the quarter panel was toast" is doing a lot of work there. A shallow crease above the wheel arch is not toast, that's a Tuesday. Guys panic at 7am and suddenly a scratch is a totaled car, you know? Glue puller and a heat gun handles most of those soft ones where the paint held, and honestly for a dent that shallow you could've just pushed it out from behind the liner if you could reach it. $100 for 40 minutes is fine money but he probably thinks you saved him a body shop bill, so let him.

Man, the thing nobody talks about is what that laptop does to your brain over time. When you set lash by feel, your hands are learning the engine, and that knowledge sticks with you for every other job you touch. Hand it to a screen that just says "cylinder 3, adjust to spec" and the guy running it never builds that sense at all. Ten years from now the young kid who doesn't know what a feeler gauge is will be the same guy who can't diagnose anything without a code reader telling him where to look. The software didn't just save you twenty minutes, it quietly took the teacher out of the room. I still do my 12 valve by hand, and I'll keep doing it that way until my hands quit on me.