saphlover

A few years ago me and my Dad were restoring a Mk1 Range Rover, as you do we stripped it to a bare shell, when we took the dash out there was a screwdriver and handfull of screws underneath, we just laughed and thought nothing more of it....

When the restoration was complete we took it round to the previous owners house (a family friend) to show him the results and we told him about the screwdriver and screws, he too started laughing and said for years everytime he went round a roundabout there was a noise from the dash that sounded like something sliding around under there

gazm

mate of mine had a new ( 1 or 2 yr old ) L200 older shape not new - anyway it was due a service from the supplying local dealer, truck was duely picked up and off it went . Dealer had it for over a week and made up some lame excuse as to why it was taking so long... anyway week later my mate gets the truck back and was a little suspicious, so got a freind in the trade to come a look at it... turned out that the dealer had dropped the fucker off the ramp - one side - through the middle of the ramps - and had repaired and resprayed it without telling him !!

Needless to say the truck went back and they sorted him a new one ... all very hush hush and embarrassing for them.

saph4be

i was working as apprentice when one off the lads went to put a automatic renault 25 on the MOT ramp anyway some how he got his foot stuck flat to the floor went straight over ramp and through wall into just tyres covering next doors rs turbo in breeze blocks this was in 96 so the rs was still a new car!

cossimc

i found a dirty pair of knickers wrapped around a con rod of a rover diesel engine so yeah diesels are dirty

Psycho Warren

iTrader: (5)

surely you mean 86 as there were no new factory built rs turbos in 96!!

12_Second_rst

iTrader: (1)

my mate had a powerflow exsaust made and fitted at bmc in birmingham, whenhe got back it was rattaling its head off i jacked the car up to find they had welded the backbox to the bottom of the car instead of putting mounting brackets on, he emailed pictures to powerflow and they sent him to a different powerflow dealer for a whole new system free of charge and a partial refund

kedazz

took my old mans volvo to are local in ireland when we first moved over hear for a clutch turn out that they just tighten it he got a bill at Ł360 he hit the roof and also my brother took his fiat to be welded for the mot come back the next day turn into the yard and went to have a look at it all the back of the car was bunt he did not give a fook just sold the car to a farmer

GrimV8

One of my Dads customers wanted a SS exhaust made for his P6 3500 Rover we were restoring. All the mechanical stuff was done first. The engine was rebuilt in mild tune after all other drivetrain and running gear and it was an ideal time to be shipped off to have the system and manifolds made.
The owner was an engineer involved in high end historic motorsport racing prep. The likes of Cosworth DFVs, Cooper, Brabham etc etc and he chose the company himself in Kent to save his own workshop losing time messing with the bosses car. Same reason he jobbed the mechanical to my Dads Rover garage. I was to do the body resto when this was completed as I was their regular paint man.
They insisted the engine was a runner when it arrived so it had to annoyingly have the old system and manifolds on, have its initial run and set up and everything removed again. I dropped it to them and pushed it into their workshop to save running on bare heads.
I went back to collect it and it wouldn't start they instantly claimed they hadn't tried to run it, strange as it was insisted it would run
I got it to fire up and it didn't have enough power to pull itself onto the truck! It took several attempts with a run up as it was only running on one carb and I didn't fancy hand winching it on. I'd not planned this as it was a driver. The two fellas kept well out of the way and never helped me, they'd already been paid by the owner who made all the arrangements.
Got it back to our workshop only to find the fuel line had been cut through with a welding torch and it wasn't charging as they'd also melted the loom behind the alternator. Needless to say they denied all this. Loom and fuel line replaced, on road test the system knocked and rubbed in a couple of places due to one initial bend not being right. The owner reluctantly put it through his own workshop rather than risk futher damage and lies, they had to cut and add in a section to get it right, bend it and he said if his apprentice had done the welding it would have gone in the bin and he would of had to start over. It had also been welded with the wrong wire for stainless
I saw this car for sale last year on Ebay and viewed it. The guy we bulit it for passed away. All the manifold flanges were red rusty, likewise the bolts, strange for ss eh?
This was to be a tidy old girl aswell, not an old burner.
Some firms really do talk the talk
Not everyones cuppa but not a bad motor

gazm

years ago knew a guy who was once the head spanner at a local ford dealership , he told me some of the cheats they used to do there ... like charging for gaskets etc that weren't changed, just cleaned up round the visible edge ie head and rocket gaskets etc !!

1.9 xr2 on 40's

ive never bodged like that but we had a few jobs in quoted for rear panels etc etc and when it was stripped they were fine but we were told to replace anyway as he had to charge, we never did, just new paint and out it went

i figured it was immoral to cut a panel and refit when original is best

some of the panels made it on to ebay

mine you quite a few went out without anyone signing off undersealing, sometimes there was a whole bootfloor of bare metal on an almost brand new car, 5% came back!! gonna rot bad the rest are

welding an exhaust to the underside of the car sounds funny as fuck

hillzy2k

i worked for an engine/gearbox place just like that once, theyd just lash up second hand engines or whatever they could throw together for as cheap as possible; wellseal old head gaskets back on, silicone everything else then "recon spray" the lot. charging the customer upwards of Ł1300 for a recon engine and wonder why it went bang before making it 10 miles down the road!!! the amount of lawsuits customers had against the firm was unbelievable!! As well as certain staff thrashing cars around the lorry park on "road test" and destroying gearboxes!! They were last based in basildon, but pull their work in from all over the country. and keep moving around when the legal bills start mounting! Watch out for large engine/gearbox refurb companies!!!!

DazC

iTrader: (1)

Yes! All the stories are probably true! Absolutely amazed he is still in business.

PAUL V

And living a good life, he uses a Ferrari forum I use

PeterRST

iTrader: (1)

I know a guy who dropped the snapped off front bit of a screwdriver (about 2.5 inches long) into spark plug hole of a Mk2 Golf. The car actually drove 2 miles like that before it stalled.

The head looked a bit mangled but it still ran afterwards...

DazC

iTrader: (1)

Who says crime doesn't pay!?

david 100

Mate brought a transit van with a noisy diff, took it out and it was full of sawdust, i am told it will cure a noisey diff for a short while

James

seen a brand new focus with different door cards on the n/s compared to the o/s!

RWD_cossie_wil

iTrader: (9)

Bit of a different story, but one of the lads I have worked with for years bought a Honda CX500 bike to do some dispatch riding on at the weekends. He must have had it about 3 years, and when it came time to sell, he bought it into work to take a few miles off the clocks...

Imagine the look on his face, as he opened the clocks up to give it a haircut, when a little bit of folded notepaper fell out. It simply read, in block capitals " OH NO! NOT AGAIN!"

..

Class, just a shame the original guy didn't get to see the reaction!

GVK.

Couple from me..

Worked at BMW main dealer, doing sales prep on Mini Cooper S one day. The spangly tiled workshop had 'automatic' doors so if you drove up to them they opened. As I reversed out with daylight in both mirrors suddenly one almighty BANG! and the car stopped dead. Unfortunately the door was open at the roof level of the car and the spoiler was ripped out of the roof skin, tailgate fooked etc. I felt a proper coont!! Mini Adventure?

Mate works at Perkins in P'boro, he told me about an engine that exploded in the test cell one day, as it was connected up in the cell, they had one guy bleeding the fuel etc whilst someone else operated the controls to start it, on this particular engine, as it was cranked over it threw a con rod out of the block , debris flying all over the place, lucky no-one was injured! When it was stripped they found the squashed jubilee clip on top of a piston! Doh!

vinnyvangough

Mate of mine had his 106 in a garage for some engine work. He noticed another 106 gti in there for a replacement rear axle.
He popped down there early next morning to drop off a bit for his engine to find his car on 1 ramp with no rear axle and the other car on the ramp next to it with the owner of the garage struggling to put HIS rear axle on the gti!!!!
Needless to say a few harsh words were said and he got his boss and workmates to come down and sit there until the garage owner had re-installed his rear axle onto his car and they then removed his car from the garage.
Funny how the next morning the garage owner had Autoglass there replacing the windscreen on his (at the time) brand spanking new 56 plate Merc.

B16JUS

Good old chipped uk

Still waiting for Ł115 he has owed me for 4 years full of shit and empty promises

JRG1

when i was doing my apprenticeship the manager took me out in a customers 6 month old 205gti,he was showing off chucking it into corners in a big industrial estate. we came down to a roundabout and he tried to get round it at about 50! they handled well but not that well,we slid sedeways into the kerb and up onto the grass destroying two ns wheels,shocker,bottom arm etc!! it was quickly lifted back to the work shop and left 2 days later looking as good as new with no one knowing any different!!! id be RAGING if that was to happen to my car when it was in a garage!! lol

whosyadaddy

When i was serving my apprenticeship i worked for one of the larger UK bus company's with a depot in Burton On Trent, I was doing the pre mot checks on a double decker when i found that the offside rear chassis strengthening plate above the axle had rotted near enough away, told the gaffer who duly told me to make it look right with body filler and under body sealant and muck off the floor, because to repair it properly meant the whole axle being removed.

needless to say i refused to do the job bearing in mind these vehicles carried hundreds of passengers a day and did school runs morning and night,

another one at a local coach company the boss couldn't get the diaphragms we needed for a particular coaches brakes and told me i was to superglue the tear in the 2 front diaphragms and silicone over the superglue, i refused again and he told me to do it or loose my job so i told him to give me a lift onto the pickup with my toolboxes and drop me home.

RS Grant

iTrader: (1)

Brilliant!!


Cheers,
Grant

Paul_RS

iTrader: (4)

I heard thats what you don on your I4's to raise the comp ratio? Weld a load of bolts to the pistons??

RS2kSX

I had my new engine built up and couldn't get it setup so it went off to the lacal garage that has a rolling road. 3 weeks later they changed some bits on the carbs and said they can't get the cam set properly as the engines too tight (new with 500 miles) take it away and bring it back when it's done 1k.....

got 5 miles home and distroyed no.1 cylinder. when stripping it down realised all the cam post lock nuts were all loose. no 1 had adjusted itselt up and hit the piston.

no one owned up to touching the cam and refused to pay for damage...

not going there again