Cali,68,L-79

Curious have you ever picked up your car on time from the mechanic? Not me, and not in 15 years of being in the auto hobby. Last month dropped off Vette for small touch-up scheduled for 5 day turn around. 3 weeks later........ :rolleyes:
This last Monday drop for a 'quoted" 4 hour clutch job, Tuesday's completion date becomes Wednesday when they realize they forgot to torque EVERYTHING!!
:cuss

My Vette is a toy however today's OOPS resulted in a pick-up tommorw and thus:
1. My Girlfriend lossing money as she took off work early today to drive back one of my cars.
2. Tommorow is my weekly visit to my Uncle (he's in assisted living "HOME")
3. My girlfriend is mad at me and I lost my chance at some trim. :jester

bn7035

I don't let anyone touch it but me. When I have tires put on I take the wheels of myself and put them in the back of the truck. I hate the way they just shove a jack under it. Call me **** but there is to much blood, sweat, and my money in it.

LAvetteman

A friend of mines dad has been a mechanic all his life, near retirement. As long as I can remember he has had a cartoon on the office wall of four characters holding there ribs laughing with a caption at the bottom "You want it when????" !!!!!

73 LS-4

Well being a technician, lets think of it this way. How many of your own car projects that your doing at home take as long as you expected :confused: , Same things happen in a shop that happen at home, fasteners roll under things, bolts break, bolts are frozen, get the wrong parts, get stuck helping someone else with another project, etc. and so on. I thought I'd get all my cabinets painted in a day :lol: that didn't happen, didn't take drying time into account. Time estimates are normally given in a perfect world, and we all know it's not perfect so think of them as ballparks. Now if they tell you tomorrow and it's next week then there is a problem that wasn't discussed. Now if they tell you it should be done monday night and it's done tuesday afternoon I can understand that. We make our best guesses in this business, customers seem to like us to be optimistic rather then pessimistic most of the time and time estimates often reflect this to some point.

:cheers:
Pat Kunz

71'AirStrike

Ive had this senaro happen to me MANY times with mechanics. Id rather have a mechanic tell me 7 days and have it done in 3. Too many times I have had to "come back tomorrow... and it will be done". I honestly feel its a bad business prastice, and I do what I can not to return my money there again.
JMO

chad

cardo0

How else are they gonn'a get to joy ride it. :p: Check your odometer before & after. Maybe rear tire depth too.
Your shark just looks too fast to trust most anyone.
Been there. Felt that pain. :mad

SanDiegoPaul

Hey, Bro sorry it's taking so long. I hope the heck they are doing it RIGHT!!! :party:

HcDave1

i try to do it all myself but somethings. i took it in and everytime i do i tell them when i need it by and its always done even some things that need days they knock it off. I got a good relationship with the guys at firestone ( vette oners) they have worked overtime to get my car done.

key is to tip well ;) and to be nice about it

fauxrs

WHAT!!! :eek: Where did you go? "We be clutches n' poopie"?

If a mechanic cant finish it faster than me, then they arent better than me, and they arent better than me, then they arent allowed to even touch my car.

Besides, as David well knows... I do as much of my own work as possible...although I did pay a guy to fix the chips in my paint (that I put on in the first place BTW :yesnod: ) because I didnt have the time or the tools anymore.

Mystery Machine

I had similar experiences with a guy...when I dropped the car off I even gave him an out, I said "don't tell me three days if it's going to be a week, I'd rather you tell me a week."...well, it was about a month. I never went back to him. Now I try to do all my own work but since I am a beginner I do have to use a pro from time to time and the latest guy I have used is very good and timely. :thumbs:

Never Finished

I do all my own work except for tire changes, flats, alignment, and machine work. I rarely finish a job when I expect to. I do the work on all my houses, too. It always takes longer than I think it will. I'm not a professional so maybe I don't have all the correct tools, but as a rule of thumb, taking all things into account, I rarely complete a job in the amount of time I originally think it will take. I'd rather have it done right than quick.

Cali,68,L-79

That's what I thought afterwards. I guess I should be happy that they at least remembered and I did not see my transmission in the rear view mirror rolling down the highway.

:lol:

Cali,68,L-79

Oaky total damage is $602.13. New clutch, fork, resurfaced flywheel, replaced 3 seals, replaced tach line, installed new tranny mount poly bushings. Pick-up at 4PM today.

CAR IS OFFICALLY DONE!!

OHSIXX

NO! :nonod:

GrandSportC3

My mechanic usually does all the work within the time frame that he predicted...

RedBlazed

Surprisingly enough, my mechanic usually finishes early... I'll drop something off on Friday, he'll say gimme a week, and I'll normally get a call tuesday or wednesday to tell me its done. And he does good work to boot. Guess I'm just lucky.
:D

HcDave1

update on firestone :mad

i was driving my vette around tonight and i heard a little pop. Its the same sound i heard before i did got the bushings redone im so mad right now i payed 400 bux to get my crap redone shocks aligment and bushings and i heard a light pop again. you can bet your a** poopie is going to hit the fan tomarrow. They just lost a lot of busness from me and frineds. :mad

Im taking all my needs to the actually corvette shop ill pay more but i know it will get done right and they wont short cut the work i want done.


[Modified by HcDave1, 2:51 AM 3/13/2003]


[Modified by HcDave1, 2:52 AM 3/13/2003]

bence13_33

I do all of my own work, but my machine shop must be one of the fastest around! I've heard horror stories of people having to wait months on their machine shop. When I was building the 454 I took all my parts to a well-respected shop. Exactly 1 week after I dropped my parts off he:

- Hot Tanked & Magnufluxed My Block
- Hot Tanked & Magnufluxed My Heads (Even Chased The Bolt Holes)
- Bored my standard bore block +.060"
- Honed & Chamberfied My Cylinders
- Balanced my entire rotating assembly
- Installed my cam bearings
- Installed freeze plugs (I didn't ask him to do this...but he didn't charge me)
- Cleaned Up & Micropolished My Crank & Checked it's runout

Total came to $700. Which for quality machine work is a great deal...not to mention how promptly it was done. Needless to say I have found my machine shop and will be sticking with them.

Cali,68,L-79

Well I called the guy at 10AM from work and he said it was done. At 4PM I showed up and it was sitting out but he told me the reverse light switch clip had broken and would be here in 10 minutes. I waited 10 minutes and 2 mechanics showed up with the tiny clip and drove her on the lift and 5 minutes I was off. Now I should mention I noticed one of the tire valve steam chrome caps was missing on the LR tire. I mean come on, steal something worth $0.85 YOU HAVE TO BE FRIGGIN KIDDING ME!! He apologized and said bring in the receipt and he'll give me the cash. I picked 4 chrome caps for $2.75 ridiculous and not worth my gas. Anyway I was told to come back within 15 days for a free check-up. Now how does it drive.

The clutch engages just as you let up from the totally down position. The old clutch was wore out but i got used to and liked the fact I could creep along in backed up traffic by feathering the clutch between the clutch and gas pedal. Now you have to feather between clutch and brake becuase it pulls like a raped ape as soon as you let off the clutch, believe me no gas needed. So I immediately took it back and the manager told me that he has done hundreds of these clutches and mine is factory spec. So I told him I would try it out but if I didn't like it he would have to adjust it to my liking during the check-up.
Well on the street I tried the fether clutch / brake and ended up stalling. I stopped at the street light and decided to try a little gas to see what she would do. I let out the clutch and pushed down about 40% and the tires lit up like never before and before I knew it my rear was sliding out to the right as I smoked through the intersection. I slammed into 2nd and it caught and launched until the rear was back behind me and I guess I floored it to WOT and again it started spinning tire. I barely brought it to a stop at the next light. Not sure if I love it or hate it. It definetly takes off stronger and shifts way faster but the control I am used to is gone and I have to relearn this car. Not sure yet if the cars going back or if I will learn to like it. For performance issues it is great because there is zero lag time between shifts, for street traffic it's scary.

Crash Dummy

Cali...

Getting used to a new clutch after years is definitely something different. You'll get used to the touch and it will be nothing. You are not the only one to go through living hell with mechanics, so it is not just in your area. I trust absolutely no mechanic in this little chit growing town called Pearland that I live in as they are convinced that cars(vettes) in the 70's deserve charging more since they are complete idiots when it actually comes to working with anything that a computer cannot diagnose. There are a couple of really good mechanics in my area that do nothing but hotrods and muscle cars, but they are in such demand you cannot even get a time schedule when they can work on it. And I will not drop this vert off to sit outside for weeks on end.

It's definitely frustrating to not know what you might get for service these days or if it will even be right.