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Repair shops that have done exactly what we don't want.


Hubert_25-25

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My first experience of this was when I took an original 1954 Jaguar heater core to a radiator shop for them to check the condition.  I told him "low pressure only, this is a 4 psig system".  "Yeah-I know" was the response.  He called me later to say it tested well.  When I picked it up, the bottom side was blown out.  The owner had finished his work and handed it to the helper to dry it with the air hose.  The helper blew off the outside, then put the air hose onto the coolant connection and gave it 100 psi of shop air.   Ugh.

 

My latest fiasco is with my 1925 license plates.  I had an original "set" with one very small crack on one attachment hole (first photo).  I had another single plate (painted blue) with a longer crack, but still a decent plate.  I told the welder that if he thought he could fix the single blue plate, then we would consider doing the pair.  We both agreed that welding on thin sheetmetal is difficult and the repair has to be both structural and cosmetic.  I was using his sandblaster, and when I came back to his bench he had taken shears and cut off and removed the top of the attachment hole of the single plate.   On the good plate he had cut this section off as well and tried to weld the part from the single plate on.  He made a huge mess of both plates.  Even ground into the top of the 3 and the 2 with his grinder.   He said "Oh, I thought the blue plate was the donor plate".      

 

It continues to get harder to find good help.       Hugh

19952274_1925TXplate1before.thumb.jpg.a56bfd7186c29c1ce5a7b6fa1e389de4.jpg1184549211_1925TXplate2.thumb.jpg.02a3933583d40c09b35f26f3143259e9.jpg2038040991_1925TXPlate3.thumb.jpg.326d80fdd2044e97f4b78d27f824394b.jpg2065832366_1925TXplate4.thumb.jpg.4fcee0c6cc46d73295a6a975e8b06e69.jpg

 

Edited by Hubert_25-25 (see edit history)
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  • Hubert_25-25 changed the title to Repair shops that have done exactly what we don't want.

Sorry about the loss of your matched pair of plates.

I assume you have a 1925 vehicle to mount them on.

There are people who know how to restore them correctly

for about $40.00 per plate.  I see a lot more problems than

just the mounting holes.  You might ask a license plate

restorer if they can still save this pair.  Good Luck.

Maybe you'll get some recommendations, as to who, on this

thread.

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Yes Hugh we have shared our experiences with you also. We had discussed our limitations of our personal skillsets. "I was afraid that I would screw it up so I had a professional work on it". So when we pay very good money (and a lot of it) to have some innept "mechanic"damage our unobtanium piece it is more thaan infuriating. That is why we both sent many hours learning how to do things ourselves.

 Case in point. 

 Our door handles and eschuteons we had cast in brass. The very rough castings and the amount of clean up that was needed.  So I finally got around to this tedious job. I beleive I have spent over 10 hours getting them ready for the next step.

DSCF8520.thumb.JPG.0b4e05405feca160e2dfd76dd55f42cd.JPG     

I have worn out several new double cut files just to size the pieces to fit in the fixtures. I needed to get things to run true for final machining and fitting.

DSCF8521.thumb.JPG.88a48533ef7b456024c43f514c0bc6be.JPG

DSCF8522.thumb.JPG.6df3b10051b5ade6fe42126854e5852d.JPG   DSCF8523.thumb.JPG.bded89eaa3fa654c423c4cd4bd0c1e15.JPG

I feel I have them prepared well enough to send to the next step of plating. The plater I had been using had done fabulous work for me. Then we had Mark Kikta send them some work and some peices were ruined. We will keep our fingers crossed this time.

Edited by dibarlaw
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46 minutes ago, Hubert_25-25 said:

 

My latest fiasco is with my 1925 license plates.  I had an original "set" with one very small crack on one attachment hole (first photo).  I had another single plate (painted blue) with a longer crack, but still a decent plate.  I told the welder that if he thought he could fix the single blue plate, then we would consider doing the pair.  We both agreed that welding on thin sheetmetal is difficult and the repair has to be both structural and cosmetic.  I was using his sandblaster, and when I came back to his bench he had taken shears and cut off and removed the top of the attachment hole of the single plate.   On the good plate he had cut this section off as well and tried to weld the part from the single plate on.  He made a huge mess of both plates.  Even ground into the top of the 3 and the 2 with his grinder.   He said "Oh, I thought the blue plate was the donor plate".      

 

It continues to get harder to find good help.       Hugh

19952274_1925TXplate1before.thumb.jpg.a56bfd7186c29c1ce5a7b6fa1e389de4.jpg1184549211_1925TXplate2.thumb.jpg.02a3933583d40c09b35f26f3143259e9.jpg2038040991_1925TXPlate3.thumb.jpg.326d80fdd2044e97f4b78d27f824394b.jpg2065832366_1925TXplate4.thumb.jpg.4fcee0c6cc46d73295a6a975e8b06e69.jpg

 

This is a shame but definitely not too far gone to be repaired. My father has collected plates for decades and I for at least a decade. There are a few professionals in the business who we have had redo ultra rare plates and have not let us down. If you are interested I can give you his contact 

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London cabbie also.

Learned early to think with a mill and lathe. Can interpret steel and aluminum or even titanium designations. Understand 4th order heat transfer equations. Found out early that computers have AC, no heavy lifting, and pay better. Suspect many found the same.

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Op, they made a mess, but I would think that a competent guy could repair/restore those easier than finding another pair. Good luck.

 

I have not really had any problems. I do most of the stuff myself, good bad or indifferent at least I know the guy doing the work and his skillset! Also, If Im sending something out I try my hardest to find the best guy for the job. I farmed out the motor work for my 77 trans am and the guy did an amazing job. The only problem I had was with the 'kid' in the shop assisting with the install that was a bit green with an 'older' car. He had a bit of a learning curve with some aspects but nothing irrepairable. I do think I paid to have a few things done more than once.

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54 minutes ago, Ben P. said:

My blood-pressure is too high again. That’s as much as I can talk about. These g_________ mechanics that deem themselves ‘experts’. ‘No one knows more than them’. They have all the answers. No one has ever looked into this stuff before — especially not get people who have DONE this stuff before. They are the answers.

With all due respect, did you never consider telling them to forget it, get all your stuff out of there & send the various parts & pieces to the people you wanted in the first place?

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33 minutes ago, padgett said:

London cabbie also.

Learned early to think with a mill and lathe. Can interpret steel and aluminum or even titanium designations. Understand 4th order heat transfer equations. Found out early that computers have AC, no heavy lifting, and pay better. Suspect many found the same.

   Don't forget your local flea market vendors for legal, business, financial, political and mechanical advice.  They know more than school teachers

   and engineers.    It's a "know it all world" out there.

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1 hour ago, dibarlaw said:

Yes Hugh we have shared our experiences with you also. We had discussed our limitations of our personal skillsets. "I was afraid that I would screw it up so I had a professional work on it". So when we pay very good money (and a lot of it) to have some innept "mechanic"damage our unobtanium piece it is more thaan infuriating. That is why we both sent many hours learning how to do things ourselves.

 Case in point. 

 Our door handles and eschuteons we had cast in brass. The very rough castings and the amount of clean up that was needed.  So I finally got around to this tedious job. I beleive I have spent over 10 hours getting them ready for the next step.

DSCF8520.thumb.JPG.0b4e05405feca160e2dfd76dd55f42cd.JPG     

I have worn out several new double cut files just to size the pieces to fit in the fixtures. I needed to get things to run true for final machining and fitting.

DSCF8521.thumb.JPG.88a48533ef7b456024c43f514c0bc6be.JPG

DSCF8522.thumb.JPG.6df3b10051b5ade6fe42126854e5852d.JPG   DSCF8523.thumb.JPG.bded89eaa3fa654c423c4cd4bd0c1e15.JPG

I feel I have them prepared well enough to send to the next step of plating. The plater I had been using had done fabulous work for me. Then we had Mark Kikta send them some work and some peices were ruined. We will keep our fingers crossed this time.

Larry, 

    Yes, we have both spent way too much time cleaning up these very rough castings.  That was for a foundry that we were recommended to use.  I rejected half of the first batch and I think some of those were simply returned with the repoured parts as I was ready to reject half of the returned pieces but I knew things were not going to get better and I would only be wasting money on shipping.   I fortunately had a friend with a lathe and we were able to true up the handles and the holes in the escutcheons as you have.  Even had to make the same fixture you made to hold these in the lathe.  I loath having to make a part to fix a part.  You can also see on the handle where I had to fix the porosity with silver solder.  That would be way too much silver solder to fix those escutcheons though.  The plater also asked "brass or bronze", and when I said bronze, the price went up.   Even after all that and the plating that was supposed to catch all the tiny flaws, I still had to put the best side of the handle up. 

 

The silver lining is that this is all metal and steel and we do learn how to deal with it.     Hugh

796167319_2017-08-2212_34_11.thumb.jpg.db41f82738d9de8c24ed5322a8cc74f3.jpgIMG_5266.thumb.JPG.10c80861a05e9c13aadc47e0e49a473e.JPG1740311566_2017-08-1700_24_22.thumb.jpg.0231b36953fa0c2e634c81c63bbb4c03.jpgIMG_6476.thumb.JPG.514729b60595412d6fa2a5c32a003fc0.JPGIMG_0896.thumb.JPG.aeaff89869f8628d7f87751a0daf9780.JPGIMG_6776.thumb.jpg.80188d2fc10c2af0bafe4d31da6498eb.jpg

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Those castings were absolutely horrible.

How could any shop, in good conscience, present that as their finished product and expect the customer to be satisfied?

 

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Geez, I turned out higher quality castings from my 7th grade shop class. Looks like they used a sand mold but didn't do anything to it go make it usable. 

 

And having not done it since that class in 1997-98 I bet I could still turn out something better. That is disgraceful.

49 minutes ago, Hubert_25-25 said:

Larry, 

    Yes, we have both spent way too much time cleaning up these very rough castings.  That was for a foundry that we were recommended to use.  I rejected half of the first batch and I think some of those were simply returned with the repoured parts as I was ready to reject half of the returned pieces but I knew things were not going to get better and I would only be wasting money on shipping.   I fortunately had a friend with a lathe and we were able to true up the handles and the holes in the escutcheons as you have.  Even had to make the same fixture you made to hold these in the lathe.  I loath having to make a part to fix a part.  You can also see on the handle where I had to fix the porosity with silver solder.  That would be way too much silver solder to fix those escutcheons though.  The plater also asked "brass or bronze", and when I said bronze, the price went up.   Even after all that and the plating that was supposed to catch all the tiny flaws, I still had to put the best side of the handle up. 

 

The silver lining is that this is all metal and steel and we do learn how to deal with it.     Hugh

796167319_2017-08-2212_34_11.thumb.jpg.db41f82738d9de8c24ed5322a8cc74f3.jpgIMG_5266.thumb.JPG.10c80861a05e9c13aadc47e0e49a473e.JPG1740311566_2017-08-1700_24_22.thumb.jpg.0231b36953fa0c2e634c81c63bbb4c03.jpgIMG_6476.thumb.JPG.514729b60595412d6fa2a5c32a003fc0.JPGIMG_0896.thumb.JPG.aeaff89869f8628d7f87751a0daf9780.JPGIMG_6776.thumb.jpg.80188d2fc10c2af0bafe4d31da6498eb.jpg

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Some years ago, I took my 1929 Studebaker President front axle to a reputable (I thought) truck axle and spring shop.  I needed the new bushings pressed in and reamed to size, the straight king pins installed, and the Welch plugs inserted top and bottom.  When I went to pick up the axle, some yoyo had put in the Welch plugs, then used a cold chisel all around the periphery of  the holes in the knuckle to upset the metal enough to hold the Welch plug in place.  Of course, that wasn't going to seal it.  All he had to do was tap on the center of the convex plug with a drift and hammer to flatten the top a bit.  Some things they don't teach in Auto Shop 101 anymore.  I just hope they don't have to come out in my lifetime.

 

studebaker_1929_President_knuckle.thumb.jpg.c136dc0a58add7206e886017a07add6b.jpg  

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Many years ago we had a '66 Mustang GT convertible with a great running engine, but needing some body and work prior to repaint. It was to be our son's car for a learning experience. We turned it over to a body shop with the understanding that the already tested 289-4V A-code engine did not leak any fluids, and had excellent compression, equal (+/- 5%) across all 8 cylinders. The agreement was that the installed engine would also receive minor touch-up paint. Some time later we were advised that the shop owners brother had pulled the drive line and "rebuilt the engine and transmission" neither of which was required or authorized by us, and that the additional $8,000 was due immediately. Needless to say, we pulled the car from the shop and initiated legal action. Small print in the shop's unsigned paperwork supposedly authorized them to initiate any additional work necessary for safety concerns. Ultimately we prevailed, but legal expense was substantial.

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