Well I picked up the car today!! I've been debating if I want to make a thread here or not about the experience. Most of my buds know the trouble I've been having with the shop and they didn't fail to disappoint when picking up the car. While the shop and I may not have seen eye to eye on what "additional" work vs what was included in the original quote, the thing not in dispute was the complete installation of the subframe and torque arm and mount the engine and trans in the car.
With that in mind when I picked the car up I was sad to discover the following list of problems:
- Front subframe not completely bolted in (Even more annoying that everytime I visited the car in the last 3 months I kept pointing out that these bolts were missing and other little things asking when they would be completed)
- A arms installed incorrectly in subframe (washers not inserted in correct spots) but will require removing the coil over to fix.
-Trans tunnel cut but not patched (never told me they would be cutting the tunnel
- Cheapo paint job on the rear end which has already been scratched to bare metal in spots from bending the brake lines
- Drum parking brake installed incorrectly so they are dragging pretty bad
- Inner fenders not clearanced to the subframe correctly (just needed a minor cut or bending) but instead they have cut into the sub and scratched off the powder coat
- Inner fender on passenger side left in direct contact with the upper A arm.
- fire wall hole for the wiring harness cut without permission (instead of the original 2" hole I know have a 2"x3" hole
- the two links in the torque arm were installed incorrectly and the sheet metal was not notched for correct installation
- Upper cross member for the panhard bar and coil overs in the rear had bolts on each side installed without an washers (something I had pointed out twice in previous visits but never fixed).
- Hydraulic clutch line was installed before the brake lines and steering column. When they installed the steering column and brake lines they trapped the clutch line causing it to be wrapped tight around the steering shaft in an unsafe manner
- At least 4 spots along the drivers rocker panel the paint was chipped down to bare metal.
- Missing bolts from the motor mounts on both sides (now I have to decide if I want to life the motor out so I can check if the bolts hidden behind the SBC mount are installed or not...
- Missing hardware for my gas filler neck (why did they even remove these, wtf?) and possibly my ebrake set up (they didn't reinstall the cables).
I didn't know all of these things until after leaving the shop with my car on the trailer. The shop and I parted on bad terms to do what was considered "included" in their estimate. However, I was pleasantly surprised that on some of the things (a arm parts, two link brackets) they were willing to stand by their work and have me bring the car back. Am I crazy for not wanting these people to work on my car any longer? There is a clear lack of attention to detail on the installation of these parts. Why would I want to give them the opportunity to mess up more stuff?
I'm incredibly depressed about the quality of work performed but at the same time I'm so relieved to have my car out of there. Instead of taking the car home I decided to drop it off at Fab53 so Brett could bail me out and fix a lot of the shoddy work and mistakes.
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