LA area Local Mod Installer

[DDKing13]

So about a week after David installed my coils, I got new high density strut mounts that stop the squeaking. I asked David if he would prefer I went out to him for such a small job (compared to the entire suspension). He told me he would actually be in my area working on somebody else's cars, and he could swing by after he's done, estimating around 4 pm.

He let me know around 4 that it was gonna take longer, and he would keep me posted. I told him that's fine, I just need these on today. Doesn't matter what time. Turned out that the guy he was doing work for got all wrong parts or something like that, so he ended up being there all day. Even after all that, he still swung by my house at like 10:30 pm to install the mounts for me.

Seriously, David is the shit. Period.

Side note: While he was installing the mounts for me, he mentioned the story about that chisel being left on that guy's car. He worked on that car like a year before the guy even brought it to the other installer who noticed it. The other installer proceeded to completely blow the situation out of proportion, as if David fucked up his car, when really, it doesn't affect the suspension at all really. Everything was still installed correctly, all you had to do is pull it out. Obviously, he acknowledged his mistake of leaving his tool there, but he was pretty discouraged by peoples desire to go out of their way to slander somebody's name, when all he's trying to do is help people out.

 

[Power2rice]

I was looking for help from a local with my intercooler, turbo outlet pipe and throttle body pipe. So I pinged a few locals that I found on this thread. I hit David up first since he seemed to have such die hard supporters. His response was the intercooler would be a "huge pain the ass". He also didn't know what a turbo outlet pipe was, he asked if I meant the "downpipe". He didn't know what the throttle body pipe was, he asked if I meant the "intake". In addition to this he said it was a 4 hour job, when anybody who has done this knows its 2.5 - 3 hours tops. He also said my engine cover needed to be modified ... um ok. At this point I realized I didn't want this guy working on my car, and this was all before he left a friggin chisel in somebody's strut. Look, my personal opinion is I wouldn't trust him to work on anything non suspension related since he seems to have general car knowledge but not knowledge specific to VWs which is what we really want. So if you want him to do your coils then by all means because I heard he even gives you a free chisel

On the other hand, I pinged James (boostnonu) a few days after David, told him what I wanted. He told me he has done a few of those installs and it was "easy as pie". We scheduled the install a few weeks later. It only took him a couple of hours and this is with him taking time to explain everything to me, giving me tips and pointers. Letting me know the potential issues with the car, gotchas, tips and tricks. I mean he knew every single screw/bolt position and socket/torx sizes on the front end. Took it apart in minutes. I have no vested interest in either of these guys' businesses, I don't know either of them personally; have never met them before. But I felt compelled to write this post in the event that anyone is on the fence about with tech to pick. I feel that James is passionate about VWs, likes the help forum members out, and is a genuine good guy.

Oh James drives a mark 6 and has 70% of the common mods on this forum and has worked at VW for 4 years; David drives 350z. Nuff said.

In the text you sent me, I was busy handling a lot of networks for several offices that morning throughout the whole day, I prioritize what i'm working on first before i am able to answer text and calls. For the love of cars, doesn't matter if it's porsche, bmw, vw/audi, nissan, honda, jaguar, etc. Ive owned many cars, Modified Audi a4 as one of them. So commenting what I drive shouldnt apply to me as I change my cars. If I pulled up in a tesla or a motorcycle, doesn't change my love or knowledge of cars.

The job is a pain, I've done these on the mk5, audi, etc. It's the way it's mounted, not comparable to how bmw, etc, and other manufacturers mount intercoolers, it's sandwiched in a way where many things comes off to swap out. yes it can be finished in 2-3 hours, but you mentioned more things to be done. It's a pain for all installers, but we all are able to do it

as for the engine cover, i apologize, reading between your text and another persons text i was thinking yours was the mk5 with the integrated intake/engine cover which does need to be modified. regarding parts reference, try to understand that the same part, is referred differently between manufacturers; so i refer to the same part described differently

like how e cigs refer to the vapor as "puff"... but its "smoke" that i see

in honesty, i get many many calls and text each day both computer and cars. 8am till 12 midnight even random 1-2am texts. i try to answer everyone, i try to help everyone. But I am only one person. Hope that explains things a bit better.

but on a personal note, why do you write a long commenting post comparing me to another when i've never worked on your car nor seen it? i only responded to your questions through text during a busy day. the last text i got from you was pictures of the parts you wanted to install, i replied OK i see them but we never scheduled for a day to make it happen after that message.

 

[mycrors7]

we need to start specifying which david, as there are multiple davids that do awesome work

 

[POPSMK61]

In the text you sent me, I was busy handling a lot of networks for several offices that morning throughout the whole day, I prioritize what i'm working on first before i am able to answer text and calls. For the love of cars, doesn't matter if it's porsche, bmw, vw/audi, nissan, honda, jaguar, etc. Ive owned many cars, Modified Audi a4 as one of them. So commenting what I drive doesn't apply to me as I change my cars. If I pulled up in a tesla or a motorcycle, doesn't change my love or knowledge of cars.

The job is a pain, I've done these on the mk5, audi, etc. It's the way it's mounted, not comparable to how bmw, etc, and other manufacturers mount intercoolers, it's sandwiched in a way where many things comes off to swap out. yes it can be finished in 2-3 hours, but you mentioned more things to be done. It's a pain for all installers, but we all are able to do it

as for the engine cover, i apologize, reading between your text and another persons text i was thinking yours was the mk5 with the integrated intake/engine cover which does need to be modified.

as for parts reference, try to understand that the same part, is referred differently between manufacturers; vw outlet pipe, bmw downpipe, etc.

kinda like how e cigs refer to the vapor as "puff"... but the world sees it as "smoke"

in honesty, i get many many calls and text each day both computer and cars. 8am till 12 midnight even random 1-2am texts. i try to answer everyone, i try to help everyone. But I am only one person. Hope that explains things a bit better.

David (power2Rice), You are one busy guy. Do not waste time on reading these threads. You have already proven to everyone here that you are one genuine guy that likes to help us out. Don't let these threads waste your time anymore. There's a a lot of us here would not think twice bringing our cars for you to work on.

 

[bunjow]

In the text you sent me, I was busy handling a lot of networks for several offices that morning throughout the whole day, I prioritize what i'm working on first before i am able to answer text and calls. For the love of cars, doesn't matter if it's porsche, bmw, vw/audi, nissan, honda, jaguar, etc. Ive owned many cars, Modified Audi a4 as one of them. So commenting what I drive shouldnt apply to me as I change my cars. If I pulled up in a tesla or a motorcycle, doesn't change my love or knowledge of cars.

The job is a pain, I've done these on the mk5, audi, etc. It's the way it's mounted, not comparable to how bmw, etc, and other manufacturers mount intercoolers, it's sandwiched in a way where many things comes off to swap out. yes it can be finished in 2-3 hours, but you mentioned more things to be done. It's a pain for all installers, but we all are able to do it

as for the engine cover, i apologize, reading between your text and another persons text i was thinking yours was the mk5 with the integrated intake/engine cover which does need to be modified. regarding parts reference, try to understand that the same part, is referred differently between manufacturers; so i refer to the same part described differently

like how e cigs refer to the vapor as "puff"... but its "smoke" that i see

in honesty, i get many many calls and text each day both computer and cars. 8am till 12 midnight even random 1-2am texts. i try to answer everyone, i try to help everyone. But I am only one person. Hope that explains things a bit better.

but on a personal note, why do you write a long commenting post comparing me to another when i've never worked on your car nor seen it? i only responded to your questions through text during a busy day. the last text i got from you was pictures of the parts you wanted to install, i replied OK i see them but we never scheduled for a day to make it happen after that message.

I take time out of my day to write a post because I feel the community needs to see an overall picture before making an informed decision on which installer to pick. Otherwise this thread would be exactly 1 post long with your contact information touting you as the installer Jesus and be closed and locked. But thankfully forums are about open ended discussion from all viewpoints. The overarching theme from your supporters seems to be "oh he did my coils and it went great" therefore all his installs will be great type of message. I would just like to bring to question if this is true as evidenced by the few oversights we have seen so far. If nothing else your response confirmed some of our suspicions on whether or not you could do the job properly. Perhaps not from a technical standpoint as we could tell you are competent with cars and have good work ethics, but more from a attention span, multitasking standpoint. If you are distracted by the many texts you get throughout the day of 8 am to 12 midnight, and you are juggling networking and car jobs, then perhaps you are slightly overburdened.

Lets get one thing straight. You probably have altruistic intentions and you are "helping" the community out, but you are still being paid $50 - $100 an hour depending on the job. That isn't minimum wage, and yes I am sure you are filing all the proper 1099 tax forms and paying all your taxes on cash received. The point is, we are taking on a risk going with local installers vs using an insured tuner or dealership. But that doesn't mean we should take on that risk blindly. If nothing else, we should choose our local installers even more carefully due to the insurance and risks involved. There is also the risk of you working at somebody's house by towing your tools there. If you were to get hurt in their home, under worker's compensation laws in California, you would be the employee and the homeowner would be the employer. You can then file a lawsuit against the homeowner which would most likely be covered by homeowner's insurance but it would still be a huge hassle.

Speaking from a community point of view, why funnel all the jobs to David, when there are more capable techs that just need to be given a chance.
I would choose James (boostnonu) over David (power2rice) because I feel that he has a greater depth of knowledge on VWs specifically, better attention span, and is less prone to mistakes. Please don't view this as a personal attack as it is purely my viewpoint on David (the installer) and not David (the person). Also, I don't feel like you need to work on my car in order for me the provide feelback on you. For example, if I call a cell phone shop and ask if they can replace the glass on it, and they ask me, what glass do you mean antenna? And I don't end up going to this repair shop, is my opinion not valid?

 

[Power2rice]

I work hard yes, i provide a service for both i.t. world, the car enthusiasts and i travel abroad handling business. From your comment above I understand you are biased in opinion towards me. i don't think the community funnel'ed jobs to me, theres hundreds of thousands of car enthusiasts, and so many great shops, mod installers, and so on. every installer, well known shop, including the one that did the work for your car will stand true to say they also have lost tools, that they could not perform a job from having a full schedule, they all too made honest errors. i think every installer mentioned in this forum does a great job, thats why everyone mentions them all.

the poster of the lost tool is a nice guy. he also as a person, had a busy schedule so we didn't get to converse during the install because he had to go handle other priorities. had he had the free time to chat while i worked on his car, he would surely have called me to mention the tool and not post about the tool. just the next installer pointed out a lost tool in the wrong context.

i've never worked on your car, you asked about certain parts through text messages, i refer to the parts differently. the installer you speak of i know is a good installer too, but there does not exist anyone that hasn't made mistakes. human hands and robotic machines...

glass and antenna's are two different components of a phone that have very different functions. we were speaking of the same parts in your messages to me; intercooler, upgraded piping from oem. so if you called me asking about glass and i said you mean the digitizer assembly... it doesn't mean i don't know what i'm talking about. you reference me as only good for suspension, but from start to finish includes suspension, engine, electronics, air rides, plasma cutting, welding, etc. that z car was years of work inside and out, and now enjoyed by it's new owner on the track, daily driven, and now making it's first appearances in car meets; which i never had the time to do. i keep things low key, i prefer to remain low key and my interest is to help those that would appreciate my work.

through cars i've made many new friends and some now become good friends with. i only began helping people with cars because at my age all my buddies are married with family now. so i had free time during the weekend. if everyone saw me as just some mechanic that can install stuff i wouldn't do this. i build relations in what i do. you look at this as numbers, insurance... installers reading your post, having not met you... would be a bit wary to work on your car fearing you're looking to sue them. the OP of this thread never intended to refer me in a business context, only to introduce me to help the modding community. and i did just that.

ultimately i appreciate everyone ive been able to help and gladly help again when i'm able too, including other installers that i bartered services with. i would like to mention a few amazing installers that specialize in fiberglass work, wide body, custom interiors, sounds, race engines from rotary to pistons if anyone needs related work. and i will vouch for them as they have worked on the many cars i've owned, and the project cars i've built for shows and mags.