Where the hell has pride in workmanship gone?
Took my car to a very reputable towbar install place in December. Went over everything and confirmed a hayman reese bar, minimal bumper cut.
Car comes back with a cut as crooked as a dogs hind leg, rubbing the bar itself, and 2x the height required. Lucky it didn’t look crap once I got some pinchweld on it and tidied up.
Got it home and discovered a large scrape on the side of the bumper from where he rammed the bar in without loosening muffler mounts as stated in the instructions.
Was told ‘if’ its our fault then we will arrange fixing. Fortunately, since the chunk of gold plastic ripped out of the bumper was torqued down under the bar bracket, it was pretty bloody obvious it was there fault so I was told to take it to a well known (and recommended to me by others) panel repairer.
So after a 3x 1/2 hour round trips (drop off, pick up, take back to ‘see if it was there fault’) I rang the repairer – month wait for a quote, then another month to get it fixed (just got it done today).
Meanwhile, one night I get home and smell burning. Turned out the wiring harness wasn’t secured and ended up on top of the exhaust. No damage. While fixing that I wriggle where it went through and a random rubber grommet falls out. Pull the taillights out and find a mounting stud snapped clean off.
While under there I note that all the bolts securing it have “8.8 JDF” written on them, except one which says “OE 8.8”.
Didn’t think anymore of it.
Smash repair was hampered by a bracket incorrectly installed by the towbar people which meant the towbar had to be removed to get the bumper off.
After getting the car back today and carefully inspecting the paintwork, the smash repairer did a good job – though a bit of orange peel.
Look underneath and find 2x towbar mounting bolts look wonky. Wind them out and shocked at what I find
Long story short, the “OE” bolt was an m10x1.5. Old mate who put the bar on originally must have lost a bolt, so picked up a random m10 and sent it with the rattle gun.
The panel guys removed the bolts to get the bar off, then put them back in in a different order (which would have been fine if they were all 1.25 pitch) and also sent it.
So now I have 2x potentially naffed threads which I have to try to fix. Going to make up a thread chaser tomorrow and give it a crack. I really don't want to helicoil
Would have been easier to do it my bloody self
