I stopped by my local speed shop yesterday to chat up the owner. Nice guy, but he's into phords. Anyway, they do a lot of rebuilds. He was telling me that whenever a customer wants a time estimate, he tells them he can't tell them a thing until he checks on availability of EVERYTHING. Usually, it is 90+ days. Something is always on back order. Even common, popular stuff. And it sometimes affects the combo; they have to change to pieces other than they first spec'd due to turn around times.

He bought some big heavy shelves to hold the blocks and stuff. He puts paint daubs on everything in an attempt to keep everything where it belongs. I'll bet he has 40 or 50 engines apart and waiting for parts. He would have the customers hang onto them until their time gets close, but he usually needs to tear them down so he knows what they need. And then he hates to have the customer come and get it until it's time and parts come. Keeping track of it all, particularly the ordered parts is a full time job all by itself.

What a headache!