| deal. From my experience with pulling engines and building them, there's an enormous amount of time and energy spent doing that kind of work. I can appreciate that element of the transaction... But as a consumer too, I also feel that if one accepts to take on a project for 'X' dollars that it should be completed as expected and within the expected timeframe. Where things get out of hand is when the customer starts changing their mind on things or throws new requests into the mix. What ends up happening is the customer still expects things to happen in the same timeline as was originally agreed on. More phone calls here, there, more waiting for parts, etc etc, all these little things add up really quick. Now I'm not sure to what degree any of this played a role in the car's final outcome, but it seems to me that there was some quick decisions made on how some of these last minute things should be done due to the lack of adequate time to complete the project. I find it hard to believe that the exhaust would have been assembled that way given adequate time mainly because I know the employees (and Russell) of Z1 motorsports are fully capable of doing this kind of work properly. You just have to ask yourself based on that premise, why is it that these things were overlooked? Jumping to a conclusion that they just aren't qualified may seem correct logically, but it misses the fact that these guys have a lot of good Z32 experience. I know the car took longer to finish than was expected but that's a good reason to ask yourself why was it the case? Saying it would take 4 weeks to do that isn't an understatement by any means. Hell, I pulled my engine twice and rebuilt it twice in two weeks and I do that crap in my spare time. If I had 8 hours a day to do the work that Wags had done I'd be finished in less than seven days. So saying 4 weeks isn't absurd on Russell's part. I'm sure the could have done it faster if everything was in hand when the car arrived and everything followed a static timeline, not a variable one. Then things get into a crunch and there's a lack of time and the exhaust doesn't get the attention it needs. You speak of the 'many things wrong' with the car but you dont mention what those are. I just see a list of a small number of relatively light issues. Hoses dropping down from the valve cover ports is not a boost leak. Its actually how the old PCV systems used to work before the environmentalists made the manufacturers get all elaborate with things. Wastegates not hooked up? Eeek. Plug them back in - problem solved. Oil lines not routed properly? 30 minutes could fix that. Clean the engine bay? although this has nothing to do with the mechanical aspect of the job, it would have been a good thing to do while the engine was out. I dont know how it looks or what was done, but mechanics dont really get paid to wash cars. The thing is, when it comes to doing major projects like this, things will get overlooked. Things will take a lot of time. And as a consumer you have to keep in mind this very simple fact: There are three components to a job.
Cheap
Good
Fast
You have your choice of two of the three. If you try to get more out of it than two, both parties will suffer. I see Sean got a good price and the work is good, but then the time constraint comes along and then things get botched. You can't have all three as a comsumer. It just doesn't work that way. Now I may just be totally off point; what I'm saying is based on the idea that there was in fact some time constraint put on Z1 at the end of the job.
[ ashleypowers.com ]
[ agpowers@bellsouth.net ] [ Zemulator Information Sheet ] When pigs dance, you better get it on video... "You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive."
-George Carlin
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