opinions on mechanics by mechanics
09-15-2007, 08:32 PM
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opinions on mechanics by mechanics
Ok I got this mechanic and he does good work (please save the flaming, I work on my car when feesable, I just don't have all the tools or the time etc to get crazy). Anyways I've had him work on the civic and the lhs. He does good work sometimes he would do extra ish so it would come out extra or even when he did just the required **** it came out extra. Whatever the **** would be good and I wouldn't have sabotage issues to where I had to come back alot.
In the past few months he's gotten kinda sketchy to me. Sometimes he would give crazy *** prices or just do **** that wouldn't really be needed (or maybe I'm a parinoid) Like sometimes he wouldn't give me quotes that were waaay off (a high compression headgasket install shouldn't come around to 700-900). Sometimes he would just say well bring it over.
So recently I had some friends get a block that I bought from them built. I was going to have the mechanic install the block, cams, retainers and springs. Well he went through the routine again. Well bring it by. I talked to my friends and I just drove to daygo and we took apart (friend mostly, yeah I give credit where its due) the engine out and apart put on the built block, head gasket, head studs, cams etc (everything except for the retainers and springs). We did this on independence day.
Ok so here's the meat of it. I drove back and aside from white smoke there was no issues. Except maybe timing because the gasket I had on before was pretty thick cause I was running a jrsc setup before I had it taken off. Yada yada yada. I took the car over today to get the timing, springs, retainers and an intake manifold put on. ( I was going to d oit but the car had some cold idling issues
).
Ok so I guess this is really the meat of it. I get to the shop and it's about a few blocks away so I can just walk back. So he gets there and he's buggin out because it's aftermarket parts and I buy my own **** (well pardon me for having hookups). So he says leave the car there and he'll take a look at it... He goes into this kinda panicy stuttering routine saying that I got to trust him, he's not trying to rip me off, does good work yada yada. I try to explain to him the thing but somewhere there's a barrier lol. SO he said he'll look at it on monday and give me a call. I ask him around how much it'll cost and he says he'll give me a call. But he went into the whole he's going to take the head off and get it milled or whatever and said it'll be easier for him to put the stuff in with the head off etc.
So I'm trying to find out from other shop owners, mechanics etc. Is this how it's usually done or am I trippin. I really don't like being a difficult customer but due to past fucked up dealings with shops (engineuity, elit image etc) I get a lil parinoid and jumpy from time to time. I understand sometimes an accurate price can't be given due to misc stuff etc. But am I wrong to believe that there should be a base price on certain services and also should I haft to keep bringing over the car even tho they should be familliar with it from past dealings?
Sorry if this is long, I should've provided a couch and a hooker with this thread... mybad
In the past few months he's gotten kinda sketchy to me. Sometimes he would give crazy *** prices or just do **** that wouldn't really be needed (or maybe I'm a parinoid) Like sometimes he wouldn't give me quotes that were waaay off (a high compression headgasket install shouldn't come around to 700-900). Sometimes he would just say well bring it over.
So recently I had some friends get a block that I bought from them built. I was going to have the mechanic install the block, cams, retainers and springs. Well he went through the routine again. Well bring it by. I talked to my friends and I just drove to daygo and we took apart (friend mostly, yeah I give credit where its due) the engine out and apart put on the built block, head gasket, head studs, cams etc (everything except for the retainers and springs). We did this on independence day.
Ok so here's the meat of it. I drove back and aside from white smoke there was no issues. Except maybe timing because the gasket I had on before was pretty thick cause I was running a jrsc setup before I had it taken off. Yada yada yada. I took the car over today to get the timing, springs, retainers and an intake manifold put on. ( I was going to d oit but the car had some cold idling issues
).Ok so I guess this is really the meat of it. I get to the shop and it's about a few blocks away so I can just walk back. So he gets there and he's buggin out because it's aftermarket parts and I buy my own **** (well pardon me for having hookups). So he says leave the car there and he'll take a look at it... He goes into this kinda panicy stuttering routine saying that I got to trust him, he's not trying to rip me off, does good work yada yada. I try to explain to him the thing but somewhere there's a barrier lol. SO he said he'll look at it on monday and give me a call. I ask him around how much it'll cost and he says he'll give me a call. But he went into the whole he's going to take the head off and get it milled or whatever and said it'll be easier for him to put the stuff in with the head off etc.
So I'm trying to find out from other shop owners, mechanics etc. Is this how it's usually done or am I trippin. I really don't like being a difficult customer but due to past fucked up dealings with shops (engineuity, elit image etc) I get a lil parinoid and jumpy from time to time. I understand sometimes an accurate price can't be given due to misc stuff etc. But am I wrong to believe that there should be a base price on certain services and also should I haft to keep bringing over the car even tho they should be familliar with it from past dealings?
Sorry if this is long, I should've provided a couch and a hooker with this thread... mybad
09-15-2007, 08:56 PM
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (hybridclassic626)
ok so u dropped the car off and he wouldnt give u a quote? i wouldnt have left the car there. i know when i give an estimate i try to stay close to the estimate but if u dont tell someone how much its gonna cost and just do it then there is no way the customer is going to be happy with the outcome. i personally wouldnt feel too comfortable with him working on my car until he gives me some kind of an estimate. what did he get pissed about?
09-15-2007, 09:20 PM
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (cartune network)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by cartune network »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok so u dropped the car off and he wouldnt give u a quote? i wouldnt have left the car there. i know when i give an estimate i try to stay close to the estimate but if u dont tell someone how much its gonna cost and just do it then there is no way the customer is going to be happy with the outcome. i personally wouldnt feel too comfortable with him working on my car until he gives me some kind of an estimate. what did he get pissed about?</TD></TR></TABLE>
The only reason why I left it there was because of a good past history with him despite the recent things. I mean the stuff he did with the lhs is better and cheaper than what the dealership charges and does. The civic was decent too except for tiny ish like after he took out the jrsc the fmu was still hooked up in there. Other hondas and other imports there work really well and I've talked with customers and they like that shop too.
I think he was just pissed that me and a friend put did the block, cams and etc insted of him. I think he took it as an insult. I didn't do it to be cheap well it was a factor lol. But it was quicker too and well me and my friends have history and they offered to help me with this. Also that well I buy parts and have him put it on. And that the stuff is aftermarket. He was kind of looking at the mamifold, springs, retainers and bitchin bout that too.
But yeah I keep trying to explain to him about the needing a price quote thing but he keeps telling me other ish like "well it's quality" etc. Monday I think I'm going to press him for a price, cause I'm not trying to get trapped into ish.
The only reason why I left it there was because of a good past history with him despite the recent things. I mean the stuff he did with the lhs is better and cheaper than what the dealership charges and does. The civic was decent too except for tiny ish like after he took out the jrsc the fmu was still hooked up in there. Other hondas and other imports there work really well and I've talked with customers and they like that shop too.
I think he was just pissed that me and a friend put did the block, cams and etc insted of him. I think he took it as an insult. I didn't do it to be cheap well it was a factor lol. But it was quicker too and well me and my friends have history and they offered to help me with this. Also that well I buy parts and have him put it on. And that the stuff is aftermarket. He was kind of looking at the mamifold, springs, retainers and bitchin bout that too.
But yeah I keep trying to explain to him about the needing a price quote thing but he keeps telling me other ish like "well it's quality" etc. Monday I think I'm going to press him for a price, cause I'm not trying to get trapped into ish.
09-15-2007, 09:32 PM
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (hybridclassic626)
Im sorry im a little confused. You guys took the block appart and had it built by this guy or you guys built it yourself? Then it started to smoke? Can you clear that up for me because your thread was long i might not have caught on.
It is a hell of alot easier to do springs retainers with the head off, but at the same time if more stuff (resurface/mill, P&P, headgasket, etc) its not worth it to pull the head. Just have to take an air compressor set to 5 - 10 PSI and a compression testor end and put it in to hold the valves up. Then you could remove the springs and retainers. So his kind of pulling your leg on that one.
I will agree that you shouldnt have left the car without a rough estimate (even a "going to cost 1 to 1000000 dollar" would have been fine). Because then he could start working on your car saying you said its ok and totally charge you up the *** for it. But if your a returning customer i dont think hell do that. Its a really tricky thing you got going and could turn very sour very fast. But to answer your question the head does not need to be pulled for that job.
It is a hell of alot easier to do springs retainers with the head off, but at the same time if more stuff (resurface/mill, P&P, headgasket, etc) its not worth it to pull the head. Just have to take an air compressor set to 5 - 10 PSI and a compression testor end and put it in to hold the valves up. Then you could remove the springs and retainers. So his kind of pulling your leg on that one.
I will agree that you shouldnt have left the car without a rough estimate (even a "going to cost 1 to 1000000 dollar" would have been fine). Because then he could start working on your car saying you said its ok and totally charge you up the *** for it. But if your a returning customer i dont think hell do that. Its a really tricky thing you got going and could turn very sour very fast. But to answer your question the head does not need to be pulled for that job.
09-15-2007, 10:11 PM
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (Luserkid)
I don't know about the whole "not giving you an estimate thing" - but I can see why he's pissed off.
I've seen WAY too many times where people bring their cars into the shop after they've fucked something up - and 10 times out of 10, you DON'T wanna mess with it. Either you do your own work or you don't, don't try to split it half and half w/ a garage, it doesn't work.
I've seen too much bullshit like this. I was putting my boss's tools away (getting ready to go home one day) and get a phone call from a local that his car won't start. So my boss tells me he'll throw me an extra 30 bux to just go pick up the car, so I go out there w/ the flatbed, pick up the car, come back, drop it off, we go home, tell the guy we'll look at it tomorrow, etc.
Come back the next day, my boss takes a look at it (as I still had previous work to finish from the day before) and turns out - the guy tried putting a new timing belt on himself, didn't align the head worth of **** (he pointed the hashes that go perpendicular to the head/block line up/down), so my boss calls the guy, tells 'em to come down, his girlfriend drives him down or some ****, then he starts bitching at him. Now it's no secret that his valves had more 90º bends than a swastika, but he came in all gangsta *** bitching about how "if we didn't try starting the car, the valves wouldn't have been bent" - he's not gonna pay us ****, blah blah blah. Well I guess he forgot to mention the part that he put the timing belt on wrong and it wouldn't start, when I picked the ******* thing up he just told me that "he went to start it and it wouldn't start" - didn't include the whole bit about changing the timing belt - though chances are if he was turning it over for awhile after he put the belt on, the head was fucked anyways.
It's the principle though. Even the small ****. Like I had some kid's dad come down with his kid's 93 civic, looks like daddy and son tried to change the dizzy rotor and cap and snapped the head off the screw when tightening it. Luckily I was able to back it out the other side with a needle nose pliar - but what am I gonna do, write up a bill and charge the guy 7 minutes labor and a pain in my ***? But whatever, he told me what happened, it was understandable - **** happens (and **** will always happen).
Though if somebody's looking for OEM parts and the way "it's supposed to be" you should kinda clue somebody in. Not to mention if this guy was always ur mechanic 'n **** for awhile I could see him getting offended thinking you took your **** to another place. There's nothing more aggravating than ripping something apart and seeing that somebody else already had their mitts in there & messing with ****.
Basically it's a game of:
Pick A or B - don't try to do half and half, it doesn't work out too well.
Though don't get it twisted
I'm not saying it's all your fault or anything, but not everybody can have a good day every day. So he was probably in a pissy mood or something and that lil event tipped him over the edge.
A lot of the old time mechanics get pissed off easily.
It boils down to one basic concept that aggrivates a lot of people:
If you're gonna let him work on your car, let him work on your car, if you're gonna do the work yourself, do the work yourself, if you're gonna do some of the work yourself, but take it to a shop for other ****, then do that.
But don't do half the work and then ask somebody else to complete it or screw up and ask somebody else to fix it.
I mean obviously if you and ur boys put all that **** in there, it seems to me as though you shoulda been able to take care of this by yourself. Though I can't make out exactly what you're saying by the way you wrote it, it's kinda confusing as hell. I don't know, maybe you shouldn't listen to me at all. I'm just saying, trying to balance out work on your car with a garage doesn't always work out...
I've seen WAY too many times where people bring their cars into the shop after they've fucked something up - and 10 times out of 10, you DON'T wanna mess with it. Either you do your own work or you don't, don't try to split it half and half w/ a garage, it doesn't work.
I've seen too much bullshit like this. I was putting my boss's tools away (getting ready to go home one day) and get a phone call from a local that his car won't start. So my boss tells me he'll throw me an extra 30 bux to just go pick up the car, so I go out there w/ the flatbed, pick up the car, come back, drop it off, we go home, tell the guy we'll look at it tomorrow, etc.
Come back the next day, my boss takes a look at it (as I still had previous work to finish from the day before) and turns out - the guy tried putting a new timing belt on himself, didn't align the head worth of **** (he pointed the hashes that go perpendicular to the head/block line up/down), so my boss calls the guy, tells 'em to come down, his girlfriend drives him down or some ****, then he starts bitching at him. Now it's no secret that his valves had more 90º bends than a swastika, but he came in all gangsta *** bitching about how "if we didn't try starting the car, the valves wouldn't have been bent" - he's not gonna pay us ****, blah blah blah. Well I guess he forgot to mention the part that he put the timing belt on wrong and it wouldn't start, when I picked the ******* thing up he just told me that "he went to start it and it wouldn't start" - didn't include the whole bit about changing the timing belt - though chances are if he was turning it over for awhile after he put the belt on, the head was fucked anyways.
It's the principle though. Even the small ****. Like I had some kid's dad come down with his kid's 93 civic, looks like daddy and son tried to change the dizzy rotor and cap and snapped the head off the screw when tightening it. Luckily I was able to back it out the other side with a needle nose pliar - but what am I gonna do, write up a bill and charge the guy 7 minutes labor and a pain in my ***? But whatever, he told me what happened, it was understandable - **** happens (and **** will always happen).
Though if somebody's looking for OEM parts and the way "it's supposed to be" you should kinda clue somebody in. Not to mention if this guy was always ur mechanic 'n **** for awhile I could see him getting offended thinking you took your **** to another place. There's nothing more aggravating than ripping something apart and seeing that somebody else already had their mitts in there & messing with ****.
Basically it's a game of:
Pick A or B - don't try to do half and half, it doesn't work out too well.
Though don't get it twisted
I'm not saying it's all your fault or anything, but not everybody can have a good day every day. So he was probably in a pissy mood or something and that lil event tipped him over the edge.
A lot of the old time mechanics get pissed off easily.
It boils down to one basic concept that aggrivates a lot of people:
If you're gonna let him work on your car, let him work on your car, if you're gonna do the work yourself, do the work yourself, if you're gonna do some of the work yourself, but take it to a shop for other ****, then do that.
But don't do half the work and then ask somebody else to complete it or screw up and ask somebody else to fix it.
I mean obviously if you and ur boys put all that **** in there, it seems to me as though you shoulda been able to take care of this by yourself. Though I can't make out exactly what you're saying by the way you wrote it, it's kinda confusing as hell. I don't know, maybe you shouldn't listen to me at all. I'm just saying, trying to balance out work on your car with a garage doesn't always work out...
09-15-2007, 10:28 PM
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (Luserkid)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Luserkid »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Im sorry im a little confused. You guys took the block appart and had it built by this guy or you guys built it yourself? Then it started to smoke? Can you clear that up for me because your thread was long i might not have caught on.
It is a hell of alot easier to do springs retainers with the head off, but at the same time if more stuff (resurface/mill, P&P, headgasket, etc) its not worth it to pull the head. Just have to take an air compressor set to 5 - 10 PSI and a compression testor end and put it in to hold the valves up. Then you could remove the springs and retainers. So his kind of pulling your leg on that one.
I will agree that you shouldnt have left the car without a rough estimate (even a "going to cost 1 to 1000000 dollar" would have been fine). Because then he could start working on your car saying you said its ok and totally charge you up the *** for it. But if your a returning customer i dont think hell do that. Its a really tricky thing you got going and could turn very sour very fast. But to answer your question the head does not need to be pulled for that job. </TD></TR></TABLE>
The white smoke doesn't occur at idling. I don't think it's the gasket, it might be ring seating or it might be somethin else not sure. Yeah it was smoking on the way back and does that at certain rpms Even though i'm babying the motor. The block was one that belonged to my friends that I got for cheap. They had it built by a shop I just mailed the rods and pistons to them. They're in san diego, im in la (I was stationed in daygo a bit back). Instead of having the block shipped to the mechanic my friends offered to do it. I joined in because well I figured since i'm there might as well learn. So the sunday before indapendence day I drove over there.
Sorry I ment to say resurface not milled. Yeah that's what I'm trying to figure out cause I know a lil about how to do stuff and not to do stuff, at the same time I'm not a mechanic and I hate when people tell me how to do my job when they really don't know.
Buuuut at the same time he should have done the ish enough times to know approximatley how much it's going to cost. I know the head doesn't haft to come off, I've tooken the valve cover off and see how it is. Just seems like he does **** unessisarally. Only positive if there is something with the block he'll see it.
Honestly I should've just just took it home, bought a torque wrench took the head off, took it to the shop to get the valve job done lol, then took it to another shop to get it resurfaced, bought a helms manual and a timing gun, new belt and a belt tensioner. expletive it I might still do it.
Yeah this thing is tricky and I'm not trying to have bad relations or burn bridges. There's alot of mechanics around but there's not that many good ones and this dude is or at the least was decent. That's why I put this thread up because I want to see things from his side.
It is a hell of alot easier to do springs retainers with the head off, but at the same time if more stuff (resurface/mill, P&P, headgasket, etc) its not worth it to pull the head. Just have to take an air compressor set to 5 - 10 PSI and a compression testor end and put it in to hold the valves up. Then you could remove the springs and retainers. So his kind of pulling your leg on that one.
I will agree that you shouldnt have left the car without a rough estimate (even a "going to cost 1 to 1000000 dollar" would have been fine). Because then he could start working on your car saying you said its ok and totally charge you up the *** for it. But if your a returning customer i dont think hell do that. Its a really tricky thing you got going and could turn very sour very fast. But to answer your question the head does not need to be pulled for that job. </TD></TR></TABLE>
The white smoke doesn't occur at idling. I don't think it's the gasket, it might be ring seating or it might be somethin else not sure. Yeah it was smoking on the way back and does that at certain rpms Even though i'm babying the motor. The block was one that belonged to my friends that I got for cheap. They had it built by a shop I just mailed the rods and pistons to them. They're in san diego, im in la (I was stationed in daygo a bit back). Instead of having the block shipped to the mechanic my friends offered to do it. I joined in because well I figured since i'm there might as well learn. So the sunday before indapendence day I drove over there.
Sorry I ment to say resurface not milled. Yeah that's what I'm trying to figure out cause I know a lil about how to do stuff and not to do stuff, at the same time I'm not a mechanic and I hate when people tell me how to do my job when they really don't know.
Buuuut at the same time he should have done the ish enough times to know approximatley how much it's going to cost. I know the head doesn't haft to come off, I've tooken the valve cover off and see how it is. Just seems like he does **** unessisarally. Only positive if there is something with the block he'll see it.
Honestly I should've just just took it home, bought a torque wrench took the head off, took it to the shop to get the valve job done lol, then took it to another shop to get it resurfaced, bought a helms manual and a timing gun, new belt and a belt tensioner. expletive it I might still do it.
Yeah this thing is tricky and I'm not trying to have bad relations or burn bridges. There's alot of mechanics around but there's not that many good ones and this dude is or at the least was decent. That's why I put this thread up because I want to see things from his side.
09-15-2007, 10:37 PM
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics
My honest advice would to be to look for another mechanic. That all seems a little shady. Before I had all of my work done I was given up front estimates and the work was top notch... that is exactly why I recommend him (Luserkid) to anyone/everyone I come across that needs help/work. A good mechanic will give you a quote based on what you want done and what you need done. Its hard to find a good mechanic nowadays.
No bs, but next time you need something done I wouldnt go to him.
No bs, but next time you need something done I wouldnt go to him.
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09-15-2007, 10:46 PM
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (Syndacate)
Originally Posted by Syndacate
I don't know about the whole "not giving you an estimate thing" - but I can see why he's pissed off.
I've seen WAY too many times where people bring their cars into the shop after they've fucked something up - and 10 times out of 10, you DON'T wanna mess with it. Either you do your own work or you don't, don't try to split it half and half w/ a garage, it doesn't work.
I've seen too much bullshit like this. I was putting my boss's tools away (getting ready to go home one day) and get a phone call from a local that his car won't start. So my boss tells me he'll throw me an extra 30 bux to just go pick up the car, so I go out there w/ the flatbed, pick up the car, come back, drop it off, we go home, tell the guy we'll look at it tomorrow, etc.
Come back the next day, my boss takes a look at it (as I still had previous work to finish from the day before) and turns out - the guy tried putting a new timing belt on himself, didn't align the head worth of **** (he pointed the hashes that go perpendicular to the head/block line up/down), so my boss calls the guy, tells 'em to come down, his girlfriend drives him down or some ****, then he starts bitching at him. Now it's no secret that his valves had more 90º bends than a swastika, but he came in all gangsta *** bitching about how "if we didn't try starting the car, the valves wouldn't have been bent" - he's not gonna pay us ****, blah blah blah. Well I guess he forgot to mention the part that he put the timing belt on wrong and it wouldn't start, when I picked the ******* thing up he just told me that "he went to start it and it wouldn't start" - didn't include the whole bit about changing the timing belt - though chances are if he was turning it over for awhile after he put the belt on, the head was fucked anyways.
It's the principle though. Even the small ****. Like I had some kid's dad come down with his kid's 93 civic, looks like daddy and son tried to change the dizzy rotor and cap and snapped the head off the screw when tightening it. Luckily I was able to back it out the other side with a needle nose pliar - but what am I gonna do, write up a bill and charge the guy 7 minutes labor and a pain in my ***? But whatever, he told me what happened, it was understandable - **** happens (and **** will always happen).
Though if somebody's looking for OEM parts and the way "it's supposed to be" you should kinda clue somebody in. Not to mention if this guy was always ur mechanic 'n **** for awhile I could see him getting offended thinking you took your **** to another place. There's nothing more aggravating than ripping something apart and seeing that somebody else already had their mitts in there & messing with ****.
Basically it's a game of:
Pick A or B - don't try to do half and half, it doesn't work out too well.
Though don't get it twisted
I'm not saying it's all your fault or anything, but not everybody can have a good day every day. So he was probably in a pissy mood or something and that lil event tipped him over the edge.
A lot of the old time mechanics get pissed off easily.
It boils down to one basic concept that aggrivates a lot of people:
If you're gonna let him work on your car, let him work on your car, if you're gonna do the work yourself, do the work yourself, if you're gonna do some of the work yourself, but take it to a shop for other ****, then do that.
But don't do half the work and then ask somebody else to complete it or screw up and ask somebody else to fix it.
I mean obviously if you and ur boys put all that **** in there, it seems to me as though you shoulda been able to take care of this by yourself. Though I can't make out exactly what you're saying by the way you wrote it, it's kinda confusing as hell. I don't know, maybe you shouldn't listen to me at all. I'm just saying, trying to balance out work on your car with a garage doesn't always work out...
I've seen WAY too many times where people bring their cars into the shop after they've fucked something up - and 10 times out of 10, you DON'T wanna mess with it. Either you do your own work or you don't, don't try to split it half and half w/ a garage, it doesn't work.
I've seen too much bullshit like this. I was putting my boss's tools away (getting ready to go home one day) and get a phone call from a local that his car won't start. So my boss tells me he'll throw me an extra 30 bux to just go pick up the car, so I go out there w/ the flatbed, pick up the car, come back, drop it off, we go home, tell the guy we'll look at it tomorrow, etc.
Come back the next day, my boss takes a look at it (as I still had previous work to finish from the day before) and turns out - the guy tried putting a new timing belt on himself, didn't align the head worth of **** (he pointed the hashes that go perpendicular to the head/block line up/down), so my boss calls the guy, tells 'em to come down, his girlfriend drives him down or some ****, then he starts bitching at him. Now it's no secret that his valves had more 90º bends than a swastika, but he came in all gangsta *** bitching about how "if we didn't try starting the car, the valves wouldn't have been bent" - he's not gonna pay us ****, blah blah blah. Well I guess he forgot to mention the part that he put the timing belt on wrong and it wouldn't start, when I picked the ******* thing up he just told me that "he went to start it and it wouldn't start" - didn't include the whole bit about changing the timing belt - though chances are if he was turning it over for awhile after he put the belt on, the head was fucked anyways.
It's the principle though. Even the small ****. Like I had some kid's dad come down with his kid's 93 civic, looks like daddy and son tried to change the dizzy rotor and cap and snapped the head off the screw when tightening it. Luckily I was able to back it out the other side with a needle nose pliar - but what am I gonna do, write up a bill and charge the guy 7 minutes labor and a pain in my ***? But whatever, he told me what happened, it was understandable - **** happens (and **** will always happen).
Though if somebody's looking for OEM parts and the way "it's supposed to be" you should kinda clue somebody in. Not to mention if this guy was always ur mechanic 'n **** for awhile I could see him getting offended thinking you took your **** to another place. There's nothing more aggravating than ripping something apart and seeing that somebody else already had their mitts in there & messing with ****.
Basically it's a game of:
Pick A or B - don't try to do half and half, it doesn't work out too well.
Though don't get it twisted
I'm not saying it's all your fault or anything, but not everybody can have a good day every day. So he was probably in a pissy mood or something and that lil event tipped him over the edge.
A lot of the old time mechanics get pissed off easily.
It boils down to one basic concept that aggrivates a lot of people:
If you're gonna let him work on your car, let him work on your car, if you're gonna do the work yourself, do the work yourself, if you're gonna do some of the work yourself, but take it to a shop for other ****, then do that.
But don't do half the work and then ask somebody else to complete it or screw up and ask somebody else to fix it.
I mean obviously if you and ur boys put all that **** in there, it seems to me as though you shoulda been able to take care of this by yourself. Though I can't make out exactly what you're saying by the way you wrote it, it's kinda confusing as hell. I don't know, maybe you shouldn't listen to me at all. I'm just saying, trying to balance out work on your car with a garage doesn't always work out...
09-16-2007, 07:32 AM
#9
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (hybridclassic626)
Now that i understand the situation a little more, you should have really taken the motor to a tuner, not a mechanic. Reason being is that this is a built motor that needs a break in procedure and that cant be done on the street (it can but isnt safe). What ecu are you running and what type of Piston setup did you do?
09-16-2007, 08:02 AM
#10
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (hybridclassic626)
ok, i didn't read the whole book, but if this guy "has a shop" and a license, the costumer is supposed to sign a written estimate before work begins on the car. whether it be diag. or for tear down. what i'm saying is.....that is illegal.
09-16-2007, 04:15 PM
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (95dxsir2)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 95dxsir2 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ok, i didn't read the whole book, but if this guy "has a shop" and a license, the costumer is supposed to sign a written estimate before work begins on the car. whether it be diag. or for tear down. what i'm saying is.....that is illegal.</TD></TR></TABLE>
oh **** lol... Well tomorrow I'll roll over there before he does anything to it and if he doesn't come up with one then I'll just bounce.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Luserkid »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Now that i understand the situation a little more, you should have really taken the motor to a tuner, not a mechanic. Reason being is that this is a built motor that needs a break in procedure and that cant be done on the street (it can but isnt safe). What ecu are you running and what type of Piston setup did you do? </TD></TR></TABLE>
yeah I tried calling this one place that I was talking to about it but I guess there off on there race schedule. Tomorrow i'm going to give raceline a call and see if I can schedule something.
But right now it's on a chipped p28, piston sup is 81mm toda piston set, eagle rods. I also have a vafc lol not sure how much that will help
oh **** lol... Well tomorrow I'll roll over there before he does anything to it and if he doesn't come up with one then I'll just bounce.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Luserkid »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Now that i understand the situation a little more, you should have really taken the motor to a tuner, not a mechanic. Reason being is that this is a built motor that needs a break in procedure and that cant be done on the street (it can but isnt safe). What ecu are you running and what type of Piston setup did you do? </TD></TR></TABLE>
yeah I tried calling this one place that I was talking to about it but I guess there off on there race schedule. Tomorrow i'm going to give raceline a call and see if I can schedule something.
But right now it's on a chipped p28, piston sup is 81mm toda piston set, eagle rods. I also have a vafc lol not sure how much that will help
09-16-2007, 05:39 PM
#12
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (hybridclassic626)
most shops want to do all the work so they know they won't get blamed for a problem that's not their fault. it also helps them keep the lights on. but we have customer/friends who do some of thier work themselves and bring it to us for things that are over their heads. these guys usually want our oppinions on things and want to make our jobs easier so they pay attention to the way we like to do things.
that's what your situation seems like to me. you don't sound like some kid expecting something for near to nothing (we had a kid come in last week wanting his LS head swaped for a GSR head in his eg hatch for $250. our going rate for most regular head jobs, this one not included is $60/hr and around 10hrs depending on the model.)
this is the kind of info this guy should be sharing with you. he should give you his hourly rate for the type of work (sometimes electrical or diagnostics are more), estimate how many hours he plans to charge and include any extra parts or work, for instance sending parts out to the machine shop.
talk to the guy about this and see how he feels about giving you this info. if he's not keen to it, tell him you'll have to look for someone else to do your work.
though try to learn as much as you can about doing most of it yourself. if your meticulous and diligent you can do equal quality work for less money and headache.
that's what your situation seems like to me. you don't sound like some kid expecting something for near to nothing (we had a kid come in last week wanting his LS head swaped for a GSR head in his eg hatch for $250. our going rate for most regular head jobs, this one not included is $60/hr and around 10hrs depending on the model.)
this is the kind of info this guy should be sharing with you. he should give you his hourly rate for the type of work (sometimes electrical or diagnostics are more), estimate how many hours he plans to charge and include any extra parts or work, for instance sending parts out to the machine shop.
talk to the guy about this and see how he feels about giving you this info. if he's not keen to it, tell him you'll have to look for someone else to do your work.
though try to learn as much as you can about doing most of it yourself. if your meticulous and diligent you can do equal quality work for less money and headache.
09-16-2007, 06:10 PM
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (hondamark35)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hondamark35 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">most shops want to do all the work so they know they won't get blamed for a problem that's not their fault. it also helps them keep the lights on. but we have customer/friends who do some of thier work themselves and bring it to us for things that are over their heads. these guys usually want our oppinions on things and want to make our jobs easier so they pay attention to the way we like to do things.
that's what your situation seems like to me. you don't sound like some kid expecting something for near to nothing (we had a kid come in last week wanting his LS head swaped for a GSR head in his eg hatch for $250. our going rate for most regular head jobs, this one not included is $60/hr and around 10hrs depending on the model.)
this is the kind of info this guy should be sharing with you. he should give you his hourly rate for the type of work (sometimes electrical or diagnostics are more), estimate how many hours he plans to charge and include any extra parts or work, for instance sending parts out to the machine shop.
talk to the guy about this and see how he feels about giving you this info. if he's not keen to it, tell him you'll have to look for someone else to do your work.
though try to learn as much as you can about doing most of it yourself. if your meticulous and diligent you can do equal quality work for less money and headache. </TD></TR></TABLE>
sweet thanks for that. I do some of my own work like when I took of f the rsx conversion I put on the cwest bumper, sideskirts, seibon hood, oems fenders etc myself cause I felt I could do it better than most shops and I was right. I even prepped the fenders. took me about one night for total.
But I have a feeling if I ask him that he'll take offense, I understand that ish costs and people need to eat but i'm not trying to pay for benz's etc. I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow.
Thanks everyone
that's what your situation seems like to me. you don't sound like some kid expecting something for near to nothing (we had a kid come in last week wanting his LS head swaped for a GSR head in his eg hatch for $250. our going rate for most regular head jobs, this one not included is $60/hr and around 10hrs depending on the model.)
this is the kind of info this guy should be sharing with you. he should give you his hourly rate for the type of work (sometimes electrical or diagnostics are more), estimate how many hours he plans to charge and include any extra parts or work, for instance sending parts out to the machine shop.
talk to the guy about this and see how he feels about giving you this info. if he's not keen to it, tell him you'll have to look for someone else to do your work.
though try to learn as much as you can about doing most of it yourself. if your meticulous and diligent you can do equal quality work for less money and headache. </TD></TR></TABLE>
sweet thanks for that. I do some of my own work like when I took of f the rsx conversion I put on the cwest bumper, sideskirts, seibon hood, oems fenders etc myself cause I felt I could do it better than most shops and I was right. I even prepped the fenders. took me about one night for total.
But I have a feeling if I ask him that he'll take offense, I understand that ish costs and people need to eat but i'm not trying to pay for benz's etc. I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow.
Thanks everyone
09-17-2007, 01:00 PM
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Re: opinions on mechanics by mechanics (hybridclassic626)
k so a lil update
he called me early in the morning and well I was asllep. So I called him back. He stuck with the if he was going to do the springs and retainers he would haft to take off the head and have it resurfaced because there's no room etc. I asked him how much. It was wierd he basically declined on doing it cause he avoided the question. So the whole convo basically rolled down to.
he'll install the intake manifold. But he's not going to mess with race parts no more (aftermarket). He feels uneasy doing it. He also talked **** on the way we did somethin lol. Still not sure what he said he has a thick viet accent
Ok so I'm looking into a few places to take the car too. Places that don't have import hungry cops rolling around.
he called me early in the morning and well I was asllep. So I called him back. He stuck with the if he was going to do the springs and retainers he would haft to take off the head and have it resurfaced because there's no room etc. I asked him how much. It was wierd he basically declined on doing it cause he avoided the question. So the whole convo basically rolled down to.
he'll install the intake manifold. But he's not going to mess with race parts no more (aftermarket). He feels uneasy doing it. He also talked **** on the way we did somethin lol. Still not sure what he said he has a thick viet accent
Ok so I'm looking into a few places to take the car too. Places that don't have import hungry cops rolling around.
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