I've never heard of that website before. That car should go for a decent amount more than what its at right now I would think. Probably around $30K. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
I've never heard of that website before. That car should go for a decent amount more than what its at right now I would think. Probably around $30K.
I think his dad paid/put in much more than that. I've been seeing others go for $50-60k but who knows. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
I've never heard of that website before. That car should go for a decent amount more than what its at right now I would think. Probably around $30K.
Bring a trailer is legit.
It's funny though, 10 years ago it was jalopies and barn finds. Now you'll find $500k cars sold on there. [Reply]
So I FINALLY have my car back. Long story short, he got the suspension work done, wheels mounted, took it out to test it and the damn wheel fell off.
Stupid mistake on his part. New backspacing on the wheels meant the lugs were too long. He should've known better and just vapor locked. Instead of seating the wheel, the lug nuts bottomed out against the overly long lug. It seemed like the wheel was on all the way but it wasn't, sheared the lugs off.
Surprisingly minimal amount of damage. He felt the wheels get loose and brought it to a stop so it broke just as it stopped and the rear of the car landed on the wheel. Busted up the left rear quarter but nothing else.
So he asks me if I want the car back and I just say "Man, you messed up, but I don't really wanna deal with it either and I've trusted you for years. You know the community, find the right guy to color match the paint, replace the quarter and call me when it's done..."
He does. Looks great. Runs it through his insurance so I literally didn't see the car again until it was back to new (and he took a bubble out of the quarter when he replaced it so even a little better than I left it).
I pick it up -- he won't let me pay him anything. Now I get that he's gonna make the offer, but man this is a good ol' boy mechanic who's dad has Alzheimers (poor dude was at the shop and asked/was answered who my ride was 3 times in 30 minutes; feel terrible about all that) and he's just a blue collar guy. It's his livelihood. I mean I ain't paying your deductible here bud, but let me at least pay you for the time you put into the car, you made things right and I was out about 6 more weeks of the car. That ain't the end of the world.
I mean I can't sneak him a wad of cash or anything, but as a shop owner would you be more offended by me hounding him to pay the guy for the work he did? Because I talk to him about random stuff every month or so and I don't wanna be a dick circling back on it. I've gotta replace the fuel gauge and I think I'll get that done just fine but hell, I might not. And it's gonna settle on the new springs, I think I can get those adjusted but I might not. I'm sure I'll see him again shortly.
I don't really want the guy falling on a sword for me but I don't wanna offend him either.
Dammit just let me pay you! You're a good mechanic and you fucked up. Shit happens but you don't have to commit ritual suicide over it guy. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Detox -- car shop owner guy question.
So I FINALLY have my car back. Long story short, he got the suspension work done, wheels mounted, took it out to test it and the damn wheel fell off.
Stupid mistake on his part. New backspacing on the wheels meant the lugs were too long. He should've known better and just vapor locked. Instead of seating the wheel, the lug nuts bottomed out against the overly long lug. It seemed like the wheel was on all the way but it wasn't, sheared the lugs off.
Surprisingly minimal amount of damage. He felt the wheels get loose and brought it to a stop so it broke just as it stopped and the rear of the car landed on the wheel. Busted up the left rear quarter but nothing else.
So he asks me if I want the car back and I just say "Man, you messed up, but I don't really wanna deal with it either and I've trusted you for years. You know the community, find the right guy to color match the paint, replace the quarter and call me when it's done..."
He does. Looks great. Runs it through his insurance so I literally didn't see the car again until it was back to new (and he took a bubble out of the quarter when he replaced it so even a little better than I left it).
I pick it up -- he won't let me pay him anything. Now I get that he's gonna make the offer, but man this is a good ol' boy mechanic who's dad has Alzheimers (poor dude was at the shop and asked/was answered who my ride was 3 times in 30 minutes; feel terrible about all that) and he's just a blue collar guy. It's his livelihood. I mean I ain't paying your deductible here bud, but let me at least pay you for the time you put into the car, you made things right and I was out about 6 more weeks of the car. That ain't the end of the world.
I mean I can't sneak him a wad of cash or anything, but as a shop owner would you be more offended by me hounding him to pay the guy for the work he did? Because I talk to him about random stuff every month or so and I don't wanna be a dick circling back on it. I've gotta replace the fuel gauge and I think I'll get that done just fine but hell, I might not. And it's gonna settle on the new springs, I think I can get those adjusted but I might not. I'm sure I'll see him again shortly.
I don't really want the guy falling on a sword for me but I don't wanna offend him either.
Dammit just let me pay you! You're a good mechanic and you fucked up. Shit happens but you don't have to commit ritual suicide over it guy.
Your story reminds me of how many silly little things that can go wrong when building one of these cars. Everything has to be torq'd to spec and seemingly everything has a different torq rating. I have a number of different lug nut sets i keep in stock just for this reason. Wheel studs can vary in length, and different wheels seat differently.
We've ALMOST let a car go out of here with loose lugs. It's just such a simple thing to overlook. I had a customer that did something similar to what your mechanic did. He wanted to clean his calipers, took the wheels off and forgot to torq one of the wheels up. Wheel came off a few miles later and completely fucked his driver side fender....
If he doesn't wanna take the money it's hard to make him do it, right. My belief is that he doesn't wanna take your "tip" because he views you as a good customer and just wants to make it right.
And i can't imagine that repair was cheap, nor do I believe his shop insurance would cover such a thing. I'm 95% positive dude just paid that out of his own pocket. We're talking thousands of dollars for a repair like that. Ouch.
My recommendation would be to just keep giving him work. It'd show that you still trust him while also putting money in his pocket. Get that fuel gauge/sending unit done and maybe ask him about future upgrades so that he knows he's still your guy. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ToxSocks:
Your story reminds me of how many silly little things that can go wrong when building one of these cars. Everything has to be torq'd to spec and seemingly everything has a different torq rating. I have a number of different lug nut sets i keep in stock just for this reason. Wheel studs can vary in length, and different wheels seat differently.
We've ALMOST let a car go out of here with loose lugs. It's just such a simple thing to overlook. I had a customer that did something similar to what your mechanic did. He wanted to clean his calipers, took the wheels off and forgot to torq one of the wheels up. Wheel came off a few miles later and completely fucked his driver side fender....
If he doesn't wanna take the money it's hard to make him do it, right. My belief is that he doesn't wanna take your "tip" because he views you as a good customer and just wants to make it right.
And i can't imagine that repair was cheap, nor do I believe his shop insurance would cover such a thing. I'm 95% positive dude just paid that out of his own pocket. We're talking thousands of dollars for a repair like that. Ouch.
My recommendation would be to just keep giving him work. It'd show that you still trust him while also putting money in his pocket. Get that fuel gauge/sending unit done and maybe ask him about future upgrades so that he knows he's still your guy.
The damn paint alone was evidently $500/pint. They put ground fairy wings in that shit? I had no idea paint could be that stout. So yeah, that couldn't have been cheap.
I hope he didn't have to eat shit over it. I'd have run it through my comp coverage if that were the case (though they may well have pursued him in subrogation anyway. I would've just been non-cooperative at that point and they'd have probably had to hire counsel which would be....me. So fuck 'em).
Yeah, he was mortified. "Man, I've done this for 25 years and never done a thing like that. I had it up on the rack, all I'd have needed to do was just jostle those wheels to be sure. Just messed up..."
I really do wonder if the stuff with his dad can get him a little distracted at times.
Thanks for the advice. The long-term parking place somehow managed to wreck our stupid van while we were on vacation last week (that thing has been hit in some way EIGHT times now; this would be its 5th trip to a body shop - folks love hitting that thing). It has a ton of miles on it and we were going to just cash settle it and leave it boogered up. I wonder if he'd have any interest in doing it instead. Ain't much, but it's something. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ToxSocks:
Your story reminds me of how many silly little things that can go wrong when building one of these cars. Everything has to be torq'd to spec and seemingly everything has a different torq rating. I have a number of different lug nut sets i keep in stock just for this reason. Wheel studs can vary in length, and different wheels seat differently.
We've ALMOST let a car go out of here with loose lugs. It's just such a simple thing to overlook. I had a customer that did something similar to what your mechanic did. He wanted to clean his calipers, took the wheels off and forgot to torq one of the wheels up. Wheel came off a few miles later and completely fucked his driver side fender....
If he doesn't wanna take the money it's hard to make him do it, right. My belief is that he doesn't wanna take your "tip" because he views you as a good customer and just wants to make it right.
And i can't imagine that repair was cheap, nor do I believe his shop insurance would cover such a thing. I'm 95% positive dude just paid that out of his own pocket. We're talking thousands of dollars for a repair like that. Ouch.
My recommendation would be to just keep giving him work. It'd show that you still trust him while also putting money in his pocket. Get that fuel gauge/sending unit done and maybe ask him about future upgrades so that he knows he's still your guy.
His garage keeper policy should cover it. Presuming he has it, which it would be inexplicable not to, but dudes are making heavy calls with insurance these days.
I agree. Give him some business. Even if you were going to do it yourself. Lob him a softball. Toxs idea of talking about future upgrades is a good one. Great one in fact. One that separates a good people person from an asshat like me. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Buehler445:
His garage keeper policy should cover it. Presuming he has it, which it would be inexplicable not to, but dudes are making heavy calls with insurance these days.
I agree. Give him some business. Even if you were going to do it yourself. Lob him a softball. Toxs idea of talking about future upgrades is a good one. Great one in fact. One that separates a good people person from an asshat like me.
I don't need rear discs...
But I kinda want rear discs...
"Hey, Mrs. DJLN -- we just 'saved' probably $1,200 in labor by not having the car for a few weeks, and rear discs would do a lot for safety. Yeah, that's it - safety. I think we should go ahead and get that done..."
I'm not gonna have him bother with the gauge. That's maybe a 30 minute job with my dumb ass doing it. It's not worth the effort for him to move cars around in his shop for that kind of thing.
The silver lining, such as it is, is that when he drove the car and then asked my thoughts on it (which were glowing) he at least said "yeah, I think I'm gonna have to upgrade my GTO now..."
So he's at least focused on the results and excited about those rather than lamenting the winding road to get there.
The guy that did the paint somehow ended up with one of the center caps I ended up not using (paid for 'em but decided they were too big) so I gotta eventually head back over there to pick that up from him. So I'll chat with him about the rear discs and maybe rebuilding the front discs when I go do that. [Reply]
On that point - damn fellas, those Vikings are just fantastic. I'm still a little too low in the front since the springs have clearly settled a bit, but apart from that, the drive is night and day.
I used to get a sort of 'bottoming out' feeling over road imperfections. You'd feel/hear a 'clunk' as you hit things. Now it's just...a car. And when I used to brake, I could feel the car dip forward at the front (which exacerbated the rub) -- now the thing stays almost perfectly balanced even under relatively hard braking. Or at least as hard as those front discs are capable of on that car.
I won't know how it handles body roll, etc... until I A) fix the rub altogether (even if it means getting ANOTHER set of new tires on the front; I was pretty damn aggressive with these) and B) get a little confident that the fucking wheels aren't going to fall off again.
I've not done anything to really drive it into a corner yet. But simply from a drivability/ride standpoint, I really can't say enough good things about these Vikings. They're damn good. [Reply]