So last week, I was needing a shift cup and go to the local garage that works on imports. I tell the guy what I am looking for and he says: Oh, you want to talk to our Porsche Mechanic. So I meet Fred the Porsche Mechanic:
Fred: What kind of Porsche do you have?
Me: A 928
Fred: Yeah, I have seen that - it's gold right?
Me: Yeah
Fred: What year?
Me: It's an 85
Fred: Oh, that has that 4.1 liter, single overhead cam right?
Me: yeah, thats right, can you get me a shift cup.
Fred: No, we don't have that but if you ever need any work done, I have all of the 928 manuals.
Me: That's okay, thanks.

This is what I have to deal with here. I sure hope I never come across anything I can't fix with the help of Rennlist.

 

 

Welcome to my world. Where I live is exactly south east of NOWHERE, Calif. My daily chant is " please don't break, please don't break, please don't break........."

 

Warren:

You weren't surprised, were you? Well, maybe by the fact he had bought the manuals. Hopefully he never gets a reason to open them.

 

Actually I wasn't really suprised - just thought it was so funny..... The first guy says: You want to talk to Fred, our "Porsche" mechanic.

With only 2 928's within several hundred miles, and the other one having been butchered already and parked, I don't think he will be using the manuals much.


This is why for people like me and Sierra, Rennlist is incredibly valuable. Even if we wanted to take it to a shop, we couldn't.

 

Good one!!

I pulled into a gas station and the kid cleaning windows cam up and asked if I'd pop the hood so he could see the engine. I did, and he goes, "Wow I've never seen a Ferrari engine up close before".
I replied, "And you still haven't!" Guess he couldn't read the word Porsche across the intake manifolds.

 

That's freakin' classic, Shanester!

 

You must know the one about the gas station kid seeing a wire wheeled car for the first time....inspects the knockoff hubs and asks "what year UNDO is this?"
jp 83 Euro S AT 49k

 

Hello PG!
I looked into a set of cams in PG a while ago.
Turns out the owner in PG has a set of DEVEK race cams - 16v, no longer installed because he didn't like the way they idled in his Euro car (I'm salivating as he's telling me this on the phone...) . So they are just sitting around in this guys garage. I wanted them for my track car, and was prepared to pay a hefty amount for. He wouldn't sell them to me for any amount of money - tried many times.

I know someone who use to live up there, has a 944Turbo track car - I can check into some leads..

DK in Victoria
'79 Euro +/-
'80 SC +/-

 

I really hate mechanic jokes......Why would you discount FRED as a good wrench?Just because he has not commited to memory everything about your year car?These cars are ancient history to a working mechanic in the field....time has gone on.Fred could be a great wrench...especially if he does have the shop manuals.mechanics can do great work when armed with the proper info and years of hands on skill!

 

Because he assumes he has knowledge already that he obviously doesn't possess. Chances are he would just dive into the job and only consult the manuals when something went wrong.

The 928 mechanic who works on my car has mentioned several times being sent 928's to him on the back of flatbeds from other mechanics with the engine already disassembled and then given up as to hard and forwarded to him.

If FRED had said, " oh yes I have the manuals for these but have never actually worked on one" would you trust him? I would be more likely to trust him in that case because I know he's going to be reading the manuals before he takes spanner to nut rather than after.

I am not saying FRED may not be a good wrench, he may be brilliant at what he usually works on, but I would like to be sure he was going to be doing the research before working on my car.

 

Hey, I am not trying do slam mechanics. Acutally, I went to a technical school for 2 years to attain a certification, then worked in the field for a few years before deciding to do something else. My father has been a mechanic for 40+ years. As I said, I just found the event amusing.... BTW, I see 944's and 911's at this shop regularly so the guy probably has the skills but as APOC insinuates, when the guy started talking to me, he was presenting an air of knowlege that he obviously did not have.

 

Warren I thought it was funny and in no way talks bad about mechanics. Like I said in another thread, most of us didn't know crap about a 928 when we started working on them, but the difference is we knew it and didn't try to BS others into thinking we did.