Some People Are Just Off Their Rockers. F150/scrapper/mechanic.

[JeepcoMJ]

Quick background.

 

Local "scrapper" has and I have been doing business for a year or so on Meyer snowplow pumps when he gets them in on junk trucks. I refurbish those for a living. He thinks they're gold, and I do pay higher prices for them than I do from junkyards, craigslist, or core exchange back to me...That is a sore spot, but he will pull the guilt trip crap to get me to pay what he thinks they're worth. Fine. I'm not a pushy guy anymore, and I'm still making money.

 

Fast forward to about 2 months ago. I went over and picked up a plow pump from him, and he had a 96 mercury sable sitting there. Nice little car, 116000 miles, but half the interior fuse panel is dead. Says he's gonna scrap it.

 

Well, I like electrical, so I tell him "Running, driving car is worth $1500. I can fix it." And I do. took me two hours, I removed fuse box and circuit plates in it, trailed back the source for that half of the fuse panel, locate the wire that is the issue in the engine fuse box, trace it back to the driver inner fender, remove inner fender, locate a hard 90 plastic shroud that is wet, and trail power with my volt meter to that shroud, but not from it. Locate the corroded/burst/swollen part exactly in that 90, solder it and heat shrink, problem solved. I get half profit past $600 in scrap value, once it sells. I did the job in 2 hours, the previous mechanic took 9 and didn't find the (common sense to me) issue.

 

Then he's got a rusty POS trailblazer. Runs great, exhaust leak, 225000 miles, busted front diff with half shafts remove...making it 2x4 instead of 4x4. Problem was, it was charging, but would drain a new battery down to zero in under 20 minutes. Trailed that to the with ohm and voltmeter to diodes in the alternator, they were "leaking" causing it to backfeed and magnetize the alternator. couple that with a bad starter solenoid that was grounding positive, and corroded terminals, and I figure out and figure out that issue. Vehicle isn't worth $1200 fixed, is worth $800 to junkyard/scrap, so no value in replacing the alternator at $140, plus exhaust manifold (cracked) valued at the difference. Cut his and my losses by telling him to sell it as-is, or scrap it. If he's not making money, I'm not making money. I removed the Western Suburbanite body side plow brackets, harness, light isolation module, so we can at least profit 50/50 on that.

 

Dandy. In the middle of this, he didn't bother listing the sable, I'm waiting on that for $, he buys a Meyer plow pump for $50 @ a rummage sale, holds it ransom over me for my half of the value of the sable. Not a fair trade, given the potential value of the car, but I'm a week into this, and want to wash my hands of it. I hate having things in limbo. So I take the pump, wash my hands of the car.

 

Then, he needs me to ride with after picking up the pump to look at a chevy diesel plow truck 5 minutes away. "it will take 15 minutes and I'll have you back". OK. I had things to do that day...a friend was back in town for another friend's funeral, and had to pick up his car from said passed on friend's house, replace the starter (00 ford focus 2.0), replace the brakes, and make ship-shape for the drive back to tennessee on Saturday. 4 hours later, I got home. He haggled with the guy and had a buddy come pick it up, I had to wait for that and help load.

 

Here's my next mistake. I agreed to take on a project, provided he could get it here wednesday, so I can get it apart before the "new" motor arrives on Thursday.

 

'00 F150 4x4 ext. cab with a bad 4.6l in it.

 

He said "motor is bad" and "my guy can do it in 10 hours".

 

I say "alright, I'll see what I can do." Look up book time, 17.8 hours, plus 1.2 hours for a/c and 2 more for the fact that it's 4x4. Dealerships do it by lifting the cab because the cowl covers roughly half the engine, and the core support is part of the body, not removable. BUT it can be pulled from the top, just a bit more finesse.

 

Well, Wednesday comes and goes, I wait on another project (81 yamaha SRX restoration) because it's too nice to get scratched and is better staying in dry storage until this truck is done. That project is a considerably better pay-out than his, but he needs it done, and money is money.

 

Thursday comes, I say "bright and early"....I'm in the shop by 7 most days, so "early" means 9, latest. He calls at 4pm wanting to drop off the motor...I'm at swim practice, can't do anything for him. He drops off at 6pm, get it in the shop, doesn't bring the truck with. WTF.

 

At that point, I should have said "take the motor and the truck to someone else". But, I didn't. Shame on me. Tell him "need truck by 9am tomorrow, I have ANOTHER project coming in on saturday that pays off 5x more than you want to pay me".

 

Truck gets to me at 1:45pm Friday...I have practice at 2pm (high school swim coach) for setup so we can start on time. Great. He's going out of town over the weekend.

 

I screwed up royally by saying I would do the job. He screwed up royally by not telling me that the motor is locked up tight.

 

It's an automatic, the core support to cowl lip distance is just big enough for the motor...not the motor with the torque converter still attached.

 

Trans isn't coming out...If I so much as looked at the crossmember bolts funny, they'd break. There is no room with the differential in the way to reach up to unbolt the torque converter after sliding the motor forward a bit, and you can't go far enough forward with trans in vehicle to get at the torque converter bolts from all sides of the flywheel.

 

Bottom line, cab has to come up, but the mounts are rusted solid and going to snap if removed. He wants to pay me 10 hours straight time, and no more. I tell him book time, he ups it to 15 hours, still 7 hours shy of book time. Having to take the cab off and fix all the rusty bolts that break on removable will make this a 30+ hour job. Local dealership tech advises against doing the job at all, says it would be a total loss, no profit to be made. Local "do all" legit mechanic shop (friend of mine) says "I won't touch one for exactly the reason that alldata is 15 hours shy of book time on what it actually takes to do".

 

So after looking @ the truck, considering his complete lack of consideration for the value of other people's time, and the two jobs that are 4 figure jobs that I already have waiting, I decided to make a call.

 

I called him and told him that he can either be pissed at me for going over his budgeted time that HE decided on, and demanding the bill be paid, or he can be pissed at me for not doing the job and telling him to take it to his "10 hour guy". Pick one. He was furious, told me how inconsiderate of his time I was, told me that I have not proven myself to him and that I'm turning it down because I don't have the skills to do it.

 

Done. Told him to pack his sh*t up and get it out of my shop. He came and got it, pushed, pushed, pushed to get it done, upped his timeframe to 30 hours, told me I wasn't thinking realistically, and demanded that I give him the western suburbanite parts...no way, jose. I have 9 hours into the truck to get it to the point where I told him he had two options, and back together for him to pick up, plus 9 hours into the trailblazer that I ate, plus the two hours in the sable that I really didn't make the agreed upon money from. He can have half of the plow once I sell it, or he can pay me $200 for my half, and call it good.

 

I made very many mistakes being involved with his shtuff, but it doesn't seem to me that continuing to do so is worth my time.

 

Sorry, had to vent.

[87manche1]

Drop him like a bad habit people like that just walk all over honest people.

You will get better clients

[JeepcoMJ]

already have them.

 

81 srx restoration

 

92 vmax 4 prototype sled (yes, pre-production only known in existence) for a collector

 

06 liberty CRD (5x figure job that came in saturday). bad motor, direct replacement with mopar reman (bolt-in plus setting timing)

 

plus an average of 10 Meyer pumps every two weeks. I do well enough, there are down times when I entertain projects, like I did with this guy. Well, I think I just need to get more money in the bank...this last year I finished paying off school loans, so finally that should be easy enough.

[ComancheKid45]

There way too many of those kinds of people out there sadly.....don't feel bad, i agree with your motives completely ;)

[a1awind]

How did someone blow a crd? The only thing I ever hear is the timing belt snaping...but from what ive read they are designed to take out the rockers rather than bend the valves.

[JeepcoMJ]

It didnt blow. But the chrysler tech failed to diagnose...well, anything, and aimply disssembled the motor to scratch his head, and lost the deck specific head gasket.

 

Owner just wants a warranty on motor, so we are installing new

[Dirteatr717]

Tell people like that to kick rocks, I've cut my loses many times because of people like that