Thread: Rip off of the week

Years ago a young guy came into the garage with a sugar bag full of gears, shafts, bearings, loose needle rollers, and the (now empty) gearbox casing from a Mk2 Zephyr.
Could I please check it over, put in any new bits needed, and assemble it?
Well yes, no problem. All I had to do was suss out what bit came from where, what bits where missing from his strip down (to save money), and get the new parts needed.
It really would have been quicker if he had just dropped the gearbox in to me straight from the car.
At least I wouldn't have lost any bits, or smacked the crap out of every shaft while dismantling the thing.
As per Dirty Harry..."A man's got to know his limitations".

Originally Posted by Grey Kiwi

Years ago a young guy came into the garage with a sugar bag full of gears, shafts, bearings, loose needle rollers, and the (now empty) gearbox casing from a Mk2 Zephyr.
Could I please check it over, put in any new bits needed, and assemble it?
Well yes, no problem. All I had to do was suss out what bit came from where, what bits where missing from his strip down (to save money), and get the new parts needed.
It really would have been quicker if he had just dropped the gearbox in to me straight from the car.
At least I wouldn't have lost any bits, or smacked the crap out of every shaft while dismantling the thing.
As per Dirty Harry..."A man's got to know his limitations".

Those old gearboxes were so easy to do, the problem as you say is the damage the person that stripped it caused and the damaged and missing parts.
Recently had two tubs of parts dropped off and asked to rebuild it with the parts provided, it was stripped by a specialist and the specialist refused to put it back together.
When I cleaned all the parts up I found several major parts missing and some others damaged.
I had to source some new parts that were needed and not supplied.
Love doing jigsaws.

Also recently had the phone ring while both hands were busy holding something up and putting a bolt or two in to stop it falling on me.
I returned the call when my hands were free, 4 minutes after the call, person says you didn't answer the phone quick enough, so I went elsewhere.
My immediate thought, Thank you I don't want you as a customer, so I just replied "thank you, have a great day".

I could give you quite a few examples of "entitled" customers who think you are just waiting for them to phone or walk in so you can do their job right there and then and pay them for the privilege

Originally Posted by 19Badger

I could give you quite a few examples of "entitled" customers who think you are just waiting for them to phone or walk in so you can do their job right there and then and pay them for the privilege

yea we usually get the campervan and bus owners rolling in 2 weeks befor xmas "my camper has failed its warrant heres a list 5 times longer than the ten commandments i need it fixed before the 20th" fucken annoying they have all year to sort this shit out but wait till the last minute then wonder why they get turned away......and we are the only ones in town that will do that shit told the boss he has to bump the hourly rate up cos no-one else wants to do it.....(we dont either but we all have a price)people with old shitters on the road are gonna be fucked when all us old fucks decide to chuck it in not many of the new ones coming thru the system can think outside the ssquare

Originally Posted by Grey Kiwi

Years ago a young guy came into the garage with a sugar bag full of gears, shafts, bearings, loose needle rollers, and the (now empty) gearbox casing from a Mk2 Zephyr.
Could I please check it over, put in any new bits needed, and assemble it?
Well yes, no problem. All I had to do was suss out what bit came from where, what bits where missing from his strip down (to save money), and get the new parts needed.
It really would have been quicker if he had just dropped the gearbox in to me straight from the car.
At least I wouldn't have lost any bits, or smacked the crap out of every shaft while dismantling the thing.
As per Dirty Harry..."A man's got to know his limitations".

I feel for you on this l!

When a lot younger and dumber I had a Mk2 Zody over a pit that had 2” of water in the bottom of it, thought the rear of the gearbox was just a cover of some sort so undid the four bolts holding it to the actual gearbox and pulled this ‘cover off only to hear the splash of components landing in the water!
I’d never put a gearbox together until then but did successfully get it reassembled - by 3am!