I am so sick of trying to hire someone but I am trying to hire someone.  Fucking hell.  Booking the week of the 7th right now.

If I succeed in talking my wife into moving, Colorado is on my list of places to go.  Need a BMW guy?  

I feel for you, we are booked solid for almost two months.  I still have three N54 strokers to build and a teardown of a BMW M4 S55 (to see what makes it tick and how to make it tick faster).  And three more N54s on their way to the shop that will need to be machined and built soon.  My weekends off end up being at the machine shop or my work shop just to get caught up, as my own personal project cars languish.  

Check your moog parts. I've been through 6 ball joints on one f150 just because they left out the rubber boot. Now I have a suburban here and going through the same thing.

 
Now u am only booked to the 15th.  Fucking hell.

A lot of the newer Moog stuff is coming with a small boot built into the joint now (looks odd but it works fine). Really started noticing it over the past 2-3 months and we do a crapload of front end work.

These were old stock. The newer ones were made that way.



 

Here are some random ass pics of my C5.


LS6.  American Racing headers, X pipe.  Stock Ti exhaust, K&N and a dyno tune.  


My crew chief assisting with Steering wheel position sensor replacement.  It was one of the most expensive repairs I had to make, and also one of the most difficult.  $60 and two hours.


He is also Co--driver on exciting runs to the waffle hut or around the lake early on sunday mornings.


Side view.  I cannot remember when it was taken.


Lemans commemorative edition badge.  


Someone added a little color to the sea of black.


I had to chip out the old paint and recolor the custom billet badges, this is Z16 #1300 out of 2025.


Cars and coffee.  One of my favorite things to do.


Solid five footer.  I've been using turtle wax ice products on it.  I've tried clay bar, and don't want to get any more aggressive.  Its got some chips, scratches, and tree sap, possibly acid rain or something.  Might just be heavy water spots I can't get off.  


Hood pad.


After driving it around the NC mountains I snapped this picture.  I went with a CLK black series and a mustang GT convertible.


Long story, but it got a dyno tune done immediately after speaking with the second owner, the one who did all the mods.  There was a major problem when he had It done originally, it ate a spark plug or something, so the tune was never completed.  It got a new cylinder head, but they left the piston in it, which has some pock marks on it.  I asked for a conservative tune, and ran the shittiest fuel I could get (sheetz brand).  The piston has survived over 45K miles since, and I'm absolutely not concerned about it anymore.


370RWHP.  Seems mild by some folks, but she doesn't weigh much and its plenty to push 3100# around the nurburgring in under 8 minutes.  

Being a Z16, which is the Lemans commemorative edition z06, it has special badging and stripes.  A carbon fiber hood, supposedly the first carbon fiber body panel used on a mass produced car.  Polished aluminum wheels unique to this edition, and the Lemans blue color, only available on 2004 C5 Commemorative cars.  The coupe and convertible were available with a unique interior color and the lemans blue paint, but no stripes and such, and the CF hood was only on the Z06 also.  

The 2004 Z06 cars benefitted from additional suspension tuning and sachs shock absorbers which were developed during time at Nurburgring, where it lapped in under 8 minutes.  It did this on the stock Goodyear F1 supercar tires.  It was the very best C5 you could get, and amazingly they invested in upgrading it right up until the end.  

I love this car.  Its been garage kept and covered since I've owned it.  I suspect owner #3 didn't take such good care of the car.  Mechanically yes, but it seems to have been left outside and neglected a bit.  I polished some of the rubber trim, replaced the window sill rubber on the doors which couldn't be saved, have been cleaning and detailing.  Aside from the steering sensor, I've also replaced the driver seat foam with upgraded part from midamerica corvette.  Fluid changes and such are all its needed.  Its required the least amount of money for refurbishing than any other preowned I've had.  

Its fast, dependable, handles well, and its limits are far beyond my capability as a driver.  Its short comings are terrible headlights, which I've tried upgrading with 9011 and 9012 bulbs to no avail.  I've ordered bixenon conversions from Radioflyer.  

Its headed back to the mountains in September for the devils whip and the diamondback.

Me driving it on the blowing rock highway in NC

I have the same tool box.

 

I hated doing steering position sensors on them. If rather rip out fuel tanks.  They really are the best bang for the buck.

After nine days of fucking off and being lazy, I was back at work today.  

I'm getting really good at these diesel timing chains.  Finally got one customer pay, and knocked it right out.

I tried to be good but the shit had to start....

A client with a perfect history of services came in for just an oil change per salesman x.  Had a bunch of warranty lines on it that were all CND and noisy cupped tires.

I am confused as to why salesman x says do oil change and client isn't getting his five hour 60k.  I go up with quote, and salesman x is standing there.  I ask how come we are only doing oil change and not the service it is due for?  He tells me "shush! The customer is right over there!"  

I got PISSED.  What did I say that the client didn't need to hear about THEIR car?  

Turns out the customer is ending the lease and buying the car.  He is hiding my quote from them for tires, brakes, and a five hour service.  Fucking shyster ass bastard.  He was called out and got caught trying to keep his commission fat and not spend any money on the car.  Send it down the road with an oil change.  

Well the situation made it to the GM and svc manager had to discuss it with him.  Don't know how it turned out yet.

I hired someone!  They even got their first paycheck already.  So far I am happy, but this is only day two.

Got poison ivy from working on a tree truck.
Business has been good, temps starting to cool down.
Helper is not self motivated or detail oriented but I guess most 21yo kids aren't.
Just trying to make a dollar.

Breaking out the old tools to replace the radius bushings on an old Bronco.  Couldn't find a safe way to pick up the truck on the lift and get the arms off.







Also get to go trough several old boxes and see what needs to be put on.

Awesome man, hope they work out good.  

and you show it on a air bumper jack

I know they are pretty safe, it just made me laugh, come a long and a port a power if you have it really helps.

Good luck.

The biggest thing I see with shop owners are they forget they use to not know everything and no, most of the time the hired help will not do things like you would.

Extra parts? What? Lets put them together and have a giveaway on the tool truck.

It will be good enough to infect someone. Even put a rear sight and a primary arms red dot on it.

This:




Came out of this:


















Is it any wonder that the timing doesn't line up?




 

10 bolt flywheel? WFT is that in?

 
Audi Q7 with a VR6.

I was at a indy shop and one of the techs was taking a cylinder head off the block on a Volvo. I told him about this tool kit that you have to have to press the cam housing back together before you bolt it down.

"I watched a guy on youtube bolt it down without the special tools"

 
I have worked on vehicles that the owner watched a youtube on how to do it.  I love those cars. Ok, not really.  Fuck trying to figure out what youtube they watched to figure out what stupid thing I have to undo.


 

ETA: I love how Assenmacher is right in state for me.  They UPS an item to me and it gets here next day if I order before 3.

Yep, great tools and people.

Another shop (tire chain shop) tore a head off a bmw (don't remember which one). The manager actually called the dealer and asked to borrow the special tools needed. They had to pay the machine shop $600 bucks to come put it in time. The tech wouldn't buy the kit (who would) and the chain owner wouldn't buy the tools either. I don't know who paid the machine shop.

I actually thought about that, buying every special alignment tool set and then going from shop to shop to set timing for them, don't know how much demand there would be for that though. How much would a shop pay every time for that? $200? How many times would a shop hire you to do it before they would buy their own kit? On the other hand, if you had a set price for timing engines they could work that into their price as a sublet, just like the machine shop.

 
Considering that there are guys who do nothing but diagnostics as a roving tech I am sure you could get it to work.  These are guys who just have all the specialty scan tools, pay to update them, pay for the dealer level info and do 4 or 5 diags a day at different shops who have been throwing parts at a car for days to get the same drivability issues.  They get that to work.  By the way, the BMW VANOS timing kit really isn't that bad.  I think my labor covered the purchase the first time I used it and second time I got to keep the labor.  Sadly I mean shop labor rate...  It is odd, I am a shop owner and I believe in the shop buying the specialty tools needed to do the job right.  How strange.  I should make my tech buy them...

at least you get to write it off

 
You mean you are not supposed to write it off as a requirement of the job that the employer does not cover?  Because I am pretty certain I did that when I worked for other people.

No, I was throwing that out there because you are self employed also so that means you have all the money in the world.

 
I have a comma in my bank business bank account.  Sadly on the debt side, not the money side...  New tech, more volume will get me in a good place in about 10 months.

Customer brings their own battery for us to install.  It doesn't fit.  Hours later they return with another incorrect battery.  Hey asshole I have a shelf full of the fucking things.  They spent half a day acquiring incorrect parts they wanted me to install rather than just buying a real one.  It was five o clock so I just left.  Maybe they will return tomorrow.

 
Did the same with an alternator once.  Customer didn't believe me when I said it was water cooled.  He told me autozone said the one he had in his hand was right.

God help me, it's slower than I can bear.  

Nobody's bringing their car in, and those that do aren't spending.  

We have a new $40k tire machine and balancer coming soon.

I was absolved of any wrongdoing when they got a customer to return for inspection to see if it really needed tires.  It did, last guy who worked on it neglected to mention it.  Client wondered why I tried to sell them and three weeks later another guy didn't.

Got a mountain drive trip coming up soon and I am really excited about it.

Those radius arm bushings I put on yesterday really changed the look of that bronco.

Got word from the owner that our sister dealer had a customer come in for service.
Guy in his early 20's with an airbag light on. We tell him how much it is to fix it but he declines the work.
It is noted on the ticket what was wrong. Bad RCM I believe.
He had other work done previously like oil changes and such. He goes home no work preformed and I guess never told his mom anything was wrong with the car.

Kid gets in a head on collision and is killed, airbag never went off. Mom is now suing the dealer for $10mil.
Car fax showed the other repairs but not them checking on the airbag light. It's going to be a cluster fk.

Just a reminder: Note EVERYTHING on the ticket and always cover your ass.

It didn't jump teeth and bend valves?


If not that's amazing.

 
Nope.  It was in time when I tore it down.  Just missing the upper chain guide and had ground through most of one bolt and actually backed out the other after grinding on it for a while.  It was a HAIR out of time on the intake cam.  Had to use a small hammer to get the timing plate in.  

Sad situation to be in, for everyone.

Fuck it.  Taking tomorrow off.  I can't take this shit no more.  People are retarded.  The guy next to me must be bleeding out of his mangina.  

I stopped at harbor freight on my way home to get a propane torch to burn weeds with.  Now I just pretend they are assholes I've dealt with today and fry them.

I should have join you today. Four broken socket and two broken pullers.



 

About 5years ago I made the decision to no longer accept customer supply parts.

One of the best decisions I ever made. Part bringers are bottom feeders, and always more trouble then their worth.

What were you doing?

 
A fucking men

Especially on euro cars.

Ball joint on a 2001 Lincoln town car. Every thing was a fight.



 

 
Could be worse.  I am making sweet slow love to an Audi.  Fuck me is this damn car taking way too long.  I swear ever thinges has been two steps forward, oh fuck, three steps back.


 

Yeah it was just one of those days.

 

Clutch out of a mustang g500 or k500, I can't remember. Supercharged one.

This is what came out. Twin disk with ultralight flywheel set up factory. The twin disk clutch pack is $2600 alone. Replacement parts cross to a stock style single disk.

Some dude is selling a used 80% triple carbon clutch for a c5 for $3900.  They are $6500+ New.  

I'm learning lots about this world of aftermarket parts again!  You can buy a  Stock used car for $18k.  You can buy one with $30k in mods for the same price.

https://www.corvettemods.com/mobile/C6-ZR1-Corvette-LG-Tilton-Triple-Carbon-Clutch_p_8909.html