| ....... continued So we were still down in the bush and the car was in Katherine. But only for a month or so, if that. Then we, too, moved to Katherine. But we didn't have a car and we got about on push bikes. My wife pregnant at the time. At first the car went to a panel beater. He started off by claiming the car couldn't be started! I'd years of history, you'll remember, of starting this car after long absences and I'd just driven it to Alan's place before all of this, and now they were claiming it wouldn't run! I couldn't convince him otherwise. He didn't care, of course. He just wanted to do his bit and get his money. That was his slice of the action. I was just put on notice that the car had now deteriorated to the state of non-goer. He also arranged for the front seat to be recovered. A most basic job in something like coarse grey sailcloth cost me $100. He did the repair to the damage that Alan had done. The quality of his work can be seen on one of the pics. But he was fairly quick. Charged me some $400 as I remember, for the other work that he claimed needed doing to get the car registered, a little rust in the corner of one door, the rusted through line across the tailgate. I paid him. And I paid the seat covering man. And the car went next door, to the mechanic and we were back where we were some months ago when the car went in to Alan - waiting for the results of the rego check. After a week or so I phoned up and got told this and that needed doing, it didn't look like much, he couldn't say until he looked at it more closely and he'd let me know. And we waited and we waited and he never let me know. And I from time to time gave a ring and finally - after months - got told that 'good news' it's all ready, I'll have it ready next week. But next week came and there was bad news. They'd been driving it back from the auto electricians, they (he) claimed, as the last thing that had needed doing before it was completely necessary for rego - and they'd broken the 'coffee pot'. That's the assembly around the steering column just underneath the steering wheel into which the gearstick goes. Notoriously fragile, legend has it. So they'd broken it. What to do? Oh, I'll get another one, he told me. All I had to do was wait. And wait I did. Wait and wait and wait. For a year. Of course I called. Used the phone. Called. Never once got a phone back from the mechanic. Graham, the name of this fellow, Graham. Very plausible sounding fellow, very hearty, very friendly. Suck you right in. But nothing happened. And mostly when I called I couldn't get him and his staff gave no information - so nothing I could do but either call back later, except ask them to get him to give me a call. Which he never did. In one year, until after I took the car back, he never once returned a call. Why did it drag on so much? How could I possibly let it happen? Well, he's plausible. Got winning ways, and much experience of talking his customers into what he wants them to believe. He had me waiting and believing. Believing that we were waiting for hard to get parts. And the parts would come only to turn out to be no good and had to be sent back, and wait again for replacements. All of this for the coffee pot. Eventually he claimed to have gotten a steering column - but after months of trying they couldn't get it in properly, couldn't make it work. Prior to that he'd had one or two coffee pots only for them to turn out to be for an automatic, not a manual. Then we went back to waiting. Until eventually I'd had enough and I decided to get the car back from him if it wasn't ready in a couple of weeks. He talked me into stretching that to a month. He claimed I wouldn't get the car back until he was satisfied it was roadworthy! That's an incredible laugh when all is considered. He claimed he'd much rather it were in his yard where he could look after it. That, too, is an incredible laugh. Anyway I got it back. I paid him $750 and paid for a tilt tray to truck the car to my place in Katherine. How could I be so stupid? This is where I was now: more than a year after giving the car to Alan - DRIVING the car to Alan I was now nearly a thousand dollars out of pocket, had suffered a year of travelling by bicycle and seen my wife at five, six and seven months pregnant having to use a bicycle to get around and my car was now without a steering column and undrivable and dropped in my back yard like a piece of junk. How could I be so stupid? Because I was beside myself with rage. It was either shut up and pay up and get the thing and go away or get a gun and kill the bastard. I was blind with rage. I was incapable of figuring any other way out. In my little life it was an insanity as great to me as the insane wars in Iraq, the Congo, etc., etc., are to those people, I imagine. I just couldn't believe what I was learning about the people I was mixing with, was living with, doing business with, sharing the Northern Territory with. So I didn't commit any crimes or do any violence. I got my car back and I decided I'd fix it myself if at all possible and if not possible I'd pay someone and I'd watch them minute by minute as they did it. So what is all this fuss about, exactly, what was so wrong, what was the injustice, the wrongdoing, the 'insanity' ? Well it's about meeting three people in a row who didn't live up to expectations. The middle one, the panel beater, wasn't so bad, but he wasn't so good, either. But Alan who neglected then damaged the car and then shuffled it off and betrayed no further concern, then the panel beater who did his thing and colluded in the deterioration and downgrading, 'rubbishing' of the car and culminating in Graham who kept the car for a year, displayed extreme neglect and failure of duty of care and never came anywhere near performing as a 'car fixer', a 'repair shop', and who had the hide to demand money for the car and who actually stole parts of my car. (Don't forget, these XY parts daily become harder to get and more precious). And it's about the state of the car when I got it back, dumped in my yard by the tilt tray (for which I had to pay - final indignity). And after all this fuss and commotion, what was the state of the car? Well, here's a bit of a list of shortcomings I found in no particular order but just as they occurred to me: front seat job poor I was charged again for the front seat front seatbelt too short for putting seat forward front seatbelt not XY. stole my original XY buckles for the seatbelt stole XY indicator lever stole XY indicator mechanism stole XY 'coffee pot' stole XY steering column returned to me with a disfunctional steering column they (and I) couldn't fit cooked door rubbers one side by leaving car in the sun for a year blew up the petrol tank by (apparently) blowing back at great pressure or cooking in the sun gunked up all the petrol lines (probably) by cooking in the sun claimed it was out of petrol when I found 3 or 4 gallons in it lied about having worked on the petrol tank (see above) left car in open with windows open for one year - through the wet car full of blown gumleaves, twigs, rubbish, damp when I took the car back ($750!) they didn't even clean that mess up lied about putting car in shed over xmas claimed ready for rego when handbrake cable stuck claimed wipers worked on when obviously never touched claimed ready for rego when back brakes frozen on standing water rusted out footwells standing water rusted petrol tank ruined a new battery he never said one true thing that I know of So when I got it back I found it truly wouldn't start. It wouldn't even pump petrol. I took the petrol pump apart and found a stuck valve. Released it and it worked fine. Pumped petrol. That, of course, is after I had put in another battery to replace the new one I'd bought prior to driving to Alan's. I got the engine to turn over and was relieved to find it didn't bang or clang or blow up. I'd been frightened the bastards might have thrashed the car around with no oil in it - who knows what they might have done, people who by their own admission had broken the coffee pot.... But the petrol was full of gunk. It was even in the petrol pump. It came out of the lines. It was in the filters. I put new filters in and cleaned the lines and took the tank out. I found at least a cupfull of dirt in the tank. I still don't know if it was 'dirt' - dust from the countryside - or rust from inside the tank or some other foreign matter. I've got a matchbox full of it and I'll get it analysed someday. So I cleaned out the tank and put it all back and started her up and she ran fine. I released the back brake and worked it somewhat and it seemed fine. Though it wasn't really and later, much later, I finished up having to replace the wheel cylinders with the help of a friend, Lennie, who showed me how to do it. That was after three trips to a (different) mechanic who each time claimed the wheel cylinders were alright and blamed water in the hydraulic fluid or somesuch. They were not alright. They were badly gunked up and though not rusty they had a 'ledge' inside, around the cylinder wall. I had to drive some hundreds of miles to Darwin with virtually no brakes but the handbrake because of this, after taking the car to a mechanic specifically to check the brakes and make the car safe for this trip with the family. That's all much later, though. Then I had to fix the wiring for the tail lights and brake lights. Then for good measure I got the carburettor reconditioned. Excellent job that was. I sprayed half the car. Not a very good job. Because I'd never done it before and didn't have the right equipment. My compressor wasn't powerful enough to drive the gun, so I could only spray a two inch strip at a time. It didn't have enough power to blow out a decent fan pattern. But something had to be done. Alan's damage as repaired by the panel beater left the rear panel battleship grey. And without the chrome strip. And without the fasteners to replace the chrome strip. I did what I could and it improved the look of her a great deal. Then I put in a new steering column. I found one on eBay. While Graham was claiming they'd cost about $250 and he couldn't get one anyway I managed to get one within a couple of days from eBay, for much less money even including cartage. I didn't have the expertise to put it in. Didn't actually have a clue. But I was fortunate to meet an old friend who wanted to have a look at the problems I'd told him about the steering column currently in the car. The one from Alan that they'd buggered around with for weeks and claimed to be unable to fix. He came around to my place a struggled and struggled with the old column. When I saw how determined he seemed to be to get it in I decided to tell him about the new (second hand) column I had. When I showed him that he was overjoyed and he managed to pull the crook one out and whack in the new one within an hour or so. A wonderful piece of help. The only help I'd had up to that time. I might have been able to do it myself but I might not. It was and is much appreciated. Thanks, Albert. I took the car back to Alan - drove it back - and he put in a new handbrake cable. Or so he claimed. I didn't see it and I didn't see him put it in but that's what is supposed to have happened. I guess it probably did but what can I believe from that man forever into the future? All the rust in the footwells needed cutting out and new floorplate sticking in and it all needed weatherproofing, painting, I did all that. Then the door rubbers on the side of the car that had been exposed to the sun all day, every day, for a year needed silicone cement and replacements and whatever I could do. The windscreen wipers didn't work. Cleaning the contacts and little lubrication got them working. New wiper blades make them do a good job. That was all the main work. I think that's about it. And ALL of that was work to fix what Alan and Graham had broken. ALL of that was fixing what 'reputable' mechanics had destroyed - AND had the hide to charge me money for. I'm sick of the whole thing. What a dreary thing it is to describe the doings of such people. But these pages will remain here with this description while ever they are in business, as a warning to others. And I'll add photographs of those people and their establishments. Now perhaps we can all turn our attention to more pleasant and beautiful things, more human and interesting, uplifting, hopeful, sensible... :) Return to Front Page |