Shop lost my front LCA's - F-Body Road Racing and Autocross Forums

A little history first. I wanted to try out the Spohn front heim endlinks, but that required drilling out the bolt hole on the LCA's. I didn't want to damage my factory LCA's, so I bought a used set. Back around March 2018, we re-installed the used set with the heim joints and I asked the tech to press out the old bushings from my old arms. He said he'd try to do it on the side in his free time, just give him something like $20. A couple of times since then I'd text the tech asking for the status on finishing the arms, and he never got around to it. A couple of weeks ago, the tech had an opportunity he couldn't pass up and he left the shop. He supposedly left my arms there and other techs saw the arms, and the shop owner says they didn't throw anything out, but they cannot be found.

He offered to locate a used set of arms to replace them, and I sent him the specific part numbers last week via FB messenger. I'm leery of buying used suspension parts since the 'known good' front UCA's I bought caused an alignment problem. If he can't find the correct arms, perhaps I'll ask for cash or labor credit but I've given the shop a helluva lot of work in the past year or two and they regularly give me labor discounts. But after the tech announced he left and before I knew they had lost the arms, I was considering going to another shop for race work and fabrication. The tech was the only GM tech (20+ years of GM experience) this shop had but they had a guy with equal Ford training. I'm leaning towards requesting cash instead of credit so I'm not tied to their shop.

If the shop owner cannot find the correct OEM LCA's, what do you think adequate compensation would be?

JimMueller View Member Profile	Jul 28 2018, 02:21 PM Post #1
Experienced Member Group: Advanced Members Posts: 1,693 Joined: 15-February 04 From: Casselberry FL Member No.: 206	A little history first. I wanted to try out the Spohn front heim endlinks, but that required drilling out the bolt hole on the LCA's. I didn't want to damage my factory LCA's, so I bought a used set. Back around March 2018, we re-installed the used set with the heim joints and I asked the tech to press out the old bushings from my old arms. He said he'd try to do it on the side in his free time, just give him something like $20. A couple of times since then I'd text the tech asking for the status on finishing the arms, and he never got around to it. A couple of weeks ago, the tech had an opportunity he couldn't pass up and he left the shop. He supposedly left my arms there and other techs saw the arms, and the shop owner says they didn't throw anything out, but they cannot be found. He offered to locate a used set of arms to replace them, and I sent him the specific part numbers last week via FB messenger. I'm leery of buying used suspension parts since the 'known good' front UCA's I bought caused an alignment problem. If he can't find the correct arms, perhaps I'll ask for cash or labor credit but I've given the shop a helluva lot of work in the past year or two and they regularly give me labor discounts. But after the tech announced he left and before I knew they had lost the arms, I was considering going to another shop for race work and fabrication. The tech was the only GM tech (20+ years of GM experience) this shop had but they had a guy with equal Ford training. I'm leaning towards requesting cash instead of credit so I'm not tied to their shop. If the shop owner cannot find the correct OEM LCA's, what do you think adequate compensation would be?

JimMueller View Member Profile	Aug 10 2018, 05:20 PM Post #2
Experienced Member Group: Advanced Members Posts: 1,693 Joined: 15-February 04 From: Casselberry FL Member No.: 206	Subsequent follow-up attempts with the shop owner have fallen on deaf ears. Looking at my transactions with the shop, I spent $2700 in labor with them in the past 18 months on 11 visits and they regularly gave me labor discounts for being a good customer. Since they thought I was a good customer, I was just hoping they'd work with me on the value, even if it was only applied as a credit towards future labor. Oh well, off to another shop. Edit: Shop owner replied to me a few days ago, he will convert value of lost parts to labor credit. This post has been edited by JimMueller: Aug 17 2018, 03:59 AM