Seijirou

It's great that they have regional forums like this... Do you guys know of any places around here that will install parts? Like engines n' stuff? Any help would be great thanks.

bahamut

I don't know any on the east coast of FL.

Just west coast and O-town.

Like what engine parts?

Seijirou

Like an entire engine, and other stuff...

KMcW

Look through your phone book.

bahamut

"Like an entire engine, and other stuff..."

That can mean anything. You have to be more specific.

General maintenance like tune up or replacing a starter - you can probably do it yourself. Engine swap: most places may charge from $25-50 per hour. Installing small performance parts like header/intake - you can do it yourself to save a bit of money. Exhaust - get a pro to do it.

Just need to invest in some tools, time, effort, and yes blood (will be bleeding, that's the nature of mod-ding/fixing cars along w/ the occasional wel-choiced phrases).

Seijirou

You say most places charge whatever... What places?

bahamut

Then, you're talking about engine swaps. I meant most places as general repair/install shops (not pepboys, sears, or mass chain stores w/ repair facilities). They must have the ability to repair both tranny and engine (not a specialist in either one) for the long haul in storage space within their shop.

Look in your phone book. There should be some shops, but you might have to find a specialist - most do general Domestic swaps or few has the experience for H&A flavor). Or you can cheat a bit and make some friends over the dealership - help lower the price on a side project. I'm a bit skewed against that route - very few of those guys are honest w/ their advice (mechanics), besides managers (but they don't do any manual labor, just advice tossing and customer service)

Another great way (mitsu route), find a local DSM chapter (www.dsm.org). Make friends w/ them, gain knowledge, and help them out on any project. I will guarantee you some of those guys will have enough knowledge/experience to do swaps. Also, watch out for some of them are a bit haughty (high and mighty). I stay away from them.

Luckily, I have great friends in O-town helping each other: ie DSMs or mirage like mine . . . as long as I buy them good food fior the help.

As for the fee, that's general fee that I've seen around town on general repair work. Swaps may have extra complication or fee. I have not talked to any H&A swappists - min cost that I can guess is 3 grand.

Seijirou

Yo thanks a lot dude, you really helped me out.

bahamut

Also, make sure you TRUST your mechanic and your instincts on the matter, and he must have the ability to tune it properly w/o rushing the task.

Good luck on your hunt.

Seijirou

Oh yeah, one more thing, should I do the same thing to find places that will install stuff like one of those Toyota Matrix mirrors? And a GPS system?

bahamut

Those are different things.

Matrix mirrors - find a good body shop to graft it onto the car. The problem is there are a lot of shady body mod places.

GPS - um, don't sound advice sells them? Places like those or circuit city can install them. Their workers should be certified to install them. Basically, an electronic store.

BTW: electrical stuff or gadgets are not my expertise. I'm at a lost, besides my general observation.

Seijirou

Actually, for the GPS, my friend's brother-in-law actually installs them and can get them, so that's excellent. But for the mirror, you know that I'm talking about the rear view mirror inside on the windshield right?

bahamut

Oops, I thought you were talking about the outside ones. The inside one is easy, unless it has electrical stuff like some luxury model GM or fully decked out trucks.

Seijirou

Yeah it does... My friend has a Matrix and inside he showed me the mirror, it gots lights n' **** but the main feature is that when you look into it (like at night), somehow it dims the cars lights behind you, letting you see clearly even though some dudes got his lights shining right on your ***. Well, he recommended I get one and I was like, why not? So... Yeah, it does have electrical stuff...

bahamut

I do believe those mirrors have only postive and negative connection . . . tap it to the hot wire (constant) on the dome light. Yea, it has some sort of reflective tech stuff that auto dims upon blinding light from behind. Had to talk to my bro about his mirror w/ elec compass and auto dim feature.