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This is the story of  Kelley’s Classics
My name is Bill and I am (or was) the owner of Kelley’s Classics.
I had been playing with cars as a hobby  for the last 30 years or so and one day it occurred to me that maybe I could make
a living of it. I planned and planned until I came up with what I thought was a plan that would work. I saved all the money I
could, until I had enough to put my plan into action.

I found and bought a building that was perfect! It had been a car dealership since 1938, PERFECT! After buying the
building and paying the secretary of state and insurance I was ready.

I went to the Granville National Bank in Granville Illinois. I met a man named Dan that seemed to really believe in my plan as
much as I did. We started off with a small line of credit. At the time I thought if I had 3 or 4 cars on the floor it would be
enough. The business started off pretty good, I was selling cars as fast as I could find them. I went to the bank and talked
to Dan and decided to increase the line of credit. I thought if I had 6 or 7 cars on the floor it would be enough, wrong again.
I increased the line of credit again. Maybe 9 or 10 cars would be good. I kept it at that level for quite some time, then I found
I could buy some project cars at very reasonable prices, so I started buying them and repairing or rebuilding them. Over
the next 4 years I bought mostly project cars and had started doing everything from paint jobs to full frame off restorations.
Business was great, as soon as I finished a car it was sold! I sold cars in many other countries and almost every state in
the USA!

By the end of the 4th year I had 22 cars on the floor! The winters were tuff so I’d sell as many cars as I could in the spring
and summer then start buying in the fall and do all the work in the winter. The first couple of winters were really hard, but
last winter I finally had a handle on it and actually made money all winter. Unfortunately Dan left the bank for a better
opportunity . That left me to deal with Lynn and Phil , the vise president and president. I got the feeling right away that they
had no idea what I did or how I did it. I lost the warm fuzzy feeling I had with Dan. By now my line of credit had grown to
$100,000 and I had notes on project cars of about another $190,000. I had no problem paying the interest or paying the
notes when the cars where sold. I thought everything was going good. The business was steadily growing and I was
paying my bills.

I stopped in the bank and talked to Lynn in December and told him I had a plan that was going to improve my cash flow
(especially in the winter) and increase my profit enough that I wouldn’t owe the bank anything by the end of August! I told
him I’d need to change a couple of my notes, he said he’d talk to Phil.
Then my master note came up for renewal in the end of December, I called and talked to Lynn about it and he said  “don’t
worry about it we’ll take care of it later” kind of odd I thought. Then I had 2 more project car notes expire, again I called and
talked to Lynn and he said the same thing. Now I’m worried! I had a feeling something was up, every time I called and
talked to Lynn about the notes or my new plan he said he hadn’t talked to Phil yet.
Now it’s  March, my master note has been expired since December, I have 2 others that have expired. I called Lynn and told
him I had just bought a car for $12,000. He said he would put it on my master note and transfer the money to my checking
account then he said “ can you stop in here tomorrow to go over a few things?” I told him I wouldn’t be able to stop in until
Monday (this was the Thursday before Easter) He said ok I’ll see you then.
All weekend I was thinking they were going to let me put my plan into action!

I walked into the bank Monday morning and went into Lynn’s office, Phil walked in right behind me and sat down. Phil
looked at me and says “ We’ve decided we don’t want to do this anymore, it has nothing to do with your credit, we just  
don’t want to do it and we‘re giving you  90 days to pay it all off” then he got up and walked out. I was really caught by
surprise! Then Lynn tells me that they will renew my expired notes for the 90 days which means I have to pay the interest. I
walked out of the bank with less than $800 in my business account.

Now I’m in a spot, I have cars that need to get done because spring is coming fast and I have no money to work with. I
immediately put together all my financial records and business plan. I went to 11 other banks and was told the same thing
at all of them “ my credit is great but they can’t use my “old” cars as collateral”.

Now I have to get creative! I started selling any tools or equipment I didn’t need to raise the money to finish some of the
cars, hoping I could make enough money to finish the rest and pay back the bank. It didn’t work, I couldn’t make enough to
finish the rest. I called Phil and told him I wasn’t able to get another bank to finance me and the cars I had left needed to be
finished in order to sell them. Phil told me to fax him a list of cars and their current value. I put together the list and faxed it
to him. As everybody knows the cars aren’t worth as much in pieces as they are finished. Phil called me and said he was
going to have the cars appraised  by another source. A few days later Baker classic cars called and said they would be
doing the appraisal. Baker showed up with his son and went over all the cars, of course he wouldn’t tell me what they’re
worth because he was working for the bank not me. But the bank wouldn’t tell me what they appraised for either.
I got a call from Phil a few days later and he says Baker offered him $100,000 for all of them and all the parts I had.  I told
Phil I could sell them for more than that if he’d let me sell them for less than I owed. He said he didn’t want to start selling
them for a loss but he was seriously thinking about Bakers offer.

Now I don’t get it, I owe the bank $280,000 and they’re thinking about selling all the cars to baker for $100,000 but they
won’t work with me and let me sell them. So what did I do? I sold everything I had so I could finish a few of the most
valuable cars. I finished what I could until I ran out of money again then I sold them as fast as I could. Unfortunately I sold
them for little more than I owed. But I was able to pay the bank back almost $60,000. I talked to Phil and he said he still
didn’t want to sell any cars for less than I owed. The important thing to remember here is, at this point I’m still not behind
on anything!

I finally fell behind when the 90 days they had given me expired and 3 notes came due that I couldn’t pay. The next thing I
know Phil calls me and says he has another offer from a private individual to buy all the cars. Well… they sold them, all of
them for $60,000.

Could I have made it?  Well I’ve seen a couple of the cars I sold for dirt up for sale again for $10,000 more than I sold them
for after they invested less than $2000 in them.
I’m not sure what the bank had in mind or if what they did was even legal. Some of the notes on the cars wouldn’t have
expired until January of next year. I never received anything in writing from the bank, I never signed anything, they didn’t
reposes any of them.

Then after they sold all the cars Phil said to me “I hope you’ll work with us to try to pay back the remainder of the debt”
I’ll get right on that Phil!
Thats the story of the end of Kelley's Classics..........
Until I can think of something else!
But there is no way I'll ever trust a bank again!

If you own a small business and have anything to do
with the Granville National bank in Granville Ill. you
better think about changing banks!
OFFICERS OF THE GRANVILLE
NATIONAL BANK FINED!

Six officers of Granville National Bank were fined a total of $44,000 by an arm
of the U.S. Treasury Department for various infractions including “unsafe and
unsound” banking practices.
As seen in the News Tribune.




We ended up filing bankruptcy, that in itself is pretty bad. The worst part is I ended up with a lousy lawyer that
seems more concerned with the creditors than us. I thought I paid him to protect us, he gave me lousy advise
and now it looks like I might loose the building because of it. The bankruptcy trustee said he can void the
mortgage because its to my dad and sell the building. I asked my lawyer what we can do about it and he said
"Nothing, the trustee is god he can do anything he wants, but if I give him (the trustee)$10,000 I can keep the
building"  DOES THAT SOUND LIKE EXTORTION TO ANYBODY ELSE?
I've had enough of these bankers and lawyers trying stick it to me,
I think it's time to try to find a way to stick to them! I'm doing some research on suing my lawyer
and when I'm done with that I'm going to look at suing the bank too.
A person can only take so much!
I JUST FOUND OUT I HAVE A GREAT CASE TO SUE THE BANK BUT MY IDIOT BANKRUPTCY
LAWYER TOLD ME TO WAIT UNTIL THE BANKRUPTCY WAS OVER. WRONG IT HAD TO BE LISTED IN
THE PAPERS, SO TO DO IT NOW I'D HAVE TO OPEN UP THE BANKRUPTCY CASE AGAIN. THATS
NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!
IF YOUR LOOKING FOR A GOOD LAWYER DON'T CALL STEPHEN WEST IN OTTAWA ILLINOIS!!
UPDATE 4/26/09