Frustrations with parts

I get frustrated when a part is not made correctly. I recently purchased a convertible top from a supplier and upon installation I find that the rear window is just not made correctly for this car. Three months ago I had the same problem with a top from the same company on the same model car. I ordered another top and find that it is exactly the same. That tells me that this company’s tops for this specific model are being made incorrectly. I contacted the manufacturer and was told that the top has to be correct because they are made from the ORIGINAL patterns. I send them photos and measurements etc  showing exactly what is wrong and what can be done to correct the problem. My supplier, in trying to help me contacts some installers in his area who politely tell him that they are not going to share any of their expertise “Tell him to take it to a professional installer”.  With 45 years of experience of working on  Thunderbirds and after installing many tops from lots of different manufacturers and finding that there is a specific problem in this one part of this top…………….. I should just take it to a professional installer! After all, WHAT DO I KNOW?

While it would be much easier for me to just order a different brand top an be done with it, I feel it isn’t fair to all the other customers out there that might purchase this top and end up with  a crappy installation because they assume the top is correct and do whatever they can just to get it on the car. So what if the zipper shows when the top is up? There is a time when someone has to do whatever it takes to make things right so that the rest of the world does not have to deal with the bad results of the wrong.

I know the frustrations you folks have when you get parts and find they do not work for what you are doing only to be told by someone that sells them, that they must be right, that is what is listed in the computer or catalog. Or you take your car to a shop and when it is not to your standards you are told that is just the way it is. And of course you should pay the bill because they SPENT THE TIME.

When you know you are right, be strong enough to do what it takes to prove it and make things right. We do not have to put people down or call names or anything else, we do have to prove that we are right though. Most of the time it is not about opinions, it is about facts. Take the time to get the right facts and then share them with those involved so that things get resolved for the better of all concerned.

I will let you all know how this turns out.

God bless

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Thank you for asking about this. I made me do the research necessary to get this working.

God bless!

Where have I been lately

OK, why haven’t I been posting any updates here lately? Well, just been busy in the shop.

Yes and there are lots of things going on here all the time.

I have been working on a customers 1961 convertible that was a total basket case and we rebuilt the complete car down to every last nut and bolt. Anything that I thought we might be able to just get by with what he had………. ha ha, it comes back to haunt us. I am down to putting on the convertible top and I find out that it is not made correctly. Waiting to hear from the manufacturer.

I have been getting a quite a few orders for relay replacement systems for the convertibles so always have a couple in the assembly process. This past week they caught up to me and I had to finish one quickly to install in a car that is in my son’s shop (oh, that is a story I have to tell also, about my son having his own shop…. and right out by me)

I sold the last upper back panel switch replacement unit that I had in stock so now there are a dozen of those in the assembly process. I have to make and machine all the brackets for those which is the time consuming part. I do most of it on my milling machine (shop tour will be coming on the blog here also).

Then of course there are the daily phone calls and emails for parts that customers are looking for.

I steel a few minutes here and there to organize and order parts for the stroker motor I am building for the “Blackbird” that has been in the works for over 22 years now. Almost had it going a year ago then a customer car bumped it out of my shop once again.

My CAT skid steer broke its oil pump so now I need to find $12,000.00 for a new engine for that also. What a motivating factor to keep working.

Later, people.

God bless all of you.

Sequential signal lights skipping

Got an email from a customer

i have some trouble whit my turn signal flash .. when i turn signal only 2 lamps flash back and no att frontfender at both sides do you now what it is best regard?

       ———————–
If you open up that package in the trunk there should be 3 items on the rubber flap
one is a large flat relay with about 10 wires on it and this is the signal light relay…… it switches the bulbs from brake light to signal lights……. usually not bad
the middle one is the brake light relay…….. if you have brake lights it is OK
the other one has a little motor with a white plastic switch box on it. This is the sequencer. if you pry off the cover for the plastic box you will find some small brass switches in there. One of them is not making good contact. Take some contact cleaner spray and hose it down good, then try it again. Many times that is all that it takes. You can also take that cam off the motor shaft and pull out the circuit board and clean each individual switch.
if you need any pieces, I have lots of them