On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:49:00 -0700, "David Kao" <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM>
said:

> But I have since developed a fear of going into a machine shop.  I am
> not trying to say all machine shops are run by crooks. What will you
> do to avoid being victimized by machine shops? Of course I am now
> much more experienced and I probably can avoid it by natural gut
> feeling about a machine shop. But I am not sure how to identify a
> good one from a bad one without getting some business done first.

The usual things: look for shops that have been around for a while.
Habitually crooked shops will have a hard time staying in business long
term.  Ask at a trusted general repair shops what machine shop they use.
 Once you have identified a likely shop, check them out with the local
Better Business Bureau.  If you still have doubts, or if the piece is
particularly rare, I guess you could engrave some kind of unique mark on
it, photograph it, and verify that it's still there when you pick it up.
 At least then you'd have some evidence that they switched parts on you.

Allan
--
1991 Vanagon GL