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My youngest daughter was involved in an accident where someone tried to drive straight from the left turn lane and basically drove into her car from drivers door to the bumper. Bunch of wrinkled and scratched sheet metal to go along with a busted off driver side mirror. That mirror was the reason it needed to be towed. We have a safety inspection law in Pennsylvania and a vehicle that doesn’t meet those requirements isn’t allowed to be operated on the public roadway.

I had a moron who didn’t want to pay to have his car diagnosed, which was overheating in traffic due to the cooling fan(s) NOT coming on. The issue would likely take an hour or less to diagnose, plus parts to repair…..we were not talking about a large diagnostic bill OR parts bill at all in all likelihood….he opted to run a LARGE,unfused power wire into the passenger compartment of his car to a household light switch, then the wire that was hot when switched on (also unfused) back through the firewall out to his fan. He ran a ground wire directly from the battery to the fan ground, and had all of this “BEAUTIFUL” wiring put together with wire nuts & electrical tape.I do believe anyone with any experience knows what happened next…. he inevitably caught his car on fire when the unfused power source running from the battery to the light switch rubbed through the sheet metal of the firewall began essentially arc-welding and caught other parts on fire and the car burned. Luckily no one was injured.In essence this was likely a $100 to $150 repair bill, depending what the actual issue was and how long it took to find the actual fault that turned into a total loss of a pretty clean vehicle. I have no idea if the car had full coverage/comprehensive coverage on it, or if a fire caused by moronic electrical “repairs” negates an insurance policy….insurance is not my career. It is something I have to purchase just like everyone else.I never had to fix it as the car was a total loss….but it is the dumbest DIY’er “event” I’ve witnessed so far in my 30+ year professional career…..and I’ve seen some sheer stupidity performed by some “supposedly” intelligent people!I had a similar moronic customer.. one who’s kitchen’s STARTED at $30,000.00 to even get him to CONSIDER him doing the work…….. I’ll never knock anyone’s right to be paid what they’re worth, and he was obviously in demand as he had no qualms with telling people outright that he was not the right contractor for them. He apparently must have been very good and highly rated as everyone I knew who had him do work raved about his quality…so at the very least he was a true professional, at least once upon a time! My point with this information is that he was SEEMINGLY never lacking for money, though as his garage of choice you’d SWEAR his family was starving, he had 3 babies using old newspapers as diapers…..you know the sob stories.. I am certain you’ve heard more than your fair share of them as well.This was on a 2006 or 2007 Chevy 2500 HD 4x4. The brake lines were gone, just not blown out yet by some small miracle.just like every other truck’s brake lines after 4–7 years thanks to PennDOT’s “Liquid Vehicle Dissolving Solution” that they apply to the roads before, during and after even a single snowflake falls! I don’t know what this shit is made of, but I do know that PennDOT’s frame’s on their trucks are literally not lasting 4 years!He stops by one afternoon to make an appointment for a PA State inspection, PA Emissions Inspection & lube, oil & filter change…. of course he wants it done RIGHT NOW despite the overfull parking lot, a tow in on jack stands blocking one of my driveways and every bay occupied with every tech buzzing around just like a well operated shop should be functioning.I immediately notice, without leaving the office, he has a large crack going across his windshield and inform him he needs to have that addressed before I can even consider inspecting it. You would swear I kicked his dog as he erupts, bitching at me for being “a dickhead”, bitching PA for not allowing a cracked windshield to pass a safety inspection etc etc etc…..he asks me how much to install a windshield and I hand him a card for the one window company that we actually trusted. That sets him off again, as now he has to get a ride from this garage that’s 5 miles away instead of just dropping it off in my lot and walking around the corner to go home.Well, his truck never came in unless it needed to be inspected or it had broke down. Now that was catching up to him. 3 of the 4 tires failed, and the 4th was right on the border, so there’s no sense in him NOT buying 4 new tires…….the front brakes are wiped out and the r/f inner pad had been into the rotro for at least a few days…..his rear U-joint was literally falling apart, his emergency brake shoe lining was no longer in existence, nor were the backing plates and the rear rotors had roughly 1/2″ of stopping surface that wasn’t rust on the inner side and not a hell of a lot more on the outer side. The worst of it all the brake lines were all crusty, scaly and ready to blow at any instant…..and all of the bleeder screws were long missing the bleeder caps and rotted semblances of what they once were….. The ICING ON THE CAKE was thanks to him being “as good as any “PROFESSIONAL” mechanic, he saved himself THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of dollars…well, being such the consummate “professional” he neglected to ever grease the idler & pitman arms “because he got covered in shit every single time he tried to reach up there to get to those zerk fittings” and his l/f lower ball joint was “woofed”.Needless to say, when I called him he insisted I leave the truck on the lift so he can “verify” what I told him. I explained to him the truck was already out back and if he wanted to verify anything he could borrow a creeper and a flashlight, but neither I nor any of my techs were going under the truck with him. He came storming over and damn near ripped my aluminum framed door from the frame (not literally) and was insistent I show him exactly why his idler/pitman, Rt lbj, brake lines, e brake shoes, backing plates, rear rotors, calipers ( told him I’d attempt to open the bleeders and “usually could”, except being he threw away the factory caps when he did the 1st brake job on the truck…odds were truly against him!) and I told him if he didn’t trust me, pay what he owed me, get the hell out of my shop and NEVER come back! (oil/filter change, emissions inspection & PA state inspection failure charge which altogether was just over $85.00)The next day he calls asking for an estimate. I ask him what kind of tire he was looking for and he tells me don’t worry about the tires. I tell him there was no way in hell I’d put a sticker on that truck no matter how much work I did to it without new tires and he hangs up….calls back. I warn him that one more instance of him flying off of the handle and we’re done, forever! I can’t recall how much the estimate was, but it was into thousands of dollars as the brake lines on those alone were going for $1000.00 as the gas tank had to come down to properly route the line to the rear hose and the cab had to be jacked off of the frame a few inches to give enough room to “finagle” those lines from the master cylinder down to the ABS pump then from the ABS pump out to every wheel with the R/F wheel being roughly a 15′ piece of line (I use the AC Delco kits as they are plastic encapsulated lines that I’ve never seen fail after installation and I have some on the road for WELL over a decade now…..plus the calipers, front brakes, rotors, rear brakes, drain the rear differential, pull the axles, remove what little was left of the backing plates install all new parts there…bleed the ABS/flush the master cylinder, do the front end work & alignment, 4 10 ply tires and the cheap bastard almost flips out again, but sees me raise my eyebrows and says he’ll do the brake himself.I had honestly forgotten about this idiot and his truck when about a month later, out of the blue, he stops by and tells me he’s good to go for his sticker. I tell him to have a seat, I’ll get his truck on a rack within 15–20 minutes to check everything and all of a sudden he’s asking me what I’m looking for, why do I have to “verify” his work…..Well, I knew he didn’t bleed the ABS as soon as I started the truck as there was next to no pedal and both the brake & ABS lights are illuminated. I CAREFULLY pull the truck in, apply the parking brake and the pedal was incredibly hard to move then BANG! and it went to the floor. I see him coming into my shop space out of the corner of my eye and tell him under no circumstances is he allowed in the garage with myself and 3 other techs as busy as hell. I get it in the air and I couldn’t help it…I burst out laughing so hard that 2 of my guys came running over immediately.He apparently doesn’t have a double flare or bubble flare kit, tubing cutter etc as every single line was as long as the day it was sold to him at whatever autoparts store. He had two lines wrapped around the front drive shaft as he couldn’t make the long lines fit. The line to the rear was wrapped around the transmission crossmember to shorten it enough (that’s my guess) and he literally drilled 3/16″ holes along the bottom of the driver’s side frame rail, bought some fine thread self tapping bolts and clamps and secured the rear brake line directly to the base of the frame rail, a huge ziptie holding it to the rear differential (until the suspension has to move, then I guess it’s a battle of the last part standing! He didn’t replace a single caliper, snapped all of the bleeders flush and apparently attempted to bleed them by disconnecting the brake hoses and getting out as much air as he possibly could,I couldn’t take it anymore. My top tech started snapping pics with his cell phone as I dug out my inspection book to document every failure. PA is funny in that if you miss anything when you fail a vehicle, you can actually be nailed for that…..so I now had to go over this NOW POS (piece O’ Shit!) with a fine toothed comb to cover my ass. I then escorted the customer into the shop and while keeping him within 6″ of my & my top tech at all times (I didn’t trust this guy as far as i could spit, especially now, and wanted to make sure if he were to “accidentally/intentionally slip, he’d never fall as both of us were big into lifting and we were there to ensure he’d never hit the floor or anything else. He argued for a little while….then I saw an item I missed…where the brand new rear brake line that was attached to the base of the left side frame rail…..there was a crushed section of line where his jack was used to lift that part of the truck after he had installed that brake line.He begged, pleaded etc….asked for a payment plan where he’d pay $100.oo a month and I told him to either come up with all of the money up front, put it on a charge card, get a home equity loan or whatever as there was no chance in hell I was going to “carry” that much of a parts bill especially after the constant bullshit he continually pulled throughout the years.A month later I saw him in a brand new Chevy 1500….with all of the same equipment he carried in the 2500HD, meaning that poor half ton was doomed as it was overloaded from the start and being he was such an awesome “professional” mechanic that poor truck would NEVER see a single proper repair, would never be maintained anywhere near half as often as it should be etc etc…..But…to this day….every single time I have to do brake lines I literally “SEE” those 2 brake lines literally wrapped around the front driveshaft! I never thought I could see something THAT STUPID, THAT OBVIOUS….with the guy who performed the job initially bragging about how awesome he was because he saved himself all kinds of money!I will have to see if my former top tech still has those pictures…….. they’re literally priceless…..the “home made” sheet metal backing plates that did absolutely NOTHING for the rear e-brake (he never changed the shoes that lost the friction lining, the rear rotors etc etc) were also hilarious….. He HAD to have spent 20–30 hours “fabricating” and installing all of his “awesome” repairs…..and as I mention in the beginning..this was a very busy, very well known high end kitchen installation contractor with a very good reputation. I don’t know if he got himself into financial trouble, got caught screwing around on the wife and she was torturing him afterwards or what…the entire ordeal was surreal.

I owned garages, a body shop and an auto upholstery shop and my team regularly refurbished meaning flipped cars. Lots of people cannot afford to pay for expensive repairs. California required holding and waiting then has a long process to put on a mechanic’s lien to finally get the title so you can either do more work on the vehicle or sell it. Most shops do not have the storage space to hold these vehicles. They would sell them to us for cash for some fraction of what was owed, or have us tow and put them in storage adding towing and high storage fees to the owed repair bills. We processed the paperwork for all and most title holders meaning lenders and family members who let others use their cars chose to not pay these large expenses. Only a few signed over the titles. forcing us through months of waiting to force default and title going to us. My team inspected all and repair estimates were made. Based on those mechanical, bodywork and upholstery numbers most vehicles got sold to auction as is, but my managers chose the best to be refurbished. Most were done for our own employees but that is another story. Key is most went to auction, meaning more than 90% because the cost to make repairs often greatly exceeded what the car would sell for.If your truck has heavy rust on the underside and is not a classic worth a lot of money or a very new truck where the rust has not had time to destroy, then most likely we would have never restored it. We learned that with older vehicles the heavy rust you can see means there is a lot you cannot see and repairs will often exceed the value of the vehicle. You have to media blast, then replace or repair the damaged areas. If there are no available replacement parts have to be made and that requires a lot of expertise with sheet metal, MIG and TIG welding that most do no have.If your truck is old, not a classic worth much, and not really worth the high cost to restore, you can make temporary repairs that will slow the spread of the rust and make it look a little better. You can do manual scraping and wire brush followed by using one of the rust type primers then paints (Rustoleum) and you will end up with some more life depending on how bad the rust. I have a well to do farmer friend who keeps his old Chevy truck going forever and the rust has already eaten holes in his hood, fenders, doors and bed. If anything leaks he covers that area in duct tape…