I know that feeling Crispy, when I was the Quarter Master of the Army Engineering Agency here in Oz, we had some of the best machines and operators, we actually did some work for Volvo, Ford and GM, because they couldn't afford the machinery and equipment that we had on tap.
Anyway, I bought a set of early Suzuki GSXR 750 forks for a GS1000S special (that I eventually sold to a guy in England) but the tubes were 3 inches too short, so I took 'em down to the engineering workshop, and the foreman, my Irish mate Trevor Campbell, (yes, he was Irish, but you can never trust a Campbell, ha ha!) machined up a pair of "Extensions" from Aircraft quality stainless steel, that screwed into the tops of the forks like the original fork caps, but the threaded portions were about an inch longer, and he made up new damper adjusting rods etc, they were like jewellery!
That job would have cost several hundred bucks at an outside engineering shop, but he wouldn't accept any money, so I had to literally
force Trevor to accept a bottle of Irish whisky as payment! Those truly, were the days.............