I have had this happen more times than I can count when it comes to someone asking my opinion about buying a specific vehicle. I ask about checking it and they did not want to pay, but just wanted my opinion. One was a Ford Escort. I said, Not NO but hell NO! I said that if they bought it I would not work on it. They bought it and then needed a cooling system problem diagnosed and fixed, 2 weeks later. I said "NO". they took offense. I reminded them what I said. They took even more offense. I walked away from that friendship right then and there.
He was not a fellow veteran. If he was I would have caved in and looked at it. This was actually a friend of a friend. No loss and the real friend, said, "yea, they are flakey!"
Your story reminded me of the single most important thing I've learned in this century.
That is, knowing what I will/will not get involved in, no matter what is said to try to lure me
in against my better judgement. And when I respectfully share the fact that I don't want to
take the challenge, they try to use this to put me into a defensive posture? "Hey, I was told
that you were good at fixing stuff like this? Are you telling me that you don't really know
what you are doing?"
This is when I usually reply something to the effect that "As a matter of fact I know
exactly
how these work. Enough to know that
this isn't a good use of my time to try and overcome just
how bad this mismatch of parts is. Especially if you want to drive that on the street."
(Visualize we're looking at a sad, tired, stock 305 with a Mother Thumper cam inside and a Holley
Dominator on top, and he can't get it to run right with the stock torque converter, Turbo 350, and
factory gearing.) And of course upon hearing this the owner of this machine with sporty intentions is
*deeply* offended by my honest feedback.
And I actually consider myself predisposed to helping a fellow car enthusiast get to where he/she is going.
And I used to let myself get involved in some bad situations just to prove how much I knew. And
yes I *always* regretted it afterwards.
So, yeah. Sometimes the biggest proof that you can use to demonstrate that you have a clue is
simply to cut your losses before you incur them. :0)
Frees up more time to work on the cool stuff. I only wish that I had learned this decades ago. :0)