Okay, some of you know that my mechanic has been doing the restoration on my 1982 fj40. Well the body work was finished and then my hg blew. They repaired the hg and the repair lasted all of 4 days before it blew again in royal fashion.
Here's the catch, I've always bought the parts-his suggestion-and it has worked out great until this time. I asked him (before I knew better) about, which hg to get as I was thinking Toyota, but he said any of them should do. I got a CCOT gasket kit due to cost and availability, which they put on.
After the hg blew, the shop owner with lc expertise, looked at the gasket and concluded that some stream holes were missing. He confessed that he did not look at the hg before his guy installed it. Otherwise, he said he could not see any other problems with the repair.
So he is using this as the basis to charge me again for the hg repair. He did knock down the labor to $300, but this and the whole sinking feeling that I shouldn't have bought this 40 at this stage of my life is not sitting well with me. Also, the fuel pump reportedly died. But another issue now is that cylinder 5, which had good compression before the second hg blew is now down to 108 psi.
The flip side is that the shop did a great job on the body, were great on labor costs for the body work and have been great with providing me with a crappy, but reliable loaner car since October. It's a small shop and they have put a lot of time into my 40. So all in all, should I chalk up the extra $300 in labor as coming out even in the wash? I know that I'd have paid another ship way more than $300 in labor for the body work. Thanks, Taro
Here's the catch, I've always bought the parts-his suggestion-and it has worked out great until this time. I asked him (before I knew better) about, which hg to get as I was thinking Toyota, but he said any of them should do. I got a CCOT gasket kit due to cost and availability, which they put on.
After the hg blew, the shop owner with lc expertise, looked at the gasket and concluded that some stream holes were missing. He confessed that he did not look at the hg before his guy installed it. Otherwise, he said he could not see any other problems with the repair.
So he is using this as the basis to charge me again for the hg repair. He did knock down the labor to $300, but this and the whole sinking feeling that I shouldn't have bought this 40 at this stage of my life is not sitting well with me. Also, the fuel pump reportedly died. But another issue now is that cylinder 5, which had good compression before the second hg blew is now down to 108 psi.
The flip side is that the shop did a great job on the body, were great on labor costs for the body work and have been great with providing me with a crappy, but reliable loaner car since October. It's a small shop and they have put a lot of time into my 40. So all in all, should I chalk up the extra $300 in labor as coming out even in the wash? I know that I'd have paid another ship way more than $300 in labor for the body work. Thanks, Taro
