>I sorry but are arrogant guys like you think they know everything give shops a bad name.
I don't see him being particularly arrogant about this. Consider:
>I had it at another shop and they lost my main caps
So we're 50/50 here on machine shops. So that's plenty IMHO to make someone that doesn't have block work done every week lose confidence in the process. I had a race shop in Houston do a set of 4V 351C heads for me, then had to have them re-done later because of the shitty bottom barrel guide and seat work done. And this was a nice shop with a row of aluminum hemi blocks with names like Densham, Force and such waiting for work. Yes, the first shop should have made right. But they also should have been competent enough not to lose critical parts from a customer's engine. There is zero excuse IMHO for that. If your internal handling process is that f'd up, what else can you not do right? As for the 2nd shop, they should have either said "pass" or given sufficient push back that "We can try, but here's the deal...". So now he's 2 for 2 on spent your money and didn't fix your problem.
Yes, it's hard to make a living in auto machine - because now most people don't use them. Most of the dealers work directly with their brand and get reman assemblies. Customer's that have driven their low end vehicles to the brink of rebuild typically don't have the $ to foot the cost of a engine rebuild, so the car goes to scrap. As noted, same here - all the old guys retired or left the shop on a stretcher and there are only a couple left. And those shops are running on well maintained older equipment. Except maybe the Raceshop boys up in Lubbock. But even with their $,$$$,$$$ in high end equipment they said "no can do" for a crank I need .001 taken off the rod journals.
There are very few reliable reference points these days and certainly not "social media". Around here it's just like food - some crappy looking shops turn out A+ work while some bright and clean, up to date places screw people over horribly. He now has a good reference to use, but before was on his own.
