This came off an AMC page and the author has a shop in Az. Its not just him but all over. Was speaking with Mike at TA yesterday and he's overwhelmed. Backed up with orders, no help in the shop. Stated he hasnt run the wagon since 2015. He's hoping to get it back together in time for the nationals.
TRUE! Especially young people are sucked into this, they’re raised on it, they’re groomed into thinking “when it breaks, I’ll get a new one, it was cheap anyway” It’s time (it’s been time) this country stood up, stretched, and said “This is bullshit”
Exactly. It is happening everywhere. Doesn’t matter what the make,brand,or specialty is. Vet, Never heard of that company. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist,but that doesn’t mean they are good either. Lots of research is needed,as with anything else.
I had been hearing that the guy that did the show" Dirty Jobs" was working on getting kids into trade school to make good money. I know 2 kids that took HVAC in their school and the one is making over 100g in the commercial side of it and the brother is making over 60 in the residential side. Heck we might have to take machine shop ourselves so we can do this work. In Ohio we have Mahoning Co. joint vocational trade school.
Twenty years ago I worked in a machine shop for a few years. Every single part that was used was checked for size and spec. It was common to find a ton of variation, even with the "good" companies.
I agree with you. In this day and age, advertisements that paint the the perfect picture don't hold water anymore. I'am very suspicious of advertisements, especially ones for automotive engine rebuilds. Reason why I asked if anybody on this forum has used this particular engine rebuilding company. VET
Thanks Brian, I'll have to dig a little deeper. Maybe I can find some reviews on their work. But, I aways wonder if reviews are true or fake. I usually go on Better Business Bureau and see if I can find reviews there and see if the company has a rating with them. VET
Fairfax Auto Parts was a big chain around here. They had a good machine shop. NAPA bought them and kicked the guys out. They did let them buy all the equipment and they set up their own shop out in the country near Warrenton, VA. A buddy has used them and was happy. Not sure if they know Buicks though.
Don't I know it. It took 2 years and 3 machine shops to get a 350 block decked, heads done back stock and new rod bolts installed. The first machine shop initially told me not to drop it off for at least a month and to call back then. He stopped answering the phone for a solid month. I called about twice a week at different times, morning, around noon and afternoon. Never picked up the phone or recorded a message! Second shop kept it 4 months and only did the stuff his helper would have done, disassembled the heads, resurfaced the flywheel and polished the crank. Third shop finally got the block decked, new rod bolts on and the assembly balanced but it took him a year since he's older than me, had COVID and wound up in the hospital. It's getting very hard to get anything done these days if you have to go outside your own skillset.
That's Mike Rowe & has a foundation that'll pay for kids to go into the trades. The two trade schools in our school district are full & have more applicants than spots.
here is a good example, my machinist and friend is fixing to be 71 years old. He had a major heart attack 2 years ago, doing very well today thank God, but has slowed waaay down to where a basic stock rebuild takes about a year+ and 2 or 3 years for competition motors. Why? because 50% of the parts have to be custom ordered and the other 50% of the parts come in out of tolerances, he has to rework and fix the new junk on the shelf parts. The lack of parts availability starting as simple as a head gasket and basic seals, he had to wait almost 6 months to get a set for a turbo v6 and cam cores and the list goes on and on. Heck, Just do a leak down test on a Edelbrock head out of the box! Our Buick hobby just like the AMC guys is not looking good (unless you are into LS stuff). Let's hope people like Jim W. and his machinist and specialty guys like Mike from T/A and the few other members here that are able to do this kind of work continue doing so. Fernando
If rebuilding engines take as long to rebuild as you pointed out for all the reasons why the engine shop has to rework the engine junk engine parts they get in. What in the world is the customers total $ dollar amount at the end of the build??? Is it even affordable anymore? VET
If your NOT hands on, meaning if your the guy that has his engine pulled and sent to a machine shop, I’d say the cost is probably prohibitive. If you ARE hands on and do all your own pulling, disassembly and reassembly then it’s still doable, albeit more than a year ago, and parts procurement is sketchy. I still stick to my statement of “if your engine is running fine, leave it be, now is a lousy time for tear downs” I doubt any of this crap will get better
funny you asked that question, he (Robert Fulco my machinist) has been charging by the hour. No more of that X amount for a specific job like a valve job, like the good ole days. He would loose his butt off fixing all the unsuspected problems all these wore out motors encounter. He struggles just to survive because he could have a day fixing a head that would normally take couple of hours. He says "I either fix it right or take it some where else". So, yes to get good knowledgeable and honest machinist, you will pay. Not a cheap hobby anymore! Fernando
Fernado, I ran into the same situation when I started to have upgrades on my 70 Skylark GS 455. There is a huge dollar$ difference between a price quote and a price estimate. Most automotive shops use the "price estimate" because if they run into unexpected problems with old wore out engines, they can add more labor cost to keep themselves from losing their shirt. A "price quote" is a quote where the cost is fixed. No automotive engine shop is going to do that, they will not be in business for very long. The shop I used has NOW gone back to rebuilding carburetors because they are getting junk carbs from their vendors and when they send the carburetor back, it adds to a long wait time to get another carb, and it's possible the second carb will be bad out of the box too. I ran into this with Holley's Carb and MSD ignition. Both were bad right out of the box. It's so frustrating. VET
Coming from a manufacturing environment, it is cheaper to replace it than to increase quality control, which takes more money off the bottom line than simply sending the customer a new one. At Fruit of the Loom the company logo used to say, "Unconditionally Guaranteed" and if a consumer sent back ANYTHING remotely looking our product, we shipped them a new one, even if it was actually Hanes, Gildan or UnderArmor. Every manufacture has an acceptable failure rate. When everything is manufactured off-shore, that rate has to increase because the people that actually make it have less pride in work than the old folks that are retiring/dying/off-shored.
This is a specialty market, (ie rebuilding old cars of any kind). Modern cars run longer and need less machine work. Most of the go faster products for the newer cars are bolt ons. Unless the prices go up a lot more, I don't see more people going into this business. It's too much work and struggle for the amount of payoff. On the plus side, newer tech might make it easier for guys who know nothing to work on our engines... Time will tell on that one. I think having a Yelp type of feedback mechanism for parts would be very helpful. Being able to assess companies product quality based on actual users, should help us punish and avoid the bad suppliers and reward the suppliers that are doing it right. Companies like Holley (who also own MSD) need to be punished for selling garbage based on their former greatness.
Companies like Holley (who also own MSD) need to be punished for selling garbage based on their former greatness.[/QUOTE] I agree. I've been burned by Holley and their MSD products. What I have noticed poor product quality starts showing up as soon as they get bought- out by another one investor company. Same with Edelbrock. I wonder how good Edelbrock's crate engines are now days? VET
