GT6 Triumph GT6, basic work estimates

[Andrew Mace]

I will also add that I also have (more and more in recent years and for many reasons) trusted "specialists" with some of my cars, notably the newer daily drivers I or my children had to rely on. And I readily admit that often it is not easy to find a good shop! In more recent years, I have had a few instances where "specialists" screwed up far more than they "repaired". But I have also had several recent instances where I have spent $$$ having large amounts of work performed. On the bad side, my son was at the mercy of a shop that charged amazing amounts of money for an estimate (the less said about the subsequent work performed, the better)! At least that beat his local dealer, who wanted the kind of money for service that a Rolls-Royce dealer might charge; unfortunately, the dealer was Toyota and the car an aging Celica GT. More recently, and on the good side, I have spent $$$ at a local (dare I mention it?) Midas shop on two occasions. In both instances, the final total was well up there, but a: they did everything they said they were going to; b: they did it well; c: in several instances, they successfully repaired rather than replaced; and d: repairs resulted in cars that were again a pleasure to drive and free of problems! So it's possible to find such shops. When you do, stick with them!

 

[Richter12x2]

Well, I picked the shop I did because they were supposed to be the best when it came to these cars, and had such glowing reviews and even magazine write-ups. He definitely seemed knowledgeable when I was talking to him. Even looking at the invoice when they presented it, it SEEMED reasonable. The cost surprised me, but at that point I figured, at least I know it'll work, work properly, and I won't have to worry about trying to find the time to fix it. At least she can enjoy her car again, and I won't have to play the "Did I torque everything down, did I remember everything that needed to be done? Did I set that right?" game.

When I started discussing the things with him is when things started to take a downhill slide. I started off under the assumption that it was a misunderstanding, so I asked him what he thought we should do about it. That's when I started doing the math, and noticing things, and it just got worse and worse. I made the comment, even to him that "a bad experience doesn't necessarily mean a bad shop", and basically any one thing I would have forgiven, (including the high billing on the invoice), any two things and it could be excused as just a bad day. But it was pretty evident that he didn't have interest in making things right. Well, until I posted the reviews on Yelp and Google, then he at least pretended. At that point, though, things devolved to the point that I don't trust him not to do something to the car on purpose.

I.e. That's how he treated it BEFORE the disagreement. It's clear from the interactions that it's not going to be better afterwards.

Here are some excerpts from the emails, this is two days after picking up the car which was initially brought in to 'primarily to make sure it's driveable and safe':
"[FONT=&quot]I tried to drive it myself for the first time yesterday to go pick up some sandpaper, and had a pretty disappointing experience. I let it warm up on choke for about 10 minutes (it wasn't too big of a delay because it took nearly that long to adjust the seatbelt from Niki's size to mine.) but even with choke on, I never could get it to idle by itself - it always had to have a little pressure on the gas pedal to keep it running, even after 5-10 minutes. It was still a little cold though, and I figured that if I was careful with it, getting a little load on the engine would warm it up faster, and it did. Within a block or two it was sitting nicely just below the middle of the temp gauge.[/FONT]The problem is, even fully warmed up, with the choke off, it still died every time I came to a stop sign and had to be restarted. There are about 7 stop signs before the first major intersection, which was great because it saved me having it die on me at a red light on a busy street. So I turned around to take it back home, since I didn't trust it on any road of decent size. After turning around, all of a sudden there's a substantial shrieking/squealing noise from under the hood, sounded like drivers side front. Other than location, (transmission you're almost sitting on in that car), it really sounded like a binding throwout bearing or something similar, although I can't say it varied dramatically in pitch with engine revs. It DID go away every time I pushed in the clutch to shift (or to stop at one of those five million stop-signs).

On the plus side, when the squealing started, suddenly the engine wanted to idle at about 1500-2000 rpm, which was actually an improvement, because at least it didn't die every time I came to a stop now."

His response:
"From your description, it’s likely that the clutch master cylinder or slave cylinder is occasionally sticking, holding pressure on the release bearing. This would account for the squeal and the reduced rpm at idle. Although we purged the old brake/clutch fluid and replaced with new fluid of the correct type, there was always a strong possibility that you might need to rebuild or replace additional hydraulic components (besides the rear wheel cylinders and brake master cylinder). With additional use, the sticky clutch hydraulics may still clear up. But, if the symptoms continue, the master and slave will need to be repaired or replaced, before additional damage occurs."

My email:
"[FONT=&quot]I ordered the wheel hubs as you recommended and was putting them on today, and noticed a trail of oil running up next to the Triumph to the rear. I didn't think too much about it, because I knew it leaked some oil, even though I was a little surprised by how much, since when Niki drove it home, she parked it nose in, and when had my aborted drive to the parts store, I backed it in, so I just assumed it was from when she nosed in. [/FONT]When I got the rear wheel off, I saw that it didn't go to the middle of the parking space, but stayed at the rear wheel. Felt around behind the wheel, and it's wet. Touched the fluid on the floor and smelled it... it's brake fluid, from the brand new rebuilt brakes.
I've taken some pictures to show you the trail, the back of the hub, and how low on fluid the brake master cylinder is, but I'm not really sure what to do from here."

His response:
"I’m guessing that the new wheel cylinder on that side is leaking. Go ahead and put on your new splined hub adaptors, top off the brake master cylinder and then give xxxxx a call. She’ll get you scheduled in for what should be a quick swap."

My response:
"[FONT=&quot]The part is only $14, I'll replace it myself rather than risk the brakes going out on the drive there, or having to pay another $200 to tow it there.[/FONT]
I'm trying to be very cool and understanding here, but the issue is that from my perspective, I brought the car in and said the budget I'm trying to stay in was $3500. The total of invoices was $5500, so the budget was not just a couple hundred over, it was $2000 over. If we'd talked about it at the time, I might have said to go ahead so we can make sure it's done right, but we didn't have that budget talk at all.
Now, on top of spending $2000 more than I wanted, I find I'm redoing 2 of the 4 main things that were done. The clutch system was flushed and redone, the brake cylinders were rebuilt and flushed. Now I find myself redoing all of that work myself, which according to the invoice accounts for 13 hours of labor (3+3.5+3+3.5) and $77.15 in parts ($38.12 brake fluid + $39.03 wheel cylinders), which means after going over by $2000, $1442.15 of that ended up just being wasted anyway.
That's why I'm not sure where to go from here. Your shop has great reviews, and from meeting and talking to you, you seem very genuine and are definitely very knowledgeable. So I don't think you set out intending to take advantage of me, but I still can't help but feel taken advantage of.

That's what I mean when I say I'm not sure what to do. A bad experience doesn't equate to a bad shop, but it's real hard to keep coming back to a relationship where you keep getting kicked in the proverbial nuts."

His response:
"Most of the parts available for your GT6 come from China, Taiwan and India, and are nowhere near the quality of the OEM or first tier aftermarket suppliers. These parts are so cheap, they have chased all reputable aftermarket suppliers from the market. . . Almost every British vehicle that comes to our shop for a major service will experience some type of premature part failure, through no fault of our own. This is one of the reasons why I recommended driving your vehicle short distances, until you reached a level of comfort in its’ operation and dependability.

I am sorry you ended up spending more than you had hoped to on your vehicle. Most of the work that we performed was repairing things that you had done improperly. It is easy to look in a catalog and order parts, but knowing what parts to order, recognizing when you’ve been sent the wrong part, and installing the parts properly, requires a higher level of skill.

When you’re ready, we’ll pay for the tow and there is no charge for warranty work." (Basically no excuse at this point for going over the estimate, and only finally offering to pay for the tow after the situation is starting to escalate. Now it feels like he's saying that he overcharged me for work because it was something that I done in the first place.)

My response:
"(In regards to installing the parts properly requiring a higher level of skill) Apparently. It however doesn't require a great deal of skill to know what sort of hammer to use to remove knockoff wheels, since the brand new knockoffs that were installed the last time the wheels were off the car now have dings from removing with the wrong hammer. I never had that problem when using the wooden knockoff wrench that would have been found whenever the gas tank was accessed. The gas tank that seems to be leaking fuel from the top now which wasn't before.
(Regarding the tow) [FONT=&quot]No thanks, based on this email I believe I'm just going to cut my losses at this point and move on. Hopefully your next projects go better, I know mine will."
[/FONT]

 

[Richter12x2]

In both instances, the final total was well up there, but a: they did everything they said they were going to; b: they did it well; c: in several instances, they successfully repaired rather than replaced; and d: repairs resulted in cars that were again a pleasure to drive and free of problems! So it's possible to find such shops. When you do, stick with them!

I absolutely agree - this was my final email to ... the shop, explaining basically the same. That the cost wasn't even the issue, it was the combination of everything:

"[FONT=&quot]The statement disparaging the work and experience honestly doesn't bother me much. I'm pretty sure I led with that when I dropped the car off, that I've done what I can with the information and parts I can find, and I was looking forward to your experience to help fill the gap and make things better.[/FONT]The real issue here isn't even that cost went up drastically from what we talked about. If that were a problem I would have brought it up when I picked the car up. My thinking at the time was "This will hurt, but it will be worth it to know that it's done correctly and be able to enjoy the car again."
The problem is, fully half the work that was done I'm having to do over again, and in trying to determine how much the wasted work cost me showed me that I'm invoiced 13 hours of work to replace 2 wheel cylinders, and flush the brakes and clutch lines, on a car where flushing the front brakes and clutch slave doesn't require any work for access rather than just opening the hood.

As I talking with someone else about this - any one thing is totally understandable, even including the fact that it was drastically over budget. Any two problems is even excusable. Now the more I look, the worse it gets:
1. The dings on the rear wheel knockoffs. It's really a small ding or two on the leading edge on each side. They're not ruined, but they are there now and weren't before. Honestly not worth replacing, but disappointing when it was done by what was supposed to be the one company in DFW, possibly the state or even the entire country that was supposed to respect and appreciate and understand these cars.

2. The bad fuel sender. The #1 job that was done was getting rid of the varnished fuel in the fuel tank, which seems like it would indicate to a specialist that the fuel sender be checked. When I pulled it out, it was gummed up and too stiff to move, and should have been obvious to anyone who looked at it. Which means that either no one bothered to look at it, or that they took it out and put it back without paying any attention at all. Maybe my expectations were too high, but my opinion is that neither of those are acceptable for a specialist.

3. Incorrectly installed fuel sender. When I replaced the fuel sender myself, I cleaned about a quarter cup of gasoline out of the well before I removed it, and I reinstalled it the way it came off - I know because the rubber seal wasn't aligned at all under the lock ring on the sender, with one side sticking out more than the other, and I remember thinking that was odd, so when I put it back together I made sure it was perfectly even all the way around. Then 30 minutes later it occurred to me that means the sender to the fuel tank is metal to metal, and it makes more sense to have the rubber seal underneath the sender, between the sender and the top of the tank, because on top of the sender it wouldn't do anything. A quick look in the Victoria British catalog confirmed that it's rubber seal, sender, then lock ring. So I corrected it. This led me again to two conclusions - one, that the specialist shop that understands and knows and works on these cars installed it incorrectly, which I couldn't guarantee was the case, it could have been something I did myself years ago. But the other possibility, that the specialist company that understands and knows these cars didn't even bother to LOOK at the fuel tank when servicing a car that came in for fuel problems, wasn't really that much better.
4. During our conversation about the flasher speeding up and slowing down, you mentioned it was due to the aftermarket flasher that was installed in the front. When I asked about it, you talked about the cube on the shelf in the engine bay. That's a common relay, literally the most common automotive relay ever made. Even if you weren't sure that it was a relay, the fact that it's sitting right next to the unplugged, absolutely factory horn relay should have been a dead giveaway. Again, I don't blame you for not knowing where the flasher relay is on a Triumph GT6 (it's under the passenger side of the dashboard, and for the record, it was the correct Lucas one for the car), but that's not the sort of mistake I'd expect from a specialist either.
5. Alternator wiring. Less important, because at least this one isn't factory. The alternator that was installed generated voltage fine even though it wasn't designed to run an alternator because the field was hot-wired on. In cars designed for alternators, the field varies with demand to free up horsepower when the load is low. When it's hot-wired like this, it generates full voltage constantly, which costs horsepower, but is cheap insurance for making sure you have enough power. It's a very common modification for almost all Triumph cars: https://vintagetriumphregister.org/alternator-conversiona/ describes the benefits, along with providing detailed instructions for installing in pretty much any Triumph that exists. It wouldn't bother me at all that you hadn't seen it done, but immediately assuming it doesn't work says more as well. The car had driven several hundred miles, as it was configured, before it developed the issues due to bad gas and sitting.
6. I'm sorry, it shouldn't take 13 hours to replace two wheel cylinders and flush the clutch and brake system on that car. The only way I can see getting to 13 hours is if you had one person do the work, 2 people watch, and then billed me for all three of them. 4 hours feels right for someone who has done this multiple times. 6 hours starts pushing the edges of reason. Even at 4 hours, that's pretty generous given that the average cost of a brake fluid change is between $73 and $104 dollars (https://autoservicecosts.com/brake-fluid-flush-cost/ ). This is an average, considering modern cars, not cars where you don't even have to take the wheels off to access the bleed screw for two of the wheels. With that factor given, a clutch is just a brake system with a single bleed screw instead of 4, so should in no way take LONGER. And once you have the rear wheels off to bleed the back brakes, how much longer does it take to pop off the drum and swap out both rear wheel cylinders, 1 hour for both? 2? Even at your specialist rates, that's a lot closer to $500 than $1500. That's ridiculous. It wouldn't take 13 hours if you had to study the principals of fluid dynamics, learn about pressures in hydraulic systems, and pass an ASE exam for brake systems before you started.

The reason I started doing my own work on cars in the first case, not just classic cars but ALL cars, was that pretty much every time I took it to a shop, even a specialist one, it came back worse than it went in, or I was going to be charged some exorbitant rate. I took a car in for an alignment one time, and they somehow managed to break the interior door handle rod, a steel rod that pulls the latch when the door handle was pulled! I'm not even sure how you do that! They of course insisted it was like that when it came in, and I knew that was a lie because I didn't have to climb out of the window to get out of the car when I dropped it off.

With the Jaguar XF I had a few years back, it had what sounded like a valvetrain rattle when it started in the morning, so I took it back to the dealership since it was under warranty. I asked them to check on it, because it sounded like the issue that they famously had with the same 4.2L Supercharged engine in the XJS a few years before that was supposed to have been fixed. They told me it was due to improper bearing clearance on the rod bearings, requiring a new engine at $24,000 in parts and it wasn't covered because according to them, when I brought the car in, it was a quart and a half low on oil. As I thought about it, I realized that if it were a bearing issue, it wouldn't go away a second after starting the car, it would be constant. Even if it were rod bearings, a bearing replacement should cost about $1500, not require a new engine, and that it was unlikely that they'd pulled the engine to even CHECK the bearings in the day since I'd dropped it off. After I called to ask how they tested for it, they told me they "Just knew from experience". After trying to talk to the mechanic on the phone for a few days, I drove over to check on the car without letting them know I was coming, figuring if they had it pulled apart with the oil pan off, then I'd hear what they had to say. When I asked to see my car, they just went and grabbed it and drove it up so I could see it. I collected it and drove it home, where I checked the oil. Guess what? A quart and a half HIGH. I used an oil extractor to pull the excess oil out, and sent them a picture of it. I ended up taking it to a local shop who finally diagnosed a bad oil seal on the vario-cam gear. All of the work cost about $3000 under warranty. Of course, they did try to charge ME PERSONALLY over $1000, when the deductible was $100, which went back to the other issue with overcharging, so even they didn't get away clean.
So I stopped taking my cars to be worked on because I was tired of paying too much money to people who didn't know what they were doing or who tried to actively rip me off thinking that I had no idea what I was talking about. I finally agreed to bring it to your shop because of the great things I'd heard, but it really feels like the same thing all over again.

Let me be clear though, I don't in any way think that you're bad at what you do, or don't know what you're doing. But I also don't trust that you're treating my vehicle with the same care and attention that you would your own, or even the much lower levels of care and attention I would expect from any professional who's job it is to take care of it. At this point the hassle of having to argue and debate just to get to what I consider a reasonable level of service isn't worth any further investment of time, let alone money.

Josh"

 

[Tybalt]

I have considered it many times, but I wanted to wait until the car was “drivable.” I was more interested in events rather than attended “support meetings.” :rolleye: Immediately becoming “drivable,” it drove onto a trailer and we moved. A few months after that I became pregnant and kind of fell out of the automotive scene. Having a militant HOA helped a bit with that too. I drove it those combined 3 miles over the span of 5 years until we moved again. It’s been 3 years since then, collecting more dust, but with it being more “drivable” than ever before, I’m slowly getting bad into the hobby.

I would suggest that you go ahead and join up. There were many members that had various Triumphs in some stage of repair or restoration and they showed up at driving events in some vehicle other than a Triumph and no one gave them a hard time about that. It was mostly a matter of how's the work going, is it something I can help with etc. My favorite SOTT (something other than Triumph) that showed up on a regular basis at driving events was one couple with in an Izuzu Trooper because it gave them the excuse to call it their "TR ooper."

This weekend they're running the annual "Polar Bear Rally." Check it out on the RRTC website and if you are looking for something to do Saturday, it might be worth taking one of your SOTTs out on the event.

 

[Richter12x2]

I would suggest that you go ahead and join up. There were many members that had various Triumphs in some stage of repair or restoration and they showed up at driving events in some vehicle other than a Triumph and no one gave them a hard time about that. It was mostly a matter of how's the work going, is it something I can help with etc. My favorite SOTT (something other than Triumph) that showed up on a regular basis at driving events was one couple with in an Izuzu Trooper because it gave them the excuse to call it their "TR ooper."

This weekend they're running the annual "Polar Bear Rally." Check it out on the RRTC website and if you are looking for something to do Saturday, it might be worth taking one of your SOTTs out on the event.

It really does sound like a great club, and we'd considered it. The biggest issue for us was that it's one of the ones that requires an annual fee, so I wasn't sure if it was worth it. We also have a pair of Packards and ended up dropping out of the Packard club for the same reason. The annual fee wasn't a huge number, but with all the other projects it wasn't a substantial part of what we're doing. Like if I were joining club events every month, then it'd be a no brainer. If I'm going to one a year, or less, it's harder to justify. And in this case, the shop was highly recommended going in, so I'm not sure that it would have helped, even though you could make the argument if it HAD helped, we could be members for life for the money we'd have saved.

Regarding shop location, lol, I laughed at that. But no, it's not near that intersection - we're skating perilously close, and I wouldn't get Basil in trouble for the world. The mailing address is Dallas though, even though it's a little North and West of what I'd consider to be Dallas proper.

 

[Andrew Mace]

There are lots of car clubs (single- and multi-marque) that do project an attitude of "Thou shalt not soil our gatherings unless thy Thrashwell-Snailby SS is Pebble Beach-ready"; RRTC never seemed like that to me. Granted, I'm almost 2000 miles away, but I got to know a number of their members back around 20 or so years ago, and I've kept in touch with a few. They strike me as have many other Triumph clubs in particular; the kind of folks who would drop their beers and burgers during a picnic if they heard you drive in with a misfire, or a soft tire, or a non-flashing turn signal. In some cases, that would apply even if you drove in with a '95 Civic!

I've been in this silly hobby a good 50 years now. It didn't take me long to get past all the shiny cars and get to know the people behind them. Oh, and the people with the not-so-shiny cars (closer to what I usually had)! And I admit that I'm one of those people who would drop my beer (more likely Diet Coke) and burger and go help someone. I've been to a fair number of VTR National Conventions, and I don't really remember any of them that didn't involve, at some point, me and many others swarmed around someone with a broken accelerator pedal cable, a jammed starter, blown radiator hose, or failed brakes! It's just what a lot of us do!

 

[UmmYeahOk]

They strike me as have many other Triumph clubs in particular; the kind of folks who would drop their beers and burgers during a picnic if they heard you drive in with a misfire, or a soft tire, or a non-flashing turn signal.

Umm... ...it’s Dallas. Pretty sure that’s a factory feature on most vehicles, especially 21st century models.

 

[Andrew Mace]

Umm... ...it’s Dallas. Pretty sure that’s a factory feature on most vehicles, especially 21st century models.

{Insert lame but likely accurate BMW driver joke here }

 

[tomshobby]

This is the '67 GT6 I purchased new in early 1968. I rebuilt the transmission 2x over the years I owned it. The local tech college rebuilt the diff. once. Even though I drove it very hard it stood up well; much better than the '65 Pontiac GTO I had.

 

[luke44]

...I’ve attached the receipt, and invoices of parts and labor, which may help everyone figure out where the money went, and if we did in fact get scammed.

Yes, you were scammed.

 

[TR4nut]

Well I am very bummed you and Niki have had such an experience. For a while I thought I might have pointed you to the shop as I had met you both at your place (we had that engine fan for a dashboard switch trade a while back). Looks like your troubles happened in Dallas though the shop I liked is closer to Ft Worth.

Please let me put in another plug for the Red River club - the huge value in any club is talking to people who may have dealt wit the same issues, and local people who know where to go are very valuable. Besides I know at least one person in that club who is an expert with GT6s. It’s one recommendation I’m comfortable giving.

 

[pdplot]

It may not be worth your time and aggravation but since you're obviously burned up over this matter(and I would be too after that overcharge) I would ask very nicely for a rebate on that extra $3,500.00 since it was a blatant grab for more $$, and if he didn't refund at least a part of the overcharge, I would take him to Small Claims Court for the entire $3,500.00 (assuming that Texas S.C. Courts allow suits of that size) and with your exhibits, calmly explain to the Judge or hearing official about the overcharge, citing the appropriate statute if applicable. Stay away from the technical stuff - you're a layman, remember - and he'll kill you on that stuff. If he brings it up, as he certainly will, tell the Judge that you should have received a phone call or email about the proposed extra work but never did. He just glommed it onto the bill and stuck you good. You might also check the Court records or Google his shop to see if there are any other suits brought against him. I did that once and found several other suits against a supposedly respectable businessman, a real smooth talker and complete phony, and I persuaded the other plaintiff attorneys to have all the cases set down against this deadbeat on the same day. The Clerk complied, the cases were heard and we won them all-except he was judgment proof. Everything was in his wife's name. Good luck to you and let us know if you go that route.

 

[Basil]

It may not be worth your time and aggravation but since you're obviously burned up over this matter(and I would be too after that overcharge) I would ask very nicely for a rebate on that extra $3,500.00 since it was a blatant grab for more $$, and if he didn't refund at least a part of the overcharge, I would take him to Small Claims Court for the entire $3,500.00 (assuming that Texas S.C. Courts allow suits of that size) and with your exhibits, calmly explain to the Judge or hearing official about the overcharge, citing the appropriate statute if applicable. Stay away from the technical stuff - you're a layman, remember - and he'll kill you on that stuff. If he brings it up, as he certainly will, tell the Judge that you should have received a phone call or email about the proposed extra work but never did. He just glommed it onto the bill and stuck you good. You might also check the Court records or Google his shop to see if there are any other suits brought against him. I did that once and found several other suits against a supposedly respectable businessman, a real smooth talker and complete phony, and I persuaded the other plaintiff attorneys to have all the cases set down against this deadbeat on the same day. The Clerk complied, the cases were heard and we won them all-except he was judgment proof. Everything was in his wife's name. Good luck to you and let us know if you go that route.

Ditto. I'd first approach the shop owner and explain why you have a concern and see if they will make it right. If not, then small claims court would be a reasonable next step. Might also contact the BBB and see if this is a one-off occurance or a pattern.

 

[glemon]

It is almost a curse to do your own work if you then pay somebody else to do it.

You look at something done and you say to yourself, I could have done that better and you are the professional and charging me a heck of a lot for it.

Flip side of this, I would not like to be a shop working on old cars for a living. Someone brings it in and wants something fixed or a new part put on, in doing the work you may disturb other marginal systems that were functioning fine, but when disturbed start misbehave. For example something as simple as a new brake pads. New pads you have to push the pistons back, the seals fall on a different part of the piston, that maybe is corroded or debris gets in the works and you go from needing new pads to needing a new caliper or caliper rebuild, then you take off the caliper and fitting is corroded on and twists.

I am talking generalities, not specifics here, and I am not defending the shop, I wouldn't be happy with the work either, and probably less patient and civil than the patient GT6 owner in this specific topic.

Agree about parts being a crapshoot, but that is no excuse for not properly testing and finding a big brake leak.

When I fix something (hopefully) I will do an initial check, then continue to observe until I am sure it is well and truly fixed. Shops generally don't have that luxury.

Kind of rambling, but, last disjointed comment, most of us are in a position to be able to spot and specifically identify shoddy work, for those that can't this kind of thing would be a much bigger task and perhaps neverending money pit.

 

[LarryK]

Some of the problems I have with this, is the fact, you were not informed of the increased price. They mentioned all parts are from China. Not necessarily so, as China wants to only mass produce parts and 30 yr old British parts are not sold in quantities to substantiate that statement. A proper shop always has the time to make sure everything is up to all safety standards on their work, no excuse for not finding the error. I had to rebuild a Jag engine that a supposedly reputable shop took a yr to build because the parts took to long to come from China. Well, I rebuilt it, the tranny and carbs and had it running in 4 months with not one single part from China, and for $735.00 in parts. Two yrs later and runs excellent without leaks. I have been doing this work on British cars for 50 yrs without a come back for anything I touched. If what the owners says is true, this is unexcusable for a shop. Unfortunately for some of my old customers, I do not work on the publics cars anymore unless local with a reason. I hope they find a way to resolve this, thank you for protecting the forum.

 

[Richter12x2]

Just a quick update - after about 2 months of redoing the brake systems, clutch hydraulics that we already paid them to do, we finally managed to get it to pass inspection. Just in time - returning from the inspection place (about 3 miles, round trip) the carbs are gushing fuel from the overflow. So now it looks like we get to redo the carburetor rebuilds we paid them $750 to do.

 

[dklawson]

I am not trying to defend the shop but do wish to offer the following comment which MAY sounds like I am coming to their defense.

Your GT6 and ours are about the same age. A couple of years ago I went to start the car and it suddenly was pouring gas out of one carb. It turned out to be a failed float. One day it was fine, the next it sank to the bottom of the float bowl never to work again. My point is, until you look into the carb issue it may not be something the shop did wrong.

 

[DavidApp]

If you have SU carbs this is one of the best places to send them to have them fixed. That is all he does.

David

https://joecurto.com/prices

 

[UmmYeahOk]

Your GT6 and ours are about the same age. A couple of years ago I went to start the car and it suddenly was pouring gas out of one carb. It turned out to be a failed float. One day it was fine, the next it sank to the bottom of the float bowl never to work again. My point is, until you look into the carb issue it may not be something the shop did wrong.

I took it apart myself, and the float valve was stuck. I removed it, let it sit in carb cleaner for a while, took it out, and gravity checked it. Needle falls in and out depending on which side is on the bottom. No longer stuck. I reinstalled it and... ...gas still pours out.

Its just that, after spending so much money, with the carbs supposedly rebuilt, I would think this would be something they would do as part of the rebuilding service. I honestly haven’t driven it that far since. From the shop to the house and the house to the inspection station and back. I mean, I guess it is possible that when I got gas at the gas station a block from the shop, not only did they skim my card and used it for other things, but also sold me bad 91 octane, and driving simply 50 miles with it was enough to gunk up the works again, but what are the odds? I remember them mentioning that they cleaned out the varnish that was in the carbs. I was surprised what was in it had gotten so bad. But varnish will make a float valve stick, among other things, so cleaning the float valves would definitely be included in such a repair.

oh, and the float themselves, took them out, and they floated in water. Pushed them all the way down, and they floated back up, so those are good too.

also, because of the old fuel, they supposedly cleaned the tank, and fuel lines, so there shouldn’t be anything other than 50 miles on 2 month old 91 octane floating around in there, other than 10% ethanol.

 

[dklawson]

I am trying to help you, not to upset you concerning the shop and what they have and haven't done. Please don't shoot the messenger.

I agree with you that after only two months in the spring your carbs should not have developed significant new gum and varnish from sitting. Our car does develop the gum quickly (particularly in the summer) but not that quickly.

Unfortunately, since oil and gas are lighter than water you cannot check carb floats by placing them in water. You have to test them by placing them in a container of gasoline. A leaky float that has filled with gasoline can still float in water... but it will sink in gasoline. Both "pontoons" of the Stromberg float must ride equally high above the surface of the gasoline for the float to be good.

Since the shop replaced all the rubber fuel hose there is also the chance that a crumb of rubber from the old fuel lines has gotten into the float valve. It happens and problems may not appear immediately after the change. You may wish to remove the float valve one more time, spray carb cleaner into/through all its openings then blow through those same openings with compressed air. Once this is sorted you may want to put a disposable fuel filter just before the carbs to catch any debris. For our car I use the inline translucent filters that used to be common on air cooled VWs.