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Bubba was here........

Joined
Apr 2, 2004
Messages
4,611
Location
Newark, Delaware
Corvette
1965 Coupe L76 / 1978 L82
well, I've been fixxing up a '78 I bought over the winter. The previous owner had it since '97 but barely ever used it (only 9,489 original miles when I bought it) and for the last 2 or 3 years it sat untouched outside under a plastic tarp. It was one of my winter projects to fix the car up and today I think I finally got the last part done......

One thing that was bothering me since I got the car running was a faint squeaking noise coming from the drivers side rear wheel. It progressively got worst........ not on moving forward - that stayed about the same sound, but when reversing it because a horrible shrill grinding noise that would make you sick to your stomach worrying what was destroying itself. I pulled the wheel off but couldn't see anything.
I did all the work on the car under the hood but have never touched brakes on a car before so was hesitate to do anything or take anything apart myself. I hated to do it by decided to take it to a mechanic that I used a few times in the past on my '65 but gave up on. I figured brakes should be generic enough that maye he wouldn't screw it up too bad.
Well, found the problem in less than 5 minutes....... after getting the car on the lift and pulling the wheel & caliper off he started to pull the rotor off and things started to literally just fall off the car onto the floor.
OK, found the answer to TWO issues now......... the squeaking, squealing, grinding noise AND why the parking brake was useless. Everyspring inside the parking brake was off, and fell out onto the ground except one that was hung up and was rubbing against the rotor - the noise source.

After calling around he finds out the '78 Parking Brake Hardware Kit is discontinued but luckly he found springs in his shop that would work to replace all the mangled springs that fell out of my car. got everything back together and it works fine and no bad noises anymore.

now, why bring up Bubba on this?? I have all the past service records from the previous owner and literally the day before the car was placed outside and left to sit for 2 or 3 years it had been to a large and well-known Corvette specialty repair/restoration shop not too far away. They had replaced the rear brakes on the car. It was driven approx 12 miles back to the owners home it and didn't move again until I had the cae flatbedded to my house when I bought it which means they didn't reassemble the parking brake correctly at all. It probably fell apart between their shop and the previous owners house on that last drive.

Oh......... the other service work they did on that same service visit was rebuild the carb as the owner complained it wasn't running right.
When I first got the car home I tried to start it and it barely started after a lot of fighting but wouldn't stay running on it's own. I sent the carb out to be rebuilt and the guy doing it comments that someone had already been inside this carb (which I knew from the service records) but they literally put things back together wrong and there were even broken parts inside. He couldn't inderstand how the car even started and ran at all let along poorly. Makes me wonder how the previous owner even managed to drive the car home from the service shop those few years ago!

so much so the quality of service from this well-known Corvette Specialty shop. And their service is expensive too!!

Tell you what, i'll NEVER let them touch any of MY cars even if they were the last service place in existence.
 
it's time to go back to horse and buggys

Barry, I can top that. Ever since I've had my vette I have been going to a vette specialist-high performance shop who did good work but really hosed me when I got his bills. The beginning of June I took my saturn to him to fix a bad head gasket. He quoted me $500-600 to do the job. After he had the head off he calls & says it needed a valve job & timing chain. He says the total bill will be $1,040. I ok'd it. He had the car 5 weeks, calls and says its done & my bill is $1400. because he needed to buy extra parts. My wife picks it up and go's about 2 miles, it quits and a puff of black smoke comes out the hood. We had it towed to a Saturn dealer to be checked. Seems the head was broke at a rocker boss and had been drilled and tapped to accept a different size bolt but it did'nt work and the rocker assembly was loose. He also had replaced the timing chain tensioner with an after market part and the timing chain was binding up. I cancelled the check to the first guy and had Saturn fix it right. Total-with tax-$2117. Thats more that the car is worth. The old head is in the trunk and Saturn says they will send their mechanic to court with me if I get sued by the high performance shop. Why can't anything to do with cars be easy? Now I have to find another vette mechanic.
 
that sucks!
unfortunately, I got to the point that i gave up trying to find a component mechanics to work on my vette(s) so I finally made the decision to start to learn to do it myself. Today was the first time since the Fall I've let anyone else touch my vettes except when I needed the AC done on the '78. I'm only going to mechanics on slect jobs that are still what i feel are beyond my limited knowledge and abilities.

BTW, about 2 years ago we were having a problem with our Lexus LS400. The COOLANT warning light kepr coming on and we took it to the Lexus dealer. They repalced a part and charges me about $300. The next day the light came on again so we took it back. They replaced another part and it was another $500. This went on a couple more times!! Ended up costing me almost $2,000 .
Guess what, the dame light was still coming on. took it back again and had a serious "chat" with the sercive manager. He said he would supervise the repair personally this time and make sure it's done right once and for all.
got a call the nest day the car was ready. Turns out it was the computer module in the dash and there was never anything wrong with the cooling system!
Service manager tells me he isn't going to charge me for the shop visit........ UH dude?? what about the $2,000 I already paid you for what turned out than to be useless new parts and labor????? Oh sorry, can't do anything about that.
2 months later gues what light still decides to flash on at times and it STILL interrmittently coming on every now and than.... yep, the COOLANT light!
 
The funny part about your story is Bubba got paid to screw up the brakes and the carb.

Warning: Bubba rant starts here

Bubba painted all the silver parts in my interior black. Bubba cut one of the A/C lines under the hood. I see both sides of the cut so why? It appears Bubba also bent the trailing arms in the back so the wide rims would fit, but it messed up the geometry in the read end, and now the halfshaft hits the yoke at the differential under certain conditions. He replaced the stock fan with a flex fan that was a little too big and it cracked the shroud when the engine torques. He also cut the metal fuel line (southern car with practically no rust) because apparently the rubber and metal line did not fit on top of the frame in the back, and replaced every inch of the fuel line with rubber line, even on the pressure side of the fuel pump. I think he was chasing a miss that turned I found in the distributor.

Actually there may have been more than one Bubba involved here.

At least the original engine is still in it.

Bubba rant ends here.
 
unfortunately, there are a lot of "Bubba's" out there getting paid for their work as they are so-called "professionals".
A regular local mechanic doing this would have been bad enough, but from a "Corvette specialty" shop, especially one that charges as much as this place does, is just inexcusable in my book.
 
A perfect illustration of why I do my own work. #1 keeps labor costs in my pocket. #2 if it doesn't work, no one to blame but me.

:)
 

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