Kris
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,631
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Nov 26, 2006 13:12:49 GMT
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I had all the wheels off my Audi this morning, scrubbing out all the arches of muck and grime revealing lovely silver painted seam sealer and stonechip  I had my head under the arch when some guy walked upto me. I thought he ws going to have a moan about me making the street look scruffy or something but he asked "Are you a bit of a mechanic?". I said I try to be and went to have a look at his Mercedes C class. I wired his new radio up for him and showed him that he had a worn track rod end as he was complaining of a problem with the steering. I was asked if I could help start a Rover in a petrol station the other day, I went out in the rain and diagnosed a dodgy PAS pump on a friend's, friend's, friend's 306 and put a new exhaust on a friend's friend's Citroen. All of this for free too, maybe I should start charging a call out charge ;D This is my workshop so conditions are not ideal either...  |
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Nov 26, 2006 14:11:37 GMT
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i used to get a same attitude, spent most of my spare time servicing peoples cars - until i forgot to put the screws back in a pair of spotlights i had fitted for a neighbour one day - he braked at the end of the street and they smashed on the road.
after that the requests dwindled
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Someone just shot the elephant in the room. |
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Nov 26, 2006 14:40:36 GMT
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It's lovely to have people who appreciate your tallents but unfortunatly people like to take the curse word as well.
I try and restrict my side activitys to family and a few friends now, I don't mind genuinely helping people out but I can't arsed to spend all my free time fixing other peoples wibblepoo when I have loads to do myself. I've spent so much time fixing other peoples cars on the cheap and they always find something else to break or buy another shed anyway.
The sort of people I try to avoid are...
1: Tightarses who just want to spend the absolute minimum that day and will leave everything untill it fails.
Expect phone calls at annoying times of the night when thier battery etc packs up and they really have to be somewhere.
2: People who have been somewhere else first.
Fixing faults is a whole lot easier when some other monkey hasn't been messing about adjusting settings or unplugging things first.
3: people who know better than you.
If you know best, **** off and fix it yourself
4: People that can't fit in with you
Don't forget you're doing them the favour, if they can't make the times you have available then let them take it somewhere else.
Sorry if this is a little negative but it took me years to work out that some so called friends would only ring me up when they had a problem with thier car, the breaking point came when I spent a new years day replacing a cambelt on a renault 19 16v in the snow! Fun? errrr no!
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Nov 26, 2006 15:04:40 GMT
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Tightarses are always the ones who think they can dictate when the car will be fixed as well, they`ve got somewhere to go tomorrow therefore the job will take exactly until tommorow, whether its a bulb or the aftermath of a failed cambelt that resulted from them thinking cars are maintenance free. I just don't get it, most people put so many demands on their car and factor it into so much of their life but don't consider it necessary to look after it at all.
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Nov 26, 2006 18:29:17 GMT
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All my neighbours drive brand new cars!
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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drew
Part of things
Posts: 153
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Nov 26, 2006 20:33:38 GMT
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All my neighbours drive brand new cars! This is the same for me at home, where I do the majority of work on my car. I always get snide comments that 'I am always under the bonnet', or 'I don't know how you can do that, just take it to a garage' etc  Thing is, they all know I am a student, and therefore couldn't afford to take it to a garage, even if I wanted to. We get more complaints than general neighbour type chat, but I just humor them and carry on with what I am doing, they usuallly leave me to it ;D It makes me laugh when they have to call out the RAC cos they can't change a wheel though ;D |
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The flaps always look a bit gash |
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