After many hours of work, the client said no to the repair.
This happens from time to time. It’s part of the car repair business, some clients say no. You check out a clients concern. You put together an estimate for the repairs needed. It’s common to have car owners under the age of 30 to take a couple of hours to decide to move forward with a repair. The 2008 Sentra I was working on needed a new engine computer. Something went wrong and the old one died. The repair was almost 900.00 and to me that was not much for a basic repair.
The client said no and the car was sold for scrap.
Part 2 of this story: The salvage buyer asked us to finish the repairs, but they wanted us to send the computer out for repairs. I have had zero luck using rebuild services for any
Old computer that was sent out for repairs. I don’t see any repairs done…
computer repair. So 3 weeks later the computer was back. The service said they made a repair and the computer works fine now.
I installed the computer and it did not work. The buyer said I diagnosed the problem wrong and the computer was fine. I said he was wrong and the computer repair was not a repair for the problem the computer had. After 2 more weeks of back and forth communications. The buyer finally said yes to a new computer from the dealer.
A new computer fixed the problem.
It’s common for computers to be replaced and they are not bad. It is a guess repair by the technician working on the car. I use a test simulation method to rule out input and output results to the computer. It takes longer, but it prevents a misdiagnosis. Time spent will prevent having to backtrack later or worse ruin a new computer because the part that killed the first computer just killed the new unit.
Fix it right, fix it once. HeyAnthonyAz.com
The Fairlane Victoria sold for 2,249 in 1956, but by todays inflation % it would be like buying a car for 19,844 
Finding a classic that is in good condition takes lots of work. When you find the one you like, you need to get it inspected before buy it. The rule is, once you buy it, it’s your problem now. Sellers do not have to tell you a thing, they are not lying to you, they just don’t tell you what they know about the car they are selling. 
Holding back information is not a crime, but it should be. An inspection is the only way to protect you and your hard-earned money.
Just because it looks fabulous on the outside does not indicate it’s in good shape underneath the sheet metal. Rust, mechanical wear, electrical faults and body repairs that did not get the attention they needed during the restoration are very common, Flawless paint is a red flag, it may be pretty on the outside, but what is underneath all that paint? This 56 Fairlane was in distress years ago, now it’s a mess of body filler and crap repairs on top of more crap repairs. The body is dead, all the mounting points on the right side are rotten. 
The engine runs OK but the transmission makes noise and the gear shift linkage is worn out to the point it is hard to get from one gear to the next. The doors and hood don’t close correctly and you have to slam the driver’s door to get it to latch. The brakes are a mess too, it’s unsafe to drive. 
The car needs so much work that it’s hard to find a starting point. Getting your car inspected by a certified mechanic with a written evaluation gives you power to negotiate a lower price or pass on the buy all together and keep looking for a good car to spend your money on. So it’s shiny with pretty paint and tons of chrome, but if you can’t drive it, what is the point of buying it in the first place. It does not matter who you buy from, get it inspected…
Over loading a circuit with aftermarket equipment is the most common reason for a fuse to fail “blow out” In a home, you have 
circuit breakers that protect each circuit within the home.
I have found ear rings, small tokens, and paper clips stuck in the 12V power sockets. A direct short to ground will cause a fuse to fail instantly. 
Once you remove the junk from the socket the fuse can be replaced. At our service desk we offer free 12V socket to USB power adapters to plug into the open 12V sockets, just to prevent issues like junk or coins from getting into the socket and shorting the terminals in the socket
You do not want to use an inverter larger than 150 watts on a 15 amp fused circuit. Most basic 12V sockets only have a 15 amp fuse to power the socket, and its easy to pop a fuse with an inverter, cell phone, and GPS navigation all plugged in at the same time.
We re-finish plastic head light lenses all the time.
Not all lenses can be saved. Rock pits, scratches, and plastic cracking can not be fixed with sanding if it’s too deep into the plastic surface. 20% of the head lamp housings I run across in my shop have major damage and need to be replaced.
The process of refinishing the plastic lens is fairly simple, and many parts stores sell DIY kits to sand, polish and protect the plastics.
So here it is in a nut shell, we clean the plastics, wet sand the imperfections out of the surface. Then use a 2 step polishing compound to restore the clear as glass look. Last step is a double coating of wax. Regular car war works fine for this.
Filters protect your car from harmful debris that can cause damage to internal moving parts. The engine, and transmission need service regularly to keep them alive and happy. So what about you, the driver? Back in the mid 80’s some European car manufactures started adding air filters to the A/C system. Mercedes-Benz called it a particulate filter and it protected the A/C evaporator core from getting contaminated with hair, lint, leaves, and other nasty things that could get pulled into the air intake of the A/C system. It also protected the inside of the car from dust and oder. Most of all, the clean air was a benefit to the driver. European cars started using “Cabin Air Filters” first, around the mid 80’s. In the late 90’s I started to see them in high-end Japanese cars, and by the mid 2000’s almost all cars had some type of Air Filter added to the A/C system. The filter works great till, till it looks like the one in the picture. A filter can only do its job if it can catch and hold the dirt. This filter is past its way past its prime. looking at it, you might think it’s very old, but it’s only 3 years old, but the car is only used in town and in 3 years has only driven 7,000 miles.
working on the car.
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