To clarify, "everyone" is recommending him because he's been around for a long time, has a lot of experience, is a professional, is super honest and has been there for people when they needed him. Most of all, he knows a lot about the breed. I do all of my own work, and I mean ALL of it - welding, fab, autobody, paint, wrenching, etc. But I take my friends and families cars to Wisam.
A gas station in the middle of a town like Vienna is so busy they can't take on major, long term repairs like an engine rebuild or a head gasket because they have too much work to do for one car to occupy a bay or even a parking space in the time frame involved. Wisam was being honest with you and I don't blame him. For minor to mid level repairs, he is the "go to guy". I'd rather have honesty than someone say, "oh yea, we can take your money" only to get piss poor work and or super long time frame.
No offense, but if you recently paid someone $650 dollars to do a super easy repair on your truck, and did not want to fix your head gasket DIY, then your probably not in a position to give anyone any noteworthy advice. In this particular case with the Wisam's gas station, the situation is obvious to the most causal observer - not a place to go for engine swaps, desmogging, welding /fab work or spring overs - Lance at Iron Pig owns that local market. However, if you need a water pump, radiator, etc then Wisam, the shop you recommended or just about any other GOOD gas station can handle what you need. In this hobby, it's all about finding the right vendor for your situation.
Not trying to be sarcastic, but to some extent, the clubs, these mailing lists, etc need to exist to help out the new guys and gals, not just to be a social orgination for people who are bored and miss their college frat. No matter how long some people have been doing this or if they just got started, there has to be focus on altruism and helping out the newby's with information when they need it. Bashing a vendor for lack of understanding their perspective is not needed on this board, the tlca list, etc. Especially if you don't know them or have not used them. If you have had a bad first hand experince, try to work it out with the vendor but if you can't, bring it on, we need to know about it so we don't make the same mistake.
Trust me, I am not the friendliest or most tolerant of fools person you'll meet, but I always try to help people who just getting started or need info, even if information is all that I can give. The only good information is first hand information, mis information is useless.
fjman said:
As for the Vienna gas station, I happened to be driving by them when my cylinder head cracked. They had no interest whatsoever in working on the 60! Actually, he said I'd be better off going to the dealership and that it was to much work for them to fix it! I guess he was being honest but it made me wonder why everyone has recommended them. Its not like I was rude! plus they were running a diagnostics machine on a fj40 right infront of the station (and me) for some guy that just bought it.
unless it had a 350 or some other engine conversion in it, what would an engine diagn. machice do for an f/2f anyway? Doesn't it need an ECU in it for one of those? It sure sounded stock.
mechanic.
