I own a 1965 Ford Mustang 302. For the last 3 years it's been "ticking" from worn lifters and generally becoming tired. One day, I brough it to "Best Machine" in San Rafael, Where I was introduced to Luis, who guaranteed me that a full rebuilt was necessary which made perfect sense, since the inside of the engine was last touched in 2000. This is not an easy engine also, since it has been customized many times in the past and had parts from everywhere in making it a small block Ford peppy engine. Luis and his shop fully took the engine apart, re-machined everything, inserted better part where now everything is roller based & new, but also proper for this engine. They not only fix the ticking issue, but the engine sounds awesome now and is even more race ready than before. This rebuilt was a bit time consuming to get the job dialed-in just right, but today I'm proud of having met Luis and his staff and will recommend his work to anyone who ask. A great shop. Alan. read more

Best Machine - Working on the heads. - Auto Repair Near Me - San Rafael, California

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Fantastic shop. My Saab needed the head resurfaced, valve seals done and a thread retapped. Luis and team got the work done quickly and competently, and went above and beyond to make sure everything went smoothly. Top tier shop with top tier people. Hoping my Saab will have many more miles in it thanks to their fabulous work! read more

Ignore the whiner reviews. A local machinist that is competent is an asset that most of the community will neither see nor value. What they do is dirty and feels like it is from a different century. But for those of us who want to repair rather than replace, who care about how things are done, and who respect those with competence, folks like these are priceless. I brought in a head to have a valve job. He was clear that they were busy and it would take time, yet he also spent time answering questions and making me smarter. Two weeks later I got the head back and they did a great job. There is a corruption in our community and society where we don't value expertise, only assets. When we pay money for a service, we are making an even trade. This means the money is exactly equal in value to the services rendered. Yet for some reason some folks believe that the guy with the money is somehow superior. That somehow the trade is a gift. That is bullshit. Not every professional is going to be cheery and glib like Verizon Lily. Some folks will go into trades because they love it, or they feel connected with being skilled. When you trade your cash for their services, you do not have a right to have your b*** cradled because you are paying. You have a right to enter into an agreement for their services. There used to be auto parts stores and mechanics everywhere, because people fixed things. Now there are almost none. Lots of Marin folks have money. Nothing special about that. But this guy is special, because he can do something useful that virtually nobody in Marin has the tools or skills to do. Shut your cake hole, act respectfully, ask questions, and you will get good work for a fair price. Or be a douche and publish your insecurity on Yelp. Your call read more

Replying to comment left by owner to my previous 1 star review. I got ALL of my comments correct. This man told me to throw away a 1500$ assembly. He didn't even bother to allow me to speak to him about another way to get this thing apart. He had all the tools and the experience, but he was being a jerk. He would have made full rate at his "1 man shop" if he would have allowed me to even speak, but he shut me down. PS i am a "1 man shop" as well and I always pay peoples full rate; I was not looking for a deal. But, again, this man would not even let me speak. He was being a total JERK All it would have taken to get this thing apart was a powerful drill press and a large bit, but that was "going to make him beat his head over it" THAT IS WEAK!!! I KNOW FOR A FACT THIS MAN CAN NOT PROBLEM SOLVE DUE TO MY EXPERIENCE. ~find a better machine shop, don't go here. FURTHERMORE, Now, via his reply to my review, i don't trust this man; you shouldn't either. read more

My experienced and license boat mechanic took our boat cylinder heads for rebuilt at an estimate $550. It was clear to the shop the heads off 1996 mercruiser Baylinear. The shop convinced ourmechanic to exchange it for rebuilt heads at a cost of $729.00. After that my mechanic realized we also need a short block. While shopping for one at another shop, it was discovered by the new shop the cylinder heads sold by Best Machine are from the 1960's and will not hold on a boat. When my mechanic went to return the heads, Best machine blamed my mechanic for the return. Deducted $97 and asked my mechanic not to shop again at their shop. This is a text book example of a bad deal. Keep your 60's parts to yourself. No one should need that. Rather than apologizing for wasting our times do gas, $97 was deducted. read more

Came here to get a flywheel resurfaced last month and Bruce was super helpful and friendly. He was also very, very knowledgable and explained to me what the different marks and patterns on the surface of my flywheel meant. I dropped off my flywheel around noon and picked it up a few hours later at a very reasonable price. I have since installed the flywheel back onto my car with a new clutch and no problems whatsoever. I would definitely come back in the future. PS. Parking may be difficult to find in the area. read more

I can't believe there aren't more reviews on this shop. Bruce, the owner, has been around for many years..as far back as I can remember to my high school days (10 years now). He's a perfectionist..and when I say that, I mean it as a complement because he will make sure everything is done correctly and that everything is as precisely as possibly can. Over the years, me and friends (1 of them owns S & P auto on Andersen) have taken our parts to Bruce for all our machining (anything from flywheel resurfacing to head work). Bruce is an honest guy and is more than willing to take the time to chat with you and explain the whole process if you'd like to hear/learn. He charges a very good price considering the amount of time and quality of work he puts in. I recommend him with the highest regard and am pretty sure you won't find a better machinist in Marin County..period. read more

I should have grabbed my cylinder heads and walked out the minute this guy roughly tumbled one of them over onto the ALUMINUM cam towers so that he could look at one of the valves on his dirty steel shop table. The cam towers are a precision machined surface where any imperfection is a Big Deal but according to his mouth, "it won't hurt anything". Unfortunately, the shops with race proven engine machining and building quality either didn't call me back, where months out or are located hundreds or thousands of miles away so I mostly let it go with a gentle objection and the experience devolved on its own with Mr Best Machine telling me that he's done, he can't work with an "internet expert" know-it-all like me asking too many questions and wasting his time when I expressed my preference for a name brand replacement valve not whatever his go-to supplier has on hand. Our total interaction consisted of 4-5 quick prior phone calls to see if he could do heads that use MLS head gaskets, get his preferences on how far I should I tear them down, how many of the components I should bring and to make sure that he was there on the day that I was able to run down to his shop plus maybe 15 minutes face to face. Generously call it 30 minutes of "wasted time" (which is part of running a service business and is priced into the hourly rate) for what would have been a $500+ job with little or no parts that he would have banged out in I'm guessing under 3 hours. He did offer me a discount that amounted to 1/2 of the price of the labor that he would have billed me for reconditioning my valves if I bought new ones. HTF does that add up? He'll charge me x to recondition my valves but x/2 if he doesn't recondition them and uses new one that he'll mark up from his cost to retail? I spent 45 minutes carefully boxing up and transporting my heads to his shop and within 15 minutes he's insulting me for asking questions. Maybe he's insecure and misunderstood that I was hoping to learn something while he was multitasking not that I was quizzing him on his knowledge. This "internet expert" has kept every vehicle that I've owned running well from a 5 year old with a bicycle to 46 years old through at least 8 motorcycles, 5 cars, a truck and a van and few racing seasons with karts and motorcycles plus our current household with 6 four wheeled vehicles and two motorcycles currently in my care and my two most regularly used personal vehicles with a combined age of 58 years and almost 500,000 miles on their original engines and most of that time and distance in my hands. The only shops that I have ever paid to do work for me are machine shops, smog check, tire mounting/balancing and exhaust fabrication because I don't own the equipment to do it myself. Yes, I read the book "How to Build Max Performance 4.6 Liter Ford Engines" by Sean Hyland who has built hundreds of them, mostly for competition and also found some good, proven and knowledgeable sources on the web. With my reading comprehension, mechanical and mathematical aptitude, real life experience and vested interest in my Ford 4.6 Modular V8 engine, I almost certainly do know more than Mr Best Machine does about my engine and its cylinder heads. That this glorified machine operator couldn't put two and two together when I walked in with heads stripped down to the valves from an engine that I removed from a full sized Ford van (which has to be one of the worst automotive repair tasks) in my residential garage plus all of the relevant pages copied from the factory service manual is illustrative. I've worked for and have seen the work of well regarded companies in my own profession and the truth is that it's mostly smoke and mirrors, marketing, whatever you want to call it. The great majority of people and companies are average at what they do rated on a bell curve and strive to provide the minimum for the maximum price. Average is mediocre by my standards. It's really hard finding top quality work. It's possible that Best Machine is one of those guys but I doubt it based on the lack of attention to detail that was exhibited with his first hands on action. I had a similar experience about 25 years ago (well before the internet) when I watched horrified as a Ford dealership's "transmission specialist" (who was a friend's buddy) took an air impact gun to the main locknut of the manual transmission that I was the special tool (foot long deep socket) short of completing assembly of while my gears clacked away against each other. After all that, the nut still wasn't tight and I ended up solving it on my own, having wasted a couple hours of my time and a cash sum. That transmission has been trouble-free since, going on 100,000 miles since that rebuild. There certainly is someone out there that deserves my time investment and hard-earned money. I recommend that you, too, look elsewhere. read more

was going to bring in my rotors to be bead blasted and Bruce educated me that was not the correct method to clean off excessive rust/corrosion because it can cause pitting and inclusions. I'm going in tomorrow to see what he can do for me.... Thanks Bruce read more

Strange I thought there were more reviews of this place last time I looked. Anyway, this is a great machine shop run by a great guy. I brought a number of items here for repair and the majority of the time he says they don't need to be repaired and sends me on my way with the suggestion I spend the money on something for my wife. He also has lots of time to chat and offer you solutions. He has been very creative in fixing a number of things for me and when he has charged me he has been very very reasonable. He has stayed late on a Friday just to do work so I wouldn't have to wait the weekend. That's about it. Great service, great work, honest and trustworthy guy who has been in the neighborhood for years. Can't recommend him enough. Just wish the parking in the area was a bit easier to find. Edit: Forgot to mention that a number of local auto shops I went to recommended this shop for machine work as well. read more

I've been to see Bruce at Best Machine for a few different projects over the years. The quality of his work is excellent and always priced reasonably. And the one time he was too busy to get the job done asap (many jobs in front of mine and I needed it done yesterday) he referred me to a neighboring shop who got it done posthaste. Top rate. Highly recommend Bruce and Best Machine. read more

Such Great service from Bruce I would highly recommend for all his Honest assessments. read more

Best Machine - We as a service technician have used bruce's services. He does excellent service and is the most honest. - Auto Repair Near Me - San Rafael, California

Bruce was so helpful!! I'm new to automotive work and he gave me some great tips and advice and even showed me around the shop to help me understand about the work he was doing and why. If I didnt move I would definitely only come here for future help with my garage projects! read more

Needed a stainless steel flywheel resurfaced on a Saturday. Bruce took care of it while I waited. He stayed past his close time & didn't rush it but instead did it right! Excellent service! read more

Called and got a flywheel resurfaced same day, awesome service and I was lucky he could fit it in. Pretty busy one man shop so be patient if he isn't answering the phone. read more

I've used machine shops in Marin for eight years and have found Bruce the premier machine shop in the county period. From brake rotor resurfacing to cylinder head repair, the craftmanship has been flawless for each and every challenge. Bruce has spent the money for fresh, state of the art equipment and has both the experience and knowledge to satisfy every machining need. read more

I've used Best Machine for rotor and drum resurfacing over the years and recently brought in a 2001 Honda Civic head (blown head gasket). Bruce showed me that the exhaust valves were leaking in two of the cylinders and took the time to explain my options. When I picked up the head after resurfacing/valve job he showed where to put RTV to avoid oil leaks when putting the rocker arms back on. Everything was going well until it came time to torque the timing belt tensioner bolt to the block (it was stripped; just my luck). I called Bruce to ask his advice and he told me to come down and borrow his Time-Sert thread insert tool and showed me how to use it. Fortunately the thread insert worked. Great work, fair prices and amazing service. read more

Bruce did two head rebuilds for us and both times his work was top notch, dyno results speak for themselves! Our customers are happy!

I brought in a torque converter with broken bolts that needed to be removed. It was a higher than stock stall speed heavy duty converter that I got from APS Precision about five years ago. The internals were all new but it is probable the outer case was not. Anyhow, the machinist drilled right through two of the bolts and damaged the converter. At least he admitted it. It was a holiday Friday and he asked me to wait till Monday until he could talk to a transmission person. So I lost the Saturday and Sunday I could have used to put everything back together and may have to cancel a vacation to get time to finish the job. He proposed giving me an unknown brand, probably stock, rebuilt converter (perhaps the quality of it is as bad as his work) or $150. I'll never have them do any work for me again. read more

I brought my cylinder head there from a c230 Mercedes for repair because the head gasket was leaking. Bruce was ok but a little stressed because his wife had just had a minor accident, understandable. Everything seemed to go as planned, he said the head was within tolerances and not warped so he cleaned it all up and replaced the valve guides and such. I brought the head back to my mechanic and he put it all back together. Ran ok for a couple of commutes across the bridge but then I had transmission problems and had to put it back into the shop to fix it. I decided to have a couple of other little things fixed while it was in there like the oil sensor. The mechanic found that the head gasket was leaking again so that was a bummer. I ended up buying a new engine and swapping it out. The engine cost the same as the cylinder head repair and had half as many miles as the old one. Should have done that in the first place. I did not talk to Bruce about this because I didn't have the time and figured that he wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. I don't know what happened and I can't say that it was the fault of best machine entirely because there are too many variables but if I had to do it over I would just get a new engine. The money doesn't bum me out as much as the time I lost. Lesson: Don't buy a used Mercedes! Too many sensors in those cars. read more

Great work, reasonable price, ready when he says it will be. I appreciate Bruce's taking time to discuss the options and get my heads back in time to make my client happy... Highest recommendation! read more

I used Best Machine for a 4.3 liter Chevy V6 build for a jeep project. I had them surface my heads, do the valves, and install stiffer valve springs for the big cam I used. I also ordered parts through them for my motor. Everything went smooth and came out great. I also use them when I do my brakes (to turn down my rotors or drums) because its just easy. I drop my stuff off, he tells me when to come get them, and its done. Bruce has done a great job consistently. read more

I used this Best Machine to have the bushings of the control arms of my BMW replaced. Machine shops in SF quoted more than $100 for the job. Best Machine did the job for $30 in 10 min while I waited. The guys were friendly and funny to talk to. read more

This was my first experience with Bruce (the owner and ONLY machinist there) and let me say, it was the most pleasant and easy encounter it had with anyone. Let alone a machine shop haha. He is very very knowledgeable. He will explain every little step to you if you simply ask. Upfront and honest, beat machine is my go-to shop from now on. If your on the fence I urge you, just call and ask if you can talk to him. You won't regret his service :) read more