Local machine shops

[Russ Hood]

Check my local and 4-6 weeks. Is it that way where you are? We have a dragstrip here and I'm sure that effects it.

 

[davek]

Dropped my block and heads off and was told 3-4 weeks. Thats just for cleaning and checking heads.Everyone is busy.

 

[Krooser]

I waited 11 months for my race motor machining to be done...bore, deck block and heads, valve work including new guides, crank ground.

My blown 354 Hemi was a little less.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

My block has been at the machine shop for over a year.... Guess I should jump the machinists ***.... Well that don't work... maybe I need to go spend time on it instead of all the other stuff I'm working on..

 

[Dave6T4]

Local reputable engine shop up here has quite a line-up. They charge $200Can. per hour. That's $50 for a coffee break! The fellow that did the body and paint on my Polara has a 1928 Willys-Overland Whippet that he has been picking away on for years. This engine builder restored the 35 h.p. flathead. 4-banger ( basically the same engine that went into WWII Jeeps ), for about $10,000!

 

[dadsbee]

If I went for a 5 hour drive, I could carry an engine in tomorrow and have it back by Wednesday if everything needed was available. Then again I was street racing and watching Timmy build engines (and bend push rods) way back in 1979 in my home town. He's 63 now and has both of his Son's working with him now...

 

[1967coronet]

2 weeks average.

 

[Skytrooper]

So many machine shops that did engines have closed, the mom and pop type. This creates a backlog at the shops still around. All that business the small shops we’re doing had to go somewhere. WaaLaa….instant double wait times.

 

[GTXDAN]

Took my 440 block to the machine shop the first of Dec to have the work done to build my stroker. He cleaned it and checked it for cracks and called me to tell me to order 0.030 over pistons for it. They came from 440Source 4 days later and I took them in. He aligned bored it, decked it, bored it 0.030 and balanced the rotating assy and I picked it up the Thurs before Christmas. Some assembly required.

 

[72redbird]

I've had to wait 9-10 months for last two motors I've taken in.

 

[jimkf]

Got on the wait list at a local shop in June. Dropped the car off just before Thanksgiving. We met last week to walk thru the list of to-do's. I should have it back by early May.

 

[Budnicks]

I & most my Concord area buddies
& even Pleasant Hill neighbors that ran Nostalgia T/F Hemi's record holders
used to go to Tri-Valley Machine in Pacheco Ca.
also Morgan Marine, Walnut Creek, was pretty good back then too,
longer turn around
so was Baily Bros., Napa/Sonoma area,
so was Rex Hutchinson, Terry M. in Sac. area
but nothing like Tri-Valley
they'd do my emergency (usually race) stuff the same day/night,
'sometimes as I waited', it was right too
(I took all my machine work there for a time, all my cars trucks projects
& paid whatever they said etc.)
a guy, a great machinist named Manuel A.,
he was a fellow S/E Class 7.90 1/4-ET racer
& Bob the owner didn't care if he worked after hrs either...

Oh, I miss them days...

Up here it's a waiting game, not a year, but not overnight either...

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Being from the valley I wasn't using any of the shops you named, but I've heard of all of them & they all have good reputations.. We had our good shops too, but the guys who do the work are timing out, retiring & very few have the ambitions or the skills to take over...

I'm lucky, I have a friend who owned an ran one of those shops.. He's retired now, spends his time collecting rent on assorted properties & plays with cars a lot... When he retired he kept his shop as a hobby shop.... I help him with projects & he lets me play with his machines...