Washington

[jonc]

Washington recommendations by AAtransaxel

Louis Foreign Car in Seattle-owner Dan-206-
524-3366.always busy.small
shop.... good honest people...he cares.

The Wagon Shop in Bellevue WA 425-454-1141 straight shooters. (I trained
them all) good people

Quality Foreign Auto in Bothell 425-481-1200 owner Joe- good people also.

[Capt. Mike]

Rebuilt standard trannys

jonc Moderator Member # 37 posted 07-01-2000 02:21 AM

I had my 4 speed trans rebuilt in Florida by a dealer and the experiance was disasterous.. In my travels talking to mechanics I kept coming across the name AA Transaxel of Washington state... glowing reports from hard bitten professional mechanics and a 3 year unconditional guarantee parts and labor required a mention.. sorry manual trannys only.

Seattle

Fabian Junior Member # 127 posted 06-26-2000 01:28 PM

I can't recommend PORBUG highly enough. I had a mechanic for my 85 Westphalia for over 12 years. I literally paid them thousands of dollars almost yearly. Finally, in 1998 a friend told me about George, who owned PORBUG in an out of the way location in south Seattle. At the time I was trying to decide if I should put another $1000-$1200 to the $3000 I had already put into it that year (the shop was owned by two german brothers, I thought they were honest). I love my Westphalia, so I took it to George. He took one look and told me that the problem was minor and instead of replacing an engine gasket, a minor repair of $50.00 would fix the problem. I have been sold ever since. A great guy and a great mechanic. His business is limited to Bugs and Porsches. I don't give him enough business to keep him going. He appears to be doing okay and he doesn't look ambitious. Anyway, this is a great tip for Seattle area Westphalia owners. I don't know if he does body or electrical work. When I get a few more bucks ahead I will ask him about it. Which reminds me, I need an oil change.

Boots Junior Member # 782 posted 05-17-2001 08:16 PM

Found another great mechanic who knows his stuff and doesn't charge like a wounded bull. His name is Dean and he's on 21st Ave just off Rainier Ave (you can see his sign ... it says 'Deans' funnily enough. This guy spent three hours with me on my new 72 van and only asked for $30! He's magic!!

86Syncro Member # 1031 posted 07-21-2001 08:55 PM

Following Boots's advise, I stopped by and met Dean and he is truly a great guy. He spent a lot of time with me and my Westy and only asked for $10! He is one of those guys who doesn't mind a ton of questions and explains what he is doing if you are interested. He has low overhead so his hourly is really low but his knowledge seems quite extensive. His shop seems like a great place for the traveller in need of immediate assistance. He has travelled quite a bit in Type IIs and an 87 Westy. He made the time to help me as an unscheduled Saturday drive-in. I think my mechanical search is over.
The only tough part is finding him! Turn East on Massachussetts from Rainier. At the next intersection you'll see DeVac-Chamberlain (SE corner) on a building. Dean is in the fenced lot behind the building- look for the Dean's sign and several retired/wrecked Type IIs.
206-860-5128

[Capt. Mike]

Seattle

In my several trips to AK & NW Canada, I've always used Seattle as a jumping off point. That usually coincides with a 3,000 mile oil change since I'll have just done the ol' cross-country. I've used Univeristy VW in downtown Seattle ever since the one in Bellevue closed (actually they just dropped VW) and have no complaints. They've always been good about fitting me in because of the circumstances and have had no objections to using my parts. (I carry the service replacements for the trip since I never know where I'll be.)

It's been a few years but the last contact info I have is:

(Dawn Sly, Asst. Svc. Mgr.)
4724 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle WA 98145
206-634-3322
fax 206 547-1582
Svc. Dept. 206-634-8210

[ziegstar]

Fine Tuning - 12510 15th Ave. NE. Suite C, Seattle, WA. 98125 (206) 427-4777 www.finetuningperformance.com

Chris is quite Knowledgable and reasonable with his rates. He just opened a new shop at:
9601 Midvale in Seattle, he has room for Syncro's

[icarus]

As with most things, things are not always the way they seem. I had a converstaion with Mark today on this very subject. I am not going to speculate what was or should have been said.

The bottom line is that Harmony is a very well equipped shop with 5 very experianced "techs" (I guess we don't call them mechanics anymore!) They work or all german cars, plus most japanese, plus volvo and saab. As time goes on there are fewer and fewer viable Westys on the road. In order to cover the overhead of the shop, including specialty tools, wages, benefits, etc these guys have to stay busy.

As I said before, they will work on any existing customers car forever. One problem is there are a fair number of old busses and bugs around this town, but a considerable number of them are owned and maintained by the John Muir school of ownership. A great many of these people either are unwilling or unable to pay the freight. I do understand the dilema both for the business and the customer. I used to run into this in my construction business. Potential clients would ask for a new bath and kitchen, and perhaps if I could throw in a deck for $10 grand. Occasionaly I found people who genuinly had no clue what things should cost, but often the response was, my neighbor down the street will do it for $10 an hour. No overhead, no insurance, no standing behind the work. "Hire him" I would say "if you realy want the work done."

I also know that Mark and his guys are more than willing to share advice, even tools on occasion.

I don't in anyway want to cast aspersions on microbusdelux, in fact I empathize with him. The two great values in this site are the access to information to do things ourselfs, and the references to those that can help us. In the case of a shop that can't or won't work on a specific car, at least we can try to find one that will. Because one won't work on a particular vintage type 2 does not suspect them for any other work. In fact it is, in my mind a good thing. I have had endless trouble trying to find people to work on my Detroit iron, because most independent shops work on "all vehicles"

Good luck and post any info on any other shops you find.

Icarus

[microbusdeluxe]

Since my rag on Harmony Motors in Bellingham seems to have ignited some discussion I'd like to offer a belated clarification on my encounter with them. Before I begin let me say I appreciate both Icarus' & Capt. Mike's discussion of the matter and agree with what they are both saying.

Bellingham does have a number of hippie vans. However, I in my case I drive a primo, clean 1981 Westy. New paint, interior, shiny gel coat top, Go Westy wheels & tires, it is one sweet rig that always gets compliments & inquiries about buying it. (Not as many inquiries as my old 65 deluxe, but that's another story). Attitude wise I am not aggressive and my inquiry to Harmony was in full expectation of paying a fair price for fixing the problem. They truly shut me off with a prompt curt "We don't work on air-cooled". I said "Yeah those old engines can be tricky, but I thought the brakes were similiar on all vanagons." They repeated, "I'm sorry but we just don't work on any of the old air-cooled buses or vanagons, you might try the dealer". So I don't recommend them, nor do I take my Subaru Outback to them. If they have enough customers, I guess this makes it one of those win-win situations everyone's always talking about.

[icarus]

Since my rag on Harmony Motors in Bellingham seems to have ignited some discussion I'd like to offer a belated clarification on my encounter with them. Before I begin let me say I appreciate both Icarus' & Capt. Mike's discussion of the matter and agree with what they are both saying.

Bellingham does have a number of hippie vans. However, I in my case I drive a primo, clean 1981 Westy. New paint, interior, shiny gel coat top, Go Westy wheels & tires, it is one sweet rig that always gets compliments & inquiries about buying it. (Not as many inquiries as my old 65 deluxe, but that's another story). Attitude wise I am not aggressive and my inquiry to Harmony was in full expectation of paying a fair price for fixing the problem. They truly shut me off with a prompt curt "We don't work on air-cooled". I said "Yeah those old engines can be tricky, but I thought the brakes were similiar on all vanagons." They repeated, "I'm sorry but we just don't work on any of the old air-cooled buses or vanagons, you might try the dealer". So I don't recommend them, nor do I take my Subaru Outback to them. If they have enough customers, I guess this makes it one of those win-win situations everyone's always talking about.

Fair enough. The only thing I would suggest is to have conversation with the owner of the shop and tell them why you won't be patronizing them.

Icarus

[williambeta]

I was going to the German Auto Clinic in Seattle before I moved and Jim the owner really knows the vans but it's too far to travel. Any help would be appreciated.

[Moderator note: 'Mechanic wanted' section deleted per forum header.]

[icarus]

In defence of Harmony Mtr Wks:

Harmony, like many shops won't work on new customers cars that are quite old. I have spoken to many shops about this and the reason being is that in many cases the cost of repairs often exceeds the value of the cars. In the case of Harmony, they have enough work with existing customers that it is hard to take on what is increasingly marginal work. The other problem is that there are fewer technicians that have experiance on the air cooled cars. I know that in Harmony's case, Mark Bender (Owner) is the only one in the shop that does any aircooled work anymore (for current customers). I know that this can and does create hardships for thems that can't get their cars worked on, I would much rather have someone be honest and work only on what they have competence in than the reverse.

I know that Harmony is committed to keeping to running a top notch shop, and their vanagon work is largley a labor of love. I will say that they have been scupuliously honest in every dealing I know of.

Icarus

PS I have no affiliation with Harmony except for being a long time customer.

PPS. There is a shop on McKenzie Ave.,down by the Alaska Ferry teriminal that will still work on aircooled. I know nothing about thier rep.

[tony_guzman@hotmail.com]

Located one more in the Seattle area:

http://www.wolfsburgmotorwerksinc.com/

5010 14th Avenue NW, Seattle, WA 98107
206.789.0182 or jack@wolfsburgmotorwerksinc.com