Tell us the stories of your awesome mechanics and how they helped you out.

[DAKSTER]

Small country town, big kangaroo. Get some guy to tow me 45k back to Miles after I hit a 6 footer. Stay the night in the local pub, down to the mechanics in the morning. He has a yard full of cars he is working on, but drops everything to help me out.

He comes and picks the car up on a flatbed, takes it back to his shop. Radiator is dead, fans are crushed, alternator damaged, all the pulleys and belts destroyed, and the radiator support bar is bent severely in the middle. Airbag had deployed, he replaced the bag and sensor from a wreck out the back, and did a reasonable job of roughly straightening the radiator support bar.

He was apologetic that he couldnt get a radiator until the next morning! He even did a rough job of straightening the bonnet out, just had to okky strap it down lol.. there were some zip ties holding bumpers together etc.. BUT

I picked the car up the next morning, 24 hrs after I brought it to him, and drove it 600km home with no problems at all. This is what he had to work with.

$600, a bargain and a champion mechanic.

 

[acarmody]

Small country town, big kangaroo. Get some guy to tow me 45k back to Miles after I hit a 6 footer. Stay the night in the local pub, down to the mechanics in the morning.

He comes and picks the car up on a flatbed, takes it back to his shop. Radiator is dead, fans are crushed, alternator damaged, all the pulleys and belts destroyed, and the radiator support bar is bent severely in the middle. Airbag had deployed, he replaced the bag and sensor from a wreck out the back.

He was apologetic that he cant get a radiator until the next morning! He even did a rough job of straightening the bonnet out, just had to okky strap it down lol..

I picked the car up the next morning, 24 hrs after I brought it to him, and drove it 600km home with no problems at all. This is what he had to work with.

$600, a bargain and a champion mechanic.

How the #### do you flatten that out?? With a streamroller???

 

[DAKSTER]

How the #### do you flatten that out?? With a streamroller???

Added another photo. Shows just how bad the bonnet was. It had a lot of hammer marks, put it that way lol... but it opened and closed, just didnt latch because of the reshaped bonnet and bent radiator support bar, hence the okky straps. There was no sign of any heat either, he must have just smashed the **** out of it with a 3 pound hammer would have taken hours i reckon. He did say he looked around town for another bonnet instead :rofl2:

I replaced the bonnet a week later after I welded in a new radiator support, never took any photos of the flattened bonnet... but it got me home, saved me a mint in transport costs.

When you add the cost of a new radiator, secondhand fans and alternator, new pulleys and belts, airbag and sensor to all that labour, $600 is sensational IMO... and in 24 hrs.

 

[acarmody]

Added another photo. Shows just how bad the bonnet was. It had a lot of hammer marks, put it that way lol... but it opened and closed, just didnt latch because of the reshaped bonnet and bent radiator support bar, hence the okky straps. There was no sign of any heat either, he must have just smashed the **** out of it with a 3 pound hammer would have taken hours i reckon. He did say he looked around town for another bonnet instead :rofl2:

I replaced the bonnet a week later after I welded in a new radiator support, never took any photos of the flattened bonnet... but it got me home, saved me a mint in transport costs.

When you add the cost of a new radiator, secondhand fans and alternator, new pulleys and belts, airbag and sensor to all that labour, $600 is sensational IMO... and in 24 hrs.

Not many of lifes problems cant be sorted out with a mallet and a repeated bashing motion, I always say.

 

[Tatiana]

Our local mechanic not only does a fantastic job and doesn't charge like the big dealerships, but he allows people to pay off repairs so they can keep driving. Of course this is only for his long term customers.

 

[MikeCuzzy]

I've got a great local mechanic, helped me out more times than I can count. Couple of examples.

Radiator carked it one afternoon, he was epic busy as he was about to go on holidays, normally you book about 2 weeks in advance - he fixed it the next day (I dropped it off at 6pm). To make sure there was no other problems he took for a test drive, a good solid one too. Didn't charge me anything extra than normal for messing up his week completely

If I'm home alone and can't get a ride home, his wife is more than happy to give me a lift back home and then bring me back when it's done. If I can't get there till after he's gone home, he'll leave the keys with the servo and I'll just come by the next day or whenever and pay him then.

Pricing is always very reasonable, and his reputation in the town is about as good as you could ever want - everyone has a lot of respect. I've got heaps of examples over the years of him and his apprentice at the time helping me and everyone else out.

I just need to learn how to fix all this stuff before he retires...

 

[R0d]

When I took my Hilux down to Walpole which is a town of about 4 businesses and nothin but small towns within 30ks and one of my welded tpiece pipe (not my creation) for the turbo started pissing out with coolant I had to ride to a mechanic who not only grinded out the dodgy welds he re welded it and even painted it black for me. Took him over a hour and only charged me 20$. Which was how much the materials cost to fix it. Pretty much Made my year for me lol

 

[yZoH]

When I picked up my BMW,

I went down to my mechanic/exhaust bloke the next day, They let me throw the car on the hoist so I could check out all the bushes & underbody.
Used their tools & worklights. Was there for about half an hour fiddling with it.
Then once I was done with that they whipped me up a new exhaust on the cheap as I've been going there since I got my P-plates almost 6years ago now.

Some people are just genuine an keen to help a loyal customer an it's more impressive when they remember your name! No matter what car you arrive in.

Cheers
Mat

 

[smokem]

not a mechanic but when we built my big block in my torana i had no idea how to set up an injector hat or even start the thing. Greg from Sprints Munno Para spent the night in the garage with us ,running back n forth to his store grabbing bits n peices up till about 3 am , then him and another mate fired it up, ran in the cam and tuned the hat for me..

also when it came to buying things like the blower and injector hat and alot of expensive internals , they were all given to me at trade because he wanted to see it finished!

seems he knew what i was building and in underestimated it in a big way lol.

 

[Troy711]

My regular bloke is a champion. I patched up a few holes at his hose, he supplied and installed a set of front springs for my Statesman. He fitted my exhaust for a case of beer. He hooked it up to his diagnostic tool for free. He ALWAYS undercharges me (which I tell him not to as he's running a business) and at Christmas I swing him a couple of cartons. I guess it helps when I've known him for almost 20 years. But I reckon the best part is that I can call him up for a service, organize it for a certain day and he will pick up and drop off my car for nothing.