wanna know what im sick of?

Topic: wanna know what im sick of? (Read 4262 times) previous topic - next topic

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #15 – April 20, 2005, 12:03:33 PM

50,000.... are you missing a zero in there? hell yeah its worth it with that few 0's

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #16 – April 20, 2005, 12:17:45 PM

No, it has the correct amount of zeros.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #17 – April 20, 2005, 04:34:10 PM

Well i usually do all the work myself.. The last time it was in was because of my destroyed shift linkage. (thanks to a bad driveway and a bad crossover from old exaust) Then yesterday i went to a real good place around here. they know what their doing and dont try and rip you off or anytthing so i went there.. Reason being is i have a leak from my timeing chain and i dont mess with that. So yeah when it comes to my leaks from my valve covers..yeah ill do that myself.. but not anythign with the timeing chain.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #18 – April 20, 2005, 04:55:28 PM

Timing chain isn't really too involved. If you can pull all the accessories off the front of the engine, you can do a timing cover gasket. However, if it's coming from another part of the oil pan, it might be best to take it somewhere, as an oil pain job involve lifint or completely pulling the motor.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #19 – April 20, 2005, 05:52:49 PM

myself im a c tech took 2 years of a vocational school and i am certefyed to do inspections here in new york state. so that gives me some leway for a job. plus ive been out in shops for a total of a year now and im still loving every muinuite of it. and still do my own work on my car. oh and trying to teach the fiancee a thing ot 2.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #20 – April 20, 2005, 07:23:32 PM

Along this line, I'm at a point to change the cam on my '83 Bird. Do I really have to pull the oil pan to get the timing cover off? Can I not get it loose enough or is the sealing of it, afterwards, too hard. If I have to pull the engine to replace the cam, I'll just wait until I freshen it and add the cam at the sametime. Thoughts? Fred

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #21 – April 20, 2005, 07:26:10 PM

Jobs on these vehicles can be demanding at times. But until you have actually performed some of these (trying tasks) don't bitch about how expensive they can get.
Just as BAYLENSMAN said try a couple different shops if you need to to find a good mechanic but not all of us are bad just the few that give us a bad rap. After all I work on school buses, so you should hope that I spend as much time and money on these vehicles because "children ride them"

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #22 – April 20, 2005, 07:44:00 PM

I can understand the whole mechanic not wanting to do work you want them to do. Luckily my mechanics will still do the work irregardless of what they suggest. I think a lot of the time that they don't realize that other people can know nearly as much as they do. In all honesty my mechanics have given me excellent advice over all on things to do and not to do with my car. I still respect their opinion, but I also know when to step up and make them understand that I actually have a clue.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #23 – April 20, 2005, 07:50:47 PM

I think it's a tad unrealistic to come to a place like this and expect everyone to have the most cheerful and positive attitude towards mechanics.

That's like being a PC repairman and going to a PC modding forum and expecting to be treated like royalty. It ain't gonna happen. In the case of that example, many of the PC modders think they know everything, and that anyone who builds/repairs PCs for an actual living is a talentless hack. They think their lone PC is the best PC on the planet because they use X brand of cooling fan and Y brand power supply. Nevermind that X and Y cost three times what your average commercial system builder would use with maybe a tiny bit better performance and reliability.. and that X and Y brands are not used commercially exactly for that reason. But oh yes, they ALWAYS think they know better than someone who might put together a few systems a day.

Anyway, back to mechanics. I don't have much of an opinion (good or bad) on mechanics in general. I have a friend I've known since high school who runs his own repair shop.. and if there's something that's clearly beyond the scope of my growing abilities, I would not hesitate to take it to him for help if I can afford to. But even within my own family there are differing opinions on him. My mother and I both like him and would go back to him. My aunt likes him as a person but feels he ripped her off on something and would not go back to him again. So, even opinions on the same mechanic can vary from person to person.. let alone opinions on different mechanics. Of course, when some people have been screwed enough times and/or had their friends screwed by mechanics, they're going to develop an opinion that covers ALL mechanics, and is not flattering in any way. That's just how it works. We sometimes paint our pictures with brushes WAY too big, and the end result is a mess. (or art, depending on your viewpoint)

Sorry if you find the opinions of some of these people bothersome to you and your profession.. but frankly, you should know better by now than to expect universally positive opinions. You can either let it be a reason that you get out of the profession, as I did with PC repair.. (one tiny reason of several reasons I stopped) or you can shrug it off and keep workin'.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #24 – April 20, 2005, 08:24:41 PM

Yeah, I'll keep working, after all millions on welfare depend on me!!!!

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #25 – April 21, 2005, 01:42:54 PM

the place i went to loved working on my 80 capri or 84 bird when i had them (so sad, only car i have now is a 05 chevy cobalt).
Then again the place ran their own pro-modified in IHRA, so they were into the 'perfomance' thing.. heheh.

edit: i know what it is like with PC repair, I am a tech for a major corp and some ppl just drive me nuts or prefer not to work with one of me or my co workers cause of extranious problems that existed when we repaired another problem on thier machine. There ARE bad mechanics, and there ARE bad pc techs, you just have to find someone you are comfortable with. And no one will really overcharge cause most places go by the SAE book with the number of hours it "takes" to do a job and charge that so you pay the same pretty much anywhere.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #26 – April 25, 2005, 02:04:50 PM

I've had this happen with my 83 Cat more than a few times.

Until I pretty much just got p*ssed off, and rebuilt it from the ground up myself.

Now I get regular pleasure in taking my fully re-built and re-finished 83 to the same shops and asking if they can do this or that. It amazes me how the same people who told me they wouldn't work on my car, or that it's not worth it; are now overly eager to work on it.

I happily turn them right away with a friendly reminder of their previous attitudes toward my car.

My little way of getting one back for the little guy. :)

I've since located two other shops in this area, on in mechanic's and another in autobody. Both of these shops are always available and happy to work on my vehicle when needed, and they take more of the "appreciative of a not so everyday custom car" stance on things. I've not heard a thing negative from either shop about my car, or any other car that they work on. Both are true high class shops in my book.

I still tend to do about 98% of the work myself, but it's good to know that there are decent shops out there that are ready to assist on this level.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #27 – April 26, 2005, 01:23:54 PM

well,, here is my .02cents worth and ill shed some light on why they dont wanna be your mechanic...................

I was told directly to my face at a Ford dealership this very quote...

"All my mechanics were in grade school when these cars were new"

Next up would be the fact that dealers dont keep the shop manuals past a certain year. Having said this,, most of them would not know how to troubleshoot the eec,, pull codes,,, or have manuals to lead them through the component level troubleshooting process. They wont have wiring diagrams and probably would have to research archive records to proplerly work on your car.

what your asking for is nothing more than a mechanic. What they actually see is too much time spent on research. Time is money and they know you are not willing to pay for thier inabilty to troubleshoot in a timely manner.

The problem is lack of dospoogeentation in the shops for the most part. Secondly would be the hands on experience.

is it fair,, not to me but that seems to be the way things are. If you are the original owner,, then you could have maintained all your dealer work up to this day today and have free labor according the the ford lifetime warrenty of the work they do. Im sure we all dont qualify for that.

I like to reflect on the one chevy dealer repair guy trying to set the timing on my buddy's regal. This guy was at such a disadvantage because of his age and experience. He was totally unaware as to why he need to plug off the vac advance prior to setting it. What bothered me is the shop forman appeared to be seasoned but did not know this either. Later on i found out the foreman was there for administrative purposes and really never turned any wrenches.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #28 – April 26, 2005, 02:22:30 PM

I had an exhaust shop tell me that it would be illegal to put Duals on my cougar

. Went to a shop on the edge of polish town and he lifted it and quoted me about 670 or something to that sum, at least he dident blow me off and try and tell me that it would be illegal to fit my car with duals.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #29 – April 26, 2005, 02:44:07 PM

Well, to be fair, in some places it is illegal to outfit your car with an exhaust system that is not factory for your engine/model/year. *coughcoughcaliforniacoughcough*

However, I don't think eCheck in Ohio is concerned about that. I heard they even did away with mirrors to see if you've got converters. We've been fortunate on our ass-end of the state...air's just slightly too clean to warrant eCheck.