Custom Trailing Arm Failure

???

 

Wow. Just Wow. I've seen/ fixed a lot of suspension messes, unfortunatly a lot of them out of so called "pro" shops but this one takes the cake. Too be this bad and to charge you that much is just sad. I wish shop owners like that could face criminal charges, he robbed you of a lot of money, don't see much differance if just pointed a gun at you and took the money!

 

Shops like that are the reason my shops Product Liability Insurance is so DAMN HIGH. This seems pretty clear cut, not a he said she said. Call em out! Name names.

 

Corvette C4 rear end is easy to fit to a Buick chassis. They are almost made for each other.

 

Trust me boys. Nothing would give me more pleasure than telling you EXACTLY who did this...And I will. But not right now. I must gather as much intel as possible first and build a case. We paid this guy $16,000 in all and I only have reciepts for 10 of that. Some was even in cash. I trusted this man and considered him my buddy. In return I got totally fucked over because I work hard and can afford it I guess. I'm going in there tomorrow under the guise of "selling" the car and needing as many detailed records as I can get my hands on. Bills, reciepts, etc for the new buyer.

What got me looking inititally was the transmission Banging HARD into gear if you stayed on the gas. Then He said he synched the carbs so I bought a tool to check him this week and found THAT was bs. They are fucked out of whack. There was a water pump leak which he "completely replaced" so I sent the water pump to A rebuilder in Weymouth, Mass and he says, "this things never been off the car". Thats when I started looking in drawers...And found the rear.

Initially I was going to offer him a break-- Cut me a check for 5G's so I can have the rear done CHERRY by a guy or I lawyer up and go for the 16.

The "Childish" welds you see was my initial attemp to do all the work myself. When it didn't go as planned, I knew I had fucked up and was WAY ouuta my league, so I took it straight to him.

Thoughts?

 

please DO NOT DRIVE this thing! call a wrecker service or rent a trailer ! wholly crap ,i'm scared just looking at it. jr

 

That's just so retarded. I'm trying to think of what he was thinking. How can the center of a rear-end be bolted solid to the car?! [well he saw it on a corvette IRS once so figured it would be okay.] Just goes to show you don't have to pass an IQ test to open a business.

And the money you spent is just crazy. Always get at least TWO estimates.

 

Find out how the PA DMV handles repair shop issues. If PA is like most others, if he did work and did not give you a receipt he is FUCKED. If he did shoddy work (the DMV guy will take photos of your rear to other shops and ask their opinions) he is FUCKED. Most state DMV's are set up to protect Grandma from getting f'd over by dishonest repair shops. The infractions are civil so the shop cannot plead 'guilty with an explanation'. There is no leeway. At all. And the odds are stacked for the consumer. Many unscrupulous customers use these regulations inappropriately to 'steal' from honest shops. Use them to your advantage. BTW the 'court' for these is usually before a DMV referee, so it is not even the same court calendar. If your complaint goes to 'trial', it will be 6 months to a year. But most don't go that far. The DMV cop will start investigating immediately and will 'encourage' the shop to make you happy so that you drop your complaint. Go to the PA DMV web site and start reading.

 

Before you talk to that shop owner...have someone who actually knows what he is doing look over all the work this "shop" did to your car. You will be better informed as to the totality of the problem. The rearend might just be the most obvious thing he screwed up....wow...no wonder your floor was flexing! Severe butcher job!!

 

If you have insurance on your car, it seems you can make a claim for damages. Your insurance will pay, and subrogate the shop and his insurance carrier. It's gonna take more than you wanting a refund.

 

Also whats up with the shocks being mounted so close together? is it just me or does it look like they are like 6" apart on the upper mounting points

 

O.K. I adjusted the the brt/cont on the photo and I still can't figure out what the fuck he's done here.
Is there a hinge bolted in there?

 

No doubt that this work is absolutely fucked up. But how can you spend 16k with a guy and not so much as stand under the car on a lift and marvel at the high dollar components and workmanship. Surely even the most mechanically illiterate customer can discern between this crap and 16k worth of work. Have you been living under a rock?

Sorry to pay out on you when you are already hurting but I am baffled to understand how this can happen.

I hope you get it sorted out. When you do, start taking some interest in where you spend your money.

 

Wow ... this is one situation where the term "FUBAR" actually fits (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) ... It actually took me quite a while to figure out exactly what it was that I was looking at in those pics ...

I am speechless ... absolutely speechless

 

I can't figure this out either. Looks like there may be a bolt that fits "loosely" through both plates?

 

A fool and his money are soon parted...

 

take solace in the fact that I'm just another HAMBer (although a FNG) who've been burned in the past - not the only one who's glad you saw this and are going to get it done properly before you and/or others were injured or worse......

one of lifes sh*tty lessons that there are those out there who can/will take advantage of someones' good/trusting nature.

Very best of luck with a swift resolution on this one.........

John

 

Will post more pictures ASAP.

 

Looks to me like the 2 steel plates act like a badly designed pinion snubber. One is bolted to the body under the back seat, and the other is bolted to the rear end above the U joint. It may have a loose bolt that goes through both plates to try to keep the rear end centered. A 3rd grader could design a better setup then that for a push cart. Like the people before me said, document everything before you fix anything. Don't drive it anywhere as you will be libel, now that you know how fucked up it is. Good Luck.

 

Unfuckingbeliveable

 

What all did this shop do for you to total $16,000 dollars.? You could have bought a complete new rolling chassis with extras for that kind of cash.Might be nice to afford to throw cash away but it is just not smart .

 

Look- The 16 was for everything you see on the car 6-12v conversion, tires and wheels, ps, brake conversion, new top, adapted a 700r4 to the str8 8, new radiator, chroming, valve job, egge pistons, paint, HID headlights, custom headers, Carb work (which was never done) . I felt that # was fair for everyhting. Whats not fair is that I can't enjoy it. Some guys have money. Some guys have time. Some guys have both. I don't have both.

 

It looks like they tried to make some sort of pinion snubber? The bolt sticking through on the lower plate is a bump stop and the plate above is what it's supposed to hit or ride on? What a mess.

 

wow, I cant add any more advice about that rear setup but if he was supposed to do this that and the other and didnt, make sure that tv cable for the trans is working/adjusted properly or your gonna be replacing a trans as well.


damn Dude, thats just plain fucked up. I mean really thats fucked up on a legendary scale.

 

To me it looks like the plates have moved from their original ill fabricated design.
as the rear end wanted to rotate up the plate would stop that by using the floor board drive shaft tunnel to stop it. A snubber would allow movement then stop it
It looks like That was fitted tight so that no movement was possible, but was unable to control the movement and bent. The bolts appear to be puling thru the floor board and are now loose.

Whether that was his original design, or second thought after inital failure. Some one knew the problem was the rear had no torque control and that's the best solution asshat could conceive at correcting the problem.

Just picture the end of the plate being tight to the pumpkin and you'll see what's been bent

 

Having seen the rear end setup, have you gone over every single other piece that this fool worked on with a fine tooth comb? Are there 4 lug nuts holding the wheels on instead of 5? Do the headers actually do their job or do they leak? He obviously had to come up with a driveshaft, so did he get a new one or shorten the one from the camaro with his band saw and mig welder? You talk about hard shifting, was the adapter for the transmission to the straight 8 a purchased part or was it this guys backyard torch cut piece? If his wiring is as good as his fabrication skills, look for those HID lights to eventually set your car in fire.

If the deal seems too good to be true....it probably is.

 

this is what i guess is going on in the picture

 

This may seem like spam but it is not.

'56 Buick chassis we did with a TCI torque arm and a Heidts stub....the torque arm worked out really well with the 9" Ford

http://frameupwheelworks.smugmug.co...-Buick-Chassis/11054518_jf6kQ#773667807_5VJXd

40 Buick we are doing with a Heidts front stub and a Heidts IRS also worked really well and we didn't cut the floor

http://frameupwheelworks.smugmug.co...rb-Stikas-1940/11031768_JAEto#771705165_d8er6

The only reason I bring this up is that we don't paint, we don't know what we are doing so we don't try. Some people might get mad but MOST body shops shouldn't fabricate. There are exceptions, but in MOST cases body shop built cars are f**ked up underneath....your car is a perfect example.

 

In a word, frightening. Like they had one idea, shifted gears mid-stream and went with plan B.

I like the after market truck arm idea, we used to use them on stock cars, nice clean and they work. Back in the day when I raced with no buck$, we used real truck arms.

Bob

 

If that's the ride height, it musta vibrated like hell with that positive pinion angle as well.