phall92139
New member
After 18 months, “Stinky†is finally back in fighting form; not just ready to wheel but wheel in confidence! However, it has been after many long, frustrating, and expensive lessons learned that she’s ready to roll again.
Some may remember that I had a fire under my Jeep while it was parked in the garage back on 25 November 2008. I was fortunate to contain and extinguish the fire but not before significant damage was done to the Jeep. Thankfully, the fire was limited to the engine compartment although anything that could burn, melt, or explode, did so. A brand new Optima Yellow Top…boom! Radiator…blam! Halogen rock lights…ka-pow! Nearly every piece of electrical wire had the insulation burned off. Windshield washer reservoir melted, as did the oil fill cap, A/C drain, and anything else plastic. Coil rail cracked from the heat. Every electrical component, sensor, and Spod was also toast.
I’d love to be able to say I was capable of doing all the repair work myself but realistically, this was out of my league. So after contacting my insurance company I begin searching for a repair shop. Since I already was running a Nth Degree suspension lift and numerous other mods I decided a dealership was out of the question. The only serious 4X4 shop within reasonable distance was M.I.T. in El Cajon, and I could have used them but I happen to stumble on a custom car and truck shop called P.G. Series, ran by custom car guru Paul Garrett, also in El Cajon. His custom cars are seen in shows all over SoCal and his peers are guys like Chip Foose, or the late Boyd Coddington. After checking out his shop and speaking to Paul, I felt assured that he could handle the restoration of my Jeep. After all this wasn’t even real custom work, just putting things back to normal (for the most part).
My Jeep was delivered to him on the 2nd of December, ’08. Some $16,000 and 5 months later, my rig is returned to me. I’ve been correcting the crap that Paul Garrett and his crew of hack mechanics did to my Jeep ever since.
The list of incorrect, shoddy, or just down-right wrong work is long and exhaustive but to name just a few examples…
· SAE and Metric fasteners mixed and cross-threaded.
· Transmission supports (part of the Nth Degree system) cut with a reciprocating saw instead of unbolted and removed for access, then left uncorrected.
· Paid for new started, received NAPA reman.
· Bent-up and jimmy-rigged transfer case shift mechanism.
· Parts and pieces they couldn’t figure out were discarded or thrown away.
· Used wrong size bushing for replacement on lower control arm.
· And on, and on, and on, and on.
·
A lot of this stuff was discovered over time, not all at once. Some I found while doing routine maintenance, other stuff was found by my mechanic (the guy I should have taken it to in the first place).
I even had it into McCune Jeep (dealership) for a total of 4 weeks and they couldn’t even get the transfer case to shift correctly. At the cost of $1,900 dollars they did manage to replace a rear seal and change the fluids.
Finally, on May 8, 2010, I took the Jeep up to Quinn at ALL J PRODUCTS in Big Bear Lake, CA. This is the guy it should have gone to first and this is the only guy (or his crew) other than myself that will ever turn a wrench on her again. Quinn’s wife Heather runs the office and when she called last week to say my rig was ready to pick-up, I was ecstatic. After paying 50% less than what I paid the dealer and 94% less than what was stolen from me by P.G. Series, Stinky finally runs great again. Actually, even better than before ‘cause we’ve done some upgrades and mods along the way.
I haven’t had a chance to thrash it off-road yet but did take a 700 mile road trip in 90o-103o F. weather from San Diego to Bullhead City, AZ. on Sunday and Monday. “Stinky†ran fantastic with sustained speeds up to 77 mph, 6% grades, high heat and still averaged almost 14 miles per gallon. This is better mileage than I’ve had in a long, long time. I attribute most of this to the MCAI I can finally evaluate.
Anyway, that’s my story…Stinky’s back and looking forward to many years of off-road adventures. I am a happy man.
Oh, and also, if you ever in the Big Bear area and need superior quality, reasonably priced Jeep work done by a company that wheel’s like us and understands what we need, give Quinn and Heather a call. You will not be sorry.
Tell ‘em Phil sent you.
Some may remember that I had a fire under my Jeep while it was parked in the garage back on 25 November 2008. I was fortunate to contain and extinguish the fire but not before significant damage was done to the Jeep. Thankfully, the fire was limited to the engine compartment although anything that could burn, melt, or explode, did so. A brand new Optima Yellow Top…boom! Radiator…blam! Halogen rock lights…ka-pow! Nearly every piece of electrical wire had the insulation burned off. Windshield washer reservoir melted, as did the oil fill cap, A/C drain, and anything else plastic. Coil rail cracked from the heat. Every electrical component, sensor, and Spod was also toast.
I’d love to be able to say I was capable of doing all the repair work myself but realistically, this was out of my league. So after contacting my insurance company I begin searching for a repair shop. Since I already was running a Nth Degree suspension lift and numerous other mods I decided a dealership was out of the question. The only serious 4X4 shop within reasonable distance was M.I.T. in El Cajon, and I could have used them but I happen to stumble on a custom car and truck shop called P.G. Series, ran by custom car guru Paul Garrett, also in El Cajon. His custom cars are seen in shows all over SoCal and his peers are guys like Chip Foose, or the late Boyd Coddington. After checking out his shop and speaking to Paul, I felt assured that he could handle the restoration of my Jeep. After all this wasn’t even real custom work, just putting things back to normal (for the most part).
My Jeep was delivered to him on the 2nd of December, ’08. Some $16,000 and 5 months later, my rig is returned to me. I’ve been correcting the crap that Paul Garrett and his crew of hack mechanics did to my Jeep ever since.
The list of incorrect, shoddy, or just down-right wrong work is long and exhaustive but to name just a few examples…
· SAE and Metric fasteners mixed and cross-threaded.
· Transmission supports (part of the Nth Degree system) cut with a reciprocating saw instead of unbolted and removed for access, then left uncorrected.
· Paid for new started, received NAPA reman.
· Bent-up and jimmy-rigged transfer case shift mechanism.
· Parts and pieces they couldn’t figure out were discarded or thrown away.
· Used wrong size bushing for replacement on lower control arm.
· And on, and on, and on, and on.
·
A lot of this stuff was discovered over time, not all at once. Some I found while doing routine maintenance, other stuff was found by my mechanic (the guy I should have taken it to in the first place).
I even had it into McCune Jeep (dealership) for a total of 4 weeks and they couldn’t even get the transfer case to shift correctly. At the cost of $1,900 dollars they did manage to replace a rear seal and change the fluids.
Finally, on May 8, 2010, I took the Jeep up to Quinn at ALL J PRODUCTS in Big Bear Lake, CA. This is the guy it should have gone to first and this is the only guy (or his crew) other than myself that will ever turn a wrench on her again. Quinn’s wife Heather runs the office and when she called last week to say my rig was ready to pick-up, I was ecstatic. After paying 50% less than what I paid the dealer and 94% less than what was stolen from me by P.G. Series, Stinky finally runs great again. Actually, even better than before ‘cause we’ve done some upgrades and mods along the way.
I haven’t had a chance to thrash it off-road yet but did take a 700 mile road trip in 90o-103o F. weather from San Diego to Bullhead City, AZ. on Sunday and Monday. “Stinky†ran fantastic with sustained speeds up to 77 mph, 6% grades, high heat and still averaged almost 14 miles per gallon. This is better mileage than I’ve had in a long, long time. I attribute most of this to the MCAI I can finally evaluate.
Anyway, that’s my story…Stinky’s back and looking forward to many years of off-road adventures. I am a happy man.
Oh, and also, if you ever in the Big Bear area and need superior quality, reasonably priced Jeep work done by a company that wheel’s like us and understands what we need, give Quinn and Heather a call. You will not be sorry.
Tell ‘em Phil sent you.
