cowboy mechanic ripped off my mate, advice?

[ice4x4]

Not looking good for it to be fixed in 72 hours

By agreeing to fix it for free this hack has already admitted he is at fault! What does he think is going to happen when the lawyers get involved!!

[Pedro]

it would be good if I could find out which certifier was used...

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&m ... d039c777e3


http://lvvta.org.nz/LVV%20Certifier%20List.pdf

cheers skid, I had already looked that up - cant really say for sure, could have been any one of several......

there should have been paperwork supplied by the certifier, and i would think if you went to the ltsa or similar with a rego number then they could tell you, those records should be permanently attached to the vin number of the vehicle.

[Landynut]

Yeah I realise all that, will gather all that info up when the vehicle is back in safe hands.. it just absolutely sucks having to give the original bastard a chance to fix it... doesnt seem right when the original job was just so badly botched.... but the law is the law...

basically once completed if there is insufficient clearance between diff and motor (i.e. less than there is between bump stops) it will be going to disputes tribunal, get at least some of the money back for his botched ass attempt at a repower and take it elsewhere to get it done properly...

if he doesnt complete it by friday shit will hit the fan....

[89lux]

any news yet?

[Landynut]

not happy at all...

was told earlier today it'd be ready at five... got there at 5:05pm and he says "its not done yet come back at quarter to six" ... not happy already at this point, return at 5:45pm and once again "its not ready yet, another half hour" .................

6:15pm return to workshop to find vehicle is running now (yaaaay) but nobody to be found anywhere (vehicle is blocked in workshop and not finished yet)

6:40 finally roll out of workshop and trundle down the road cautiously, park it up at garage and get a good look underneath (went equipped with tape measure and decent camera this time)

he took my advice and reforged the springs but ignored my advice about longer shackles, so now there is a grand total of 2.75" between diff housing and sump...... given the gap between the diff and bump stops is about 6 inches, this is hardly good enough...

I look to my right and got a hell of a shock, he has welded sections of box section together one on top of the other, on top of the diff, so that now the gap between the bump stop and diff is about 2 inches . . . . . RIGHT - so the diff cannot strike the engine anymore, GREAT!, but it now has a total 2 inches of front suspension travel... oh and also he raised the front springs, but left the back so it just looks silly, and is rather queer to drive.......

is 2 inches enough suspension travel before bottoming out to be safely driven ANYWHERE? let alone off-road ? (its a 4wd after all...) . . . bottoming out all the time (which will happen on rough road surfaces etc, anyone ever see a flat smooth road in nz?) is gonna be hellishly stressful on EVERYTHING isnt it ?

furthermore no re-certification has been done, nor any mention of repair to the engine mount or the modification done to diff or suspension, still has the original vin plate that says nothing next to suspension.....

should this be certified?

COULD this be certified?

the invoice nicely supplied points out that repairs were done out of "generosity" as the vehicle had travelled more than 5,000km therefore was not under warranty . . . does warranty even matter when the workmanship SUCKS to begin with????

also the invoice has a comprehensive breakdown of parts used, freight costs, labour etc - but no mention whatsoever of the pieces of box section welded to the top of the diff . . . (trying to hide up a bodgey fix?)

last but not least, the previous garage that steam cleaned and discovered the fault (cracked timing gear cover, from diff smashing it) said it "could" be welded up, but this was not advisable, would be better to replace it with a new or 2nd hand one....

says on the invoice he has welded it up....

SIGH......

was hoping it would come back good as gold today and be the end of it.... I dont think so somehow......

oh and also after being parked at the garage for 5 minutes it had dripped a wee bit of oil around from various points under the engine (I wondered when we pulled up, why it smelt like burning oil, and found it is dripping onto the exhaust underneath . . .)



ffs.....

[JR]

what would happen if your freind ever wanted to sell? retaill would be bugga all with stuff like that going on!! id be so pissed!! take the dick to court, and dont stop till you have a mint engine transplant that you paid for. my thoughts would be costom made sump for diff clearnce, or another motor thats a better fit. and of cource fix the suspenion that he dodged up.

[dazza85]

Time to take lots of photos and get it down to another garage or VTNZ so that you have an independent opinion / witness then talk to a good lawyer (CAB have free layers that can tell you if you have a case )...

Oh and post pics on here ...
Though I would be wary of naming the person / workshop on here until you talk to a lawyer

[tallsam66]

Is this cowboy a member of the MTA....if so ring them ASAP.. they will be slow to get back to you as they are crap at handling complaints... but ring them back & tell them youll be going to TV1 closeup ..they will then get back to you real fast..had to do this when my GF had problems with them .

[Sadam_Husain]

was the clearance issue caused by the engine being mounted too low or was it the 33 year old springs sagged out too much, what was the pre conversion spring height like, has he reset the springs where they shoud be or has he over set them too high and now losing all the down travel?


some pics would be usefull mate?

[Landynut]

was the clearance issue caused by the engine being mounted too low or was it the 33 year old springs sagged out too much, what was the pre conversion spring height like, has he reset the springs where they shoud be or has he over set them too high and now losing all the down travel?


some pics would be usefull mate?

the distance between diff and chassis bump stops was about 4-5 inches after the motor was installed, supposing he lost an inch or so going from a little 2 and a quarter petrol motor to a big ol diesel, + 5spd gearbox that is probably a whole lot heavier than the original...

I think thats rather beside the point tho sadam? if the springs needed beefing up to install a heavier motor surely that should have been incorporated into the "engine conversion"? (especially since this guy is such a specialist, and knows everything about engine conversions?)

the springs are now reforged and sitting an inch or two higher than normal springs would be, and still there is only 2.75" between diff and sump . . . .

[Landynut]

[Landynut]

these pics are of the vehicle now that it has been "fixed" ...

[ice4x4]

That has to be seen to be believed!

Take this hack to the cleaners!!

[kbushnz]

That's just a hack job....
Most of the factory suspension travel has been lost.
Engine should have been positioned to miss the diff in the first place...or advised of potential issues and what a fix could be done before proceeding with engine swap. Ie moving engine back, suspension lift etc etc.
Not a good look from supposedly an expert.

Reminds me of my neighbours boy being charged $7k for an engine re-power, even after he supplied most of the conversion parts.. And the expert didn't use them and made his own (which were crap and added more labour)
And then the engine was on a lean and low......Settled out of court but only just. That shop has lost lots of business now.

Go and get legal advice ! Before you say or do too much.

Calvin

[mylux]

WOW
What a backyard bodge job.
The truck aint worth a knob of goatsh!t now.
Take the prick to the Disputes Tribunal.
After you win the case come back and name this COWBOY

[pradon35s]

holy shit..

10grand you must be kidding..

did he do the conversion in his back yard in the grass with a scissor jack, crescent and hammer...!

seek legal help mate cos that is shocking

[Petemcc]

this guys is obviously a bit dodgy but why would you say to do a suspension lift and why would he follow these instructions this is obviously not a fix! Extending the bump stops is the only suspension "fix" that could help this unless your lifted springs were soo stuff that you never hit the bump stops a lift would not fix clearance problems at all.

[Landynut]

this guys is obviously a bit dodgy but why would you say to do a suspension lift and why would he follow these instructions this is obviously not a fix! Extending the bump stops is the only suspension "fix" that could help this unless your lifted springs were soo stuff that you never hit the bump stops a lift would not fix clearance problems at all.

if the whole truck was raised 5 or 6 inches and then the bump stops packed a couple of inches it would have been "ok".. not ideal, but ok....

certainly better than what it is now, and what he was potentially going to do until i mentioned re-forging the springs...

I think his plan was to hack the bonnet up and lift the engine . . . not enough clearance in the firewall/trans tunnel to get much that way without hacking it up so i suggested a spring lift... was the best of two bad options, should never have come to this in the first place really....

edit*** I also mentioned longer shackles to gain a couple more inches, and maybe shift the engine up an inch and it would have been close to acceptable with some packing under the bump stops to make sure diff to sump contact was impossible....

it was a shitty conversion in the first place, and I have no idea what can be done with it now that it has a toyota trans positioned too far forward . . . any ideas ??

if this 3b motor was adapted to the landy gearbox chances are it woulda been a sweet truck.... now its just a shopping trolley with an engine . . .

[Landynut]

just saw this on trademe:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=353642818

could have sent that to an engine reconditioner and then installed it, exhaust setup etc all for about $5g....

$300 for a pair of range rover diff heads to gear it up a bit, or around $1500 for an overdrive....

he has gained nothing with the 5spd box as it still revs its guts out to do 80-90kph

he would be better off with that 2.8 mitsi diesel and rangey diff heads on the std 4spd landy box, than the toyota 5 speed and 4.7:1 diff heads.... it chews fuel like crazy simply because its geared so low, even with 5 gears ...

but who knows what happened to his original gearbox, he doesnt know - he said it even had the pto gear on it.... I would have given him $500 for that box, he didnt know what it was worth and I'm betting the mechanic would not have told him...

I would imagine it has been sold off....

[Pedro]

[quote="Landynut"]

what springs are those, i would have thought 20-25mm side movement in the spring shackle would not be overly legal!!


pedro

[Landynut]

what springs are those, i would have thought 20-25mm side movement in the spring shackle would not be overly legal!!


pedro

yeah I would have thought that too... chalk that up to mr awesome mechanic since he just had them off to reforge them... now that you mention it, are those even the original springs, or has he wacked in some datsun springs or something that he had laying around ??

I just went outside and checked my series 3 springs to make sure, and they are almost as wide as the chassis (maybe 5-10mm skinnier?)

nice observation there pedro...

[wopass]

i see two options here. tell your "friend" to ...

1= remove the engine/Gbox assbly and on sell, then dig a big hole and bury the rusty pile of shit thats left.

2= trade it in on a 70k defender of 'O'sum-ness then drop an american 202 into it to make it even more 'O'sum!

[Landynut]

i see two options here. tell your "friend" to ...

1= remove the engine/Gbox assbly and on sell, then dig a big hole and bury the rusty pile of shit thats left.

2= trade it in on a 70k defender of 'O'sum-ness then drop an american 202 into it to make it even more 'O'sum!

you know what they say about assumption eh wopass....

I see two options here for you wopass:

1= cut the top off your head, scrape out that black goo that resembles the stuff you pull out of clogged drains and replace it with something useful, maybe an m&m dispenser?

2= crawl back into the hole you came out of and keep your arrogant, misinformed opinions to yourself.



it may be rough, but its his pride and joy that he's owned and driven daily for 20 years, and there is barely a speck of rust on it.

he doesn't want to trade it in on anything, he wants the "awesome conversion" he paid $10k to get 8 months ago..

I for one think he is entitled to that.

[T-Boon]

Advice from lawer with a full written convo log of all the talks you`ve had with him, and a copy of this thread, then prolly off to court for his 10k back !

See if AA or mta or whatever will sort it, but prolly not!

[Landynut]

Advice from lawer with a full written convo log of all the talks you`ve had with him, and a copy of this thread, then prolly off to court for his 10k back !

See if AA or mta or whatever will sort it, but prolly not!

Cheers boon, yeah he's got an AA guy on-board, which has been really helpful for advice etc..

I dont think the MTA are good for much aye, they more or less just try to mediate between the two parties - which isn't going to work in this case...

I think its going to be disputes tribunal....

but first things first, independant inspections of the repairs carried out....

[wopass]

not a spec....



whats that stuff all over the chassis muppetnut?

and wowsers on the personal attacks there chuppachup, no need to get fired up because i think your mates pile of crap, is a pile of crap. after all im entitled to MY opinion arent i??

black goo....

arrogant.... sometimes

missinformed... only if your not telling all the Osum information.

crawl back to my hole...how do you know i live in a hole ?? you perv freak!

[Landynut]

:lol:

not a spec....



whats that stuff all over the chassis muppetnut?

and wowsers on the personal attacks there chuppachup, no need to get fired up because i think your mates pile of crap, is a pile of crap. after all im entitled to MY opinion arent i??

black goo....

arrogant.... sometimes

missinformed... only if your not telling all the Osum information.

crawl back to my hole...how do you know i live in a hole ?? you perv freak!

lol at least you admit to being arrogant .

no personal attacks, just my opinion on your opinions

theres a slight difference between spots of surface rust and structural rust.... I've crawled around underneath it myself, and its one of the mintest pre1980 landrover chassis' i've ever laid eyes on.

yes you are entitled to your opinion - but this thread was not put here for eggs to come and bag on landrovers, so your negative "opinions" arent really helpful, or relative to the topic, it wouldnt matter if it was a landrover or a prius - tradesmen should be held accountable for their workmanship.

is negativity and pessimism your emotional default or something?

[Landynut]

:lol:

not a spec....



whats that stuff all over the chassis muppetnut?

and wowsers on the personal attacks there chuppachup, no need to get fired up because i think your mates pile of crap, is a pile of crap. after all im entitled to MY opinion arent i??

black goo....

arrogant.... sometimes

missinformed... only if your not telling all the Osum information.

crawl back to my hole...how do you know i live in a hole ?? you perv freak!

f.y.i I didn't say "not a speck" ... I said "barely a speck"

muppetnut... hahah thats a good 1

[wopass]

ohh stop it....



it hurts laughing so much

[mylux]

COOL.
A good ole fashion bitch slapping contest.
I'm Subscribed now.
Bring on the fireworks