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Trailer Park Casanova
10-12-2003, 04:19 PM
Boating over to Avalon, eventually most people find themselves sitting and raising a glass or two at the Marlin Club Bar.
No telling who'll sit down next to you. Honest, in all sincerity, it could be the President of Bank of America, The lot porter from Long Beach Ford, Bruce Brown of the surf movie fame, Walter Cronkite the CBS newsguy, ya never know.
One time, we were sitting at the bar just a few minutes after it opened.
A couple came in, took one look around, then was about to leave and I spoke out loud: "The place was designed to look like a dive,, don't be discouraged,, come on the first round is on us."
They came back and sat down. After some time,, they love it.
We eventually learned the guy owned a Jaguar dealership. I told him I had givin up Jag for lost and he said that Jag now is making every effort to compete with Lexus. His big problem was finding good mechanics.
A friend of mine is a super Jag mechanic. He worked for an independant shop, and usually griped about it's a slow shop,, not much work.
The Jag dealer owner wrote down his personal phone number,, and said have my friend call him.
We'll, it took a couple of weeks for my friend to finally call, got hired and now makes a lot of money turning a wrench. He gets sent to England for schooling, and has now been sent to England for school for the new super nice Aston Martin.
The service manager said he's the best find ever, the best mechanic they've ever seen.
On another occasion, I bought my daughter a new Miata for her 16th birthday.
The car had a loss of power problem and the dealer was having fits trying to find the cause.
When ya have a 16 year old daughter, two things happen. Boys hang around trying to get into her pants,, and other parents are around because they need a babysitter.
One such parent was a super mechanic.
He raced Indy Cars. I don't know if it was league or what circuit, or what class, perhaps ammature. Damfino. Probably a minor league of some sort. I never asked, but we learned that he built Indy cars for other teams. He made his living doing it. I never heard of him winning anything with his own raceing,, just a slaphappy guy who just worked on and built Indy cars with two employees, and they traveled around racing in the lesser races we assumed. Damfino.
The Indy cars he built and sold were awsum, the cars he raced were pretty shop worn like he raced for a 6 pack of Bud or bragging rights.
Nothing sounds like an Indy engine. I would wager nothing is as loud,, but what a cool unique sound.
We just knew them as John and Kathy.
OK, back to the daughters Miata problem.
The Indy car neighbor stopped by to ask my daughter if she could watch their newborn baby.
He asked how she liked her Miata, and she said it was giving her fits.
Within minutes the car was on his back yard hoist (a backyard and garage we all dream about) and he and his Indy mechanics were at it,, looking for the trouble.
They found it almost immediatly (fuel system problem) and he accompanied my daughter to the Mazda dealer and he explained to the service manger what he found.
They at the Mazda dealer knew who he was, were impressed, and listened closely.
All was resolved,,, and life was good for sis and her new Miata..
Experiences like these are soooo cool. I have so much respect for tallented honest mechanics.
You all must have some good mechanics stories to tell:
[ October 12, 2003, 07:00 PM: Message edited by: Trailer Park Casanova ]

fourspeednup
10-12-2003, 04:35 PM
Kept it short and sweet:
I'd always been into boats since I was a baby. Got into cars around 14 (high school hot rods). Talked to family mechanic near house. Turned out to be a great guy (answered my endless questions). Started sweeping the shop for him then and worked my way up to ASE certified mechanic in 4 years. Now 18 and attending ASU, eventually have my own specialty automotive shop building hot rods, customs, bikes, and rigging boats. That's the plan at least!
If anyone needs a mechanic in Ventura, CA check out Buena Auto Care.

clownpuncher
10-12-2003, 05:39 PM
After buying a boat I wanted to get some things checked and have some work done. At the time I was going through a divorce so I didn't have access to tools, garage etc. I took the boat, a 1978 Challenger Jet, to Kindal Marine in Indio CA. The owner, Eric Kindal, a young soft spoken man greeted me and talked to me about the boat. Turns out he's a jet junkie too :D . I told him I wanted him to go through the boat inside and out and to fix whatever might be wrong. Basically tighten things and clean things up a bit. While he's at it, let's pull the engine and put an oil drain hose on the engine. A few days go by and I get a phone call from Eric. He says the boat checked out great, nothing major. The charge was less than 200.00. Ah-ha, I told him he must not have put the oil drain hose on cuz I'm sure the price alone for that would be close to 200.00 alone (gotta pull the motor - more labor). He said he DID NOT put a drain hose on. I asked why not. He told me as they were raising the engine, they found a drain hose already installed, it was just tucked way under the engine out of sight. He saved me a coupel hundred bucks right there. He could have charged me and I wouldn't have ever known. Honest man, I'll be back for sure.
A couple of months go by and I need to replace a header gasket for the Bassets. Still no tools or garage so I go back to Eric. We talk more boat stuff and he says give him a couple of days to get to it. I tell him to go ahead and do a few more things to the boat, plugs, oil, tighten the seats etc. Two days go by and it's Friday afternoon. I get a call from Eric saying the gaskets are installed and the boats good to go. I pick the boat up on Saturday. Eric's not there, he's at the river, but his younger brother is there and I pay the invoice with a credit card. Monday morning I get a call from Eric, saying he owes me an apology and about 80.00. When asked why, he told me his brother had accidentally overcharged me for work that was scheduled, but after inspection not needed so they didn't do it. Again, I would have never known about the overcharge.
Both of these cases showed me a man who's all about customer service and being honest. I told all my cop and fireman buddies the story and now Eric is getting good business from all of them.

BajaMike
10-12-2003, 06:24 PM
This is not much of a story, but when I needed a 25 hour service on my new Mercruiser engine/outdrive, I checked with my nearby dealer, Dick Simon Marine in Dana Point, and it was $550 (this place is less than a mile from my house).
It's my understanding that this service consists of changing all the fluids and removing the drive to check for alignment.
I thought the price was kind of high. Well, I now store my boat at Havasu, so I checked with Havasu Avenue Marine, who did some minor warranty work on the boat when it was new, and the price was $280. Needless to say, I had it done there, and Angelo, the owner is a great guy.
:D
Mike