You might consider a person a mechanic who had poor machinist skills,
but even a mechanic with poor machinist skills should have referred you
to someone who was equipped to do the job properly and knew what to do.

Sounds like you have already paid dearly for his drilling skills. I
have seen people like this, they usually work at Jiffy Lube. He may be
a great guy and good diagnostically and all that, be he shouldn't have
done this to your car and should not have charged you for it. In fact,
I'm sure his shop has insurance and you should get a new (or used) head
out of the deal. Your car should leave the shop no worse than when you
brought it in, whether you're paying money or not.

Jim

On Aug 20, 2005, at 2:25 PM, Ed wrote:

> I got a few different opinions on my recent bad exhaust experience,
> but I'd still like opinions on this specifically:
>
> I know that removing it can be difficult. But is it a sign of a bad
> mechanic if he "slips" with the drill bit and knocks off a piece of
> the exhaust head of the engine, puts black silicone around it, and
> re-drills the head at an angle in a different spot, and holds it on
> with a bunch of washers? Should I be paying for the fact that he
> couldn't drill it out well?
>
> Ed
>