Wack61
Member
- Messages
- 8,799
I had a really good relationship with a local guy until he retired , the guy who bought the garage which had been trading for 30 years with a loyal client base was a complete tool.
He decided he didn't want a lot of customers with 1-2 vehicles so started looking for contract work
Final straw was when I left a van with him for 2 weeks over Christmas for a new axle to be fitted and he didn't touch it, it had cobwebs all over it when I went back.
12 months later he went bust
So I started the search , then through a breakdown I came across a guy in Blackburn
Steve is a proper mechanic , he fixes things, swaps UJs rather than sending them off, strips gearboxes and rebuilds them, fits £10 bushes rather than £200 wishbones and charges me £30 an hour with no VAT as he's well under the registration threshold'
he bought a digger with a blown engine and grafted a replacement from something totally different in it.
5 years ago I bought a 1996 XK8 with a blown gearbox that turned into a blown engine too
Sourced an engine and box out of an XJ8 but only the block and heads were compatible, everything had to be swapped including the cams , engine and gearbox out , bits everywhere , put it back in and it ran like a dog so I did some internet research to find the starter ring gear was different and that controlled the timing, gearbox out, ring gear swapped, sweet as a nut, ran for 4 years without a single breakdown until an abs light killed it.
For all that he charged me £1000
I trust him to work on anything but he's the scruffiest bloke in the world , he never throws anything away so his garage is like a scrapyard with engines all over the place
It's been 10 years now since we first met so he's become a friend and I'm very loyal because Many times he's saved me, one was when the clutch went in my van at 2pm , I rang him, how soon can you get it here, 4pm , I arrived and the parts were waiting, by 8pm I was driving home with a new clutch.
Now the problem , Maserati , I'm 6 months away from buying it, I trust him to work on it but because I've had him working on all my cars for this long I don't think I can bring myself to take it anywhere else, especially not at £80-100 an hour, but then I think but it might end up costing me that if it's got a main dealer history and I break the chain.
So what do I do, put my trust in Steve or management ( you'd all be horrified if I showed you his garage)
I have a mate who's a bit OCD , he asked me about using him and I said forget, it you wouldn't sleep for months
He decided he didn't want a lot of customers with 1-2 vehicles so started looking for contract work
Final straw was when I left a van with him for 2 weeks over Christmas for a new axle to be fitted and he didn't touch it, it had cobwebs all over it when I went back.
12 months later he went bust
So I started the search , then through a breakdown I came across a guy in Blackburn
Steve is a proper mechanic , he fixes things, swaps UJs rather than sending them off, strips gearboxes and rebuilds them, fits £10 bushes rather than £200 wishbones and charges me £30 an hour with no VAT as he's well under the registration threshold'
he bought a digger with a blown engine and grafted a replacement from something totally different in it.
5 years ago I bought a 1996 XK8 with a blown gearbox that turned into a blown engine too
Sourced an engine and box out of an XJ8 but only the block and heads were compatible, everything had to be swapped including the cams , engine and gearbox out , bits everywhere , put it back in and it ran like a dog so I did some internet research to find the starter ring gear was different and that controlled the timing, gearbox out, ring gear swapped, sweet as a nut, ran for 4 years without a single breakdown until an abs light killed it.
For all that he charged me £1000
I trust him to work on anything but he's the scruffiest bloke in the world , he never throws anything away so his garage is like a scrapyard with engines all over the place
It's been 10 years now since we first met so he's become a friend and I'm very loyal because Many times he's saved me, one was when the clutch went in my van at 2pm , I rang him, how soon can you get it here, 4pm , I arrived and the parts were waiting, by 8pm I was driving home with a new clutch.
Now the problem , Maserati , I'm 6 months away from buying it, I trust him to work on it but because I've had him working on all my cars for this long I don't think I can bring myself to take it anywhere else, especially not at £80-100 an hour, but then I think but it might end up costing me that if it's got a main dealer history and I break the chain.
So what do I do, put my trust in Steve or management ( you'd all be horrified if I showed you his garage)
I have a mate who's a bit OCD , he asked me about using him and I said forget, it you wouldn't sleep for months