Lots of ink here on the HAMB goes to bitching about shitty service that you get from certain shops. I figured we should praise the shops that give great service. I was on the way back from Pleasanton this summer and had a vibration getting really bad in my Model A sedan. Felt like a U-joint starting to fail. Being from Canada and not having a fearless clue where to go in Lodi, I hit auto repair on the GPS. A place called Al's auto repair came up. I pulled off the freeway and started heading for Al's. On the way there I see a shop called Nickell's Customs. So we wheel in and talk to a guy in the shop. He says that the best place to go is Street Rods Plus. He starts rambling off directions, I tell him to slow down a bit because I am from way out of town. He tells me to follow his parts driver, So me and the other two guys I am traveling with get into line and away we go. We get to Street Rods Plus, I explain my predicament to the guy behind the counter, which I later find out is Corky the owner. He has one of the guys in the shop come out and we go for a spin up the block. He says, yup sounds like a U-joint to me. I drop my teardrop trailer in the front of the shop, wheel around the back. They move a couple cars to slide me in. Up on the floor jack, guy slides under, pulls the shaft, the u-joint falls apart on the floor. She was on her last legs. They order a new u-joint. My buddies and I spend the time waiting walking around in the awesome showroom full of hot rod candy. I was back on the road about an hour and 15 minutes after I walked in the door. What an awesome experience. These guys are great. Lots of cool projects in the shop. We talked to a couple customers that were there picking up parts and every one of them had high praise for Corky Soares and his crew. So If you are ever "Stuck in Lodi again" or live close by and are looking for a great hot rod shop, I give this one a very high recommendation.
Yep,need more good stories like this.I'm sure there are many more that don't get screen time.Thanks for the report.
The Jalopy Journal
