FYI: "Buick Friendly" Auto Repair & Performance Shops...

[block11]

I'm looking for a really good paint shop/media blaster in Delco, PA. Anyone know of any?

[cam9457]

Just another thumbs up for Bill Moss. Only had my GN for about two months but have had nothing but a great experience with him. Everything he took apart on my car he cleaned and painted before putting it back, stands behind what he does too

[1of1547]

Originally Posted by block11

I'm looking for a really good paint shop/media blaster in Delco, PA. Anyone know of any?

Staley's Body Shop down in Westminster can sand or glass bead. They did my Chevy II years ago. Everything, body, interior, undercarriage, etc.

[asrnj77]

Originally Posted by FlyinGN

Id like to recommend Jimmy Dunn.. I have known him for years and he has been doing top notch work for TR owners for many years. Hes an honest guy who really knows his way around TR's. One of the few out there. Id have no problem him doing anything on my GN

Frank

I'd like to update these type of compliments since I had my car up at Jim Dunns place this past weekend. Long story short(er), my GN had been acting up..it just wasn't running right. The idle was jacked up, it was running hot, and had some electrical issues.
I took the car to a very well known Buick shop in the Mid Atlantic region and typed up a sheet of what I wanted them to look at. Here is the actual list I handed over :
Fix electrical gremlins -

1) Fuel level gauge doesn’t work. It is not the sending unit but the gauge itself, I believe. But, I need to know how much fuel I actually have.
2) Alky kit and electric fp gauge are tied into some suspect wiring that intermittently goes on and off. Last thing I want to do is lose alky when I’m going 23lbs!
3) Door locks stopped working. I haven’t even checked to see if its fuses but if you can see a quick fix for the power locks that’d be great.

Check for vacuum leaks/exhaust leaks.
1) It sounds like air is blowing by the EGR valve and the egr is non functional because of the power plate. Maybe block off the egr with a plate?

Check the heat!
1) The car runs about 194 degrees when it’s only 70 degrees outside. I know I have the big front mount but do I need a dual fan setup? If so, how much am I looking at? Can you try a new 165 thermostat?
2) The a/c worked (somewhat) when I first had the car but made some strange noises that sounded like a vacuum leak. Can you check and confirm working status of cold a/c?
3) I noticed the previous owner didn’t hook up the oil cooler lines to the new radiator. I don’t know why but I think this might be a good idea for me to do.

Tune! (my favorite part)
1) The idle isn’t very good as I’m sure you’ll find. If you could just make sure the crank sensor, TPS, IAC, etc. is all good.
2) When I start it up and put it in reverse the car will stall. Even if warmed up for 5 minutes on a warm day it will stall unless I “burp” it by fluttering the pedal. Once it catches it stays ok but clearing something is wrong here.
3) This will be more like a daily driver so although I want to squeeze out good performance I want it to be streetable. Feel free to mess with the timing, boost, lock-up, etc and do what you do best. I’ve got the TT street chip and extender chip but maybe a custom chip from you is the best bet. I plan on running with alcohol most of the time and if I run out or the alky is low then I just won’t push it until I get more.

I never got a call about an estimate and I called several times to check the status of the car. I finally got a call telling me to pick up my car and the total was $1680.00. I had no idea what had been done to it but figured they must have really gone through the list. When I went to pick up the car nobody that was there was familar with the work done and I had a bunch of questions but nobody to answer them. Needless to say after driving the car for a few days it still wasn't running right. The a/c wasn't fixed and there was a dyno sheet on the floor that said 315hp. Now I don't put a ton of stock in a dyno but people are making more than that stock. Plus the sheet had no information even showing that it was my car or what boost it was at. I searched the posts here and saw that Jim Dunn came highly reccomended and have him a call. He was very nice and knowledgeable and told me to bring my car by Saturday and he'd take a look.

Well once Jim started he immediately noticed that the battery posts were crudded so badly that they were hardly attached. We changed those. Then it was onto the tps that was set at .48. He adjusted that and checked the iac. The iac was malfunctioning so it was replaced. Next a check of the plugs and wires. Even though I had paid a large amount for a very recent change we removed the autolite plugs and no-named (apparently used) wires and replaced them with MSD wires and UR5 plugs. A check of the alky system showed that the controller wasn't working properly so he opened it up and adjusted some bent pins and set the dials. He and I were wondering how it was dynoed without this fix. A voltage test still showed that the car wasn't getting enough juice so we went back to the store (for the 4th time) and got a new alternator. The new test showed a huge improvement and now it was smoothly idling. He checked the fan and found a homemade wiring job that wasn't even working properly. My car never had the fan on high but that was corrected. The tensioner needed to be replaced and Jim gave me one of his own plus a new serpentine belt. He also listened carefully for leaks. Next he fixed my power seats that had stopped working while at the other shop. My shifter handle remains broken from time at the other shop but that will be on me to fix Jim literally spent a straight 5.5 hours getting my car up to shape and the cost (with parts!) was nearly 1/4 of what I paid earlier.

I highly highly reccomend Jim Dunn and will certainly take my car to him for anything. It takes me 2.5 hours to get there but it is well worth it. He is super honest and takes care of your car as though it were his own.

[3.8junkie]

Originally Posted by asrnj77

I took the car to a very well known Buick shop in the Mid Atlantic region and typed up a sheet of what I wanted them to look at.
I never got a call about an estimate and I called several times to check the status of the car. I finally got a call telling me to pick up my car and the total was $1680.00. I had no idea what had been done to it but figured they must have really gone through the list. When I went to pick up the car nobody that was there was familar with the work done and I had a bunch of questions but nobody to answer them. Needless to say after driving the car for a few days it still wasn't running right. The a/c wasn't fixed and there was a dyno sheet on the floor that said 315hp. Now I don't put a ton of stock in a dyno but people are making more than that stock. Plus the sheet had no information even showing that it was my car or what boost it was at. I searched the posts here and saw that Jim Dunn came highly reccomended and have him a call. He was very nice and knowledgeable and told me to bring my car by Saturday and he'd take a look.

Glad Jim was able to give you the service you asked for, there are a lot of folks who do good work in the Mid Atlantic area. I too have heard good things about Jim.

As for the other shop, there aren't too many that work on Buicks and have a dyno so that narrows things down. Additionally, I'm confused as to why you didn't list the vendor if you weren't satisfied. In fact there are a lot of things that don't add up.

I know I can speak for a couple of people here that hang out at Magna and to make a post like you did I'm not sure if you were really pointing out that Jim did a good job for you or that someone didn't give you good service without naming names.

Sounds like you have a nice car, but to post giving someone $1700 without you authorizing work is a leading statement. I don't know the vendor and have personally been around the block with vendors in the past but I've never made a post about someone that I wasn't willing to state their name if I was to list them in a thread.

Although I don't know the vendor who first had your car, but as a automotive shop owner I've got to question this post. There are several good shops in the Mid Atlantic area. It would have been nice to read that you liked Jim and that's all.

Just my opinion. Good luck to you.

[asrnj77]

Originally Posted by 3.8junkie

Glad Jim was able to give you the service you asked for, there are a lot of folks who do good work in the Mid Atlantic area. I too have heard good things about Jim.

As for the other shop, there aren't too many that work on Buicks and have a dyno so that narrows things down. Additionally, I'm confused as to why you didn't list the vendor if you weren't satisfied. In fact there are a lot of things that don't add up.

I know I can speak for a couple of people here that hang out at Magna and to make a post like you did I'm not sure if you were really pointing out that Jim did a good job for you or that someone didn't give you good service without naming names.

Sounds like you have a nice car, but to post giving someone $1700 without you authorizing work is a leading statement. I don't know the vendor and have personally been around the block with vendors in the past but I've never made a post about someone that I wasn't willing to state their name if I was to list them in a thread.

Although I don't know the vendor who first had your car, but as a automotive shop owner I've got to question this post. There are several good shops in the Mid Atlantic area. It would have been nice to read that you liked Jim and that's all.

Just my opinion. Good luck to you.

Yeah the purpose of my thread was to voice my satisfaction with Jim and vent a little about my previous experiences without bashing anybody else. I stated the whole truth and my experience. Just to be taken at face value. I feel that my positive experience with Jim Dunn makes more sense when told with my personal negative experience.
I'm not sure why you said that giving somebody $1700 without authorizing work is a leading statement. That's what happened. In my post above I copied the exact word .doc of what I gave the shop. I called several times and was told my car had not been looked at yet. Then I called another time and spoke with a tech who happened to be working on my car as I called. He said all he knew about was what he was working on at that moment (checking gauge light) and didn't know what else had been done and how much anything cost. He said he was having some issues with the electrical system and could continue to work on it or just stop and save me money since it appeared to only affect interior lighting. I asked him to stop working on it. The next day I got a message saying my car was ready and what the total was. I was a little taken a back. However I paid it. So put the blame on me.
Bottom line. I was pleased with the work that Jim did on my car.

[TRICKSIXPA]

Okay guys fight nice!! Don't drop the name of the shop thats between you and the service you recieved. I am lucky enough to live within a couple of miles of Jim. The service and knowledge he has of the cars are second to none. This being my first working turbo powered car second from buick he has found and fixed each new problem that has come up with my car. Mostly electrical issues he gives detailed explanations of what he does and best part
he works for labor. The parts he gets for you are what he pays. Very honest
person and has given me a lot of need information on how these cars work. Each time I bring my car to him it seems to go faster and the engine gets cleaner which is nice. If you need your Turbo Buick or TTA fixed he's definitely worth a ride to get here. Scared about who to take your car to for the first time you have a place to go. Enough Said.

Stefan

[GrndNatnl]

I think he more or less used his negative experience to provide a foundation on which to express his happiness in another particular mechanic. I'm perfectly pleased that he did refrain from publicly calling anyone out in a negative manner. It's better to keep those conversations private and personal. Everyone has their own experiences with various vendors/mechanics, some good, some bad. If it's just a poor experience, I wouldn't call them out publicly. On the other hand, if it's a legitimate crime; someone scams you or rips you off, things of a more serious nature, then warning others isn't such a bad idea, because that person/business shouldn't be given a chance to victimize anyone else. That's just my personal opinion. I'm not for "vendor bashing" but protecting the people is another story.

And thumps up for Jim Dunn. I've had a lot of help from a lot of our "Buick friendly" folks, and he's been one of them. I've even referred people to him and never heard an ounce of bad feedback.

[Lou19]

Jim Dunn is the best!

I wasted time and money with my local mechanic. I also poked around trying to fix my recently acquired and tired 64K stock GN that was stumbling and barely idling. Buying part after part hoping it would heal itself. I saw “all work performed by Jim Dunn” in the GN for sale section of one of these turbo Buick sites. Found his site and made the call.

For an hour and a half, Jim went over my car while teaching me along the way. As he works, he explains what should be done and where to get the parts - bring a pad and pencil, try to keep up.

Jim and Ed had my car for less than 2 days and the car is better then ever!

Be prepared, Jim will do more then you expect, but its all part of the job. My engine compartment was cleaned, detailed, my rigs were corrected, and I was very pleased. Jim did everything I asked and more, but stayed within my budget.

He really takes pride in his work and after you meet him - you will notice he takes pride in everything he does.

Lou

Buick Turbo Performance Center
Located in Secane, PA
WebSite:BuickTurboPerformance.com
E-mail: Jim@buickturboperformance.com
Phone #: (610) 721-4695

[87BlueTurboT]

Nothing but positive feedback and lots of kudos for Jim Dunn at Buick Turbo Performance from me.

Jim Dunn has seen my car multiple times over the course of 2009. I'd only owned my car for a short period of time when the Powermaster went while I was driving home one night. While the original owner had recommended a general performance shop that he had been taking the car to for years, I was keen on trying someone who deals only in turbo Buicks, someone who I felt could bring the beast alive and have the experience to tackle all my questions and work with me on future plans for the car.

I wasn’t part of MAGNA and had only lurked the boards to absorb the years of knowledge (still do ), but I came across Jim’s website on the internet and decided to ring him – at 9.30pm on a Friday night. Not only did he take my call, he spent 30 minutes helping me diagnose the issue and we talked shop in general. From then on I was sold. Since then, I’ve taken my car to Jim when hitting issues I can’t quite pinpoint myself, whenever I’ve got a question or have something I’d like him to hear or inspects for feedback - and of course, for every upgrade.

My original plan was to try Jim’s service and then try some other shops in the Tri-state area to compare and contrast, but he’s damn well made it impossible. Here are some of the things that were important to me and he’s delivered:

1.I was pleased with his invoicing. Clear, concise invoices that are great for my own logs and would come in hand in the case (knock on wood) I’ve got to sell her one day. I’ve got original receipts from the original owner, and many are faintly legible and very nondescript.

2.I get regular updates on what Jim has found as he digs into my car and he will contact me to ask questions as to what I’d like to do if he’s found something that is worth changing/fixing.

3.Jim babies the living hell out of my car. Heck, every time I’m over at his shop, where I’ve met a handful of you, he’s babying everyone’s car like they’re his own. Cars are covered when left out, floormats are turned upside down so that he doesn’t get any dirt inside from his shoes, etc. No matter how much detailing I do before leaving my car with Jim, I get it back cleaner.

4.Jim always makes himself available. Even in times where he can’t take my call right away to answer some questions or provide advice, he calls me back the same day to sort things out. He’s also better than Google when I’m seeking direction + feedback on parts or places to order from

5.Jim will freely spend his time, and lots of it, educating you. Ask him a question when you are over at his place, and Jim is always happy to share info, experience and thoughts on anything Buick-related. To hell with all the service manuals, books, etc that I’ve got at home, I just search TurboBuicks like a mo' fo and ring Jim to run through some ideas.

6.No attitude. I get none of the cranky, know-it-all, bitter crap that I deal with when taking my family's cars to our local general mechanic. That stuff gets old and I'm not taking my Buick to you if I gotta deal with that.

I guess I could’ve just summarized this by saying I'm pleased with Jim's services since I’m usually driving my car home from Jim’s in a cleaner, faster car. I like that.

[A.FERRER]

Anyone in my area close to northern/ central nj you guys recommend? Thanks...