Diane,
I feel your pain.
I hate my lazy bodywork guy too. Then again, I can't complain, I do all car work myself.... ;)
I ran into a similar pea shooter/rear bumper/apron issue with my bus recently, I welded in a louvered apron section that comes maybe a little lower than stock..
Stock bus muffler has one outlet and no peashooter, the pipe has two 90 deg curves in it and ends up exiting behind left side rear wheel. I didn't have that last piece of pipe, so I welded an angled stub pipe to the muffler outlet and the angle helped it clear the apron. I have no rear bumper yet. This exhaust (and engine) will later make room for something bigger, I'm putting the 2 liter T4 engine in the bus eventually.
I wish I lived closer to you, I'd help you with the bus and do most (lol) of teh work "right". It's when people start doing car repair for money and their livelihood depends on it, that the quality of work diminishes.. Sad huh. The hobbyist who builds the car for him(or her)self, will spend endless hours to get the smallest details RIGHT. (or, at least they have the luxury of choosing this path if they so desire.. hehe)
If a company would try to concentrate on top quality work, they'd be out of business because of low VOLUME. It takes time to do careful work, and the more time you spend working on one car, the less business you can handle. The average customer wants everything done yesterday, if you can't do it, they will go to someone else who can deliver faster. Ending up with the guys who are willing to sacrifice quality in order to get more customers. Simple economics... lol
Jan (In it deep enough to know that starting a VW mechanic shop is out of the question.. I do a little bit of work for others when I have the time, but most of them I have to turn away... I'd rather do good work, or not at all.. I'm not that good at body work, so I don't do that anymore for others.. )
::: Diane aka JeWitchT ::: wrote: