We should all have the good fortune to find such a shop. John hugh hemphill wrote: > I hear horror stories about mechanics but I have mainly had luck here in San > Antonio. Mr. Inscrutable Happypants, the notoriously unhelpful carburetor > man from last year, aside, I have had mainly good if not great luck in San > Antonio. > > The manager at my local NAPA fixed my otherwise intractable water pump > problem within three days, for only $25.00. He suggested getting the one I > had been trying to replace for three years rebuilt. Since I had been told > this was not possible by persons supposedly better informed than me, you can > only imagine my delight to hear such magical words. > > Last year I had the front end of my 58 rebuilt. I also mentioned the > parking brake no longer worked. Not a good thing on a car with no "P" > position on the transmission. I bought the front end rebuild kit for the > shop. In the end, he did not use it. It was found that the bushings on the > car were good. It was the pins going through them that had deteriorated, so > only those were replaced. Here's the beauty part. He said he had fixed the > parking brake. A bracket had failed. He said he did not have enough time > to contact me so I could get the correct one, and, even though he knew I was > a stickler for originality, he had simply gone ahead and fabricated a new > one. As a result, he said he was not going to charge me for the work on the > brake. > > Ooh, a Scotsman's worst dilemma. A freebie he could not, in good > conscience, accept. Who ever hears about shops making parts anymore? About > them actually effecting a repair as opposed to them replacing stuff? About > apologizing for doing so, because of time restraints? About saying he could > not accept payment for the work because he did not have my permission to do > it? In the end we compromised about the bill. > > The owner, with whom I was dealing, is the second generation proprietor of > one of the city's oldest independent garages. My luck is he trained on > these cars as a young man and he encourages his employees to get to know all > kinds of cars. When it comes to computerized modern cars he may not have > much of a future, as the diagnostic equipment is getting to be prohibitively > expensive and each manufacturer jealously guards its own computer codes and > programs. I think this guy has decided he can make a living by serving > older cars. Lets face it, as niches go, its hardly overcrowded. > > Hugh >