stupid things "professionals" have done to your avenger

[kierbear]

this is to discuss things that mechanics/ whatever have done to ur car and failed and it has made u angry and put you insanely out of pocket

[kierbear]

ok ill get the ball rolling.

the other day: wheel alignment that was expected to take "15-45 minutes" took 6 hours. the wheel alignment was SUPPOSED to cost $65, it cost me $126. and that was after i talked the price down since they did all this shit wothout asking and then tried to charge me. i am yet to know what they did because they are POSTING me the invoice (wtf??) next week when the lady has TIME!

[kierbear]

had to go to smith&smith to get them to do my windscreen rubbers. my issues were as follows
1. First of all they didnt even help me to find rubbers, they just sent me on my own hopeless journey
2. once i had obtained the rubbers, they said there were alg
3. took car in fir the "four hour" mission
4. i rung them on the seventh hour! they told me the rubbers were no good! wtf?!?
5. they said they were trying make moulds of my other rubbers? i told them they werent to charge me extra since i hadnt even agreed to it
6. they tell me they want to keep it overnight, i say "good luck, have fun starting it in the morning, its empty!" they say "yes weve already had problems with it!" wtf why!?!?!

7. they ring me at 6am the next day saying my car is ready, they had to get a guy in from holiday whi was the only one wh  knoew things about old cars? whatttt? didnt u wana make sure he was in when i booked?
8. they charge me like $60 extra than what they said and tried to make me feel bad about getting this guy in from holiday

[kierbear]

took my car to the panel beaters to get dents taken out of the sill. a guy from the shop that is meant to tbe the most reputable shop around says "i think ill cut the sill out, bash it and weld it back in...hmm these are rare"
wtf? if u were gonna du that, i would just get a new sill and weld that in?
then he quoted me for it panelled and painted, i said i just wanted it primered, then he insisted he wanted to paint it. get fuked.
took it to the shop round the corner from work and he was like "yeah ill just pull the dents out with my machine, come and pick it up after work" eassssy

[hunted]

haha I think its cause your a girl!!

I refuse to take my car to a mechanic unless its something I actually cant do. Ive had 4 cars pre 1980 and the only time Ive taken them into a shop is to get the exhaust welded up on the avenger! haha

[kierbear]

yeah i try to not take it to people but i couldnt have possibly done any of those things by myself lol. probs shud have taken up ross's advise on the doing ur wheel alignment with urself witha bit of string? damn

[avenga]

haha, You guys would have a heart attack if you saw how much all the work on my Avenger cost me 

I am fully stoked with all the work done on my Avenger so I can't add anything the the Stupid things list.

[kierbear]

haha shit, must be a hawkes bay thing. everytime someone says "havnt seen an avenger in a while" after they fuck up a job, i just say "what since the 70's?" lol

[avenga]

I get all my work done at Bygone Autos and they only work on old cars so they do an awesome job on both my Avenger and my Charger.

[kierbear]

i should probs find sumthing like that then, all of the places i went were supposed to be reputable. maybe i should turn to the little back alley garages lol

[avenga]

Yeah find an oldschool mechanic. Now days young mechanics only know how to plug in a diagnostic computer. In the past I have had places refuse to look at my cars because they don't know how a carburetor works! (Not kidding this actually happened, the guy would only work on fuel injected cars)

[kierbear]

haha i know of a lady who knows of a guy who does oldschool but for the most part i get james who sells me parts to do shit i cant figure out. need my front windscreen rubbers done soonish eek

[hunted]

no you dont lol, just silicone up the gaps, thats what I did and it looks super tidy and works a charm

[oldschool]

Yeah mines sweet, just trimmed the perished rubber off, put masking tape around the window frame where the old rubber went too and used a knife to trowel in black underseal...doesn't leak and looks good from a 100m away...lol
Have to change the one in my Alpine though, it's completely stuffed, the windscreen is just about falling out....haha 
Regarding wheel alignments...they're often a rip-off as modern cars (and Avengers) don't have adjustable caster and camber, so they can only adjust the toe-in, which you can do yourself using the string technique. I done heaps of cars that way, never a problem!

[kierbear]

i just want new chrome filler lol so it looks as good as new. looks shit at the mo