$400 for what you got is a deal IMO. Doing the hand work like you describe would at least double the price, more likely triple, and probably still wouldn't have looked as good. Would you have been willing to shell out $1K plus for that kind of job? Anybody who thinks it's easy to retain small or fine detail on a sand casting is welcome to try.
I'd be embarrassed to own them. Being an upstanding HAMBer I will do the right thing and give you the $400 dollars you are out and have you send the heads to me so I can properly dispose of them Seriously, shit happens. I dropped off a 67 Camaro SS350 block for machining. Got it back with the stamping numbers gone when the machinist decked the block. Did I mention it was a numbers matching car and engine? What can you do? I never used the machinist again and you can re-stamp the block but never recreate the broach marks. Nice heads, wear them proudly.
There are lots of Halibrand wheels out there that don't say Halibrand anymore, from this same issue. I think your heads look amazing...
He's a polisher, not a mind reader. If the letters and numbers were important to you, it was 100% your responsibility to make it clear to him to keep that stuff intact and pay accordingly. Maybe he should have asked. Maybe he has already asked 100 times before in his career and every other set he's done they wanted everything to be smooth and shiny and he removed the letters on every set he's ever done. You have no more of an idea of his thought process than he did yours. Details you want are your responsibility to make sure he knows exactly what you want, not his. If you told him you wanted them intact and he removed them you would have a legitimate reason to bitch, not this time though. He did nice work and they look good on the engine. You learned a lesson today. SPark
I find it extremely funny how many posts say "you learned your lesson today." Why bother going to a professional if you have to know as much as they do? I don't polish for a living, so I hire it out to someone that does. Shouldn't they as the vendor ask questions of the client about what they want since they are being paid for their service? Or did I miss a memo somewhere about how customer service works? I'm thinking I need to start quoting some of these posts when I bid jobs, that way I have no culpability when something goes wrong, "Sorry, you should have known better."
I agree totaly! I’m surprised that so many say that if it was important to you, you should have mentiond it. How could you have ever even known that it was a possible that he would have grinded them down? If you say i want them polished, then if to him that mean grind stuff of it and then polish. It should clearly be mentiond by him. If we talk assumtions. It could be you do this once i a life time, he do it every day. How could you assume annything? If you would turn your car in for a custom paintjob and got it back with a stunningly supernice paint jobb done but also all dorhandles and chome trimed of, would that be something you should assume would happen? Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I think it was just a simple misunderstanding. Polisher hears polished and figures he is doing you a favour by removing the lettering as leaving it in will result in more cost and less than desirable look in his professional opinion. I learn't my lesson as well when I dropped my flathead off at the machinist last August and said I wasn't in a hurry. Almost a year later, engine is still not done. Had a word with him last week to realign my expectations. Learnt a little about how the shop really "works", but now it should be done end of next month. Life is a journey of learning by making "mistakes".
If you're a pro,and you've asked 100 times,you damn well ask the 101st. Sent from my moto g(6) using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
None of us can make a legitimate judgement on this without knowing the EXACT wording of the entire conversation between customer and polisher. A casual comment using "smooth", "smooth look", "smoothed out", etc can change the perception of what is wanted. The customer wanted the sand casting and any damage "smoothed" and the polisher's perception may have been "entire heads smoothed". Details in writing are needed on all custom work. Ask me how I know.
not implying anything... but a local rodder sent out a '34 decklid for louvers... he stamped his social in a place tough to see...[when your social wasn't so sacred] he got his louvered deck lid back but they kept his and louvered a lesser quality lid and tried to pass it off as his... they fell all over themselves trying to explain what happened... did the buffer have a buddy with the letters sanded off and switched ? my $0.02.
Maybe you should ask him if he can put them back on I’m with the other guys, if you want to have the Identification lettering then start over with another set of heads and sell those. You’re liable to take a bit of a loss on what you have into them.
While the polishing looks fine , rounding over bolt bosses and grinding off identifying lettering or numbering is indicative of a schlock/hurry up for expediency type job . If your chrome came back with the defining shape rounded over or your paint job had defining body lines rounded over , you all would have fits , I think the OP got screwed . Just a thought , if you had a manifold or heads that had the Winters foundry insignia on them , and the polisher sanded it off , what would you do/ think ??
Yes, the big deal was its introduction along with the brand new Camaro for 1967, the SS 350 Camaro package. Wasn't available in any other model, not even the Corvette, in 1967.
Bingo! got my first taste of that in the .mil, it doesn't seem like it would be required to micromanage adults. People are weird, unless you repeatedly make it very clear in no uncertain terms what needs done, and when, it will be fv%#d up. Good leaders make it look easy. Eventually, the people who don't need constant supervision will be identified, and subject to further abuse, since they are dependable, ha ha.
Poor analogy...if your polishing an intake where the Winters foundry logo and casting numbers are important to the value ...you are already ruining them with the polishing, numbers and logo intact or not, value just went down with the polished finish added. In a resto where that logo means anything to the value, the finish would have to remain as-cast. A polishing company on a daily basis is dealing with auto parts, motorcycle parts, aircraft parts, vintage machinery parts along with likely current production parts from local company's....he's not just polishing vintage auto parts for restorations or rebuilds where casting or ID numbers mean something...he had no way of knowing you wanted them to remain intact. It is plain to see in a lot of responses that many don't fathom just what is needed as far as work process to polish a rough cast parts...it starts with a ton of sanding, from 120 grit up to 800 grit before any polishing even begins. Polishing is the easy part of the job, it is sanding the part to the point polishing will begin to hav any effect that is the real hard work....working around a couple sets of casting numbers will triple or quadruple sanding time because it will all have to be done with a Dremel to get in between all the spaces in and around the lettering.
I find it interesting when someone asks for opinions then doesn't like when they get some that differ
I think they look great - I'd surely be happy with them. Also, it is damn difficult to polish around casting letters/numbers and make the final result look great - unless they are very large letters/numbers and there is a lot of material to work with. (And it takes a ton of time and will never look as flat and nice as yours look now). Great example are my Donovan 417 valve covers - there is no way I'd want to lose the 'Donovan 417' nomenclature - so I have to live with the polishing not looking that great in that area. With all this said, I think you should have the Edelbrock manifold polished to match . . . would really set off the entire package.
No one is questioning the amount or quality of the work done. What is in question is the polisher doing the job "his way" without making sure that it is the same as the "customer's way". Mutual fault, but a bigger share rests on the Pro.
I hope he didn't polish the gasket surface, and make nice rounded humps between the combustion chambers. What - you didn't tell him not to?