I haven't needed any machine work in close to 40 years, so I had to search to find a machine shop. My buddy found this place and called for a price, which seemed pretty fair. We tried calling a few others. but none of them answered.
THE GOOD: This is an old school machine shop that works on more than cylinder heads. Two brothers own the shop and one of the owners son, Johnny, is awesome, very communicative and a really nice guy! The prices they charge "seem" to be very reasonable (I have nothing to base this on).
THE BAD: This is an old school machine shop that works on more than cylinder heads.
1. They are VERY old school, to the point that their system for tracking "what parts belong to who" consists of your name & number scribbled on the back of a business card that is stuck into an opening in whatever part you dropped off, nothing else.
2. Out of the 6 guys that work there, only one, Johnny, speaks English.
3. The phone rarely gets answered.
4. It looks more like a scrap yard than a machine shop: (literally) tons of cylinder heads, engine blocks, crankshafts and camshafts, etc everywhere!
THE REALLY BAD (in my case): They called me about 11 am to say my heads were ready to be picked up. As I was busy, I didn't get there until around 4 pm. I walked in, speak to Johnny and let him know I was here to pick up my small block Ford heads. He looks... and looks... talks to another guy there... and looks, then makes a phone call. He then tells me, "a guy was here about 10 minutes ago looking for some small block Ford heads and they gave him your heads and he will be back in about 10 minutes". WTF?!? It was more like 20 mins, but FORTUNATELY this guy pulls up with my heads in the back of his truck.
Johnny did apologize a few times about the confusion. I comment on how disorganized they are and he apologizes again. I pay my $240 (no courtesy discount), I thank Johnny and leave.
THE VERDICT: Obviously their error was corrected after the guy who had my parts returned them. I'm hoping my experience is a very rare occurrence and no one else has to go through this. Otherwise my cylinder heads were machined as I asked. read more