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Is finishing this project worth it?

1K views 19 replies 8 participants last post by  1ownerT 
#1 ·
I've been working on my 1980 Dodge pick up for going on three years now. I am not a mechanic. I'm on this board way more for learning than for giving advice. The help I've gotten so far has been excellent. I did my first engine swap on this truck. I swapped the interior and dash from my 86 to this truck. I redid the ball joints, brakes with the guidance of a friend. I redid the body myself.

Lately I got some things done by different shops mainly because I lack the knowledge, the facility and time to do it myself . Got the 80 tranny changed to the 86's, got the exhaust and mufflers done, and now the truck is at the electrical place.

I didn't mind spending a little bit on the truck I figured if I spent a total of 3-4 grand including what I paid for the truck ($200) I'd have a functional 4x4 with lots of new parts.

My dilemma comes from my visit to the electrical shop. I told the guy I didn't want to break the bank because it's an older truck and I'm on a limited budget. I just wanted done what it needs for a safety so I can register it.

I'm not going to go into too much detail as to what they've done, but so far I already owe them a grand and the guy admits that it seems like a lot because most of that labor was spent tracing wires and figuring things out. Right now the job is on hold while I try to figure out what I want to do.

What needs to be done:

- Neutral safety switch

- Install a rheostat-style wiper switch (because the wiper motor on the 80 was not built for a delay switch like I have built in the dash - that's what the guy said. Does that make sense? Seems weird to me. I'd think the motor was a motor and that the pulse came from somewhere else...)

- Forget trying to get the ammeter and temperature gauges in the dash working and just buy a $15 dollar gauge cluster and wire it directly.

- Possible getting the fuel gauge to work. Don't know if it does.

The guy said I was looking at a total of around $2500 to finish the job.

Quite frankly, this was not in my game plan. Electronics is not my bag. That's why I was getting it done. I'm willing to give it a shot myself if you guys think you can advise me on these tasks. If not I guess I'll have to dish out, or just cut my losses and throw in the towel.

I gotta say I'm getting a little discouraged and throwing in the towel seems like the most reasonable option. In my life I've spent so much money on vehicles - buying cars on a whim or pulling them apart and not following through with the restoration. I've got a Monte SS that's been sitting around ten years and spent more money on it than the car's value...

I think I just need some perspective here. Anyone?
 
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#2 ·
pigjamelectric said:
I've been working on my 1980 Dodge pick up for going on three years now. I am not a mechanic. I'm on this board way more for learning than for giving advice. The help I've gotten so far has been excellent. I did my first engine swap on this truck. I swapped the interior and dash from my 86 to this truck. I redid the ball joints, brakes with the guidance of a friend. I redid the body myself.

Lately I got some things done by different shops mainly because I lack the knowledge, the facility and time to do it myself . Got the 80 tranny changed to the 86's, got the exhaust and mufflers done, and now the truck is at the electrical place.

I didn't mind spending a little bit on the truck I figured if I spent a total of 3-4 grand including what I paid for the truck ($200) I'd have a functional 4x4 with lots of new parts.

My dilemma comes from my visit to the electrical shop. I told the guy I didn't want to break the bank because it's an older truck and I'm on a limited budget. I just wanted done what it needs for a safety so I can register it.

I'm not going to go into too much detail as to what they've done, but so far I already owe them a grand and the guy admits that it seems like a lot because most of that labor was spent tracing wires and figuring things out. Right now the job is on hold while I try to figure out what I want to do.

What needs to be done:

- Neutral safety switch

- Install a rheostat-style wiper switch (because the wiper motor on the 80 was not built for a delay switch like I have built in the dash - that's what the guy said. Does that make sense? Seems weird to me. I'd think the motor was a motor and that the pulse came from somewhere else...)

- Forget trying to get the ammeter and temperature gauges in the dash working and just buy a $15 dollar gauge cluster and wire it directly.

- Possible getting the fuel gauge to work. Don't know if it does.

The guy said I was looking at a total of around $2500 to finish the job.

Quite frankly, this was not in my game plan. Electronics is not my bag. That's why I was getting it done. I'm willing to give it a shot myself if you guys think you can advise me on these tasks. If not I guess I'll have to dish out, or just cut my losses and throw in the towel.

I gotta say I'm getting a little discouraged and throwing in the towel seems like the most reasonable option. In my life I've spent so much money on vehicles - buying cars on a whim or pulling them apart and not following through with the restoration. I've got a Monte SS that's been sitting around ten years and spent more money on it than the car's value...

I think I just need some perspective here. Anyone?
Wow a grand :confused: I would get my truck away from them as soon as possible :pain: You can replace the complete wiring harness for much less. :thumbup: Sounds to me like you are getting hosed big time. Many guys who are not mechanics trouble shoot their own electrical problems there is great help on this site. But you really need to get your truck away from those guys before they milk you dry
 
#3 ·
Not A T 25

I just want to say that, if they are not offering fifty gallons of Vaseline for you when they do this job then you are going to be so sore you won't be able to sit for a year!!!

I know that is saying it pretty bad but it is the truth.

You can buy a new wiring kit on e-bay for about 150.00 and start learning how to do the wiring yourself, DOC in the electrical has more knowledge than anyone I know of (don't tell him this he will just disagree) he will answer any questions on how to do the whole wiring job and will without a doubt get you through the whole task with very little money spent as possible, the tools and equipment and material together would not come even close to what you were quoted from whom-ever it was. Sorry about being so graphic at the beginning but I know you and or anyone can learn to do this and probably wouldn't take more than a couple weekends to do it.

30dee :sweat:
jesssse I don't normally talk this much :sweat:
 
#4 ·
30desoto said:
Not A T 25

I just want to say that, if they are not offering fifty gallons of Vaseline for you when they do this job then you are going to be so sore you won't be able to sit for a year!!!

I know that is saying it pretty bad but it is the truth.

You can buy a new wiring kit on e-bay for about 150.00 and start learning how to do the wiring yourself, DOC in the electrical has more knowledge than anyone I know of (don't tell him this he will just disagree) he will answer any questions on how to do the whole wiring job and will without a doubt get you through the whole task with very little money spent as possible, the tools and equipment and material together would not come even close to what you were quoted from whom-ever it was. Sorry about being so graphic at the beginning but I know you and or anyone can learn to do this and probably wouldn't take more than a couple weekends to do it.

30dee :sweat:
jesssse I don't normally talk this much :sweat:
Sorry your missed it! not my post I just responded :nono:
 
#5 ·
i agree with not a t, you werent specific about what they did so far, but a grand is a LOT of labor. if you are just trying to get some safety stuff working the whole job shouldnt be a grand unless all the wiring in the truck is totally butchered. 80s pickups just arent that complicated. $2500 is absurd!! GET YOUR TRUCK OUTA THERE!!!
 
#8 ·
techron said:
i agree with not a t, you werent specific about what they did so far,

I'll get into what they've done so far in a second. First some details. Because the dash and motor came from my 86, I also changed the wiring harness. Everything should snap back on except for components that were unchangeable to 86, such as the four head light from the 80 and the wiper motor. (The brake booster on the 80 is too wide to accommodate the 86 wiper motor. I could always change the booster to the 86)

What they've done so far:

- Get rid of the start button and make it crank with the key

- Rewire the headlights so that the 86 harness (two headlight system) will accommodate the 80's four headlights.

- cut a hole behind both front signal lights' holes to accommodate the bulb, urethane it to seal.

-fixed the horn, (They put in a new one on, I forgot to put in the old one. The old one is sitting in my shed. man that burns...)

- Changed the dimmer switch.

- The rest is labor trying to figure things out. Apparently the lights were going dim when they were trying to wire the wiper motor.

The guy says he's charging me way less than the hours the worker already spent on it. Labor is $78 an hour. 1000/78 = 12 hours minus the cost of horn, dimmer switch, taxes, say 10 to 11 hours.

To be fair, I brought them a project where we're trying to make two different year stuff fit. I guess it's not book hours. I understand I could have to pay for some wire tracing or whatnot. However, as Techron brought up, nothing about the wiring was butchered in either truck. You guys might know better than me if that list of done tasks equals 10 hours.
 
#9 · (Edited)
You guys crack me up. :D

I chase out wiring demons from rats nest old hacked up wiring and charge 75. per hour. I won't quote a price to get the job all done, because what should be simple, never is. Even in a stock car, unless you owned it forever, you can't be sure.

Example:I had a guy bring me a car that had an intermittant battery drain, and the windows would jerk up and down at random times. After checking a bunch of obvious stuff, like the exciter wire being hooked to the battery and radio drains, rattly ignition switches and the like...

I found the problem with the windows was in a taped up harness where they were crossing from door to door, there was some improperly crimped connectors that were shorting out to each and the intermittant drain was on a live battery feed that would short from a pigtailed bare wire in a homemade conduit that as ran under all of the upholstery. Apparantly when they took the electric fuel pump out from under the floor, the guy just pulled the wire loose from under the car.

I spent the better part of 2 days in that car to find that. I had to isolate and ring out a bunch of circuits, as there was no schematic, most of the wire was black, and there were about 3 different people who worked on the car who all used different interpretations of wiring techniques. (one guy thought that EVERYthing needed to be run through relays.)

How long do you think it would take to find that if you didn't know it was there? (I didn't)You say that the truck wasn't hacked, but the shop owner doesn't know that.

Wiring problems are what made me coin the phrase,"better minds than mine have messed this up, so it may take a while."

I don't know of anyone who owns a shop that will quote "fixing" wiring issues in an existing harness..It is easier to quote redoing the entire harness, or sections of the harness.. For a complete rewire I would ask for 3-4, maybe 5 days labor in my shop with most all of the switches and components installed. .Some guys can do it faster, I have fixed a few of these boys work. If someone thinks I'm giving them the bone, well they can take it someplace else.

And if you ever started to paw through an 80's car or truck, they are not as simple as you would think. Even when you get a wiring schematic, there are enough differences that will still have you tracing wires ,pulling taped up bundles of wire apart, and that can take some time in a stock harness. And the difference in years alone can make those two trucks seem like they came from different planets.

It does sound like he is letting his inexperienced guy work on it though, and eating some hours...I'd probably do the same thing if I had an employee who was worth letting go to town on the truck for the experience.

If you want a shop to do it, don't cry about the money. He needs to make a living too, and giving you a break because you don't want to spend the money is not a good way to do business.

Take it to a shop that specializes in auto electrics.
There is one on most every corner...( yes I'm being sarcastic) :evil:


Bottom line: if you want to save money, get a book, get a wiring harness, (the 150.00 one is a bit too cheesy for me, but whatever), Butter up docvette some for a barrage of questions and go to town.

If I can do it, so can you. The harnesses are very easy to route, and if you follow the instructions, you will have wired your truck in a matter of weeks worth of evenings. The hard part will be to integrate all of the stock switches, guages and stuff, as many of these need specialized connectors and are wired into the system in ways that need to be interpreted into your new simplified system.

Later, mikey
 
#10 ·
hourly labor rate seems right. all the repairs you mention would take me 2 hrs tops. a lot of shops refuse/dont like jobs like this and will charge a premium, say 1hr- thats now 3 flat rate hours. that leaves 7-9 hours to stare at wires. if he cant figure anything else out in 7-9 hours he needs to come out of his coma!! in all fairness to the shop it would probably take a little more time to do the repairs correctly, maybe another hour. ill bet they are not done correctly, the repairs are done and they work but ill bet theres wire splicing, wire jumping at the headlights and other such goings on. glueing the parking light bulbs in sounds kinda bubba. at 10-12 hours put in so far i say a lot more repairs should be finished.
 
#11 ·
powerrodsmike said:
You guys crack me up. :D

I chase out wiring demons from rats nest old hacked up wiring and charge 75. per hour. I won't quote a price to get the job all done, because what should be simple, never is. Even in a stock car, unless you owned it forever, you can't be sure.

Example:I had a guy bring me a car that had an intermittant battery drain, and the windows would jerk up and down at random times. After checking a bunch of obvious stuff, like the exciter wire being hooked to the battery and radio drains, rattly ignition switches and the like...

I found the problem with the windows was in a taped up harness where they were crossing from door to door, there was some improperly crimped connectors that were shorting out to each and the intermittant drain was on a live battery feed that would short from a pigtailed bare wire in a homemade conduit that as ran under all of the upholstery. Apparantly when they took the electric fuel pump out from under the floor, the guy just pulled the wire loose from under the car.

I spent the better part of 2 days in that car to find that. I had to isolate and ring out a bunch of circuits, as there was no schematic, most of the wire was black, and there were about 3 different people who worked on the car who all used different interpretations of wiring techniques. (one guy thought that EVERYthing needed to be run through relays.)

How long do you think it would take to find that if you didn't know it was there? (I didn't)You say that the truck wasn't hacked, but the shop owner doesn't know that.

Wiring problems are what made me coin the phrase,"better minds than mine have messed this up, so it may take a while."

I don't know of anyone who owns a shop that will quote "fixing" wiring issues in an existing harness..It is easier to quote redoing the entire harness, or sections of the harness.. For a complete rewire I would ask for 3-4, maybe 5 days labor in my shop with most all of the switches and components installed. .Some guys can do it faster, I have fixed a few of these boys work. If someone thinks I'm giving them the bone, well they can take it someplace else.

And if you ever started to paw through an 80's car or truck, they are not as simple as you would think. Even when you get a wiring schematic, there are enough differences that will still have you tracing wires ,pulling taped up bundles of wire apart, and that can take some time in a stock harness. And the difference in years alone can make those two trucks seem like they came from different planets.

It does sound like he is letting his inexperienced guy work on it though, and eating some hours...I'd probably do the same thing if I had an employee who was worth letting go to town on the truck for the experience.

If you want a shop to do it, don't cry about the money. He needs to make a living too, and giving you a break because you don't want to spend the money is not a good way to do business.

Take it to a shop that specializes in auto electrics.
There is one on most every corner...( yes I'm being sarcastic) :evil:


Bottom line: if you want to save money, get a book, get a wiring harness, (the 150.00 one is a bit too cheesy for me, but whatever), Butter up docvette some for a barrage of questions and go to town.

If I can do it, so can you. The harnesses are very easy to route, and if you follow the instructions, you will have wired your truck in a matter of weeks worth of evenings. The hard part will be to integrate all of the stock switches, guages and stuff, as many of these need specialized connectors and are wired into the system in ways that need to be interpreted into your new simplified system.

Later, mikey
mikey is right when it comes to digging onto wiring harnesses and trying to figure out previous butcher jobs, theres no telling how long it will take and ive been down the same path mike has. my point is that the repairs done so far are simple repairs. changing starter from button to key involves moving one wire from the button and installing it on the right terminel on the switch. R&R dimmers requires no wiring. going from 2 to 4 headlights is easy. etc.
as for wiring and wiring harnesses go i guess mikey is right when he says " its not so simple as you might think" since you admitted your lack of electrical experience. i think your wiring is fairly basic because of the lack of accesories and electronic controls newer cars have. compared to a 95 X(insert make and model of your choice here) mobile that has p-windows, p-seats, p-doorlocks, electronic FI, electronic climate control, cruise, computers, digital crap all over the dash, enough sensors to fill a shoebox antilock brakes, active suspension and on and on. when i work on one of these your wiring IS simple by comparison.
that said i think given your limited budget you should try to repair it yourself. dont get overwhelmed looking at a fat wiring harness, fix 1 item at a time. a complex system is just a bunch of simple systems bundled together. when you fix one thing move on to the next and ask questions here when you get stuck. find a good wiring diagram and spend a little time learning how to read it, your confusion should start to clear up.







fi
 
#12 ·
Yes some of those repairs should seem simple, But it is so hard to say exactly what all is going on ...one busted spade connector in the wrong place , like coming off the back of an ignition switch, for example, can lead to way more time spent than what you want to hear about...


A few years back, I had a guy call with a 57 Nomad that needed some switch replacements..Simple ...right? So I bring in this car hoping to make some lunch money, and quoted 1/2 an hour...


Well every time I went to pull off a connector, the plastic housing would break away from the connectors which seemed to be welded to the spade connectors that came out of the switch :smash:

So now I get to make up new ends on wire that has the same tensile strength and consistancy as the dead sea scrolls, and with the color all faded is about as easy to read. Every time I moved a wire I could hear crackling like dried twigs. I don't know if that particular car was left in Death Valley or had a fire or had a generator putting out 50 volts cooking the dog doo out of those wires or what.

I finished the job after 2 1/2 hours, just spent doing a "simple" replacement of the headlight switch and the ignition switch. Of course I had to patch up the wires that broke from my hand brushing them away from the areas under the dash that I needed access to.... I wrote a letter that said he was being notifed of an unsafe wiring harness, which needed to be replaced, in it's entirety, immediatley, and power rods would not be responsible for any fires, death or damage that resulted in him driving this car out of my shop.

Talk about Pandoras box...and what a stinky box that was.... :eek:

I only charged him for 1/2 hour.

I don't know if he still has that car or not.

And believe it or not, I have seen the same kind of damage on newer, ('70s), cars, especially ones from wet areas where the metals sometimes weld themselves together from electrolysis. The firewall connectors are prone to corrosion and bad connections as are switch innards.

I started to work on my dad's 72 mach1 and he wound up selling the car off to someone who was willing to spend the time rewiring it. (at that time I wasn't)..


I'm not saying that the guy up in MB Cen-e-dah is doing an honest job or not, but I don't take anything for granted anymore.
A friend of mine has a 98 dodge pickup with a V10...it has been in the shop 3 times to find the cause of a sensor trouble code...Finally it made it to a guy's shop who writes the programs for troubleshooting Dodge wiring and electronics issues, and his minimum quoted charge is 400.00.

It took that guy 2 days to find that a sensor wire that ran under the manifold back under the cowl was not fully broken, but had enough strands broken through to make the resistance go up enough to piss off the ecm, but not enough to fail a continuity check.

Simple stuff..is sometimes the hardest.

later, mikey
 
#13 ·
This thread is a good example of two sides to every story! We are very suspicious of shops with the horror stories of keeping a car forever and over charging. The bottom line is we have a responsibility to be a wise informed consumer ask questions get a not to exceed figure at least that way both parties have an idea what is expected. And do not pay in advance unless there is major equipment or materials required. I have a buddy that paid up front to get his 36 chevy built and it has been 4 years and the guy has done a dozen rods between he has done great work but! If you plan on having a shop do paint or interior a cool trick is to go by the shop a month or so before you plan on dropping off your job then drive by each week and see what is in the shop and sitting outside this may give you a clue how your chances are of getting the work done in a reasonable amount of time. While doing it yourself is not the easiest and not always the cheapest but is usually always the most rewarding in the end. To answer the original question of is this truck worth it only he knows! Value is in the eye of the beholder and we all place different values on things.
 
#14 ·
It is always tough to get an idea of the cost when a job is as long and open ended as building a whole car. There are too many variables. Although there are many aftermarket parts available now to hang on a car, and you'd think that all you need to do is buy stuff and bolt it together, it's been my experience that the more parts there are, the more chances there are for things to go wrong. I have yet to see a part or system come out of the box with perfect instructions and everything included to make the job happen as the salesman says. .( I have a job right now that I've had to send wrong parts back at least 6 times..And you don't always know the parts are wrong until it's time to install them.)

Paying up front for labor is bad.. Building other cars while having one sit in the shop is very bad.

What I've been doing on big jobs is ask for the customer to go over exactly what he wants, then list it all out, then list out all the parts . Get the money for the parts up front if it is more than 2 or 3 hundred dollars worth, then I actually do buy the parts. That way if the job goes sour, the customer still gets his parts.

Then I ask for them to authorize an amount that he can feel comfortable paying. usually it is 500.00 or so. Then I start in on the list. I keep track of my hours spent on each job, and list the things that I had to do such as any modifications to parts, activities that required inordinate amounts of time, and what was actually done. I detail what I've done to justify the time spent.

When I have used up the preauthorized labor amount, I call up the customer, and we go over the time card. If the customer looks at what I've done, and feels that all of my time spent was well justified, and the quality of work is what was expected, then he pays me and we authorize another 500.00 ..If the customer feels like I've been ripping him off, ( that doesn't happen often), then we settle on an amount that he feels the job was worth and he takes his parts and car and goes away.

That way I'm not out a bunch of time, and he's not out a bunch of money.

Usually after a couple of 500.00 preauths, the customer is willing to authorize some more...(that's when I drop the hammer and get him for all he's got.... :evil: NOT!! Just kidding :D )

That is a good way to do these T&M jobs. I won't even talk about what can happen if the BAR gets involved with one of these type of jobs because someone was unhappy..

I have found that in this type of work, I need to prequalify my customers. If a guy comes in who can quote the job, tell me he knows exactly what amount of time neds to be spent and that he is sure that there will be no issues that will add to the job, then I figure he must be better at this sort of thing, and should probably do it himself.


Maybe pigjamelectric should ask to see why it took so long to do all of this, and have the tech list out ALL of the things he had to do, and what took all of that time.. If the shop owner is honest, then it shouldn't be a problem.

Martinsr has an article he wrote called "confessions of a body shop owner", it's a pretty good read.


http://www.camaros.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9327

later, mikey
 
#15 ·
powerrodsmike said:
Yes some of those repairs should seem simple, But it is so hard to say exactly what all is going on ...one busted spade connector in the wrong place , like coming off the back of an ignition switch, for example, can lead to way more time spent than what you want to hear about...


A few years back, I had a guy call with a 57 Nomad that needed some switch replacements..Simple ...right? So I bring in this car hoping to make some lunch money, and quoted 1/2 an hour...


Well every time I went to pull off a connector, the plastic housing would break away from the connectors which seemed to be welded to the spade connectors that came out of the switch :smash:

So now I get to make up new ends on wire that has the same tensile strength and consistancy as the dead sea scrolls, and with the color all faded is about as easy to read. Every time I moved a wire I could hear crackling like dried twigs. I don't know if that particular car was left in Death Valley or had a fire or had a generator putting out 50 volts cooking the dog doo out of those wires or what.

I finished the job after 2 1/2 hours, just spent doing a "simple" replacement of the headlight switch and the ignition switch. Of course I had to patch up the wires that broke from my hand brushing them away from the areas under the dash that I needed access to.... I wrote a letter that said he was being notifed of an unsafe wiring harness, which needed to be replaced, in it's entirety, immediatley, and power rods would not be responsible for any fires, death or damage that resulted in him driving this car out of my shop.

Talk about Pandoras box...and what a stinky box that was.... :eek:

I only charged him for 1/2 hour.

I don't know if he still has that car or not.

And believe it or not, I have seen the same kind of damage on newer, ('70s), cars, especially ones from wet areas where the metals sometimes weld themselves together from electrolysis. The firewall connectors are prone to corrosion and bad connections as are switch innards.

I started to work on my dad's 72 mach1 and he wound up selling the car off to someone who was willing to spend the time rewiring it. (at that time I wasn't)..


I'm not saying that the guy up in MB Cen-e-dah is doing an honest job or not, but I don't take anything for granted anymore.
A friend of mine has a 98 dodge pickup with a V10...it has been in the shop 3 times to find the cause of a sensor trouble code...Finally it made it to a guy's shop who writes the programs for troubleshooting Dodge wiring and electronics issues, and his minimum quoted charge is 400.00.

It took that guy 2 days to find that a sensor wire that ran under the manifold back under the cowl was not fully broken, but had enough strands broken through to make the resistance go up enough to piss off the ecm, but not enough to fail a continuity check.

Simple stuff..is sometimes the hardest.

later, mikey
mikey, i am not arguing with you, i totaly agree with everything you are saying. a simple problem can sometimes turn into a nightmare to diagnose and fix. the wiring on every car is different so you are always going in blind. add to that the miriad of variable causes of a wiring problem, I E , bad grounds, corroded connections, high resistance, opens or grounds anywhere along the length of the circuit. sometimes it can take hours to find the source of a problem that takes 5 minutes to fix. now that we have scared the crap out of the OP i have to agree that you cant quote flat rate to fix a wiring problem.
i just finished fixing wiring problems on an italian supercar from the early 70s that had known electrical problems since it was new (lucas designed system) even though i have a wiring diagram (which are known to be incorrect) and there are known fixes for the wiring problems all over the net it took two weeks of work to correct them. now the electrical system is up to modern standards. this car is capable of 200mph and one went 234mph in a nevada ORR. anybody want to guess what it is???
 
#16 ·
Pantera?

And I wasn't disagreeing with anyone here, only putting out what i have experienced..It's so often the case on forums like these that folks go for the neck on any issue involving a DIY kind of guy, and the "evil" small business owner who always seems to be "ripping" them off.

I'm just putting the other side of the story out there.

Later, mikey
 
#17 ·
powerrodsmike said:
Pantera?

And I wasn't disagreeing with anyone here, only putting out what i have experienced..It's so often the case on forums like these that folks go for the neck on any issue involving a DIY kind of guy, and the "evil" small business owner who always seems to be "ripping" them off.

I'm just putting the other side of the story out there.

Later, mikey
bingo mikey, and i agree 100% with you. small businesses sometimes get a bad rapp, thus my later postings. but small shops are not the best places to get wiring issues sorted out unless they have someone like you or me working there!!! :thumbup:
 
#18 ·
Lets get back to the original question!

Again my point exactly buyer and shop beware! :thumbup: both need to put forth some due caution that all is understood and agreed upon upfront :nono: . There are both unscrupulous shops and customers out there but the bigger part of the time it was the questions not asked or answered that cause issues like this. Possibly the shop has done nothing wrong just did not keep the customer informed and the customer did not ask questions. But we are still off of the original subject here should he continue to sink money into this project? How about we give him some feedback on his original question ;)
 
#19 ·
That's ok T, I've been following this discussion and all of it is informative.

Just to clarify, the place's specialty is electrical.

Thanks Mike for the shop-side view of this conundrum. I can see how it would be a bad idea to make a quote before starting the job for this type of repair. Also, you method of detailing your hours to justify your work and keeping the customer informed along the way is first class.

You hit the nail on the head when you said they put the young guy on my truck. The guy said the worker was up for the challenge. But when they mentioned three times (for emphasis?) that they adjusted and urethaned the signal lights, my radar started picking up. I used to work in a body shop and I know that was the least of the challenges.

Anyways, I have decided to pull my truck out of there and take up the challenge. Gotta learn at some point. It's just I've got so much on my plate. I just wanted this one to get done...

Lessons often cost a lot. Seems I've had a lot of lessons.
 
#20 ·
pigjamelectric said:
That's ok T, I've been following this discussion and all of it is informative.

Just to clarify, the place's specialty is electrical.

Thanks Mike for the shop-side view of this conundrum. I can see how it would be a bad idea to make a quote before starting the job for this type of repair. Also, you method of detailing your hours to justify your work and keeping the customer informed along the way is first class.

You hit the nail on the head when you said they put the young guy on my truck. The guy said the worker was up for the challenge. But when they mentioned three times (for emphasis?) that they adjusted and urethaned the signal lights, my radar started picking up. I used to work in a body shop and I know that was the least of the challenges.

Anyways, I have decided to pull my truck out of there and take up the challenge. Gotta learn at some point. It's just I've got so much on my plate. I just wanted this one to get done...

Lessons often cost a lot. Seems I've had a lot of lessons.
Can I use this in the Favorite Quotes thread in the OT?
J/K, :D good luck on your truck.
 
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