Looks like I am good to go, just a matter of being patient and timing because he is super busy. High quality work and does a lot of custom stuff. Not mentioning the name of the shop because he has enough business. He did my stainless exhaust after I had been screwed around by every decent shop in town —— exhaust he did in 5 hrs; 3 hrs less than I had been quoted anywhere else; amazing welds, quality dude. Worth the effort to find him.
I should mention a few shops for maintenance in the Vancouver area; lots have closed down which is too bad. Also I have had some bad experiences in a couple of shops as well, mentioned below.
The Good;
Scandia in Maple ridge - good people; honest old school Volvo mechanic; lots of used parts; does rebuilds and such; not into performance upgrades
Mark’s Import Auto in Burnaby; used to working on older cars; honest and meticulous
Werners Auto Klinik in Delta; German mechanic and used to working on older cars, meticulous and honest no nonsense guy. Too far for me to go really but good shop. He also races cars so not scared off by conversion vehicles.
Speed Syndicate in Burnaby - top notch stuff but don’t really work on Volvo’s, gave me a couple of idea’s for other shops that didn’t pan out but I appreciated it. They also have done some amazing things with a friends car.
IWE in Burnaby; only do rear ends - specialty shop that put my 4:10’s in from a donor car. Top notch
The Bad
Ed Schram Motors in Surrey - I went there to get a second opinion on something and when I returned Ed’s son tells me that “ I probably shouldn’t tell you this but I decided to see how much power your car has, I stomped on it and hit 15 psi off the light going down King George!!” �� just about punched the guy right there, who the f#$& does that and then brags about it.
Adria Imports in Vancouver - Mark’s an honest enough guy but can’t keep track of the work his guys are doing and then argues with you when they mess up. Loves to put cheap parts in so you have to come back a thousand times. Most dangerous courtesy cars ever. My wife used to take her S70 there way back but nothing has changed since.
Evolution Auto in Maple ridge - tried to scam me on pricing on custom exhaust work and within 5 minutes I was surrounded by 3 fast talking guys trying to convince me to let them drill into my block to install some sort of thermostat and spend $1300 to rebuild a 13c turbo (now have a 15g) Say what now? and why rebuild a 13c? $1300?? Get outta here!
RG Racing in Port Coquitlam - needed a custom rad and a SS exhaust done a couple of years ago, looking to spend some $$$. Notice a trend here?? I left a rad there so they could measure it up and a week they couldn’t even give me a quote. Guess they don’t want any business, then why have me leave my rad there?
MDA Fabrication on Annacis Island in Delta - went there for a custom rad and exhaust work; higher quote than I would have liked and then had every excuse as to why parts weren’t in to the point of ridiculousness. So they kept forgetting to put an electric fan in a shipment 3x? I must look like a chump or something.
