G
Guest
·Hey everyone. had NO time to do my clutch job, so I was having the local performance shop do it. The guy there, is a very good guy, never been dishonest with me, so I figured "hey, what the hell". He did it for $150 labor (I provided the Exedy clutch). I went in once, when it was supposed to be done, it wasn't. Went in the next day, again...wasn't. The problem is, he's trying to run the shop alone, while his partners in business go out and drink. I was thinking "hey, I understand". Then, he mentioned over the phone he saw a tiny bit of a leak in the radiator I might want to check out. He said he noticed it when he was grabbing the radiator hose. He said it's nothing big.
I got there, checked it out, and said "alright, yea, it should be OK". We started it up, and it leaked more than we both thought it would. He was very ticked. He was more mad than I was. He made some guys run to the store, to grab some two-ton epoxy to fill it. An hour or so later, they returned, and we put the epoxy on it. The first layer had dried about 70% or so...was a tiny bit sticky, but I was in a hurry, so we applied the second. About 15 minutes after the second layer went on, I pulled the car out, and let it idle for about 10 minutes. We checked it, and saw the epoxy beginning to bubble slowly in one spot. I told him I'd just baby it home, and tomorrow I'd stop by, for him to put a couple more layers on, to let it fully dry.
Was almost home, stopped at a gas station (since the lighting is really good), popped the hood while the car was idling, opened it..smoke. The bubble spot (I'm assuming) had broke through, and splattered all over the area of the engine closest to the radiator. Great.
Now I understand mistakes can be made, and I still love the shop...but come on. That is not news you like to hear.
Edit: I just got off the phone with Jason. He again, apologized extensively, said tomorrow as soon as I can, get it in (we both already had planned on it anyways), and until then, keep water on me. He said "if I have to, I'll replace the whole radiator. I feel so bad, man..that's not something I'm proud of at all..", etc.
But on the bright side, the clutch job is excellent. I drove it a tiny bit (before we realized the leak..), and adjusted the clutch cable, and it feels like a huge difference. It feels like a definite difference..so that sort of evens out things, I guess.
I got there, checked it out, and said "alright, yea, it should be OK". We started it up, and it leaked more than we both thought it would. He was very ticked. He was more mad than I was. He made some guys run to the store, to grab some two-ton epoxy to fill it. An hour or so later, they returned, and we put the epoxy on it. The first layer had dried about 70% or so...was a tiny bit sticky, but I was in a hurry, so we applied the second. About 15 minutes after the second layer went on, I pulled the car out, and let it idle for about 10 minutes. We checked it, and saw the epoxy beginning to bubble slowly in one spot. I told him I'd just baby it home, and tomorrow I'd stop by, for him to put a couple more layers on, to let it fully dry.
Was almost home, stopped at a gas station (since the lighting is really good), popped the hood while the car was idling, opened it..smoke. The bubble spot (I'm assuming) had broke through, and splattered all over the area of the engine closest to the radiator. Great.
Now I understand mistakes can be made, and I still love the shop...but come on. That is not news you like to hear.
Edit: I just got off the phone with Jason. He again, apologized extensively, said tomorrow as soon as I can, get it in (we both already had planned on it anyways), and until then, keep water on me. He said "if I have to, I'll replace the whole radiator. I feel so bad, man..that's not something I'm proud of at all..", etc.
But on the bright side, the clutch job is excellent. I drove it a tiny bit (before we realized the leak..), and adjusted the clutch cable, and it feels like a huge difference. It feels like a definite difference..so that sort of evens out things, I guess.
