Text item:
Yes, I agree you may not get the best prices on parts at BM. I always call
around to get the best prices and many times use mail order anyway. I have had
no good experiences dealing with TO: Years ago I needed a gearbox for my GT6. I
called both TO and E. 14th Auto (now Brit parts and service I believe). The
prices were the same at both places for a rebuilt unit, TO was closer so I went
there. Wayne told me over the phone he had a rebuilt one there. When I got
there, all he had on hand was a "good" used one and it would take a week to
build one up. I should have ran away then. I opted for the used one since the
GT6 was my only wheels at the time. It came with a 30 day warranty. The
gearbox would pop out of 1st and 3rd gear, so I pulled it and brought it back.
He grudingly "went through it". He had some kid who hadn't a clue to what he
was doing start taking it apart while I was there. The mechanic came over
(finally) and said he'd have to get back to me. They replaced the sychros on
1st and 3rd, which I found out later wasn't the proper fix, but kept it working
well enough to let the warranty run out. I ended up replacing the gearbox again
about a year later.
A friend of mine brought his TR7 engine there for rebuild. It took them months
to get it done after many repeated phone calls and he had to pay part up front
for the work. During this time, Wayne told him he needed a new head cause his
was cracked. He said wanted to see his old one first, wayne refused and told
him he already discarded it. He ended up getting the engine back after about 8
months...
I went to BM for a GT6 brake master cylinder a couple of years ago.
Dave told me they were very expensive, close to $300. Instead he
suggested trying to convert mine to a late model Spit cylinder which was
only $89 rebuilt and readily available. He pulled one out and we both
looked at it and my car. I said I'd give it a try. He threw in the
plastic resevoir for free and let me go back in the yard and pull the
brake lines off of a Spit and GT6 so I could piece something togethor.
He also gave me those for free. (the late spits are metric threaded vs
the standard GT6 threads). It worked out great and I saved $200. I've
also seen Dave deal with other customers that he could have made money
on, but just gave them advice on what to look at rather than just
selling the parts blindly.
In summary, I gave up on TO 'cause I don't need the aggravation and BS
from Wayne. At least at BM I can get some straight information and he
won't try selling me half the store. Just my $0.02, Your mileage may
vary.
Mike
/My take on British Motorsports and Triumphs only is the exact opposite
/of Mike's, I have had good experiences with Wayne at Triumphs Only
/and get the feeling that Dave at British motorsport was trying to take
/me for all he could get. For instance, Brit Motor wanted $75 for a
/used flywheel that needed to be resurfaced, whereas Wayne at T.O. gave
/me
/a good clean one for $20. Likewise, the heater control estucheon for
/a wood dash would have cost me $35 at BM and Wayne gave me one for $10.
/I have never used either for actual shop work although I'm sure they
/are
/both capable. They both seem very busy, so plan on being down for a while.
/(though from the sound of your situation, you will be down anyway).
Text item: External Message Header
The following mail header is for administrative use
and may be ignored unless there are problems.
***IF THERE ARE PROBLEMS SAVE THESE HEADERS***.
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 17:49:00 -0700
Subject: RE: Good Brit-car shops in South Bay, CA?
Cc: "'British Car List'" <british-cars@autox.team.net>,
"'Triumph List'"
<triumphs@autox.team.net>
To: "'Fred Ki'" <ki@zycad.com>
From: Chris and Karen Prugh <prubrew@ix.netcom.com>
for triumphs-outgoing; Wed, 3 Jul 1996 21:08:08 -0400
h SMTP id VAA05269; Wed, 3 Jul 1996 21:09:27 -0400
Jul 1996 01:11:23 GMT
(Smail3.1.28.1 #3) id m0ubcuv-000S0Za; Wed, 3 Jul 96 18:09 WET DST
|