Of course the way my build thread is going, most of you have already decided I am incapable of actually doing anything myself at all but that really is only how it appears? Barring dropping dead, major earthquakes which believe it or not are no longer a stretch in southern Kansas, or my shop getting hit by a tornado or meteor, I do suspect progress is actually imminent.
That said, I have posted before about things like wanting to do a refrigerant upgrade to the AC and then there are things like alignments and mounting tires too that require trusting others. Well, you don't dare take your baby to them and leave it unless you want to see 87 miles on the odometer when you get it back. And you know they were all "gentle miles". If allowed in the shop I will try to strike up a friendly conversation with whoever is working on it . . . just so I can keep an eye on them and gauge their dedication. Otherwise, you just have to be "that *******" that goes and talks to the manager or even the owner if the manager is new from the last time you were in? We have sadly moved to an almost purely service economy . . . and the service largely sucks.
So, you can imagine how anxious I was to take those $3200 Custom Sabers I got for this 442 project when it came time for mounting tires? I mean, you cannot afford to buy tire mounting and alignment machines, etc. just because you cannot trust people to do it right. Though I had to drive a bit, I was fortunate that there is actually a guy I've known for years managing an inde-shop now and he said he would supervise the tire install on the Sabers personally and everything turned out fine.
All I can say is, for the stuff you cannot do yourself or that you lack the equipment to do, you just have to either spend time getting to know who you are going to entrust to work on your vehicles or find someone you do know. The older we get, the harder it seems that proposition is getting to be.
That said, I have posted before about things like wanting to do a refrigerant upgrade to the AC and then there are things like alignments and mounting tires too that require trusting others. Well, you don't dare take your baby to them and leave it unless you want to see 87 miles on the odometer when you get it back. And you know they were all "gentle miles". If allowed in the shop I will try to strike up a friendly conversation with whoever is working on it . . . just so I can keep an eye on them and gauge their dedication. Otherwise, you just have to be "that *******" that goes and talks to the manager or even the owner if the manager is new from the last time you were in? We have sadly moved to an almost purely service economy . . . and the service largely sucks.
So, you can imagine how anxious I was to take those $3200 Custom Sabers I got for this 442 project when it came time for mounting tires? I mean, you cannot afford to buy tire mounting and alignment machines, etc. just because you cannot trust people to do it right. Though I had to drive a bit, I was fortunate that there is actually a guy I've known for years managing an inde-shop now and he said he would supervise the tire install on the Sabers personally and everything turned out fine.
All I can say is, for the stuff you cannot do yourself or that you lack the equipment to do, you just have to either spend time getting to know who you are going to entrust to work on your vehicles or find someone you do know. The older we get, the harder it seems that proposition is getting to be.
