I was without my car for 7 weeks.

Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2004
Posts
2,738
My car had HGF, through a friend I met a bloke who would fix it for me. I started getting a lift into work and 2 weeks later he came over and took the head off and took it to be skimmed.

Then the excuses started, not got all the parts yet, or the skimming company sent the head back because they wanted it stripped first. When the head was finally skimmed he found that apparently the gasket set was wrong due to the rods being to big, so waiting again for parts. He said he's getting his bro to order the parts online then on my next talk with him a friend of his came over and took the money which had apparently went to his brother and within an hour came back with all the correct parts. Then it was being able to get over to me to put it all back together.

All the above happened over 4 weeks since the head came off. During those 4 weeks my friends car had HGF. I took it to the mechanic I normally use and he turned it around in 2 days. I did go to him first of all to do my car but he's unreliable with turning up and when I asked him in the first place to come have a look to see if it was HGF or not he didn't turn up. That's when my friend put me onto the other bloke.

Anyway, my car was finished on, Wednesday at long last, 7 weeks after I stopped driving it for fear of engine damage, and 5 weeks after the head came off.

I first drove it today since being repaired. I drove down to, Portsmouth and back. Temperature is good, no leaks or loss of power, feels more powerful in fact. Got home and switched off ignition and that was that, the radiator fan even turned off straight away which surprised me since I just did 70 to 80 for 12 miles in 30c weather.

So glad to have my wheels back :D
 
my lotus excel went in somewhere last august to have a list of stuff done

its about 1/3 done

to be fair I new the place was notoriously slow

anyone wanna guess where it is ?
 
My 200sx is currently in for some relatively minor engine work, I know the chap and said it wasn't a massive rush as I haven't got any track days planned for the Summer. Its been 6 weeks now (could have been cracked out in a week easily), and he still hasn't got the engine back in the car yet!
 
This is why I never say "no rush". Guys take "no rush" literally. When what you really mean is "I would like this repaired quickly and cheaply, I just don't want to say 'by tomorrow' like I'm busting your balls".
 
This is why I never say "no rush". Guys take "no rush" literally. When what you really mean is "I would like this repaired quickly and cheaply, I just don't want to say 'by tomorrow' like I'm busting your balls".

I never dictate timescales from the start. I ask "how long do you think it'll take?". It's a question you can ask without sounding like a ****. If the response is realistic you can still hold them to it later down the line ("you said it would take a week, what's happened?"). If the response is longer than you think, you can start to make more of a fuss
 
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