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I saw the customer pull up in the parking lot and knew it would be my job. 1968 Firebird. Beautiful car if you don't mind ancient technology. I still enjoy working my alignment magic on them though.
Nice older guy, it is his son's car and they've put a ton of money into the restoration. I respect that. The old girl took some work to get started. Piss poor job getting the carburetor adjusted properly, in my opinion. Finally got it fired up and took the pre-alignment test drive. Steering wheel straight, no pulls, but the damn thing wandered all over the place.
Put it up on the lift and as I jacked up the front axle, the right front wheel moved abut 3 inches at the top. And my day just got more sucky. As I and the customer investigated, I saw that it was the worst possible fail. The rear bolt that holds the upper control arm to the frame was really loose. (sorry, you'll just have to google it)
I opened the hood to find out that what was underneath was NOT what the emblem on the hood scoops said it was. This was NOT a small block 350 Chevy. If it were, reaching that loose bolt would be easy.
This was a big block. It took up a whole lot more space in the engine compartment than the original did. And it had headers, which further limited my access to the loose bolt. Oh and it had aftermarket air conditioning and an aftermarket mounting bracket. Both of which completely isolated that bolt from human hands.
After trying every possible angle to reach the bolt, for I don't give up easily, I told the customer "you need to leave this with me" especially since it was still at near-operating-temperature and I was burning my hands and arms. He was cool about it and called the mechanic who'd done the work and sent him to us for the alignment.
Unfortunately my boss, the owner of the shop who'd been doing alignments 40+ years ago, was at lunch leaving his son in charge who just didn't quite understand what I was trying to tell him.
As the customer was on the phone, boss came back early. God bless him! The customer handed his phone to me so I could explain the situation to the restoration mechanic while the boss looked the car over.
I couldn't get a word in edgewise with the asshole. He kept talking over me and finally said "if you'd just shut up I'll tell you how to do it!"
I handed the phone to the boss and said "he doesn't want to hear it from me, YOU talk to him!" and the look on my face told the boss I was done being patient. So the boss explained that the aftermarket air conditioning compressor and accumulator would have to be removed while I complimented the customer on the quality of his car.
He left and given the attitude of the resto mechanic who referred him, I don't know if he'll be back or not. Guy got called on some shitty work and bad design in his fitting of the a/c parts so I hope he holds a grudge and sends his alignments elsewhere in the future.
At least I'm happy with the boss for taking my side in this. I heard him tell the resto mechanic that I've got too much work to do to be tied up on this all day.
Nice older guy, it is his son's car and they've put a ton of money into the restoration. I respect that. The old girl took some work to get started. Piss poor job getting the carburetor adjusted properly, in my opinion. Finally got it fired up and took the pre-alignment test drive. Steering wheel straight, no pulls, but the damn thing wandered all over the place.
Put it up on the lift and as I jacked up the front axle, the right front wheel moved abut 3 inches at the top. And my day just got more sucky. As I and the customer investigated, I saw that it was the worst possible fail. The rear bolt that holds the upper control arm to the frame was really loose. (sorry, you'll just have to google it)
I opened the hood to find out that what was underneath was NOT what the emblem on the hood scoops said it was. This was NOT a small block 350 Chevy. If it were, reaching that loose bolt would be easy.
This was a big block. It took up a whole lot more space in the engine compartment than the original did. And it had headers, which further limited my access to the loose bolt. Oh and it had aftermarket air conditioning and an aftermarket mounting bracket. Both of which completely isolated that bolt from human hands.
After trying every possible angle to reach the bolt, for I don't give up easily, I told the customer "you need to leave this with me" especially since it was still at near-operating-temperature and I was burning my hands and arms. He was cool about it and called the mechanic who'd done the work and sent him to us for the alignment.
Unfortunately my boss, the owner of the shop who'd been doing alignments 40+ years ago, was at lunch leaving his son in charge who just didn't quite understand what I was trying to tell him.
As the customer was on the phone, boss came back early. God bless him! The customer handed his phone to me so I could explain the situation to the restoration mechanic while the boss looked the car over.
I couldn't get a word in edgewise with the asshole. He kept talking over me and finally said "if you'd just shut up I'll tell you how to do it!"
I handed the phone to the boss and said "he doesn't want to hear it from me, YOU talk to him!" and the look on my face told the boss I was done being patient. So the boss explained that the aftermarket air conditioning compressor and accumulator would have to be removed while I complimented the customer on the quality of his car.
He left and given the attitude of the resto mechanic who referred him, I don't know if he'll be back or not. Guy got called on some shitty work and bad design in his fitting of the a/c parts so I hope he holds a grudge and sends his alignments elsewhere in the future.
At least I'm happy with the boss for taking my side in this. I heard him tell the resto mechanic that I've got too much work to do to be tied up on this all day.
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