The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Jim Carter - Gauge Rebuild

Just a word of warning to all. If you send your gauges into into Jim Carter Truck Parts be explicit on your paperwork of any work you want performed.

I have a 1949 Chevy with 23k original miles.

I called, spoke to sales agent discussed having my original gauges rebuilt and stated I wanted to maintain the mileage. The sales agent stated all I needed to do was send my gauges in and they would call me before performing any work.

So I sent both of my 1949 Chevy gauge clusters in for rebuild.

After 3 weeks I had not received a call so I called Jim Carter parts and was told the person who restores the gauge clusters was unavailable but they would leave them a message and would have them call me right back.

I never received a call. So 3 days later I called back and was told my gauges are done and have been shipped. While I appreciate the fast turn around, I never got the "call before we do any work".

My speedometer came back set to 00000000 and slightly off center.

When I called Jim Carter they informed me that since I didn't explicitly state on my note to them what I wanted the mileage set to, the assumed I wanted a 000000 rollback. I asked if I could ship the gauge back to have the mileage set correctly I was informed that would cost me another rebuild.... They suggest I hook the speedometer up to a drill to reach the desired mileage ugh!!!!

To some degree, this is my fault because I listened to the sales agent and didn't write down the mileage I wanted.

Lesson learned on my end.

It should not be hard to remove and replace the odometer and reset the numbers yourself. Jeffrey

@32vld

I took your advice, cracked open the speedometer, took out the odometer, and was able to easily set it to the correct mileage.

People who answer phones, sometimes called customer service reps, don't know what the actual answer is. They think if they keep asking a supervisor or Jim for help, they will get a bad performance review (or they are lazy). If they give what sounds like a company answer, they get rid of you and no one is the wiser. They didn't want to get caught not calling you before work was done or for telling you that their policy is to call when it is not. If the calls were logged and monitored, they will get caught. A good company will realize that made-up answers to cover mistakes or laziness loses customer loyalty....and therefore business; and gets posted on forums. Glad you were able to do "another complete rebuild" in short order.
Jim Carter is a good Guy and runs a good company. Parts may not be rebuilt in house. They are sent out. That's why the rebuilder was not "available".