Has this ever happened to you?

[DFRESH]

You know the old saying "If I didn't have bad luck, I'd have luck at all"--I'm beginning to think it's found a home in my PT project.

So I am graduating with my MBA in two weeks. I tell myself, I've got to finish up the front end on the car (converted over to Speedtech everything, included ATS spindles) and I will drive it to graduation to celebrate. Well, suffice to say, between homework (which still sucks after being away from school for over 12 years), the kids, etc, I squeeze in the car whenever I can--like from 10:00 p.m. to midnight to finish it up. I get it all done on Sunday evening --took about 2 months to do---and I clean up the car. All I have to do now is get it aligned and I am good to go. I call AAA to send out the flatbed this morning (Monday at 7:15). I tell myself it will be easier to do it this way rather than hooking up the enclosed and towing it myself, then having to take the truck and trailor to work. The flatbed arrives late, I already have the car pulled out in street--- I watch the guy take out the front spoiler first thing when he starts to winch it up--"hey, stop--you are killing the spoiler"---"Oh, sorry about that sir". After 30 mintues, I have to jump into the daily driver and get to an all day meeting. The alignment shop place calls me about 1 hour later to let me know the car arrived, but that the bottom half of the oil pan is missing. I think, no, you clearly have the wrong car, but ohhhhhh noooooo--this is car stuff--and nothing goes normal despite my best efforts. I swear, I thought the race car was high maint--all of the sudden, this PT car is kickin me in the nads. Of course the shop is right, and the sump on the pan is virtually cleaned off. Evidently, when the guy was working the car up the tilt ramp, he did in stages--and when he slid the ramp back to avoid cleaning the spoiler off the front end, the oil pan took it's place. Thank the good Lord, they didn't fire it up. When confronting the towing company, they first deny it--it had to be that way when it left your garage. Yeah, sure. Why is there 7 quarts of Mobile 1 on the flatbed then? Luckly, the owner of the shop took pics and relayed this to me. The owner of the tow company wants to bring the car back to their tow yard shop to "fix" it. Oh yeah, that sounds like a great idea also. I asked, just for fun, if they had ever worked on a 69 Camaro before, he says "Yes, it's just like a Mercedes". Oh--really? How so--"well, it is a high performance car that is German made" Suffice to say, I decided not to send it to said tow yard, even with this stunning revelation and comparison. So, out comes the motor for a friggen pan swap--in between Statics and Global Finance. My ethics are strained at the moment, since I see that Pick a Part still has the LS motor and trans for sale. I could tell this guy that these German Camaro's require a complete motor change when the pan is damaged. I'll never do it, but what a pain. Anyways, had to get this off my chest before I start back on studying for finals. I've seen some horror stories here before, so thought I would share. The crazy thing is, I put the race car on hold to get this "easy" bolt on deal done on the PT car. I officially named the car "Apollo 13" today. :faint:

Doug

[70rs]

I can honestly say "this has never happened to me".
I really feel for you man. I don't even know what to say.
Good luck with the tow yard. German Camaros!!! That's a good one!!!
Take a step back, a big deep breath, graduate (congrats!) and go play with the kids for a few days.

Get back to the car with a clear head and school off your plate. It will be much easier to tackle then.
Good luck!:cheers:
Eric

PS There is never a shortage of deals on LS engines, that can be done anytime.

[ProTouring442]

:eek: :eek: :eek: Wow! I don't know what to say! Glad they didn't tear anything else up!

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

[tones2SS]

Man, it is so hard to find people that actually care or respect other people's property these days. NO ONE CARES!! It's a shame.:mad:
I hope all works out well for you.:thumbsup:

[chr2002ca]

My goodness, the tow guy rips your oil pan off(because he couldn't get his hands on your spoiler while you were around) and then tries to deny it? Un-frickin-believable. That is about as bad as it gets. It's just another perfect reason why I try to do every single possible thing I can on my own. Most people just don't give a sh_t anymore. Whether it's people working on your car, your house, or whatever. The one and only time I had someone come over to help me with my car in my garage, it was a sick joke. My paint shop recommended a glass guy to me. I wanted a professional to install the rear glass window. I figured I could do it myself, but safer to let a professional do it. The guy came over and did the worst hack job I have ever seen(didn't wear gloves, didn't even wipe the glass off before install, glass wasn't close to being centered, back-filled the entire window channel to the point that he covered up most of my trim clips). After he left, I had to pull the glass back out, clean up his mess, and then do it over myself. I called the paint shop and asked them how the frick they could actually recommend this guy to people and told them they should find another glass guy. Very frustrating. However, your story is on a whole 'nother level. I feel your pain man!

On a brighter note...Congratulations on your upcoming graduation! I hope you get to drive and enjoy your car as part of your celebration.

[Vegas69]

I've had my car on the flat bed a couple times. You must remove the front spoiler first and watch the drivers every move. That includes riding with them to the destination. They are used to hooking up big piles of crap and you have to instruct them to use towels around the wheels and not use a chain on your freshly painted frame or control arms.:willy: Could be worse, you could have flunked out of college too. The car is a fairly easy fix .It's supposed to be fun rememberr.:rofl:

[Mkelcy]

I feel bad for you, but I don't understand how a flatbed ever tears out the oil pan, unless it hangs way below the front cross member. If it does, you may want to change the type of oil pan while you're at it. This may have been a relatively harmless warning.

[tjbruning]

I feel bad for you, but I don't understand how a flatbed ever tears out the oil pan, unless it hangs way below the front cross member. If it does, you may want to change the type of oil pan while you're at it. This may have been a relatively harmless warning.

true. Maybe the driver did you a favor? Would have been a lot worse if you had hit the pan on a speed bump with the engine running...

Still sucks though... the front spoiler should have been a no brainer for the driver. :rolleyes:

[BonzoHansen]

Congrats on your MBA.

You will look back on this and laugh. I'm with them, how low was the oil pan??

[Spiffav8]

I'm not really sure what to say.....I'm just shocked. What a fricken moron!

[byndbad914]

congrats on the MBA - got mine from UCLA-Anderson in 2005 and what a LOT of work...

I NEVER let my car out of my sight - I wouldn't even drop it off at a shop frankly - and my car is a race car. I would personally trailer it to alignment shops before I bought/made all the stuff to do it myself and would stand there until it was done.

On a pseudo-similar note, I sold my 1970 Mustang fastback I had for years to pay for college to get my BSME in the late 90s to a guy in FL. SEVENTEEN days later it showed up to his house and he called me all fired up - it wasn't running right and the rear tires were bald! I am not kidding, 17 days later and beat to Hell. The timing had been retarded and the carb was way out of adjustment apparently after he checked everything out. I had pics of the car on the truck the day they picked it up to at least confirm the tires were not remotely bald when it left.

That is the the second time I ever let the car out of my sight and that was the clincher. The other time prior I had a shop do some front end work before I learned how to do it myself, and they didn't install a key on the tie rod end of one side... etc etc it comes apart and the front turns both ways on the 22 fwy to 57 ramp in Orange and shut that down interchange for awhile...

[Teetoe_Jones]

That has happened to me 3 different times. I stopped putting front spoilers on the car after a while because everytime it would need a tow it cost me $110 in addition to the cost of the tow to replace the front spoiler that they would always break. I got tired of it.

Now I have learned to request a flat bed with 2 long pieces of wood to help get the angle down to a minimum when it goes on. I also fabricated and installed a front tow hook (which I had to use during the Good Guys show in Del Mar.

Here she is stuck on the 5 freeway outside of San Diego after a broken throttle cable left me stranded:

http://i44.tinypic.com/2zdzitj.jpg

Here she goes onto the flat bed:

http://i40.tinypic.com/2mfgarn.jpg

Sucks to hear about the oil pan though. I'm damn sure the tow company has insurance to cover that sort of thing. Fix it yourself and bill them for it. I wouldn't trust them to do the repair properly or in a clean enough environment to not cause more damage to the car. In fact after they did it that should have been the last time they ever touch your car. Now they owe you for time, materials and parts to correct their mistake.

Tyler

[DFRESH]

I feel bad for you, but I don't understand how a flatbed ever tears out the oil pan, unless it hangs way below the front cross member. If it does, you may want to change the type of oil pan while you're at it. This may have been a relatively harmless warning.

Yeah, that's the part I can't get---it's a stock pan---I could understand if the sump was below the crossmember, and frankly would have warned the guy. After talking to my friend who owns the shop it was towed to for the alignment, he said the guy had hooked the tow cables really far back on the car---he suspects that when he tightened the cables, the slack part of the cable had no where to go but through the pan---it's wierd since it appears to have basically ripped off the rear part of the sump off. It's just par for the course. The way things typically go, this will get fixed, then the trans will drop out on my way to graduation--LOL. A bit of luck, they are going to pay for everything.

[DFRESH]

I've had my car on the flat bed a couple times. You must remove the front spoiler first and watch the drivers every move. That includes riding with them to the destination. They are used to hooking up big piles of crap and you have to instruct them to use towels around the wheels and not use a chain on your freshly painted frame or control arms.:willy: Could be worse, you could have flunked out of college too. The car is a fairly easy fix .It's supposed to be fun rememberr.:rofl:

It was actually fun, up till this point. The one time I deviated from using my own trailer----

[Mkelcy]

Yeah, that's the part I can't get---it's a stock pan---I could understand if the sump was below the crossmember, and frankly would have warned the guy. After talking to my friend who owns the shop it was towed to for the alignment, he said the guy had hooked the tow cables really far back on the car---he suspects that when he tightened the cables, the slack part of the cable had no where to go but through the pan---it's wierd since it appears to have basically ripped off the rear part of the sump off. It's just par for the course. The way things typically go, this will get fixed, then the trans will drop out on my way to graduation--LOL. A bit of luck, they are going to pay for everything.

It almost has to be somthing like this. I'd still make sure the pan is tucked well behind the crossmember. Some of the big brand name pans aren't good for this.

[Desert68]

When you call a towing/flatbed company ask them if they're used to towing Corvettes. Apparently it's some sort of an industry thing where they know you have a low car and certain flatbed models just aren't designed to handle a vehicle that's low to the ground.

Congrats on the MBA!