I have recently purchased a 1991 Honda Civic Si and it needs a little work.

I was always interested in learning how to tune cars, and to modify them to my liking. A relative of my girlfriend soon approached me regarding his 91 Civic.

He promissed that he would teach me everything I needed to know and help me swap in and out any part I ever wanted if I bought his car. Since he is a mechanic he would also let me buy any parts direct through him since he gets them at a much lower cost. Costs that I can actually afford.

He also promissed to take care of the body work (since he knew someone) that needed to be done on the car. This work was included in the purchasing price.

The knowledge I would soon gain working with him tuning my car would be worth alot to me to begin with, then with the added benifit of wholesale parts and his free labour - who could possibly say no? Three days later I got a loan from the bank and paid him the full asking price, no hassles, no haggling, just cash in his hand.

So now I have a car that works good, but still needs all the work prior to me buying it. I cannot purchase parts through him, I cannot get him to help me with any of the work, nor give me any advice, hell ... I can barely get him on the phone, and when I do it's always - "I'm too busy now, you'll have to go get whatever you need on your own".

I a few words, I was screwed on all the promissed "extras". Extras which incouraged me to go into more debt and buy it from him.

I am very intelligent, but when it comes to cars I'm a complete newbie (although I plan on learning). The car needs body work, a few parts, and it leaks through the dashboard whenever it rains and the water has already shorted out some of my after market gauges - AHHHHH!

I'm not sure where to look for an honest mechanic and body repair shop. I've been screwed before and it was a rather unpleasent experience. I'm hoping some people here in the GTA may read this story and throw me some advice about which shops seem to be reputable.

Thanks for reading,
Alexander Knight

 

Someone?

This morning when I pulled into work and tried to reverse into my parking spot I could not change from neutral into gear anymore. Turns out the motor mount (front center) failed and my motor is now sitting off kilter.

$4900 and 30 days and now my Civic is fubar. Guess he did not upgrade the mounts when he swapped out the engine

I really need to find a decent mechanic here in T.O.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Freedom Fighter &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I really need to find a decent mechanic here in T.O.</TD></TR></TABLE>

there is a CRX meet by crispy cream/duffrin/home depot/yorkdale plaza TONIGHT. someone there should be able to help you out.

You'd probably be better off posting a message like this in the General Discussion/Debate for next time..

 

I will have to make the next meet (and I will!). I have no transportation this evening since my Honda is not usable and my other car is at my work.

Thanks a bunch for the heads up though. If you could maybe shoot me a PM or something when the next meet is coming up I'd be most grateful.

I live in downtown Toronto (slightly east) and would love to meet up with some enthusiasts. I really want to learn alot as I do not plan on being an ignorant newbie for too long.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Freedom Fighter &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I will have to make the next meet (and I will!). I have no transportation this evening since my Honda is not usable and my other car is at my work.

Thanks a bunch for the heads up though. If you could maybe shoot me a PM or something when the next meet is coming up I'd be most grateful.

I live in downtown Toronto (slightly east) and would love to meet up with some enthusiasts. I really want to learn alot as I do not plan on being an ignorant newbie for too long.</TD></TR></TABLE>

it's probably every thursday.. this is the first time i'm going!