clients.

http://dor.wa.gov/content/doingbusin...ybusiness/brd/
(searched under them, produced the dept of revenue database detail attached to this post)

http://bls.dor.wa.gov/licensesearch/...?RefID=1595777
(business licsense, under Kathleen, as sole proprietor)

http://gis.clark.wa.gov/gishome/Prop...ount=189316000
(Clark county property information, where they are operating, next to Sacagawea Elementary School. Note Timothy Lange as the owner of the property)

I dug around, and found more.

Kathleen (age 29) goes by----

Kathleen M Evans
Kathleen Householder
Kathleen Arndt
Kathleen Householden
“Kathy” as well for each of those last names

Past cities:
Vancouver, Washington
Longview, Washington
Everett, Washington

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Josh (looks mid to late 30’s) goes by----
Josh M Evans
Joshua Michael Evans
Josh Miouri (this was the name he purported, along with the West Point/OIF service record, including 2x purple hearts, violating ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Valor_Act_of_2013))

Past cities:
Vancouver, Washington
Longview, Washington
Winlock, Washington
Castle Rock, Washington
Kelso, Washington


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Here’s the Toledo ad, again, shortened link, for reference. http://bit.ly/1SLIfgA

We contacted Clark County Sheriff an hour ago, and they were very interested in this news article referenced in this forum the theft occurring in Dec 2015 in Toleda, WA.

Also – does Cowlitz River Customs ring a bell for anyone? I attached a file showing that too. Not sure what to make of it or if it is associated. What do you all think?

More updates will follow. I had just created an account to post this.

p.s
@Brian Gerson Please contact us if you want to touch base about these people.


We are restoring a 54 Series 1 Chevy 6400, maybe after all this I’ll share our progress of the restoration. It’s a sweet vehicle.

All the best to all of you-

Paybackforscammers

He's showing up AGAIN on CL to scam/barter.

Paybackforscammers

The last picture is Kathleen, with Chip Foose! My wife was able to meet him through this fiasco, which was pretty cool.
---
Update on these scammers. They are going to get it so good. Things are coming down the pipe to put these people in jail.

47 Convertible

From the information on the map part of the CL ad, he is still right in Vancouver, WA. If you were a person who actually dealt with him and had a bad outcome you can take action to eliminate his posting and do it every time he puts it back up. I haven't dealt with him so would be on shaky ground if asked why I black listed his ad. You can also post on CL saying beware of this guy because...
Jerry

kjr442

Leo B. ?? I was hoping he got what he deserved.

edzolz

Yep, that was him

jackchitt

Comment deleted by moderator.

koolkatprez

The picture is NOT Josh Evans. But he should be backed up to a booking board like McVey was!! Foose Designs contacted me after I let them know he was falsely using them and the picture with Chip as proof to encourage people to fall for their scams. Foose explained that Chip has openly taken pictures with fans but in no way are they "friends or associates" of Josh & Kathleen.

Cargeek1974

Comment deleted by moderator. Please note that Cargeek1974 has been banned from the site.

koolkatprez

Are you Josh??? I have had a personal experience with Josh & Kathleen and consider them to be people requiring great scrutiny before doing any business with them. He listed my Mustang on Craigslist when it was at his shop, trying to sell it! He said I agreed to give him the Mustang in return for completing restoration work on my truck and that's true, but he did NO WORK whatsoever on my truck and yet listed the Mustang for sale without a title from me!! Josh also sold me an engine out of an El Camino that was not his and when I discovered that it wasn't what he claimed it to be I brought it back to his shop and pursued him until he returned my money. I also immediately pulled my Mustang and Chevy pickup out of the shop due to his attempt to sell the car and before any parts came up missing.
He claims to be a war vet with Purple Hearts and a Silver Star!! Well I won't go into that but it is believed that he is misleading everyone as he hasn't produced a DD214 showing his service record. Why, because it's believed that he NEVER SERVED!! Yet he claims to be a West Point graduate...and his name doesn't appear on a roster!
So you had work done by him...when? What vehicles? How about meeting up with me and a couple of others that they tried to scam and showing us the work he did that you're praising him for. In the meantime people just need to question him and ask to see and get legitimate references for his so called restoration work. Josh & Kathleen have continually had to move from every place they have lived to get away from the people they've allegedly scammed. I say "allegedly" because they have not yet legally been charged with anything of that nature to date. Josh worked for a short time at a local, very reputable restoration shop in Vancouver and they let him go within a few weeks of his being hired..I wonder why????
They are the type of people that can gain your trust as their persona is very likeable...but at the end of the day...WATCH OUT!!

Hemi4life

Comment deleted by moderator. Please note that Hemi4life has been banned from the site.

Koda

Paybackforscammers

Hilarious. You seem like a shill review. Josh is as scummy as it gets. Clearly, one would have to ignore everything else stated on this forum to believe you. I encourage anyone who has pm'ed me so far to post their story for others to read.

There are many, like the lies he and Kathleen perpetuate.

Laughing

Cargeek74 has got to be a joke.

koolkatprez

I'm almost certain that this cargeek character is Josh Evans. I've invited this person to meet up so I can view the so called collector cars he professes to have had restored by Josh. No word back yet...Josh!!!??? YA THINK!!

If anyone is dumb enough to let that guy touch their vehicle after all that has been said here....well I guess they deserve to lose their money. Don't ever pay this guy in advance for anything!!!

Laughing

No only is this guy a liar and a con artist, he is a hack. I confirm the claims made here. He completely lied about work done or not done. Excuses excuses and just flat out lies. I hate to tell you this Hemi but if he painted your car, I would be very worried about the prep work. Did you see your car before the primer was spayed?. I'd love to meet or see any kind of proof from the "photographer" defending him. His wife is just as much in on it as he is. Who would change the name of their business if they had satisfied customers??? If anyone here has a camaro pm me. Karma

Paybackforscammers

Well put. I'd surprised if cargeek comes through.

jackchitt

I am surprised the guy with the charger has had so few issues. I have worked for Josh and honestly, I think he actually did good work for you. It sounds like he even installed your engine for free. He pays his guys big money and does not live frugaly. He was probably losing money and cut everyone loose again. I seriously doubt he is closing shop. That is exactly what he said when I quit working there. Josh believes in "fake it till you make it". He knows very little about what he does and learns by hiring guys that do. When I started feeling like all his story's didn't add up, I found this site and decided I did not want my name attached to his.

jackchitt

On a side note, I love restoring classics and doing custom work. I am not going to tell you some fantastic story about building world class hot rods with Chip Foose. My story is actually a big downer. I am not doing this to get big money or to get on television I do this because it makes me happy. It is my niche..

Laughing

Pretty frustrating hearing how well he pays his guys. As people on here including myself have been ripped off for thousands of dollars. It's also very apparent in the work he did for me that he doesn't know what he's doing.

Paybackforscammers

It's indicative that he forms such a facade. It's very easy for someone unsuspecting to believe what he states.

The garbage Joshua and Kathleen are leaving in their wake is stupendous. It's unfortunate they won't be able to run this time, though it seems he's trying to. They're attempting to ditch, and leave the house they're at. It's funny, actually. They've put paper up in all their windows from what I have heard, and are still doing work in their garage even though they aren't supposed to.

It's likely they're trying to squeeze blood from a stone while they can.


What gets me is that they had a baby in the house while doing the auto work for all of you. The exposure will probably affect the child much later in it's life. Josh looked constantly high on inhalants. I don't CPS is very happy with them.

Paybackforscammers

Comment deleted by moderator.