Car shops refuse to take your money?
 

Hey guys, I started thread over in the great lakes section about how I've contacted a few performance shops in the Columbus OH area and they basically told me that do not want to work on my corvette or do anything. I am just looking to do some basic performance mods like a rear diff swap and long tube headers. I contacted Corvette Care in Columbus and they said they really dont work on C4's and took the approach of well I guess if you want use to do headers we'll charge you X amount. He said we really only work on C1-C3 restorations and C5-C7. This other place called I think Carlisle racing told me you wouldn't want to pay what I'll charge you in labor. These places literally wont take my money and I'm not going to beg someone to work on my car. Have any of you had similar experiences?
In my thread I bitched a little about how I'm from Florida and never had this problem in Orlando with people not wanting to work on my car. My perception and my personal experiences are that it seems that there are more nice cars in Florida then what I see on a daily basis in Ohio but I was never "discriminated" in Florida for having a C4. I don't want this to be a Florida is so much better than Ohio for cars. It's more about people turning away money and my business.

Having said that does anyone know of any good car performance shops corvette or otherwise in the Dayton or Columbus area.

Contact local vette clubs

I ran into this also.

had a shop (now closed) in akron put a cam in the car in 2001.

except when i got it back it now had a timing cover oil leak it didnt have before.

ive learned to do the work myself to both get it done and get it done right. Which I understand could be an impossibility if you dont have a garage / backup car to drive.

Why don’t you do the jobs yourself?
🤷

The thought of doing headers scares me haha. I have definitely done the simpler things like car audio, lights and some interior stuff. I do garage it and have a great daily driver (2018 sonata 2.0T) Honestly though you guys are right I need to think about doing some other things myself. I just do not feel confident in my ability to tackle a rear diff swap or headers but we'll see. I've found some great basic maintenance and repair places that I have taken in to and like. The biggest problem for working on it now is time. I work in Columbus and live in Springfield which is an hour drive. I'm planning on moving to Columbus in the near future and I know there are more options over there. But right now I need places to be open on Saturdays as I dont even get home till 6 which is when most places close.

Give Eastern Corvettes (outside of Cincinnati) a call. Amelia, OH.

I admire your honesty. Hell, I like you. You can come over to my house and fawk my sister.

Seriously, many shops will quote you a high price so you get pissed and go away. I've had a speed shop that told me up front "Our mechanics prefer to work on the C5 and up.".

My friend stop taking C4's at his shop because he had nothing but problems, he had one car a few times that came to him after the owner had the car at a local dealer. No matter what he did the car had problems and one day he just sent it to the guy on a flatbed, no charge just don't bring it back it was costing him a fortune in time to deal with all the issues. He will work on anything LSX, C5/6/7, Camaro,etc......even old school hot rods, my Jeep :lol: and other stuff but he refuses to deal with C4's

Good luck!

Mechanics are a dying breed, they're mostly replaced with parts swappers now. No idea what they're doing, would rather take easy money installing headers or an exhaust than actually doing work. I guess you cant blame them, if you can increase your profit per hour by only tackling easy jobs, it's the mart business move.

Watch out. Mechanics have gotten pissed at me for saying that here.

Wow surprised to hear shops don't want to work on C4's...what makes them so different from other Chevy small blocks?

What's the worst that happens, they refuse to work on my c4? Not like I have others do much anyways.

I have never had an issue getting the alignments i let others do on my c4, lol.

Old horrible build quality.
Difficult to source quality parts
Difficult to do simple tasks
Most C4's are cheap, and owners don't take care of them
Cheap owners

I think it is more thst the tech is old and they have not worked on them so can't beat book time. Thst means they fix it and eat the loss. Also if something breaks, it is harder to replace. Motor and trans are easy. It may be the body parts that are hard to come by.

A mechanic took in my C4 for power steering and it sat in their yard for over a couple months while the hose was being manufactured. Thing is that they don't know when it will be made so it becomes a waiting game. They did not want to take it apart till we get the hoses so could not fabricate anything. Sure he regretted taking my case and probably wishing he had said he doesn't want to work on it.

Our new club sponsor (Chevy/Buick Dealership) said they don't do a lot but will work on C4's as they have 2 guys proficient on them. Said the biggest issue they have is finding parts in a timely fashion. I asked about 'what if' we bring the parts in with the car, would they install them? They said yes, they'd warrant the install but obviously not the actual part as they didn't provide it. If you're confident of your parts, it's a workable solution.

I believe there are two places I would be looking if I lived in your area OP...

Lingenfelter... they arent THAT close, but do-able.

For the rear end I would contact RPM. They are just over in Indiana a bit from you. They might not list C4's, but C4 gears are stupid easy to set so they should be able to get you taken care of. Also any offroad shop should be capable of doing gears in a C4 rear end.

Only difficulty is parts availability ; all Corvettes will fall into that category. C4-C6 all have various parts availability issues, C6 owners get more excited because of it. The C4 is still a relitively simple car to work on, other than having to be a contortionist. Explaining to any owner they owe hundreds of dollars and their cars isn't repaired ;because the part required isn't available isn't fun. Many times owners don't want to pay the bill. Shop owner is stuck storing car and possibly going through the legal hassle of getting a title to recover costs. Some shop owners don't want the headaches of old cars. There are dealers that won't work on customer cars older than those with factory tech support.

These two, yes. The others listed, not so much.

Old horrible build quality - Such a thrill to work on the interior and wonder which piece of plastic in the dash/center console is going to break upon removal
Difficult to source quality parts - As things get discontinued, wheel bearings, ABS Sesnors, FX3 parts, reproduction interior parts that don't fit, bad opti's.
Difficult to do simple tasks - Changing spark plugs or plug wires on an LT1 compared to LS motors, waterpump (don't want to douche the opti)

Same as virtually any other car that has plastic trim (all cars) and certainly any other car from that era.


Wheel bearings, huh? I just bought a wheel bearing last Wednesday from Rock Auto. Came Friday. $32. Cheap/easy/fast. The rest of those parts are manageable too.


I'd way, WAY rather change the plugs on my LT1 than my wife's CTS-V. I haven't found anything on a C4 to be outstandingly difficult other than the heater core. The things you listed are non-issues -especially compared to other cars


BUT EITHER WAY....if it's "SOOOOO F'n hard", shouldn't the hours be there for the job? Yes, they should. So why should a tech turn down that job? They shouldn't. If the job pays, it pays. What the jobs DON'T pay for is:
...and for that, the shop should size up the owner and their goals, then decide if the job is worth taking or not. Has nothing to do with a particular car.