Shoddy Steering Column Restoration - I Was Burned!

Thanks for the advice Ken. I really don't want much out of it. It would have been nice to have a salable column (my old column shift job) to sell, and of course, I can't tell you how much I like working on columns...L-O-L. But I think what I'd like most is for the people involved to act like men and own up to the fact they have a wee problem with quality (or perhaps never had any to begin with). I'd also like them to fully appreciate the fact they are, in the end, playing with people's lives with junk like this. That might ultimately save someone some agony or injury down the road.

It is kind of interesting though because I suspect they're now dragging their feet, waiting for an attorney or six to look this over. I thought of that for a bit, then called the NHTSA. The nice man there was all ears. His suggestion was that in addition, I should contact the folks at the Federal Trade Commission in America and share my findings. He also thought Transport Canada (our version of the DOT) would find it rather interesting too. As I now understand it, and as Steve (above) has made mention of, these folks certainly don't take tampering with safety equipment lightly.

When I spoke with the outfit that built the column this AM, I told him I was inclined to link this posting to other Nova, Camaro, Chevelle, GTO, Firebird sites. I haven't done that yet, nor have I made a formal complaint to the NHSTA, the FTC and TC although I suspect Karma might have the ultimate say [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

Anyway, I'll keep everyone informed, one way or the other.

Wayne

BTW: Ken, you have a PM on the way.

[njsteve]

If they were smart (the lawyers, I mean) they would have immediately advised the guy to send someone to your shop to collect the evidence...er parts, and handed you a full cash refund plus a hefty &quot;inconvenience fee&quot; for your troubles. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img]

This should get interesting real fast.

[Charley Lillard]

It sounds like the columns you see at swap meets that are spray painted to look new but not much else. Guy doing it in his garage to columns he gets from wrecking yards. Some of these guys probably supply the larger vendors. The large vendor will probably make it right but the guy in his garage that is actually doing them probably spent his money on making the rent.

Good news for me at least: The folks I bought the column from are standing behind it and they're providing me with a full refund. And from now on (for me, this is the most important part), they're going to carefully inspect every column they get from the builder. As you can well imagine, the guy I bought if from isn't very happy about it either. He has a business to run and obviously can't afford to have crap like this.

Wayne [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]