John Pirkle

[Rick S.]

Re: John Pirkle

Nobody is questioning the quality of his work. Why say 8 weeks when you know damn well it will be more? Just say, 3 months, 6 months, a year or whatever. Some people here work on a timeline and if you say "8 weeks", we plan for 8 weeks. Body shops are the worst. 3 months really means 1 year. There is no reason not to tell the truth. Please, just give a realistic estimate.

Jim,
That's the point I am trying to make but many think I am questioning the quality of his work. Nothing is farther from the truth. I have complete faith in his work but I know of two people that have informed me of over a 1 year wait and the other going on a 2 year wait where they provided the part for restoration. Understand they stated "no hurry" or something similar. Both of these individuals are in the restoration/repair business.
Give me a reasonable estimate time of repair, no questions. An estimate of 8 weeks and we are now on the 18th week, well a patient man starts to lose his patience.
One other missed point is that I provided my parts to be restored and I am not waiting for John to find a rare part. Once again, my rant is off but my frustration continues.

[Patrick H.]

Re: John Pirkle

Jim,
That's the point I am trying to make but many think I am questioning the quality of his work. Nothing is farther from the truth. I have complete faith in his work but I know of two people that have informed me of over a 1 year wait and the other going on a 2 year wait where they provided the part for restoration. Understand they stated "no hurry" or something similar. Both of these individuals are in the restoration/repair business.
Give me a reasonable estimate time of repair, no questions. An estimate of 8 weeks and we are now on the 18th week, well a patient man starts to lose his patience.
One other missed point is that I provided my parts to be restored and I am not waiting for John to find a rare part. Once again, my rant is off but my frustration continues.

Hey Rick,

Just be happy you didn't send your carb to Jerry Luck.

Similar story of great quality but it's usually a year to get your carb back.

Patrick

[Jeremy D.]

Re: John Pirkle

Gotta Love the NCRS...poor fella voices his feelings towards a ludicrous amount of time to get his part back from the good Mr. Pirkle and everyone's gotta jump on the quality of work he does (I bet John can tell a fake '884 from a real one blindfolded...) The thing is, HE's the ONLY gentleman worth going to if you need an alternator/generator/whatever-else-he-does rebuilt. Being that I believe he is an NCRS Judge, I'd guess that the majority of restored cars he looks at have his work on them somewhere. I bet he gets a kick out of seeing all his work on all those cars. So, the man is busy.
For the past 2 years, I've given him alternators at Bloomington, gotten them back at Carlisle. In the meantime, I drive the car with a NAPA Gold rebuild off of a '75 Buick or something.
But, I agree, 18 weeks is pretty crazy for a gentleman who I bet could rebuild any alternator with one hand behind his back in 15 minutes flat. Ya'd think he'd knock a few bucks off of the restoration costs.....?
Naaah....that's against The Corvette Credo!!!

[Loren L.]

Re: John Pirkle

John's work needs no alibis; I also know little about his operation, ie, is it he and his son, or a cast of thousands?
Perhaps it might be of service to drag you into the 21st Century with a simple example - if John & son are at Corvettes at Carlisle in August and they give you a guesstimate, try to remember that if he is there on Thursday, they probably left GA on Tuesday and it will be the next Tuesday before they are home. What you have to try to remember is the question:
HOW MANY ALTERNATORS ARRIVE USPS, UPS, ET AL DURING THE WEEK THAT THEY WERE GONE?

If you've got a deadline problem, you need to declare it and offer extra $$ so that John can go out to the shop after diner and get it done.

[Mike M.]

Re: John Pirkle

Whoa, somebody got regular instead of decaf.
Typically in any restoration process specific timelines do not compute.
H.a.N.D.

[Stuart F.]

Re: John Pirkle

Col. John Pirkle, the sweet fellow that he is, is not the only game in town when it comes to Alternators, Starters, etc. Granted he does good work which is almost always recognized by NCRS. I had my Alternator rehabed through Chicago Corvette many moons ago and it came out fine - certainly good enough for judging. I had it back in two weeks and the only complaint I had was that they tried to pawn off a standard pully on me instead of my SHP deep groove. Another week or two after that and we had the correct pully back and mounted. I too believe in having spares about, just in case.

Stu Fox

[Mark D.]

Re: John Pirkle

When you bring up Chicago Corvette, this thread will really get interesting.

[Clem Z.]

Re: John Pirkle

i often wonder if the big companies like chicago corvette sent their stuff to guys like pirkle and because of the number of items they would send they get preferred treatment.

[Stuart F.]

Re: John Pirkle

Hey! That's why I brought it up! Mind you, my experience with Chicago Corvette was many years ago, and we moved out of the midwest over 4 years now also. I understand they have gone a little down hill since.

One point I would like to make though is; since I have been participating in this Tech Discussion venue, I have noticed there seems to be a lot of WHY things are done, and a fair amount of WHO to go to to get something done, but not near enough HOW to do something. In other words, I guess I was expecting something more like the "Corvette Restorer" with advice for us "Hands On" guys who don't know exactly the best way to do something, but are willing and able to try for the shear challenge and self satisfaction of doing things ourselves. Several questions that I submitted I received guidance on WHO I should send my parts to to have them done. Believe me, I'm not being ungrateful. I appreciate any and all advice I can get, but I hope we don't loose the individual involvement in our hobby in favor of shopping for the best vendor to restore our parts and cars.

Stu Fox

[Clem Z.]

Re: John Pirkle

Hey! That's why I brought it up! Mind you, my experience with Chicago Corvette was many years ago, and we moved out of the midwest over 4 years now also. I understand they have gone a little down hill since.

One point I would like to make though is; since I have been participating in this Tech Discussion venue, I have noticed there seems to be a lot of WHY things are done, and a fair amount of WHO to go to to get something done, but not near enough HOW to do something. In other words, I guess I was expecting something more like the "Corvette Restorer" with advice for us "Hands On" guys who don't know exactly the best way to do something, but are willing and able to try for the shear challenge and self satisfaction of doing things ourselves. Several questions that I submitted I received guidance on WHO I should send my parts to to have them done. Believe me, I'm not being ungrateful. I appreciate any and all advice I can get, but I hope we don't loose the individual involvement in our hobby in favor of shopping for the best vendor to restore our parts and cars.

Stu Fox

all publications that accept paying ads have the same problem they can not tell their readers how to do something for free that is done by a company that buys ads in the publication. JMHO

[Stuart F.]

Re: John Pirkle

Clem;

I can appreciate the situation that "Publications" might find themselves in for dispensing "How To" information that may conflict with the business interests of their advertisers, but maybe I'm missing something here. As this venue or "Blog" (whatever you want to call it) is affiliated, sponsored or owned/operated by the NCRS, is that the "publications connection" that would limit what can be discussed herein?? I'm not trying to be smart here. I would really like to know, and I suspect many others would as well.

Stu Fox

[Terry M.]

Re: John Pirkle

HEY GUYS -- JUST A MINUTE.

During the time I was Editor of The Restorer there was NEVER once I was told not to run a story because it might give folks how-to information that might cut into a vendors business. I would be real surprised it anything like that ever happens to other editors -- past or present.

Over all my years with this club I did hear from two vendors who objected on those grounds to stories -- one that I wrote before I was editor, and one that I published while editor. In neither case did I hear anything about it from anyone in authority in NCRS.

[Stuart F.]

Re: John Pirkle

Terry;

Did you hear that? Did you hear it from where you're at?

A BIG COLLECTIVE SIGH OF RELIEF!

Thanks for clearing that up for us. What do you say to putting this thread to bed. Enough has been said.

Stu

[Jeremy D.]

Aw, Come ON!!!

Let's beat up on Chicago Corvette!! That's where the REAL FUN begins!!!!

[Rick S.]

Re: John Pirkle

Terry;

Did you hear that? Did you hear it from where you're at?

A BIG COLLECTIVE SIGH OF RELIEF!

Thanks for clearing that up for us. What do you say to putting this thread to bed. Enough has been said.

Stu

Stu,

I agree, I vented, I feel better, lets go to bed!!

Rick