Turns out for a meagre £60 they were paid to provide a list of everything they could find to guide the owner who's pleased with their thoroughness if disheartened. He asked for it - and got it! It's been a funny thread though.
My version was - lets have a quick look together at the obvious first, no charge, stop me when you can "tak ney more".
A couple of years ago, I took mine to the guy I’d used for years… he’d gone up market dealing with newer VAG stuff and classic Golfs etc … trying to get to the bottom of my leaks. In essence, the report I got was rocker covers leaking ( they all do that ), pushrod seals leaking ( they all do that) and crankshaft seal leaking…. you guessed…..they all do that. That was the last time he got any money from me.
Playing the devils advocate, those leaks are hard to completely, lastingly stop. Would you want to get in a loop with a customer repeatedly taking out the engine to do the flywheel seal because they paid you to fix it?
Fair enough, I didn't see that. So for 60 notes that's a very comprehensive list. Did they sort it into, needs doing, get around to it and they all do that mate though?
Would've certainly been useful if they'd given some list of priorities to a not mechanically aware owner, rather than just a shotgun list of everything.
Naturally. Probably be happy to formulate a plan of attack too and draw line where the owner does what they can. I was forever trying to get my customers to fix things themselves and just bring me what they couldn't do. For example paying me to hunt down, supply and fit a centre piece on a dash switch made no sense at all. Waste of my time and their money.
We’re going to do the steering coupler and brake pressure switch on Saturday, have a good look at the brakes , clutch cable, check the gearbox oil, identify oil leaks and formulate an attack plan. I think I’ve got a centre for the light switch so all good to go
Moral of the story (no disrespect to the OP): if you've got an old Bay, you really do need to aquire some basic mechanical knowledge, or you'll have your trousers pulled down.
I’ve managed to hoik my pulled down trousers up to my knees. It can be done. Still not easy to drive like this…but the van still isn’t going anywhere any time soon. By the time it does they will be just below the boxers. Considering i’m a ‘belt & braces’ kinda guy, it still surprises me that my trousers were pulled down so easily.
It'll be the boxers next It's the old saga of VW busses. Folk with, say, an old MG are fairly likely to know a bit about mechanics. The busses (again, no disrespect to the OP) are likely to be bought by folk who want to Live the Dream and are unlikely to possess a set of spanners. "We've bought the Vehicle of our Dreams, now we're free to wander far and wide!". No. You've bought an old 1970s delivery van that probably hasn't been serviced properly for 20 years, and if it has it's been done with the cheapest parts available...
Me too first time around. I'd never had any interest in vehicles, particularly fixing them. Paid £3.5k, spent £3.5k fixing rust and broken things, stood back and this in never going to be a good bus. I sold it for about £700 to a friend with full description of why it was so **** in my opinion. Owning that one taught me a lot, enough to find a really good unmolested one for £1500. Luckily I could afford to behave like that at the time.
I take your point but I do find it a bit disrespectful. Many assumptions been made on this thread about me and what I do and don’t know when all I did was ask for help and advice. When you’re going from zero knowledge it just takes time to build it up and the way I learn is to actually be shown things. I’m not some candy floss brained dreamer who has no idea about anything.
Ohh no! I don’t think you were the mark I think most people are in support of you, Those poor garage men often get torn off a shred especially from the oiley ones amongst us I’ve had a van since the early nineties and I still Can just about change the air filter Probably why I’ve got no money
