I called the guy and said "I think you should have warned me before I opened the hood, no guy should get that kinda shock w/o warning." He asked what I saw, I had to ask if he opened the hood. I don't think he did.

Well, at least it'* in good hands now..looking forward to updates.

Personally, I think the purple flames are very fitting. Too bad that hood wouldn't fit on either of your cars.

Can't you tape a garbage bag over the hood for now? There'* no reason to work AND suffer at the same time.

Colin..you know how I work. Not stopping to take it off. Ddin't get much done on it last night. Had another buddy stop in to fix the spring on his CompG'* HUD. It'* a blast to get those panels off w/o breaking something. Did that, had dinner and had to rescue my financee from friends. Trans should be back together tonight.

Another text from the new owner of the car. Apparently this guy did LIM gaskets himself. Maybe that accounts for the coolant not being visible in the radiator. I'll be looking that over as well.

Project was completed the next day. Car started, ran, drove etc. Customer (my buddy, not the guy that did this work) called and asked me about the brakes. I noticed the rotors were new. That was about it.

Next day he sends me a text, "the brake pads were installed backwards". This hit me kinda odd. How do you install pads backwards, they only go one way. Well.. this guy put the metal backing of the pad to the rotor. yes.. it destroyed the brakes rather quickly.

Takes it to get it aligned and they can't restart it. Finally they test the battery. It was shot from being connected to the trans. It did work for me, but apparently 10 or so starts later it was toast.

Thanks for the update, very interesting thread.

Something works fine for you, then you give it back to the client and it'* dead. Sounds like me at work as of late. At least it was an easy fix.

Brake pads in backwards??? Reminds me of the time I did a brake job on my brother-in-law'* car. When I looked through the openings in the wheel I could see ribs on the rotors, radiating out from the center. I had seen slotted rotors before, but never ribbed ones. When I took it apart I realized he had gone metal to metal so long he had worn right throught the outer braking surface into the ribs between the inner and outer surfaces. Thank god my wife isn't as retarded as her brother is.

Oh...this guy was seriously retarded.
Couldnt get tie rods off
Had most of the trans undone, never found the engine to trans bracket or backwards bolt, also never took the electrical off the range sensor
Put pads in backwards
Gave the JY trans to my buddy without the torque converter
Had horrible engine mount
Positive battery cable hooked to tranmission modulator stud about 6 inches from the neg cable
and the list goes on.

Colin... I charged up a very dead battery and it started 10 times for me...I let it run to recharge while topping fluids etc. He started it 3-4 times at my place and all seemed good. When Sears tried to align it..that'* when it wouldn't start. Which led to a battery. I think they might leave the ignition on while aligning to be able to work with the wheels..not sure. If so..it didn't like that.