A little peeved at the disaster that occurred while I was installing my lift. I am active duty military and because I am forced to live in the over-populated cesspool that is DC, I do not have a garage or any area to work on my Jeep...so I am forced to take it to an "Automotive Skills Shop" on a nearby base. Which overall is nice because they have lifts and every tool you can imagine. And, I was under the impression they also had skilled mechanics on hand to aid you with any issues you encounter...or maybe I just caught this guy on a bad day.

I started with the rear because they are supposed to be "much easier" than the front and I wanted to knock them out before spending all my energy on the front. Well, of course, with a northern vehicle...everything is seized. I tried everything I could think of to get the shackle bolts out but ended up calling on the "mechanic" to help me find a solution. His answer was to burn the bushings which would give me enough play to clear the now cut bolts from the frame mount. So, he lights his torch and starts burning away...I didn't want to watch over his shoulder so I shifted focus to the front since one side of the rear was complete and I couldn't do anything to the other side until I had the shackle out.

About 15 mins goes by and I see him set down the torch, casually walk over to the fire extinguisher and casually walk back to my Jeep and spray the rear wheel well where he had been working with the fire extinguisher. At this point, I was probably just dazed from the amount of toxic fumes I had been inhaling while he burned out the leaf spring bushings and probably a little too tired and frustrated to give it much thought. He goes back to work, as do I, and about another 15 mins later, he gives the shackle a good blow with the 3lb. hammer and it's on the floor. I ended up doing the front coil spring spacers in record time, with a spring compressor...as much as I read on these forums how everyone talks down on them..you must not know how to use them or something because all I did was compress the spring, unbolt the tie rod ends, slip on my coil spacer and compres the spring more when it was out to compensate for the 2" I lost with the spacer...a lil shimmy and a kick and BAM, springs are back in!

So, now happy, I lower the Jeep, open the door to a cloud of smoke and figure I shoudn't have left the windows up while he was burning so much..and drove home with the windows down to air out the Jeep. The smell of burned rubber and plastic just will not go away..so I open my hatch to put some tools away and see that a section of carpet has been MELTED! WT-F'in-F?!?!?!

Now I am in search of a new plastic trim piece that goes between the bumper and the body as well as new carpet for the interior hatch area...and I don't even know if I can complain and get some kind of reprise for this guys careless actions or not.

/END RANT

 

Holy crap. He is right by the gas tank. He is obviously associated with a terrorist group. Report that nut.

 

LOL I had just filled the tank too. At this point, I almost wish he would have burned the whole damned thing so I could start over.

 

Calm ya *****

 

x2. It's a Jeep thing. Nothing is easy.

 

I love the Jeep...but I would also love it if I were the one messing it up, not someone who is supposed to be helping me but is having a bad day so they give zero fvcks and go ***** deep with a torch!

 

first thing first. we talk ill about using spring compressors because they are sketchy. you would say the same when one slides on the spring under full compression.

second, you took your jeep to a basic *** shop and had a lube monkey do suspension work. you're surprised it got ****ed up? he used a torch within an inch of the unibody. thats a huge no-no to even moderately mechanical people, where as myself a shop manager would of fired the guy if i saw that. another course of termination was the fact a emergency item was used (extinguisher) on a customers car without proper "letting the bosses know"
the fact that you saw it and let it go might **** you over on that.

 

I guess we will find out. I still have to survey the damage before I decide on what course of action I am going to take. If it is just the carpet and the plastic trim piece, I will just call it for what it is, a learning experience, and drive on. If he did a considerable more damage than meets the eye, I will look into what kind of recourse I have, if any...

 

Not only torching that close to the unibody, but that close to the tank...and you're shocked it melted and burned the surrounding area?

Bottom line here is YOU let him do it. You should be pissed at yourself, not him.

 

You DON'T have any recourse...did you pay him to do it? Was any paperwork generated? Also, as stated above, you let him do it. Follow your own advice as taking it as a learning experience, and move on.

 

Calm down guy! There is a general contract with the shop for the use of their equipment and services. I have to read it and see what the details are on property damage done by their "technicians". More than likely, you are right and I am screwed...I am not that heated about it, **** happens...but if there is a way to get them to at least pitch in for repair, I would take it.

 

Just like the kid that got a 48K tow bill for screwing up. The guy just made more work for you.

 

True story.

 

I'm perfectly calm, LOL

It's things like this why I don't let anyone else touch my Jeep but me...

 

I feel the same way..the whole reason I brought it to this shop because it is do it yourself...however, I have never used a torch on anything so I figured I would let someone who, I thought knew what they were doing, do it.

Again, **** happens, I just wanted to rant about it, at the end of the day, it is a Jeep and nothing is un-fixable.