Instrument Restoration shop results

[kdancy]

Hi guys, long time lurker and have been into auto restoration for a number of years.

I just had a recent experience with XXXXXx, that I felt needs to be told.

I found their site on the net and gave them a call about a wiper motor I wanted restored.

This is what they say about their service-

When we rebuild a motor, it is completely disassembled, thoroughly cleaned, lubricated and reassembled. All worn parts are replaced. Armatures are turned and cleaned, brushes are trued and bench-tested.

XXXXX is expertly qualified to repair and restore any headlight and wiper motor from all makes and models of vintage, classic, antique or muscle car. We do extensive work with (but are not limited to) Chevrolet, Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Pontiac, GM, Ferrari, BMW, Corvette, Firebird, Camaro, Chevelle, Corvair, Mustang, Thunderbird Oldsmobile,etc.

Well, that looked good and they assured me during the phone call the auto lite 58 Packard Hawk wiper motor would be no problem so I sent them the one off the car, I had taken it apart and knew it needed new park contact plate and new gear, and I made a note to them on my info placed in shipping box. After a week I called to check on status and "oh, we were going to call and and see if you have another one as this needs a new gear. So I sent them another motor in better condition off of a later car that they could use for parts.

Received the motors back and bench tested the "new rebuilt" one and found it didn't turn smoothly a full 360 degrees. Told my helper, I bet the gear is bad so I took that one apart and found that the only thing they had done was beadblast and paint the outside and re-lube the inside. Didn't even make a new gasket for the park contact plate. Nothing else I could tell. 268.68 with shipping back to me.

I ordered a new Park contact from Studebaker International for 22.00 and a new gear from them for 12.00 and rebuilt and repainted it myself, as the gold they had painted the motor housing was wrong.

Put new grease in, lubed the bearing areas and it works like a charm. I took pictures and showed them what lousy work they had done and asked them to refund my customer. Never heard a word from them.

Here are pictures I put in Photobucket album showing what I found and re-did-

......................

It is getting so hard to find and be able to depend on an outside shop any more. I would not even consider them doing a set of gauges for me.

Edited July 1, 2013 by R W Burgess
Rules??? (see edit history)

[R W Burgess]

Mr. Dancy, we can not allow slandering remarks against stated companies. I have taken the company's name out of the post. I would like to allow the "photobucket" pictures to be displayed, but they, too, have the company name stated. If you could rename that picture folder in some way, you could repost that part of your post????

Forgot to mention: You can post your email address or accept private messages to report your situation to our members.

[CarlLaFong]

I don't get it. For 34 bucks and half an hour of your time, why didn't you do it yourself in the first place? You already diagnosed the problem and had access to the parts. No excuse for their shoddy workmanship, just sayin"

[Bhigdog]

I'm not the OP but if he's running a resto shop @ lets say $75/hr shop rate , and the repair vendor did what they promised, it would have made perfect economic sense to farm it out. ..........Bob

[kdancy]

Mr. Dancy, we can not allow slandering remarks against stated companies. I have taken the company's name out of the post. I would like to allow the "photobucket" pictures to be displayed, but they, too, have the company name stated. If you could rename that picture folder in some way, you could repost that part of your post????

Forgot to mention: You can post your email address or accept private messages to report your situation to our members.

Slander? This is the definition I looked up for the word-

Slander:

definition - Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person's reputation.

A false and malicious statement or report about someone.

Basically it means to say something untrue about someone that hurts their reputation.

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dic…

What I posted were facts backed up by the photobucket album pictures.

[kdancy]

I farm out stuff from time to time due to being pressed to finish a project and don't consider myself an expert in whatever it is I am sending out. You can be great at some things, it's pretty tough to be great in everything! It forced me into stopping other work to re-do the experts shoddy work and high cost for that same work. Believe me, next time I will do it myself, cheaper for me and my customer--- (Bhigdog-- you are right on target!)

anyone can PM me and I will be more than happy to give the shop that rebuilt? it the first time.

[trini]

Hi kdancy, I am looking for some one to rebuild a dash gas gauge from a 128 D.B. Senior. The pot metal frame inside is broken and the pointer tip broken. I am surfing the net to find a rebuilder. Will you please tell me which one I should avoid ? My phone number is 905 889 0621. Email is hsahu@tcn.net. Cheers.

[Dave Mellor NJ]

It's a technicality, but slander is the spoken word,libel is the printed word. Last year I got involved in a bad deal with an auctioneer and I wanted to warn others but I was advised to be very careful what I put on any social media. While I certainly believe Kdancy got screwed you have to realize the harm it could bring to an innocent victim to be accused of impropriety by a person with a grudge.

[trini]

May be I should rephrase the question. Which rebuilder you recommend ?. hsahu@tcn.net

[DonMicheletti]

This is an interesting post. I have been working around old cars for a long time. I have seen a lot of really shoddy work by so called "professionals".

Here a questionable vendor is protected - however the poor potential customer is not. The only way to weed out the poor, or even, unethical vendors is to let them be known.

Apparently the law only protects the guilty here

[Guest Henry White]

Oh boy, I dont like to get into these things, but in defense of the moderators I will say that by placing limits on what is allowed here they do a great job of keeping the peace, thus making this board the most productive automotive board I have ever seen. There is value in that.

[R W Burgess]

......Here a questionable vendor is protected - however the poor potential customer is not. The only way to weed out the poor, or even, unethical vendors is to let them be known.

Apparently the law only protects the guilty here

Don, with all due respects, what we are doing here is protecting the AACA Web Site. The AACA has a lawyer on call to protect all AACA members while we enjoy our hobby. It's best if we do not need to use him. We can make sure that we never have a lawsuit in our future by not using someone's, or some company's, name in a slanderous/libel way. (ex. Some common law jurisdictions also distinguish between spoken defamation, called slander, and defamation in other media such as printed words or images, called libel.)

Call it what you will, but a simple e-mail or private message to the original poster will allow one to gleen all of the pertinant information needed to make an informed decision as to someone's reliability. Let's please move on folks.

Wayne

[28 Chrysler]

The term "PROFESSIONAL" only means that they make a living doing the work, it doesn't mean they are an "EXPERT" at what they are doing.

[trini]

As members we are limited as to what we write in public forums and rightly so to protect the club. However I am angry at some of these restorers, especially of starters and alternators. What beautiful paint jobs. Thank you for the comments. A great place to learn. trini

[DonMicheletti]

Wayne,

I think you have misunderstood my comment - it was in no way intended as an attack on the moderator. I fully understand the position taken.

My point was that unfortunate customers are cheated by those who do poor work and it would be great if those could be weeded out.

If I offended anyone, I appologize.

Don

[R W Burgess]

"Apparently the law only protects the guilty here"

No apology necessary Don. And your statement is probably somewhat correct, but everyone should be considered innocent, until proven guilty. I just want everyone to understand the duties that all of us have to protect the AACA.

Thanks,

Wayne

[kdancy]

As members we are limited as to what we write in public forums and rightly so to protect the club. However I am angry at some of these restorers, especially of starters and alternators. What beautiful paint jobs. Thank you for the comments. A great place to learn. trini

I'm not sure how you "weed" the bad ones out without using media as we have it today. That is one thing I like about Angie's List - it is all predicated on feedback from customers and their experience with business's they deal with every day. It can save the next person a ton of headaches and money. There are good business's out there (I have a list of some I keep going back to because of the quality of work they have done for me) and they should be recognized as well.

[nickelroadster]

PM this gentleman. I did and he told me the culprits name.

[Peter J.Heizmann]

I'm not sure how you "weed" the bad ones out without using media as we have it today. That is one thing I like about Angie's List - it is all predicated on feedback from customers and their experience with business's they deal with every day.

kdancy,

I agree totally with your thread's intent as I have been burned on a few occasions within the hobby. I offer some insight from when I served as a Director years ago.

As for this AACA Forum and to add to Wayne's reasoning of which he is 100% correct:

FORUM:

--It is "owned" by the AACA. Paid for by the "dues" paying members of the AACA and sponsors of whom are very much appreciated.

--It comes at a huge expense to the AACA however very important to the club's purpose to serve "members" and "non-members" with a discussion arena on the internet to share experiences within the hobby.

--Ironically the majority, repeat majority of the regular participants on the AACA Forum are not members of the club. This is fine as it is a service to the hobby provided by the AACA for members and non-members.

ISSUE OF GOOD / BAD VENDORS:

--This topic has come up a gazzillion times since the inception of the AACA Forum about 13 years ago.

--The club Directors and Officials have discussed this many times over the years to include legal advise from the AACA's attorneys.

In short: "The AACA owned Forum will not be the media vehicle (no pun intended) for disputes between VENDORS & CUSTOMERS.

MISC:

--You might ask "what is the big deal or why not?": Yes, the AACA has had past experiences of legal nature regarding allowing people to argue about bad vendors on the AACA "owned" Forum.

--The AACA to include our Library & Research Center and Museum fall under the I.R.S. guidelines as a 501-C. This is the most critical reason the club cannot allow arguing or libel / slander directed at any private enterprise. The club is not going to chance losing the status or take on legal issues.

--The AACA Forum as others have mentioned above provides the Private Message (PM) feature to get such points out to the hobby. In addition there are a gazzillion sites out there who do not care what is posted on their forums.

Regards,

Peter J.

[trini]

I totally agree with your views. We must keep the forum clean. trini

[trini]

Thank you , nickelroadster. I shall. trini

[kdancy]

There has been a lot of interest concerning this, hope I answered everyone. I can only share my experience backed up by the pictures I took of the subject after taking it back apart showing what I found. You can draw your own conclusions.

Maybe some one computer literate will start an "Angie's List" of automotive restoration related shops and subs!

[Curti]

There has been a lot of interest concerning this, hope I answered everyone. I can only share my experience backed up by the pictures I took of the subject after taking it back apart showing what I found. You can draw your own conclusions.

Maybe some one computer literate will start an "Angie's List" of automotive restoration related shops and subs!

I believe You can post will be welcomed on the HAMB website. Trini, I recommend [TABLE=width: 601]

<tbody>[TR]

[TD]Abbott Instruments (Bruce)[/TD]

[TD]10860 SW 74th ST Portland OR 97223[/TD]

[TD]503-246-1287[/TD]

[/TR]

</tbody><colgroup><col><col><col></colgroup>[/TABLE]

[trini]

To Curt Schulze. I say thank you very much for the info . I shall phone him first. I commend all the guys who are willing to speak up against shoddy work by vendors. Cheers and have a nice day.

[Scooter Guy]

Maybe some one computer literate will start an "Angie's List" of automotive restoration related shops and subs!

Funny you should say that. Angie's List actually DOES have an automotive restoration division. I have not used so I can't speak to what the contents are. I do know that Angie Hicks and her husband have a nice personal collection of cars and many motorcycles (and rebuilt a 1910's era garage into a showplace for the collection -- it's nice!) so this is, perhaps (???) something of a pet project for them.

As for the posting rules here, they've been discussed many times in threads like this. While I personally don't agree with the AACA's reasoning on some of their policies and feel as though the organization is absolutely over-the-top paranoid about lawsuits over forum postings...at the end of the day it's the AACA's forum and they can make whatever rules they want. We can each make the choice to tolerate the rules and use this forum or go elsewhere.

[Guest bofusmosby]

About the forum rules, keep this in mind. If the names of the companies were posted her, along with the complains, there is a possibility of a law suit. Also remember this, even if a person (or organization) is innocent, it would still cost a lot of money to defend their "innocent" position. It is true that laws are more for protecting the guilty, rather than the innocent, but it is what it is.

[trini]

Dear Member, thank you for the caution ,I am well aware of the consequences. I will like you to take a look at a site called Ripoff Report based in AL or go to Heritage Motors and read on,you will be surprised. Cheers. Harry.