I think in this world of more and more automation and general laziness, it is becoming harder and harder for good shop owners to find good people who want to turn out quality work. So the shop owners become famous and their work load increases exponentially, yet they can't find people to take up the slack.
The shopowners themselves are not great business people. They didn't become famous for producing a great product by being good at business, but rather good at building or machining or designing, etc.
They are also living in a "feast or famine" environment making it extremely difficult for them to turn away work. They are also hopeful, thinking they'll get it done. Then reality intrudes.......


In life there is the normal and the unique. We need to be able to recognize the difference. In the case of high performance engine shops, the normal seems to be delivery well past the estimated (even promised) delivery date. The unique situation is when it comes back in time.

This isn't going to be fun to read, but the customers need to start planning for much longer lead times, or find another less-famous shop. Yelling, flaming or repeated phone calls won't do anything but increase the load of shame the responsible shop owner carries around with him. It certainly won't free him up to work faster.

The short answer: deal with it.

R.