wanna know what im sick of?

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wanna know what im sick of?

April 19, 2005, 11:57:45 PM

im sick of mechanics that talk all about how its not worth doing such and such to fix my 88 coug.. im sick of em sayin they dont like it.. or its not worth the money to fix it.. Had 3 different shops say similar things. its gettin on my nerves

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #1 – April 20, 2005, 12:00:20 AM

Then maybe they are right!

James

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #2 – April 20, 2005, 12:04:26 AM

Time to stock up on some tools.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #3 – April 20, 2005, 03:08:11 AM

do it yourself, save money and learn something. Everyone told/tells me the same thing about my t-bird but i'm not out to please them. After spending 5 hours today wrenching on it I still love to start it up and go for a cruise so they can shove it :flip:

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #4 – April 20, 2005, 06:26:18 AM

Same thing here project. Im hoping to figure out what im doing before i wanna start on it myself tho :-p. That would save alot of money, shop charged me $360 to put an oil pan and balancer in, i bought the parts myself, that was all labor :-/

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #5 – April 20, 2005, 08:22:34 AM

you guys all realize you could probley take a night class for mechanics for about the caust of labor on something with your car rite? and if you know somebody that works for one of the schools that does it, you may be able to audit the program for free, just not recieve credit. have you checked out your state colleges and vocational schools? you dont nessisarly need the entire program, but a class or 2 will do ya good. and hell, if you do take the entire program, youll graduate something like a class b tech or better. most now have it so you graduate with almost all your ASE's and souch. most of these places also let you ocasionaly work on your car their, or use it as an example after they teach you how to do an alignment, tire rotate, ect...

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #6 – April 20, 2005, 08:30:22 AM

I guess some people think putting an oil pan in is easy

I think if it was that easy you would have done it yourself, right?

As for mechanics (seeing as I am one) don't let a few idiots give you a bad opinion about all of us, some of us care about vehicles in general, just look at the butload of cash I've thrown at my 86.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #7 – April 20, 2005, 09:22:17 AM

Quote from: blownbirds

I guess some people think putting an oil pan in is easy I think if it was that easy you would have done it yourself, right?

As for mechanics (seeing as I am one) don't let a few idiots give you a bad opinion about all of us, some of us care about vehicles in general, just look at the butload of cash I've thrown at my 86.

Did that butt load of cash come from overcharging customers? :flip: I'm just messin' with ya.

An honest mechanic is few and far in between.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #8 – April 20, 2005, 09:35:14 AM

Either take classes, or get yourself in there and do it.

I taught myself to work on cars (being the only car guy in the family....) and from doing, reading, asking questions and listening the only things I don't do right now are machine work (for the obvious reason as I don't have a machine shop in my garage) and major body work (as I don't have enough room at this point in time to do it "properly" (at least in my eyes)).
I also keep my focus pretty narrow as I don't need to be everyone's mechanic...I just want to take care of my stuff. Most of the general knowledge will carry over.

These cars aren't that hard to work on....buy some tools and get dirty....

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #9 – April 20, 2005, 09:40:21 AM

Thats the problem, those mechanics look at it from a logical standpoint. Is it worth their time and yours to repair these 17-20 year old cars? They think not. We, being car lovers, think it is totally worth it and will throw large sums of cash at our cars because we enjoy them.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #10 – April 20, 2005, 10:11:46 AM

But not everyone can or wants to work on their own car. Everyone has the right to take a car somewhere and have it serviced. Even I do that. Sometimes it's not worth getting your hands dirty for the amount of money involved!

I went through this same my friend. The classic is how some mechanics said, "You'll never get dual exahust to fit. The passenger side tailpipe won't clear around the gas tank." Yeah....right. Back in tha day--1992-ish--I had pipe dreams (ha!) of getting my new exhaust kit installed on my old black '86 (back then, Summit Racing had this sweet Mustang aluminized dual cat-back kit for a measly $99). I took the car and kit to like a dozen shops...nobody wanted to touch it. Keep in mind the car was only 6 years old at the time. It's not like it was that old. Finally as a last resort, I stopped by a shop where an acquaintance worked. He put the car up on a lift, did some measuring, test fitted some of the kit, and said, "I can do it". And he did.

It takes someone with a little sympathy and faith to work on your car. If a mechanic is worth his salt, he'll find a way to help you. Is there also some age discrimination going on? You bet. And you'll find that a lot too. I sure as hell did, with my long hippie hair and all. I find it ironic that some mechanics won't help these "young punks" with their cars today, while they themselves were the punks not so long ago! And they most likely did way more stupid things to their old cars. All I can suggest is to keep searching for someone that's willing to help. You need someone to say, "I can do it". Once you find that person, you keep him/her on retainer.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #11 – April 20, 2005, 10:24:43 AM

ive never had my cars touched by a mechanic, not because i dont have faith in any (well...one reason), but id much rather do it myself, the only thing a mechanic has ever touched on my car since i owned it was my wheels and tires, because i cant mount and balance at my house

the only time a "professional" will touch my car, will be body work/paint, and alignments, even being 20 years old, i have enough confidence in being able to fix anything

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #12 – April 20, 2005, 11:18:45 AM

find a new mechanic. try several, drive around and see if they have any older stuff in the bay to be worked on. As far as "it's not worth their time" i've never gotten a discount becuase of the age of my car. my money spends the same as the money from a guy with a 2003 or 2004 car. Basically the work ethic isn't there any more, a lot of the guys in the trades have a similar atitude, buy a new fridge don't fix this one, new tv's are so much more advanced, don't fix this one. i got my mitsubishi 27" with pnp and stereo out of trash can, spent $78.00 for a power something and have had it for 6 years now.

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #13 – April 20, 2005, 11:25:12 AM

It's an 80's fox body. Of course it's not worth the effort and cash. That doesn't mean it's the wrong thing to do. :)

Re: wanna know what im sick of?

Reply #14 – April 20, 2005, 11:36:33 AM

Several weeks ago, someone I know had backed into my Cougar and cracked the headlight bezel, crumpled the fender a bit, cracked the header panel, scuffed up the bumper cover, cracked the turn signal assembly. The "perpetrator" offered to pay for all the damages. I got an estimate for over $1000 in damages. The guy doing the bodywork (also a friend) didnt care about the work. But the owner of the bodyshop was totally blown away that someone would put $1000 of bodywork into a car that isnt worth that much. They wanted to total the car, but since it wasnt insurance work, they cant do that.

To me, the car runs great, looks decent, is comfortable and only has 50,000 miles on it. Its worth it. :flip: