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| It's not as bad as it looks. |
Enough angst and whining .
It's time for a reality check.
I kind of always knew that It would come down to this.
Trying to find a shop that "gets it" is much harder than I thought.
Since my back is starting to return to it's usual state, I'm starting to return to my native ( maybe a better term is naive!) state of optimism.
The shop that I found seemed pretty enthusiastic about working on my car so I took it down there for an inspection. They described it as a pre-purchase inspection. It would take a couple of hours and cost me 145.00.
I was expecting a checklist kind of thing. There would be a lot of prosaic checks made. A detailed listing of whether or not the lights and signals worked, an assessment on the belts and hoses, a visual inspection of fuel and fluid leaks under the hood.
Instead there was only a listing of some safety items, brakes, steering then a recommendation of oil seals and gaskets. They suggested replacing the steering rack, the front brake rotors and calipers, but they didn't even mention the ABS light that goes on occasionally.
But the suspension arms are okay? They didn't make any mention of them.
Probably because I had replaced the front lower items. (At least that's what I thought at the time.) Everything else looked pretty good. Except that they recommended replacing the steering rack, rotors and pads and they included an outlandish price to replace the cam cover (that alone was quoted as 1,100.00!) and oil pan gaskets. In the end they had 10,000 dollars worth of things to fix!
They did find one real problem that I hadn't noticed, the lefts side sway bar bushing top link had come undone. I have to take responsibility for this one. I must have over looked tightening that up or putting a new cotter pin in. I already knew about the right front wheel stud that had broken off. There's still four left so I haven't been too concerned. It's not like I'm taking the thing to track days!
Today I decided to reconnect the sway bar link. I was checking the underside of the suspension when I noticed that the left front suspension arm bushing was shredding again. Clearly visible. Yet the shop said that there was no problem there.
I spoke with one of the service writers when I went to pick the car up. I explained that there was a lack of communication. I was expecting an actual inspection checklist. I explained that I wanted an estimate, isn't there a flat rate charge for labor? I used the example of a customer requesting front bushing replacements with polyurethane throughout the system.
I'm going to give them one last chance. I'm going to e-mail them a request for an estimate to remove the springs a arms, ball joints etc.
I predict that they are going to tell me that they don't work that way. That they decide what work is needed and that they just can't do an owner requested job and release the car back to the owner if their recommended work isn't completed first.
Time to look around for some less uptight shops.
Ten thousand dollars and that didn't even include rebuilding the front suspension!
I guess that the labor rate is 145.00 an hour and that would sure add up quick.
"So I guess it's down to you and me kid." That might sound more impressive if it was done in my best Humphrey Bogart impression.
I guess that I'll just have to cough up the money for the proper OE spring compressor.
I can do the work, but the car will just have to wait. The car is fully driveable and running fine. I've got a cover and those old quilts on it. It is not as forlorn and forgotten as the lead photo indicates. ( I was trying for a dramatic mood!) I'm still under the shelter in place mandate and that's going to cause some financial tightening of the belt. Still I'm keeping busy. I've been doing some interior painting as well as packing things up in preparation for having the floors done.
There nothing to stop me from looking at and thinking about cars. That won't cost me a dime and will give me a chance to reconsider my options.
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