Long story short... A garage lifted the car on the rockers and screwed the whole car up and I am in court in a few weeks over it.

I need some sort of pictures/diagrams/resources to present to the judge to show where it should be lifted and to show where the shop lifted it (To show how dumb the workers were.)

I cant seem to find any pictures just generally searching to help me so I figured I would try here...

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Oh man!!!! What a bummer! That will absolutely trash one of these cars, total it instantly, as I'm sure you already know by now.

The jack instruction label that comes with the car has a fairly clear diagram. It's on the inside of the cover of the compartment where the spare goes.

You might want to contact Helm Inc., or maybe Helm Publishing Inc. (somewhere in MI not too far from Detroit) which is the company that prints service manuals for Chevrolet, and get the body manual for your specific car... it will have that info, and is pretty hard to refute in court as being valid documentation for the car. The owner's manual might have something useful, I don't recall for sure.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."

 

SRS,

Welcome aboard! Sorry your first posting has to be under such circumstances. It's a lot more enjoyable when someone has an issue with a modification than a problem such as your's. But the purpose of the board is to offer advice and assistance where possible. I hope you can get your problem resolved to your satisfaction.

Your best ammunition is to get a GM factory service manual for the vehicle. This should show the factory recommended lift points. If the defense wants to dispute the recommendations of the people that designed and built the vehicle, wish them luck - they'll need a lot of it.

You might even be able to visit your local dealership service department and ask for copies of the necessary pages. Try not to tell them the whole story, since there can be a comraderie between garages when it comes to neglegence claims such as this.

If nothing else, buy a manual for about $80.00 from Helms (they print the factory service manuals). You'll have some compelling evidence and a very complete manual for your next ThirdGen.

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Later,
Vader
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"I cannot take this any more... Saying everything I've said before..."
Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0

 

Owners Manual that was supplied with the car is worthless... they just say to use the supplied jack on the tab on the rockers -- which is not where you will lift the car 6 feet up for 8 hours and do alot of work on it

I have the dealership looking for some sort of information but they are not coming up with anything -- its sort of obvious where you shouldnt lift it.. and its not printed on anything they have looked at so far

the main service manager is going to have a look tomorrow for me --- so far they are alot more helpful then I would of thought


heres pictures that shows SOME of the damage
http://chaotic.webjump.com/car/car.html
Estimates for repairs are @ $2000 but it has more wrong then the basic estimates covered so if I get my way the shop will have to give me KBB value for the car and hopefully the car salvaged -- it will not hold up in a wreck with cracks on the main structural pieces from the twisting

btw -- thx



[This message has been edited by SRS (edited January 09, 2001).]

 

SRS,

The Owners' Manual is pretty worthless, which is why I suggested a factory SERVICE manual.



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Later,
Vader
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"I cannot take this any more... Saying everything I've said before..."
Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0

 

yep, all technical manuals SUCK!! for places to lift or cars. They are not even notifiable frame rails. If you are going to court I would recomment compiling a list of the multiple different types of lifts that can be used and the various structural points: ie front crossmember, frame rails, lower control arms(with the right kind of jack and not for the longest time), rear axel housing(with the right type again) and ofcoarse a drive on ramp. Regardless, if a shop hurts your car they are responsible, that is the bottom line which you will be argueing in court, is that they are liable for hurting your car regardless of how they were negligent.

 

Vader.. I meant that in respect to this:
"The jack instruction label that comes with the car has a fairly clear diagram."

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I found *1* picture in the haynes manual that shows the car with the lift points being the subframes.. Its in a picture showing the transmission so it does not go out far enough to show the rockers -- this is similar to what I need since I have pictures already showing where they lifted the car

Like the saying.. a picture is worth a 1000 words... Being able to show the judge how they screwed up is what is best

 

SRS, we are in the same boat.
I have had the same done to my car. Actually, mine is worse. My front quarter panels have been pulled under the car.
I'll get the picture electronically tonight.

I don't remember seeing anything about correct placement or lift points for garage lifts. Any help on how to resolve this situation is welcome.

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West Coast Performance
1989 Formula 305 TBI

 

I'll see if I can take a picture of the label in my car or something. Also I have the Helms service manual (not the body manual, unfortunately) for it so I'll look there and see what I can find.

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."

 

alright
thanks alot