Pauls Place. Unit 2 Culverlands Corner, Winchester Road, Shedfield, Southampton, SO32 2JF Phone: 01329 836260 http://www.pauls-place.com/. I have no connection with this garage but think they are a bit of a find who I will be using for anything which the Stag needs doing and wanted to recommend them to you all.
The local garage who recommissioned the Magenta Marvel just aren't really interested in it and whenever I want something done they treat it as a chore and seem really resistant to sorting out little niggles - such as the oil leak it had. They are good to me on the hours they charge and very local and convenient so I continued to use them for the Stag and also what I think is "basic" stuff on the M when, really, I knew I shouldn't as they have made a series of c**k-ups on the M which I won't go into on open forum. My Stag has a Mallory dual point dizzy and Holley carb which, I guess, is a bit alien to the majority of today's mechanics, and they never managed to get the timing set-up right, so the vacuum advance hasn't been connected since I have run it because when it was connected the car ran like a dog. Obviously that's not a good thing as it effects power, fuel and is damaging as it pinks a little under heavy load. The richness also has been adding to the smokey exhaust issue I have.
I finally decided enough was enough when they didn't come back to me on an issue which I wanted them to book the Stag in to resolve, and started to hunt for a specialist garage not too far away. No one could give me a recommendation but I used the 'net and found someone about 30 miles away who also stocks Mallory and Holley products. We exchanged emails and I was impressed with the friendliness and freely given knowledge - the labour rate of £40/hour + Vat is also pretty reasonable . A couple of weeks ago I went to see them and met Paul, who was brilliant. He started off setting it up according to the book with the vacumm advance connected and I went for a drive - it ran dreadfully! He then started fiddling about and we took it up the road and stopped on and off for him to lift the bonnet and fiddle a bit more until he thought it was performing as well as it could. All in all I was there a couple of hours and came away with a car that ran so much better. I booked with him a time to go back and change the plugs, air -filter (my Holley needed a size he didn't have in stock) and cure a small oil leak.
For the time spent Paul only wanted an hours worth of labour and, embarressingly, I found I didn't have my cheque book etc there to pay him
He wasn't fazed and told me to pay when I came back. Yesterday I went back and he did the plug and filter change and sorted out the oil leak which was due to a damaged seal in the oil-pressure switch. How much did he charge for that?...£40 all in exclusive of the Vat. How's that for value and customer service?
As you can see, it's not a "flash" garage but there was some interesting stuff there - mainly American as that's Pauls passion. He told me that he has a Camaro (a fixed head version of the red one in the pic's) but had recently sold his "proper" car which was also a Camaro and ran at about 700bhp
They also have a body / paint shop and had just done the Lotus Cortina in the pics. I am not a painting expert - but can certainly spot a bad respray - and thought this looked a good quality job. There was a TR6 in there being prepped too. He has rebuilt a couple of Stags in the not too distant past and is having one in for a re-paint shortly.
If you are local-ish to Shedfield / Wickham and looking for someone who knows about V8's and is clearly enthusiastic and keen to help, then I truly recommend Paul.
The local garage who recommissioned the Magenta Marvel just aren't really interested in it and whenever I want something done they treat it as a chore and seem really resistant to sorting out little niggles - such as the oil leak it had. They are good to me on the hours they charge and very local and convenient so I continued to use them for the Stag and also what I think is "basic" stuff on the M when, really, I knew I shouldn't as they have made a series of c**k-ups on the M which I won't go into on open forum. My Stag has a Mallory dual point dizzy and Holley carb which, I guess, is a bit alien to the majority of today's mechanics, and they never managed to get the timing set-up right, so the vacuum advance hasn't been connected since I have run it because when it was connected the car ran like a dog. Obviously that's not a good thing as it effects power, fuel and is damaging as it pinks a little under heavy load. The richness also has been adding to the smokey exhaust issue I have.
I finally decided enough was enough when they didn't come back to me on an issue which I wanted them to book the Stag in to resolve, and started to hunt for a specialist garage not too far away. No one could give me a recommendation but I used the 'net and found someone about 30 miles away who also stocks Mallory and Holley products. We exchanged emails and I was impressed with the friendliness and freely given knowledge - the labour rate of £40/hour + Vat is also pretty reasonable . A couple of weeks ago I went to see them and met Paul, who was brilliant. He started off setting it up according to the book with the vacumm advance connected and I went for a drive - it ran dreadfully! He then started fiddling about and we took it up the road and stopped on and off for him to lift the bonnet and fiddle a bit more until he thought it was performing as well as it could. All in all I was there a couple of hours and came away with a car that ran so much better. I booked with him a time to go back and change the plugs, air -filter (my Holley needed a size he didn't have in stock) and cure a small oil leak.
For the time spent Paul only wanted an hours worth of labour and, embarressingly, I found I didn't have my cheque book etc there to pay him
He wasn't fazed and told me to pay when I came back. Yesterday I went back and he did the plug and filter change and sorted out the oil leak which was due to a damaged seal in the oil-pressure switch. How much did he charge for that?...£40 all in exclusive of the Vat. How's that for value and customer service?As you can see, it's not a "flash" garage but there was some interesting stuff there - mainly American as that's Pauls passion. He told me that he has a Camaro (a fixed head version of the red one in the pic's) but had recently sold his "proper" car which was also a Camaro and ran at about 700bhp
They also have a body / paint shop and had just done the Lotus Cortina in the pics. I am not a painting expert - but can certainly spot a bad respray - and thought this looked a good quality job. There was a TR6 in there being prepped too. He has rebuilt a couple of Stags in the not too distant past and is having one in for a re-paint shortly. If you are local-ish to Shedfield / Wickham and looking for someone who knows about V8's and is clearly enthusiastic and keen to help, then I truly recommend Paul.
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