Casper the Cobra - Procharged 96' Cobra

Venompower · Aug 22, 2023

The special bellhousing spacers should be arriving tomorrow, and then it can all go back together went with an 11" McLeod clutch rated for 700hp.

Venompower · Aug 30, 2023

Well.... they initially sent me two of the same spacer which has an offset hole for the dowl. The shop said they could make it work, but after this much time I wanted it done right. Holley reached out to the supplier and they sent the correct spacer, but it added a week to my wait time.

Anyways it arrived yesterday and was the correct piece, so everything was dropped off last night. Being told the Cobra should be ready for pickup tomorrow. Which means I will get to take it to at least one car show this year, which happens to be in my town. Interested to see what the new clutch feels like, I went with a McLeod Street Extreme 11" clutch... along with the McLeod 11" flywheel. The previous McLeod clutch was a 10.5".

Musturd · Aug 30, 2023

I run the McLeod street extreme in my car it’s awesome soft pedal effort and great clamping force

Venompower said:
Well.... they initially sent me two of the same spacer which has an offset hole for the dowl. The shop said they could make it work, but after this much time I wanted it done right. Holley reached out to the supplier and they sent the correct spacer, but it added a week to my wait time.

Anyways it arrived yesterday and was the correct piece, so everything was dropped off last night. Being told the Cobra should be ready for pickup tomorrow. Which means I will get to take it to at least one car show this year, which happens to be in my town. Interested to see what the new clutch feels like, I went with a McLeod Street Extreme 11" clutch... along with the McLeod 11" flywheel. The previous McLeod clutch was a 10.5".

Venompower · Aug 30, 2023

Musturd said:
I run the McLeod street extreme in my car it’s awesome soft pedal effort and great clamping force

That’s what I was hoping to hear… wanted some room to grow but wanted something good for the street.

Musturd · Aug 30, 2023

Venompower said:
That’s what I was hoping to hear… wanted some room to grow but wanted something good for the street.

yea it’s a really good clutch . Good street manners

Venompower · Aug 31, 2023

So just talked to the shop owner, and the Cobra is half-way back together... should be done this afternoon. Going to be tight because I am going to see Corey Taylor (Slipknot) this evening in Chicago... but if I don't get it tonight, the owner is going racing starting tomorrow and will be gone until Monday. Sunday is my cities block party and car show, and I was really hoping on making it.

I did ask to confirm, that when we last spoke the labor was $700 and now he is saying $750 plus some bolts he had to buy.

Would you just pay him and not go back, or would you push back? Keep in mind that I waited a month for an appointment, and then an additional 3 weeks beyond my appointment date before he ever took it apart to inspect... I know what's broke is broke, but it just cost me an additional $1,026 in parts... that I could have been ordering back in July if he started on my appointment date. I think I was pretty chill about the delays, and thought he would take care of me on the back end by honoring the price he gave me after he tore it down.

lwarrior1016 · Aug 31, 2023

I can’t say much, but I can speak from the other side. Things very rarely go according to plan, and often times you get in to a project expecting one thing, then the curve balls start. Miscellaneous things that have to be purchased will add up quickly. And why should that be his responsibility to cover it? He could give you the car back without those bolts and tell you that you need them. Or not install the driveshaft because he needed to meet the labor dollar amount.

What I’m getting at, is things happen, and more times than not, and estimate is exactly that, an estimate. There is nothing concrete about the estimate. This is why I prefer to bid bigger jobs a little high, and if we come in under the bid, pass that savings on to the customer.

I do understand your side though. I believe he should have called you and told you, but most shops do not. He could have told you the labor price increased and if you didn’t agree, given the car back to you in a box.

lwarrior1016 · Aug 31, 2023

And honestly, waiting is just part of the game these days. Appointments are only really good for drop off times or quick work. Any time a car is apart and on a lift, that cost the shop money.

Your car on a lift waiting a few weeks for parts could very well have pushed another customer’s appointment back those 3 weeks just because there was no space to work on it.

Venompower · Aug 31, 2023

lwarrior1016 said:
I can’t say much, but I can speak from the other side. Things very rarely go according to plan, and often times you get in to a project expecting one thing, then the curve balls start. Miscellaneous things that have to be purchased will add up quickly. And why should that be his responsibility to cover it? He could give you the car back without those bolts and tell you that you need them. Or not install the driveshaft because he needed to meet the labor dollar amount.

What I’m getting at, is things happen, and more times than not, and estimate is exactly that, an estimate. There is nothing concrete about the estimate. This is why I prefer to bid bigger jobs a little high, and if we come in under the bid, pass that savings on to the customer.

I do understand your side though. I believe he should have called you and told you, but most shops do not. He could have told you the labor price increased and if you didn’t agree, given the car back to you in a box.

I think the point I'm getting at is when he told me $700 he gave me the complete parts list of what was needed, told me he needed to get some bolts etc. So I assumed $700 plus bolts... Now it's become $750 plus bolts, not a huge amount but he could have easily gave me that price when he told me $700.

Feels like I keep giving, and he does whatever he wants on whatever time frame he wants.

Venompower · Aug 31, 2023

lwarrior1016 said:
And honestly, waiting is just part of the game these days. Appointments are only really good for drop off times or quick work. Any time a car is apart and on a lift, that cost the shop money.

Your car on a lift waiting a few weeks for parts could very well have pushed another customer’s appointment back those 3 weeks just because there was no space to work on it.

I think in every industry it's a completely fair expectation that if you require an appointment, you set the date you can meet and honor it. We discussed that as mechanic taking into account historical no show percentages you may overbook a little to offset... but waiting three weeks to start work after a four week wait for an appointment feels excessive.

He had my car back in the parking lot minus the transmission the same day he found additional parts were going to be needed.

lwarrior1016 · Aug 31, 2023

Venompower said:
I think in every industry it's a completely fair expectation that if you require an appointment, you set the date you can meet and honor it. We discussed that as mechanic taking into account historical no show percentages you may overbook a little to offset... but waiting three weeks to start work after a four week wait for an appointment feels excessive.

He had my car back in the parking lot minus the transmission the same day he found additional parts were going to be needed.

Did his technicians get sick? Was there a death in the family? Did someone have vacation time? Any combination of these things? Did all of their jobs before yours go according to plan, or did something hold them up? Did they have to do any jobs multiple times because of bad parts?

Any of these things can be contributing to the delay. Sometimes a date cannot be honored the way you want it to be. I agree that it should be done quick as possible, but life just isn’t quick.

We have a corvette at our shop that was supposed to be finished 3 weeks ago. I have now put the 6th alternator on the car, because they have all been junk. And this is after waiting 2 weeks past a shipping date for an electric headlight actuator kit to ship to us.

The automotive industry is changing. Waiting is going to be commonplace now. I can’t do alignments at our shop, so I called the local shop. My appointment was 2 weeks out. They called me the day before and pushed it back another week because their air compressor went out.

Venompower · Aug 31, 2023

lwarrior1016 said:
Did his technicians get sick? Was there a death in the family? Did someone have vacation time? Any combination of these things? Did all of their jobs before yours go according to plan, or did something hold them up? Did they have to do any jobs multiple times because of bad parts?

Any of these things can be contributing to the delay. Sometimes a date cannot be honored the way you want it to be. I agree that it should be done quick as possible, but life just isn’t quick.

We have a corvette at our shop that was supposed to be finished 3 weeks ago. I have now put the 6th alternator on the car, because they have all been junk. And this is after waiting 2 weeks past a shipping date for an electric headlight actuator kit to ship to us.

The automotive industry is changing. Waiting is going to be commonplace now. I can’t do alignments at our shop, so I called the local shop. My appointment was 2 weeks out. They called me the day before and pushed it back another week because their air compressor went out.

Let me ask you a question... if any of those things happen do you call the customer to advise that there is a delay... or do you just wait until they call you? I'm pretty sure I know the answer.

lwarrior1016 · Aug 31, 2023

Venompower said:
Let me ask you a question... if any of those things happen do you call the customer to advise that there is a delay... or do you just wait until they call you? I'm pretty sure I know the answer.

When I ran the transmission shop I was at, I always called and updated. I am very transparent and up front.

The management at the current shop I am in, does not call and update. Their thought process is, “if you don’t hear from me, there is no update”. We don’t get paid until your job is done, so it’s in our best interest to be as quick as possible but still do good work.

I’ve had an engine at a machine shop for almost 2 months now, and I haven’t heard anything from them.

lwarrior1016 · Aug 31, 2023

I was doing a LS swap on a 72 Monte Carlo that had been worked on by another shop. I went in to the job thinking it would be about a week to finish it. 3 weeks later I was about to drive the car and the brake calipers fell off due to being assembled wrong. I worked on that car for a month straight every single day because everything I touched had been done wrong previously. Should have only taken a week, but took almost 5 weeks to finish.

joemomma · Aug 31, 2023

I see both sides here. As stated, he gave an estimate - not a final price. $50 on a $700 job isn't a big difference. While it isn't chump change, it's not that far off. But, to the other side, he could have let you know ahead that it was going to come in a little higher and make sure you were OK with it and it was taking a little longer than expected. The wait, while frustrating, that seems to be how things are any more in the automotive industry. There are fewer (and fewer) competent shops around, and their demand is high, because they're the only ones doing good work. Having to unfuck what someone else has screwed up has cost many shops plenty of time and money. I've seen it on my own '94. Some of the PO fuckery that I had to "fix" before I could actually "fix" the issue has cost me plenty of time, and more than a few dollars.

At the end of the day, if you're happy with the work then I probably wouldn't worry too much about it. Just plan accordingly for future work (meaning - it'll probably take longer than they say). If you're not happy, try to find another shop.

EDIT to ADD: I just went through something similar with mine. Dropped it off for two new front tires and an alignment. Should have been a one-day turnaround. Turns out, the tires didn't get delivered on the expected day, so that pushed it out another day. Then there was a weekend involved. Then, when they tried to do the alignment, there wasn't enough adjustment in the CC plates to get all the negative camber out due to the fender alignment. So, they had to disassemble everything and slot new holes in the plates so get the majority of the camber out. It ended up taking several days for a one-day job, due to unforeseen circumstances and a vendor delivery failure. In that time, I texted the shop owner and asked if it was done once. He told me to call him and he explained what was going on, and said he'd call me when it was done. I left them to it, and picked it up when it was finally done.

Venompower · Aug 31, 2023

Well the estimate was $500 but when we discovered the additional and knew exactly what would need to be done… I knew it would be more. So I asked now that we know what your working with what will the price be? He advised $700… now it’s $750…

I’m transparent, I appreciate it I’m others especially those I do business with. I know things happen, and I know parts ordering delays things… just experienced it with the spacers I needed from Holley.

However, he didn’t order the parts… or call me to give an update based on his overbooking. So in my mind the least he could do is be like “sorry it took so long after your appointment to get started I’ll honor the $700 plus hardware. I’m sorry but no amount of mismatched bolts turns a clutch job into two months.

That being said… nothing I can do but take my business elsewhere

Venompower · Sep 2, 2023

Well he apparently put in a new quadrant without authorizing it thankfully it was only $25… but $830 later I have my car back. The clutch pedal is crazy soft… but it shifts well and everything feels tight.

New problem is it’s breaking up and cutting out under boost like it did when I first got it and found water in the intercooler pipe. He told me on his test drive that it was hiccuping and probably needed new plugs even though the ones in it are fresh as of last fall with less than 1k miles. He recommended BR7’s gapped at .018 which seems extreme for 9 lbs.?

Musturd · Sep 2, 2023

Venompower said:
Well he apparently put in a new quadrant without authorizing it thankfully it was only $25… but $830 later I have my car back. The clutch pedal is crazy soft… but it shifts well and everything feels tight.

New problem is it’s breaking up and cutting out under boost like it did when I first got it and found water in the intercooler pipe. He told me on his test drive that it was hiccuping and probably needed new plugs even though the ones in it are fresh as of last fall with less than 1k miles. He recommended BR7’s gapped at .018 which seems extreme for 9 lbs.?

I gap mine at .020 for good measure