Robert - totally agree - hanging around a place for even a few minutes
will give you a really good idea of the the type of folks that work
there.

David - sorry you got ripped. I've heard that machine shop horror
story too many times before. A BMW friend/nut that I know always seems
to have something apart and heading for different machine shops. He
learned the hard way as well and now he has uses a tool stamp to stamp
a discrete letter (his first initial) somewhere on the part. He calls
it "insurance" and loves the look on their faces when he tell them
that "that's not what I brought in here!" Hoo!

Jeff / Marin
On Jan 25, 2009, at 9:00 PM, Automatic digest processor wrote:

> I was for sure inexperienced with machine shops (even local to me)
> about this practice. More than 10 years ago I was ambitious in
> rebuilding a BMW 2002. I bought a complete engine from a junk yard
> and trying to go from there. The engine was working fine before I
> picked it up then ripped the head off. I sent it to a machine shop
> for a valve job. A few days later when I went back I was told that
> the cylinder head was junk. They showed me a completely cleaned and
> shiny 2002 cylinder head with a crack. I for sure did not see the
> crack before sending it to the shop. I was then quoted a price of
> almost $1k for an already rebuilt head. I refused it of course but
> ended up getting a piece of junk back with me.
>
> Well, I reassembled the engine with the junk. Called a charity
> org and gave it to them. They handed me a receipt with more than
> 4k$ value on it. I used the receipt to get quite a bit of tax
> deduction. I think I ended up happier than completing the rebuild
> that would not have had much value anyway.
>
> I have since believed that most machine shops will take inexperienced
> individual home mechanics to the cleaner and do a very good cleaning
> job on them. I will only deal with mechanics who I can trust. Let
> the mechanic to deal with machine shops. I don't think machine shops
> dare to take mechanics to the cleaner too.
>
> A few years later I saw on the newspaper that the owner of that
> machine
> shop (and a parts store too) was indicted by law enforcement citing
> fraudulent business practices. I wasn't too surprised.
>
> David
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Date:    Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:41:16 -0800
> From:    Robert Fisher <refisher@MCHSI.COM>
> Subject: Finding trustworthy mechanics; was RE: heads- bus depot or
> van cafe??
>
> I stumbled upon the method of going into small owner/operator shops
> when
> they're busy and then watching (and most particularly listening) to
> the
> owner/mechanic dealing with other customers. You can learn a lot
> that way,
> particularly if you know a bit about wrenching and the other customer
> doesn't. If you're really dedicated you can catch them talking to an
> older
> woman. Some of those conversations will open yer eyes fer sure.
> As to machine shops, I asked my local VW Jedi who he used/
> recommended. When
> I got there the first thing I said to the guy was 'Hi, Jay
> recommended you
> guys to me...', letting him know he was coat-tailing on Jay's
> reputation and
> business, as it were. I've since decided after several years that
> those guys
> are pretty straight-up anyway, but a gentle nudge doesn't hurt.
>
> Cya,
> Robert