remotecontroller

Hey folks,

Friday Rant Coming ON!!

Thought I would share my experience with all of you on a C1 Fuel/Temp guage I sent to D&M Restorations in South Carolina recently.

Quick background - over a year ago I sent my guages off to someone recommended here on the forum for rebuild (speedo, tach, gas/temp pod and Ammeter/oil Pressure pod). Had a bunch of problems there with the final step being sending off the fuel/temp pod back to him becuase he didn't switch the needles over to the 58 "rounded end" style as we had agreed (guages were from a '59 with the pointy needles).

So recently finished up the car (installed the guages) and the fuel gauge didn't work. I didn't want to deal again with the original person that did the guages becuase it would have been the 4th time I had to send him a guage, so I shopped around several different places and settled on D&M Restorations (NOT D&M Corvette in Chicago).

Anyway, on my call with them I asked what it would cost to diagnose the guage and they said $40 and said should be about 2 weeks to diagnose/repair because they try to get individual guages in and out quickly. I sent it off and put a note in the box summarizing what the issues were (mainly gas gauge not working but also that the face of the temp guage has glue or something on it that was visable through the glass). I also asked them to call me and give me pricing to do the repairs for authorization. After not hearing from them for 3 weeks I called on Monday and spoke to Cameron. He said they had the guage on the bench and there is nothing wrong with the guage but the guy who restored it glued another needle on top of the old one and with the extra weight of the glue and the second needle the guage couldn't "get it up" (so basically the original restorer really hooked me up). He said "no problem- easy deal" and they should be calling me in a couple of days to check in as the guy working on it wasn't there.

I called again this AM becuase I hadn't heard from them and talked to Mike who said they would be finishing it up today and calling me later with the details/to get payment.

I then got a call this afternoon and was told the price would be $181!! I asked why it was so high and the woman xferred me to Mike who said there was a huge amount of work involved in fixing the needle, recalibrating the guage and cleaning/polishing the face of the temp guage.

I asked him how come they hadn't contacted me about all of the work to get authorization and said when I talked to Cameron on Monday he made it sound like it was a quick fix. When I talked to him this AM I assumed they just moved forward because it was a simple fix, so I figured $$ would be minimal. I told him that I figured based on Cameron's comments we were looking at a max of $100. He went on to tell me that C1 owners should expect that repairs to their stuff should be expensive and further said that most C1 owners don't call them up "crying" about how much it costs. I said since I wasn't aware of any parts being bought (all new/refurbished stuff since the guages were at least cosmetically redone recently and Cameron said it was just a matter of ungluing/refixing the needle) it was just a labor thing and again was led to believe it would be minimal effort. Also, they didn't call to get the work authorized like I asked for initially. If I hadn't called, they would have just done the work and given me a bill.

Anyway, after trading words with Mike, I told him I guess it is just too bad for me and that I guess I have to force vendors I use to give me firm quotes or else I will be open to their whims. I then said let me talk to the person handling payment because I need to pay for my guage to get it back.

Not real happy right now with the responsiveness, the attitude, the following of directions, etc. with this company and I would not recommend them to anyone. Their workmanship may be great (have to wait and see), but the process has been abysimal and, in case you can't tell, I am pissed. The best part of it all was when he told me I should just know it is going to be expensive because it is a C1 Corvette. What that said to me was it didn't matter if it was an easy fix or not (based on what Cameron said) - they were going to break it off in me anyway.

Just my 2 cents.

Ken

GCD1962

D&M (Diane & Mike) have been around for a number of years doing marginal work. They were in NH, then VA, now I see in SC. I sent them a couple of repairs for a couple of my other cars. One job was good, the other marginal and I wouldn't send anything else to them. Basically he's a lot of BS.

pw2006

Yes, it surprises me sometimes how people stay in business. I had to change shops because my car was supposed to be restored in 6 months. After 3.5years of visiting the shop every other week, I changed shops and now my car is almost done. My gauge cluster was sent to someone recommended on the forum and it took nearly 6 months to get it back, the battery gauge was supposed to be converted... never happened. I had to replace my dash eyebrows after the first shop cracked one. We received 3 sets before we finally got one that wasn't misshaped or with a horrible patch job on the bottom. That was a 4 month ordeal. I recently ordered an engine that was supposed to be built within 4 weeks. It is now going on 7 and they just finished it today. I am just glad there is a light at the end of this tunnel... choo choo!

Hitch

I'm just surprised that so many problems exist with gauge restorers. I had my own trials when I had my 66 gauges done by a forum sponsor. The good thing is that even though the cost was a little more it sounds like everything is resolved.

Dave

robert miller

I agree with you guys here. A shop will kill there self putting out a few jobs. Then get a little name for the shop, then will not are put what it take to do what is right and just charge more and more for less and less.

MosportGreen66

I have used and recommended D and M many times. They did a Sun tach for me as well as all the gauges on a 58. I had no problem with their service or work. They were fair priced and easy to work with.

Not placing blame anywhere, but this sounds like a misunderstanding.

Dave

out2kayak

I used D&M for my clock.

Lets just say that they are not going to get a chance to work on my gauges or anything else on the car.



-- Joe

remotecontroller

I am glad you had a good experience with them.

As for a misunderstanding, I don't believe that is the case.

Everybody have a great weekend!!

1snake

Sorry to hear of your poor experience with them. Is there any reason you didn't try to find someone locally to fix your stuff? Gauges, tachs & speedo's for Corvettes are no different than any other car. My local repair shop said " there are all the same regardless of make and we all get our parts from the same place". Reminds me of a local engine builder when I questioned him about a subject. He said "pistons are pistons, rods are rods and cranks are cranks, I don't care what they come from". He has been building motors for professional racers for over 50 years. I have to agree with him.

Jim

ragtopman

Thanks for the heads up cause I am in SC and was thinking about having my fuel gauge re-dampened AGAIN and have my clock gone thru AGAIN.

Dave K.

I don't know what to say as I didn't see or hear all the discussions. They did my gauges on my '62 and then brought my friend to send his '58 gauges. Nothing but fast,good looking and working gauges. I can't ask anymore than that all at a price that I thought was OK.

Dan Hampton

Because, for most people, the "expert" is always sixty miles away. You see this time and time again.

Railroadman

The greater the distance, the greater the mystique and "expertise". The guy down the street is local, so I'll send mine to an "expert" all the way out in California. Meanwhile a guy in California is sending his to a far-away "expert" who happens to be down the street from me!

C2Dan

I'm sorry about your bad experience. I am happy with the wiper motor restoration performed by D&M last Fall. My only concern was some marginal packaging for the return trip. I dealt with Terry Carroll.

remotecontroller

Imperfect information would be the best answer - back a year or so ago I polled the forum on a guage restorer and went with someone that was highly recommended. Everything was great/we were on track timing wise until he was 95% done and asked for payment which I sent. From there things got worse and worse.

I will always take a recommendation over pulling someone out of the phone book. I have also used "local" vendors for chrome, etc., but these were recommendations as well.

Anyway, moving on. I am looking forward to getting my guage which is supposed to show up tomorrow.

Ken

C3MEH

Not to pile on but after today I believe people should be aware!

I brought my 1976 here for service - leaking power steering, shocks, brakes,and what ever else they could find. After paying the bill with high hourly rate.(which I assumed is paying for professional and courteous corvette restoration and repair)! They ended up replacing power steering pump and piping, shocks, brakes, rear strut rods. While driving home I noticed the shifting of the rear end was still there after taking foot off gas. I check under car and found the pipe connection to power steering was reversed,and the right rear strut look like it had poor metal casting about a 3rd up on rod.

I called Tom service manager about steering piping and shifting of rear end. He told me the steering pump works even if the piping was reversed from original whats the problem? He did tell me they would change the pipes to be correct as per factory install. When I asked about shifting he said they would look at it. I did not mention about strut because I thought it was a manufacturer casting defect.
I brought the ar back and they did change the pipes to the power steering. Tom told me the shifting of back end was due to the down shift of trans.

When I went with my daughter to pickup car. I thanked Tom for making the repairs to the power steering at no charge. He replied he knew how to handle **** customers. i was shocked! My daughter standing next to me I was not happy and decided to just leave.

A year later I still had problem with shifting of rear end and noticed tight clunking. I took it to another Corvette repair shop to find that the trailing arm bushings are missing and the right strut rod was bad and cut and shortened and welded! Also the brakes were install improperly.

I asked the new corvette repair expert about the strut and he said it was probably cut and repainted to make it shorter because the bushings were bad and they could not get it to run right.

I was not informed of the makeshift strut alterations or the bad trailing arm bushings which was he rear end shifting.

I cannot recommend D&M Corvette to anyone!

P.S. Tom Corvette owners are not ****! They just CARE!

antker

these guys are useless i call them to check a corvette radio that was not working, they told me 4 weeks. on the fifth week i call them and they told me they farm all radios out and there radio vendor was backed up i ask them how long they think it would be an told me another week, 3 weeks later the radio show up with no bill i call them ask them for the bill and ask them to fax it nobodys calls back i call them again ask for patrick {this is the guy i dealt with} and he tells me they never touch it they had the radio 8 weeks and never did a thing this guy patrick is useless and he also has the personality of a fart

Vette Daddy

As someone else said previously, Corvette internal gages are no different than GM passenger cars.

dandmweb

Thanks to all for posting concerns about D&M Restoration. D&M has been in business for over 35 years with many satisfied customers. A listing of some of them can be found here.

D&M has been under new ownership for the past few years and we are working hard everyday. The technician mentioned above is no longer with us and Terry, our office manager for many years retired last year. I can not speak for them but we have a wonderful team here in place. If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact us. and feel free to look over the rest of our site to see example of our work, etc.

This is Patrick mentioned in the post above. We had been on a rotation of faster radio work turn around time but it seems lately with both the combination of work orders coming in and the availability of parts our current turn around time is at least 8-10 weeks. I do my best to be very personable and helpful with customers in a professional manner.

ack fia

I had all of the gauges for my 62 done by D and M in SC including the radio and clock. Excellent work, fair price and good timing. Two years now and a number of Top Flights and things are still perfect.