X1/9 HORROR STORY

eflexter

eflexter

Eddie Flexter
You won't believe this. But I'm not exagerating.

My niece is a school teacher, so when the head gasket blew on her X, she took it to the school's VoTec garage for repair. She knew the teacher, who said it would be no problem, he works on them all the time.

Months passed, but it was winter, and it was stored indoors, so it seemed like no problem. Then stories began to trickle back to her about some of the crap that was being done to the car. She began pressing the teacher for results and got even crazier stories. She finally picked up the car with a trailer and brought it to me to be "finished up".

What I found was a catastrophe. The car was literally totalled. The kids had been using it as a "garage queen" and just taking things off and trying (unsuccessfully) to reassemble it. EVERYTHING was broken. Wires were cut and twisted back together, sparkplug wires were attached at random, bolts missing, cam belt ripped in half, alternator hanging by torn wires, fuel lines leaking all over, wires all reattached in the wrong place.

Then add in: bumper ends broken off, rear supension bolts gone and loose, I could go on and on and on. I took me 12 hard hours just to get it to the point I could start the engine, only to find that the head gasket was installed incorrectly and re-blew a few minutes later. Valve shims all reused and stuck in the wrong place. The head was installed without the locating dowels. Lots of instant gasket everywhere. Can you believe that??

I'm still scared to drive the car for fear of finding something else loose or broken. She's pressing to get money back from the school and get the guy fired. What have those kids learned????

Moral: get references before you trust ANY mechanic. Better yet, do it yourself.
 
Eflexter... (is that what ya wanna be called?) I too...

... can recommend Chris but if your neice is single... bring a chaporone or a big dog!

Your neice's auto shop sounds nothing like the one I attended back in the 60's... Ours was SLOW to get things done also... but that was because kids were actually LEARNING and only had about 40 minutes per class period to work on something... and not all classes were of the "intermediate or advanced" variety either. But they did take pride in doing the repairs correctly...

What a shame... I blame the teacher FIRST!
 
My first year auto trade class was much the same. The pot head (well one of them) scooped up metal filings from the brake lathe and poured them into our principal's engine oil, things were always being put together half assed, "extra" bolts usually found their way into the trash can, autocide no matter how you look at it. Second year was much better, mostly because only 4 people continued from first year.
 
PLUS

I've seen professional mechanics do not much better......and always followed by "foreign piece o' crap" like it's the car's fault.
 
I believe.

Sad to say, but it's been my experience that most school teachers (and even more so the female ones) are simply detached from reality.:sigh:

I can not fathom the decision process that would result in, "I'll let VocTech kids work on my obscure Italian sports car."
 
Dan Sarandrea (Phila) said:
I believe.

Sad to say, but it's been my experience that most school teachers (and even more so the female ones) are simply detached from reality.:sigh:

I can not fathom the decision process that would result in, "I'll let VocTech kids work on my obscure Italian sports car."
Click to expand...



Hey, I resent that remark!

But, I absolutely agree that deciding to let a school shop work on her car was insane.

I used my technical drawing, automotive & metal shop classes in high school (England) to design, fabricate & weld in new rockers & floor pans on my Fiat 500, with all supplies paid for by the school :grin:
 
Dan Sarandrea (Phila) said:
I believe.

Sad to say, but it's been my experience that most school teachers (and even more so the female ones) are simply detached from reality.:sigh:
Click to expand...

I resemble THAT remark. I'm a school teacher!
I agree though. I'm taking on online course right now and the disconnect is obvious. There seems to be this edu-speak thing that they use and it doesn't even mesh with what they do for a living. It really is bizarre. Like they're trying to one-up each other with buzz words and lingo and have long ago forgotten the real object of the exercise. It's fun to call them out on it sometimes though.
 
Detached

Hi Hussain, I am a fellow Art Educator as well (secondary art teacher). I fully admit being detached from reality. Exhibit "A" is my two X19's! At least we appreciate well designed objects. Cheers, Terry
 
I used to do technical training for a major auto manufacturer. One of our regional managers (with no technical background, btw) thought it would be a great idea (read P.R. idea) to take some inner city vo-tech students and turn them into certified technicians...all in 4 weeks! After all, how hard could it be?

It was a disaster. Our "hand picked" group (these guys were the best student in the class) was as lost as easter eggs. It was like they had never even seen a hand tool, let alone knew anything about an automobile! After the first week, we stopped everything. Someone went to the local Home Depot and bought some 1/2 inch nuts and bolts. Then we spent one whole morning having the kids tighten and untighten nuts and bolts...first by hand then with tools.

At the end of the 4 weeks, we had to rubber stamp these kids as "certified" techs. Last I heard one of them was still working on cars.

Auto company execs and school administrators seem to think that while it takes years and years of study and training for someone to be a doctor (or a school administrator), any moron with a pulse can be taught to fix a car. Just ain't the case, is it?
 
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