David McK. Bird asked about oil guages and repair places in Riverside, Cal.
I have a recommendation for both.
In San Bernardino, Cal. (a few miles North) there is an inport auto
parts store/repair shop called: Inport Auto Parts (clever, huh?)...
The store is on Ninth St. between "D" and "E" streets (not the best
part of town anymore...). The auto parts store is run by a lady named
Linden, and her husband runs the repair shop in the back. She knows a
lot about LBCs in fact that's why I started going there. After I first
bought my Elan (18 years ago), I discovered that the end plate on the
generator was busted... You know the part - it contains the brushes
and the mounting lug. Well anyways, all the other parts places quoted
me a price of $120 for a rebuilt generator. When I tried Linden's
store she looked it up, and sure enough $120. Then she said something
about "That's too much... Hang on a minute...", and then disappeared
into the back of the store. About five minutes later, she came back
carring an end plate identical to my broken one. Said she ordered it a
couple of years before for a sprget (sprite/midget) and sold to me for
about 8 bucks. She always managed to perform miracles like that - she
really knows her stuff. And her husband is a great machanic also
(although I never used him - I do my own).
Now to the oil guage part. I have taken several of my guages (and
clutches, and starters for that matter) to her and she sends them out
to places that rebuild them. Good quality work at a fraction of the
price of buying new or even rebuilt - the only catch was you leave
the part and come back a week or so later to pick it up.
Take your guage there and ask for Linden. And do ask for Linden; She
knows here stuff, some of the others that she has working there are
not as knowledgable. Her husband is, how should I say it? "Grumpy"?
but he does know his stuff too. While you are there, ask them where to
get your sheet metal work done (don't know if they do it, but I don't
think so).
Sorry for the waste of bandwidth, but places like that need our
support. Oh and I have no connection with them, other then spending
lots of bucks there over the years. Only reason I don't any more is I
now live in Virgina...
Tim Mullen mullent@ymv5.ymp.gov
72 Elan Sprint For the few who know the difference...
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