NOFX
07-30-2006, 08:11 AM
So I had some friends who over the last couple of months finally opened their own shop. For the most part they modify Hondas. Both owners are brothers and previously worked at different local Honda dealerships as certified Honda Technicians.
Both my boyfriend and I were friends of the two and would commonly come over just to hang out and watch things happen. A few months ago (probably April or so I guess) I was sitting in the shop (I know.. insurance liability, but they allow friends and some customers to... though they shouldn`t) watching them do a few things around the shop.
There was a black `96 Civic coupe sitting in the garage this time. It was bought by the shop for only $1000 because the previous owner had put a rod through the block (tried to go from fifth to fourth, but went to second instead!). So the idea was to clean the car up, swap in a new motor and sell it for a decent profit.
I won`t lie.. the car was gross looking and definately not loved. As I was standing there in the shop, one of the owners, Doug walked by and pointed to me. "I want you to detail this for me." I smiled and agreed. Later I talked with his brother, the co-owner, Mike, and he agreed on a labor trade. I`d detail the car and that would go toward paying for them to install a new transmission in my car since it`s going out. I do a full interior/exterior detail for about $150. All by hand and I can take up to about a day`s worth of work.
I cleaned the car and my boyfriend even brought in some extra headlights he had sitting around since the original ones were very yellow. This year Civic has plastic lighting that often will have little cracks form through the plastic lense, so polishing does little to help. I donated an extra set of taillights since the ones the car came with had algae growing in them!
Both brothers were in the same room as I was when I detailed the car and so they`re both aware of the work that went into it. We even had to drop the rear deck because the previous owner jammed a large white erase in pieces around the third brake light because the aftermarket sub would cause the rear deck to rattle a bit. The eraser melted to the plastic and the glass.
Once I finished up Doug was so happy with the detail that he asked me to do the same to his car, a highly modified blue and black Subaru STi. I agreed and mentioned to him that I had made an agreement with his brother to do the black Civic for a labor trade. I asked if we could do the same with the STi and he said that though he`d rather just pay me that it`d be fine.
I detailed the STi with no problem. Both cars were washed, clay barred, polished, glazed, and waxed. Plus windows, vacuum (neither had stains inside nor did I have an extractor anyway), interior cleaning, and dressing (no tire dressing on the STi since I know the owner doesn`t like them dressed).
I`ve basically come to terms with it now, and I know I should have gotten this all in writing... but I`m never getting paid for the work now. They dragged their feet on swapping the tranny for a good 3-4 weeks even though I had the transmission sittign in their shop and I`m currently unemployed and could be there just with a simple phone call. They finally moved the transmission and figured out that it`s worse off than the one currently in my car. I figure I might just teach myself how to rebuild one on that tranny later for fun I guess. Since I`m stuck with it at least.
After figuring out about the transmission and becoming very wary of their repeated words of, "we have to finish our paying customers first," I just asked to be paid the $300 straight up instead. Just get it over with before there`s anymore stress between the two parties.
I was told that they could get those cars detailed for free so why would they pay me. Funny since the one owner, Mike, made sure to let me know that his navy blue lifted Jeep Wrangler had been detailed, including the under carriage, for $70. Gee, that`s about $70 more than free. My boyfriend just got a phone call a few days ago and we were both told that we are no longer welcome at their shop. First Doug asked my boyfriend if he kept up on what I posted online... When my boyfreind told him he knew what I`ve been posting, it sounds like Doug got upset. My boyfriend told him he agrees with me and he even heard Mike agree to the original deal for the Civic. Once Doug heard that my boyfriedn agreed with what I`ve been saying Doug expended the banning from the shop to my boyfriend too. That`s okay, we`re so concerned with their business practices now that we`re afraid to bring our cars over. Sad too since they`re really good mechanics. Unfortunately they`re crappy business men though!
I guess I just figured since they were suppsoed to be friends that I didn`t need to write it all out. Boy was I wrong. At best let this be a lesson to anyone else out there that might think about doing anything similar.
Oh yeah, and here`s the photos of the cars. I only have before and after shots of the Civic though.
Okay... now finally for some recent details! Here`s a `96 Honda Civic EX coupe I was asked to do for a business. It`s Granada Black Pearl which is a black paint with a goldish colored pearl in it. They picked it up for $1000 after the previous owner threw a rod. He told us he was driving through town and it suddenly just stopped... :lol:
The before pics.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5571/129vs.jpg
(We just decided to end up putting an extra set of headlights we had on it instead.)
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8656/133au.jpg
Apparently the rear deck began to shake (perhaps because of the system that had been installed in it). Erasers jammed between the deck and the rear window was the solution... They melted to the plastic.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3905/181lf.jpg
And after... Too bad this one had paint damage and etching that I couldn`t take care of with the products I had, which are all applied by hand.
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/8263/167xd.jpg
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/1838/144lt.jpg
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/8886/178pz.jpg
And after seeing the Civic, the other owner of the shop these photos were taken in was so happy that he asked me to detail his STi. I kind of find this funny because before the closest I was allowed to get to washing his car was he allowed me to rinse it while he washed it. :lol: No befores on this one either, but it was an easy job because the owner is pretty picky about the care of his vehicle. This car is stock World Rally Blue Pearl with an aftermarket black pearl front end.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/2456/198fc.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/6742/208bh.jpg
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/5094/210zs.jpg
Oh, and one more interesting side note.... that Civic was sold. I believe it was somewhere in the market of $5700. It`s in the same apartment complex I live. What chance!
Both my boyfriend and I were friends of the two and would commonly come over just to hang out and watch things happen. A few months ago (probably April or so I guess) I was sitting in the shop (I know.. insurance liability, but they allow friends and some customers to... though they shouldn`t) watching them do a few things around the shop.
There was a black `96 Civic coupe sitting in the garage this time. It was bought by the shop for only $1000 because the previous owner had put a rod through the block (tried to go from fifth to fourth, but went to second instead!). So the idea was to clean the car up, swap in a new motor and sell it for a decent profit.
I won`t lie.. the car was gross looking and definately not loved. As I was standing there in the shop, one of the owners, Doug walked by and pointed to me. "I want you to detail this for me." I smiled and agreed. Later I talked with his brother, the co-owner, Mike, and he agreed on a labor trade. I`d detail the car and that would go toward paying for them to install a new transmission in my car since it`s going out. I do a full interior/exterior detail for about $150. All by hand and I can take up to about a day`s worth of work.
I cleaned the car and my boyfriend even brought in some extra headlights he had sitting around since the original ones were very yellow. This year Civic has plastic lighting that often will have little cracks form through the plastic lense, so polishing does little to help. I donated an extra set of taillights since the ones the car came with had algae growing in them!
Both brothers were in the same room as I was when I detailed the car and so they`re both aware of the work that went into it. We even had to drop the rear deck because the previous owner jammed a large white erase in pieces around the third brake light because the aftermarket sub would cause the rear deck to rattle a bit. The eraser melted to the plastic and the glass.
Once I finished up Doug was so happy with the detail that he asked me to do the same to his car, a highly modified blue and black Subaru STi. I agreed and mentioned to him that I had made an agreement with his brother to do the black Civic for a labor trade. I asked if we could do the same with the STi and he said that though he`d rather just pay me that it`d be fine.
I detailed the STi with no problem. Both cars were washed, clay barred, polished, glazed, and waxed. Plus windows, vacuum (neither had stains inside nor did I have an extractor anyway), interior cleaning, and dressing (no tire dressing on the STi since I know the owner doesn`t like them dressed).
I`ve basically come to terms with it now, and I know I should have gotten this all in writing... but I`m never getting paid for the work now. They dragged their feet on swapping the tranny for a good 3-4 weeks even though I had the transmission sittign in their shop and I`m currently unemployed and could be there just with a simple phone call. They finally moved the transmission and figured out that it`s worse off than the one currently in my car. I figure I might just teach myself how to rebuild one on that tranny later for fun I guess. Since I`m stuck with it at least.
After figuring out about the transmission and becoming very wary of their repeated words of, "we have to finish our paying customers first," I just asked to be paid the $300 straight up instead. Just get it over with before there`s anymore stress between the two parties.
I was told that they could get those cars detailed for free so why would they pay me. Funny since the one owner, Mike, made sure to let me know that his navy blue lifted Jeep Wrangler had been detailed, including the under carriage, for $70. Gee, that`s about $70 more than free. My boyfriend just got a phone call a few days ago and we were both told that we are no longer welcome at their shop. First Doug asked my boyfriend if he kept up on what I posted online... When my boyfreind told him he knew what I`ve been posting, it sounds like Doug got upset. My boyfriend told him he agrees with me and he even heard Mike agree to the original deal for the Civic. Once Doug heard that my boyfriedn agreed with what I`ve been saying Doug expended the banning from the shop to my boyfriend too. That`s okay, we`re so concerned with their business practices now that we`re afraid to bring our cars over. Sad too since they`re really good mechanics. Unfortunately they`re crappy business men though!
I guess I just figured since they were suppsoed to be friends that I didn`t need to write it all out. Boy was I wrong. At best let this be a lesson to anyone else out there that might think about doing anything similar.
Oh yeah, and here`s the photos of the cars. I only have before and after shots of the Civic though.
Okay... now finally for some recent details! Here`s a `96 Honda Civic EX coupe I was asked to do for a business. It`s Granada Black Pearl which is a black paint with a goldish colored pearl in it. They picked it up for $1000 after the previous owner threw a rod. He told us he was driving through town and it suddenly just stopped... :lol:
The before pics.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/5571/129vs.jpg
(We just decided to end up putting an extra set of headlights we had on it instead.)
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8656/133au.jpg
Apparently the rear deck began to shake (perhaps because of the system that had been installed in it). Erasers jammed between the deck and the rear window was the solution... They melted to the plastic.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3905/181lf.jpg
And after... Too bad this one had paint damage and etching that I couldn`t take care of with the products I had, which are all applied by hand.
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/8263/167xd.jpg
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/1838/144lt.jpg
http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/8886/178pz.jpg
And after seeing the Civic, the other owner of the shop these photos were taken in was so happy that he asked me to detail his STi. I kind of find this funny because before the closest I was allowed to get to washing his car was he allowed me to rinse it while he washed it. :lol: No befores on this one either, but it was an easy job because the owner is pretty picky about the care of his vehicle. This car is stock World Rally Blue Pearl with an aftermarket black pearl front end.
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/2456/198fc.jpg
http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/6742/208bh.jpg
http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/5094/210zs.jpg
Oh, and one more interesting side note.... that Civic was sold. I believe it was somewhere in the market of $5700. It`s in the same apartment complex I live. What chance!