Are all specialty car repair shops slow as dirt?

[MrBonus]

I need to rant a bit. I get that old cars aren't always great profit centers for garages for a variety of reasons but I've just had a terrible run with them lately.

So I've been spoiled by the Porsche world where the shops put you on a calendar, get your car in, fix things on a normal schedule, you pay, and you get your car back.

Well I bought my Lotus and the local specialist took 6 months of promising me he would take my car into his shop "next month" before he ghosted me. I never gave him a cent but my car sat languishing in my garage for a half a year before I switched to someone recommended to me by a family member who has taken great care of my car, albeit not quickly.

So in the meantime, I picked up a '71 Ghia to tinker with. It had an issue with a high beam relay and the DMV failed me on inspection. The heater channels under the rear seat needed to be hooked up as well, a project I could have tackled but decided to hand it over to the local VW "expert."

So that was in July and I gave him like a month before I stopped by his shop to see if he needed anything (and frankly was wondering if he lost my phone number) and he had started everything, put in a new relay, but the high beams only worked intermittently and he believed it was a grounding issue. He said he was busy but would get it in soon. No problem.

Well another month goes by and I stop in. The car hasn't moved. Another month "I need to get to it." Meanwhile, he had a number of other classics in there, *****ing about how customers didn't want to spend money to fix things right.

So finally I stopped in last Thursday, somewhat annoyed because it's getting cold, and he says "he would come in this weekend to work on it but to call him tomorrow to remind him to fix the relay." I called, no one answered. We are now expecting snow potentially on Friday and I now have this Ghia, that is otherwise perfect, with no functioning heat and a failed relay. I'm reaching a point that I want to tow the car out of there and I'm worried the fuel has gone bad from sitting.

Blech. I guess if you can't do a job, just say you can't. I've frankly lost all interest in the VW at this point and just want to unload it on BaT. I don't get taking on a fully restored car then leaving it sit under a tree for a quarter of a year not touching it. As a small business owner, I do work to get paid, not to let it sit for months on end in my office.

[MrBonus]

To add to my frustrations, my work is slow in the summer months and my wife is off from June - August so I can take care of projects like this, either on my own or pay someone to do it. Now she's back to work so I have to juggle our toddler, work, and getting this car across town and getting it to DMV for inspection.

[widebody911]

The heater channels under the trunk needed to be hooked up as well,

I don't understand this one.

[herr_oberst]

To be fair, no Ghia really has functioning heat....

(My first assumption is that he's talking about the paper tubes that run from the engine shrouds to the heat chases in the chassis?)

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

To be fair, no Ghia really has functioning heat....

(My first assumption is that he's talking about the paper tubes that run from the engine shrouds to the heat chases in the chassis?)

My 1956 with a 36hp had functioning heat, in terms of volume, but not so much in terms of ΔT. The heat in my 1963 Type III ghia will roast you in a NorCal winter - probably not so much in Minnesota

[fastfredracing]

Guilty of having really good intentions, and a real passion, and desire to work on your cool old classic car, and then just never ever finding the time .
Regular work keeps pouring in. I wait, and wait, and wait for a break, so that I can work on the cool old car, and that break never comes.
The regular churn of day to day work , ( that pays the bills ) just keeps a comin'.
I really wanted to be a specialty shop, but once I had a kid, and real bills to pay, it got really hard to ignore the incoming barrage of day to day service work, that has allowed me to make a good living .
I learned to say no a long time ago . When I don't say no, I always regret it .
People, also don't realize how much shop time, and space projects take up.
It takes a special kind of person, and/or shop to finish larger specialty type work .
I found , that when I was doing lots of P car work , and engine , transmission rebuilds, I had to do the work after hours, or on weekends to get it done. Try building an engine , but having to manage 3 state inspections, a brake job , and a water pump, before you can start on the good work for the day .
I just got burnt out.
Just some thoughts I thought Id share. I'd love to see what others have to say on this . I think most guys have no ill intentions, or will to jerk you around, they just get caught up in it all .

[rfuerst911sc]

Sorry to hear of your troubles but part of the issue is on you in my opinion . What expectations did you set with both repair shops ? Leaving an open ended completion date like " I'll get to it when I can " or " I'm swamped I have no idea " are red flags in my opinion and aren't going to end well . I am in no way saying it is all your fault , but as an example if it were me and a month has gone by with no progress I'm going to press the shop for a firm commit or I'm pulling my car out .

There are a variety of reasons a shop can fall behind and many of those reasons are legit . But some shops are just poorly run or they think their $hit don't stink and the customer takes the blunt of it . I wish you the best on getting both situations resolved .

[MrBonus]

Originally Posted by widebody911

The heater channels under the trunk needed to be hooked up as well,

I don't understand this one.

The piping off the exchangers enters under the rear seat. During the restoration, these parts were seemingly lost, or were not recoverable. I found the bakelite piece that collects the heat coming in online but it appears there is another pipe, likely one that has to be custom cut off the generic VW tubing they used to run heat into the cabin, to connect it to the metal channels that run underneath the door then to the footwells.

Basically, the heater is functioning but running hot air in under the rear bench.

[MrBonus]

Originally Posted by rfuerst911sc

Sorry to hear of your troubles but part of the issue is on you in my opinion . What expectations did you set with both repair shops ? Leaving an open ended completion date like " I'll get to it when I can " or " I'm swamped I have no idea " are red flags in my opinion and aren't going to end well . I am in no way saying it is all your fault , but as an example if it were me and a month has gone by with no progress I'm going to press the shop for a firm commit or I'm pulling my car out .

There are a variety of reasons a shop can fall behind and many of those reasons are legit . But some shops are just poorly run or they think their $hit don't stink and the customer takes the blunt of it . I wish you the best on getting both situations resolved .

The car had 75 days on the prior inspection and I asked it to be completed before that expired and he told me it was not going to be a problem.

[MrBonus]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Guilty of having really good intentions, and a real passion, and desire to work on your cool old classic car, and then just never ever finding the time .
Regular work keeps pouring in. I wait, and wait, and wait for a break, so that I can work on the cool old car, and that break never comes.
The regular churn of day to day work , ( that pays the bills ) just keeps a comin'.
I really wanted to be a specialty shop, but once I had a kid, and real bills to pay, it got really hard to ignore the incoming barrage of day to day service work, that has allowed me to make a good living .
I learned to say no a long time ago . When I don't say no, I always regret it .
People, also don't realize how much shop time, and space projects take up.
It takes a special kind of person, and/or shop to finish larger specialty type work .
I found , that when I was doing lots of P car work , and engine , transmission rebuilds, I had to do the work after hours, or on weekends to get it done. Try building an engine , but having to manage 3 state inspections, a brake job , and a water pump, before you can start on the good work for the day .
I just got burnt out.
Just some thoughts I thought Id share. I'd love to see what others have to say on this . I think most guys have no ill intentions, or will to jerk you around, they just get caught up in it all .

The shop owner is quite pleasant, and we've been friendly and I keep all my exchanges cordial, but I'm just getting impatient. I didn't bring him a project (like my Lotus was), but rather a 99% complete car that needed a relay sorted and a ground likely checked.

I was totally patient with the Lotus timeframe, which will be inspected this week after 17 months of ownership, but I didn't see this as a particularly complicated series of requests and 100+ days just seems unreasonable.

I think what irked me is half the time I was there, he was working on another classic that had come in after mine had been there, and I understand priority customers, but I'm not someone who jerks people around on billings or pricing.

[javadog]

You don’t have to put up with this. You’re dealing with ****ty shops that I wouldn’t set foot in. These are straightforward repairs, nothing exotic, it’s just a fact of life that quite a few shops ( and even more body shops) take in more work than they can do and run other projects in front of yours because they have no ethics.

[JackDidley]

If a guy is willing to pay the normal hourly rate why does the shop put other jobs ahead of specialty jobs ?? My buddy took his Mini to the local German car shop for a misfire. After 2+ months they charged him $5k for a valve job. Should have been a week turn around I'd think. I had high hopes for this shop in case I need work done on my Porsche but when it needed a clutch I took it to a GM mechanic and he had it done in 2 days.

[MrBonus]

Originally Posted by javadog

You don’t have to put up with this. You’re dealing with ****ty shops that I wouldn’t set foot in. These are straightforward repairs, nothing exotic, it’s just a fact of life that quite a few shops ( and even more body shops) take in more work than they can do and run other projects in front of yours because they have no ethics.

The guy is known as one of the best VW shops in the area. I get the sense he is disorganized more than unethical, but I believe I have put up with it for too long.

[MrBonus]

Originally Posted by JackDidley

If a guy is willing to pay the normal hourly rate why does the shop put other jobs ahead of specialty jobs ?? My buddy took his Mini to the local German car shop for a misfire. After 2+ months they charged him $5k for a valve job. Should have been a week turn around I'd think. I had high hopes for this shop in case I need work done on my Porsche but when it needed a clutch I took it to a GM mechanic and he had it done in 2 days.

My guess is that there is more problem solving/thinking involved with chasing down a bad ground than say an oil change, valve adjustment, or other routine maintenance procedure.

I would have taken the car to my Lotus guy but I was cognizant not to overload him with work at his small shop which I realize now was a mistake. He would have had this knocked out pretty quickly.

[javadog]

Every job pays the same hourly rate. Time spent to diagnose a problem isn’t free, it’s booked at the same rate as fixing it.

The shops that you have trusted with your work are not well-run businesses.

They are a joke and I wouldn’t set foot in them again.

You might consider doing more of your own mechanical work, it takes a little equipment and a little learning, but it’s fairly straightforward if you break it down to its basic level.

[MrBonus]

Originally Posted by javadog

Every job pays the same hourly rate. Time spent to diagnose a problem isn’t free, it’s booked at the same rate as fixing it.

The shops that you have trusted with your work are not well-run businesses.

They are a joke and I wouldn’t set foot in them again.

You might consider doing more of your own mechanical work, it takes a little equipment and a little learning, but it’s fairly straightforward if you break it down to its basic level.

I do what I can. I have a 16 month old and I’m a business owner so my free time to work on cars is limited.

[asphaltgambler]

javadog is right...………………..I have a small group of people / small shops I use for things I cannot do. I do not have patience for any of this^^^^^^. I do lots or research and talk with people on the inside when choosing someone new.

I always ask is your calendar the same as mine? As in when you say 1 week - is that on your time table or actually 1 week?

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by widebody911

The heater channels under the trunk needed to be hooked up as well,

I don't understand this one.

Sounds like the tubes that go to the defroster to me.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by MrBonus

My guess is that there is more problem solving/thinking involved with chasing down a bad ground than say an oil change, valve adjustment, or other routine maintenance procedure..

Not much to think about with headlight grounds. There is a wire from each headlight bulb socket to the body, and one wire from the relay to ground. OTOH I don’t recall if VW was still using the bass ackwards wiring method they used earlier in ‘71 or not. If so, the relay grounds through the dimmer switch.
I have noticed that people who gain a reputation as “the best” tend to be a little eccentric.

Originally Posted by MrBonus

The guy is known as one of the best VW shops in the area. I get the sense he is disorganized more than unethical, but I believe I have put up with it for too long.

I haven't heard anything in this story that strikes me as unethical, just poorly organized. My experience with specialty shops is that the owner is usually either a good craftsman or a good businessman, but rarely both.

Successful owners hire to their weaknesses, and the talented guys who suck at business who hire someone to handle management and communication are the ones who succeed. Ones who don't and are blind to their weaknesses piss customers off.