It's not just body shops that don't like working on our cars, but keep looking,
and you'll find someone that'll be delighted to do the work!
Last year, my drivers side door wasn't closing properly, and I decided to adjust
the striker plate. Unfortunately, one of the screws just would not budge, no
matter what I did with it. Eventually, I decided the job needed some more
substantial tools than those I had available. I figured that loosening a screw
is a fairly simple job, just about any garage should be able to do it, so I took
the car to a garage just round the corner from my house.
I explained the problem to the garage owner, who said he'd be happy to take a
look. As soon as he saw the car, he said "Hey, that car's old, isn't it? It's
over 20 years old! I can't touch that - it might break!" I'm not quite sure
exactly what he thought might break - maybe he thought there might be some rusty
panels that would disintegrate when he touched them, and I'd blame him? But he
made it very clear he wanted nothing to do with the car at all.
I took the car to the next garage a little further down the road (acutally a
tyre/exhaust centre) and got totally the oposite reaction. They loved the car,
and said they weren't sure they could help me, but they'd certainly try. After
around 1/2 hour of attacking the screw with a wide range of space-age looking
tools, it eventually came loose. They then insisted on adjusting the striker
plate themselves, even though I said I'd be able to do that. I think they just
wanted the car in the garage for a few minutes more! Once they were done, they
refused to take any money off me. "All we did is loosen a screw - we can't
charge you for that!" "Yes, but it took 1/2 hour!" I convinced them they
should take £5 and get themselves a couple of beers, and the reluctanty accepted
- and I left happy, and with a door which closed properly.
So if you're having trouble finding people to work on your car, just keep
looking. You should eventually find someone who will gladly work on something
as beautiful as our cars. And if you use the same people over and over, they'll
realise after the first couple of jobs that you're not going to abandon the
project and leave them out of pocket, and they'll be happier about taking on
bigger jobs.
Dean
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