How can people sleep at night?

I had a guy bring a nice late 60's truck to the shop last month for some repairs. After going over his list which was pretty extensive and then having him say please look at the entire truck and make a list of things that need additional attention.
holy crap what a disaster. A new wiring harness butchered with dead ends everywhere. Door and window seals installed backward. Holes cut in new panels to access blind nuts that can be accessed through factory holes. The list goes on and on. This could be a really nice truck, it has all the right parts just no attention to detail during assembly.
I started on the owner's list last week and found more things that were installed in a similarly poor fashion. I had the owner come over yesterday to discuss the new discoveries. I could see the look of dejection on his face and his response was just to keep track of everything and fix it.
I'll have this in the shop for at least a month making repairs to what was supposed to have been a complete frame off build. How can someone do work like this and live with themselves????//

sorry just had to vent. I hate to see someone get taken advantage of like this.

 

Unfortunately there's alot of cars out there like that.My brother worked for Specialty Sales a Classic and Exotic Car Dealer out here.You wouldnt believe some of the stuff I seen, and these were high dollar cars too...yikes..

 

This thread wasn't what I thought it'd be. I thought the guy was going to turn around on you, thinking you were trying to bleed him dry!

Yeah, there are some crazy folks out there who just want stuff done, and they don't care what it takes to get to that stage.

 

I'd suspect some shops do what they think are correct ways of doing a customer's car and they don't know any better, or any other way of getting it done.

Not everyone can do the work the same way you see it, or the way it should have been done.

I'd also suspect when the other shop handed over the vehicle and the current owner accepted it, they slept very well that nite, especially after cashing the check...

R-

 

This seems like a side effect of the "overhaulin'" syndrome - gotta get it done in a week, whatever it takes.

 

Sounds like a first time builders car. They call it frame off because they took it apart.

 

This guy must really be in love with this 60s truck to want to spend that kind of money on it . You got any pics of this truck?

 

I used to buy and sell VW Bugs, and the best 'fix' I ran across was a section of air line hose inside the car to replace a rusted brake line.

 

It is pretty unbelievable isn't it? We've got one in the shop right now like that. Beautiful full fendered model T that the guy paid a nice big chunk of change for. Bought it from his "buddy" he says. The car looks great on the shiny side but underneath is worse than any junky RR chassis I've ever seen! The front suspension came apart on him and threw the wishbone through the splash apron! I had to replace the entire front and rear suspension, steering, and I keep finding other scary stuff everywhere I look. Poor guy!

 

Not really surprising, we seem to make a living re-doing other shops work.

From bondo'ed in floor boards to missing bolts holding in the rear end (the ones that were there were hardware grade) to snot welds, cracked frames painted over, stripped out wheel studs, nicely painted cracked blocks are just a few things that come to mind.

I agree that there are too many shops looking to make a quick buck and not thinking about quality or safety.

 

You're preachin to the converted.

 

Was at a show a few months ago and talking to a guy who had his frames back section replaced after finding bondo on the frame to hide rot that was all the way through.

 

Just had a friend that moved down here about a year ago. He had a 31 coupe done at a place in Omaha where he's from. When it was delivered it he couldn't even drive it. Took us a month to properly repair their work. They chopped up a new wiring harness. We had to redo the brake master cylinder and hydraulic clutch system they 'fabbed'. And every bolt they installed was loose many without a nut even. And many other things including an emergency brake handle that won't even move. Plus it was almost 2 years for this work to be done. And it wasn't a build Just a paint and upgrades. Wasn't even a frame off. It was actually 6 mos to no more than a years worth of work. We still have some work to do but he can use it now and finally is starting to enjoy it again.

 

did your customer buy this car on the internet? We see that all the time. Buys a car, shows us pictures, gets car and it rides, drives, handles, like crap half the stuff don't work, etc.

I hate it when that happens, and feel your pain.

 

Word of advice: CYA! take before and after pictures of the repairs needed and the repairs done just in case He tries to come back on you later,it's a shame a handshake and a mans word means about nothing these days.

 

A pet peeve of mine. Some people just don't want to take the time to do things properly, always looking for the 'easy way', or the dreaded 'thats good enough' syndrome.

Alex.

 

the "easy way" is never the right way. Take your time and do it right. It is down right scary some of the things I have seen. And the scariest part, most of the time the owner of the car has no idea how bad it is.

 

A friend of mine has just bought a very expensive 67 Mustang, from a Mustang "specialist". The vin number is wrong, it's off an early 66 model. The gear box is wrong, it's a light duty 3 speed with overdrive, instead of the 4 speed top loader. Gear box is also leaking oil. The front suspension strut rods were loose, and the power steering pipes were in the wrong place and they have worn through rubbing on the tie rods. The dealer says it's nothing to worry about and he refuses to do anything

 

Sounds like a Sonny Mac deal to me. He nosed my F-100 by sodering a Pepsi can on the inside and filling the outside with bondo. He also said he had to realine the cab on my F-100 by putting a pry bar down the floorshift hole and prying on the tranny. What he did was burn out the netural safety swich which then burnt the ignition wire all the way up to the key start switch. DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH SONNY MAC OUT OF TULSA OR OKMULGEE, OK.

 

See it all the time in engine building, "Good Enough" is good enough for a lot of shops. Too bad I will be re-doing it for them after only a few thousand miles. Got in a 200 Ford head from the local Mustang guy once that had a good .100" taken off one exhaust stem to get the correct height because the seat was so deep. Nice! It did run, for a while.

 

Doin this right now. Had a lady ( hamb member ) buy a 49 ford. Pretty nice car when you look at it. Then you start really looking at it. The previous owner had installed an SBC. Which was fine, except the he left it sitting right on top of the steering! It was actually wearing a hole through the oil pan! After we started to repair that problem, we noticed a custom made floor ( all riveted together layer, over layer, over layer, over .... ) that did not have the clearance made in it correctly for the engine swap. Basically had to start all over. Makes me feel bad. Sux even more to see. Damn ebay and dishonest sellers!

 

I think alot of people do this crap thinking they are doing it the right way. When my father in law found out I was a autobody tech he started telling me how he use to rebuild cars. He was bragging to me about work he had done, that was down right scary. He was proud of it!

 

The problem I run accross all the time is when you give a price to do a job, They say so and so down the road will do it for half that money. People don't understand the price that I give is to do it right the first time with qaulity work, but they don't care about anything but the $$$$.......until they start having the problems.

If a person who knows nothing about cars, pays to have work done, then sells off that car that they had "professionally" worked on, they pass it off with no guilt or loss of sleep at all! This is a big part of those problems.

 

Unfortunatly my client paid to have a frame off done. Mostly all new parts. Lots of pics of the process and parts being installed. It breaks my heart to see somebody get taken like this. I'll have 2 days repairing a new out of the box tailgate that the previous builder cut up after paint to access 2 nuts. (He covered the holes with polished diamond plate). Looking it over it looks like a nice truck and it is, but the detail is not there.
Ok through ranting back to work on the tailgate.

 

I have seen and worked with people who were so incompetent they had no idea how incompetent they were. Sometimes you run into whole companies this way. I bought a car that was done in a professional rod shop. They did not have the correct coupler for the Vega box so they ground off the serations on the shaft and just used a set screw. The tie rod was too long so they cut it down. Most all the threads were gone so they cut the shanks of the tie rod ends off so only one or two threads were left so it could be screwed in far enough. There are people out there who are so sure of themselves and their ability that they never question what they do. They will also give you a tongue lashing if you try to help them.

 

A bit O?T but along the same lines...I worked at a John Deere dealership and we had traded in a Ford 8n, so a similar power plant to the early cars and trucks, anyway, it seemed to run very well but had no power after it warmed up. A few minutes on a dyno and it was clear there was an issue. We pulled the head and the number 3 piston had a square piece of 18 ga. sheet metal popriveted to the top of the piston. We took the rivets out and the piston had been burnt clear through... crazy stupid fixes to pass the buck along...

 

There are alot of old car repair/restoration shops that are run by dreamers/crooks rather than craftsmen/businessmen and there are alot of shops run by dreamers/business men or craftsmen/crooks. It is very hard to weed them out if you're a " who knows nothing of old cars except the desire to own one.civilian"

 

Sometimes customers don`t want to pay for quality work,so the shop needs the job and manage to do almost everything wrong or unsafely.I would call that the "Get er done" syndrome. I was in the business and can tell a lot of horror stories about other shops work.

 

If a guy would spend some time on here to learn the right way to do things he could save himself and his customer a lot of grief. If I'm working on a non Ford car and I have a question I can always find the info here.

 

Also, if you can't do the job right just tell the guy up front. Let him take it to someone who can. Clint Eastwood said " A man's gotta know his limitations"......Dirty Hairy.