Does your auto mechanic make house calls? I’m not talking about a repair shop or dealership sending a tow truck to your house and bringing your vehicle back to their place of business. I mean, does your mechanic come to your house to work on your car or truck in order to make life a little less inconvenient for you?
Mine does.
Allen Beckett, a well-respected mechanic and Ashland native, has been working on my vehicles since my wife and I moved to Southern Boone County in 1999. (A tip of the cap to Randy and Terry, who have also taken care of my automotive needs in the past.) Most of the time, I drive my cars to Allen’s shop—an insulated, heated, and air-conditioned Quonset hut featuring two hydraulic lifts and a better sound system than many concert venues I’ve been to—where he and his business partner Matt Old work their magic.
Allen has always gone “above and beyond” to make sure my vehicles are safe and reliable, but he recently managed to go above and beyond what I would have ever expected him or any other mechanic to do in order to get my newest hot rod, a 1965 Oldsmobile 442, running right.
After I described how my car sputtered whenever I stepped onthe throttle, Allen guessed that the 56-year-old carburetor probably needed to be rebuilt. When I agreed with his assessment, he offered me a choice: I could remove the carb myself and bring it to his shop (so I could keep my car tucked away safe and sound in my own shop), or he could come over to my place and remove it for me. After rebuilding it, he would then come back to my shop, re-install the carb, and adjust it as needed. Naturally, I invited him to come to my place at his earliest convenience.
Removing the antique Quadrajet carburetor took Allen only a few minutes, and I almost wished it would have taken longer so we could have had more time for conversation. But he was busy, as all good mechanics are, and I knew we would have more time to chat whenever he came back to re-install the rebuilt carb.
Allen stopped by last Thursday afternoon to bolt the 442’s original four-barrel back onto the intake manifold. Hearing that numbers-matching, 400 cubic-inch, big block motor come to life was music to my ears. Then Allen said something that sounded even better; “Wanna take it for a test drive?”
My first impression, while inching the car out of my shop, was that it didn’t sputter when I pressed on the accelerator. When we reached the blacktop, I gave it a little more gas and could tell the car was running well. After letting the engine fully warm-up, I put my foot to the floor and felt all 345 horses run wild—as they were meant to. The car’s 440 lb/ft of torque would have caused our heads to smack into the headrests had the car been equipped with any.
No matter how many grey hairs you have, the feeling you get when all four barrels of a carburetor kick in will never get old.
There Allen and I were, rolling down Route M and having the time of our lives, when the car suddenly died just before I turned onto my gravel road. A quick peek under the hood revealed a flooded carb, which perplexed both of us until we dragged it back to my shop a few minutes later. Allen removed the carb, took it apart on my workbench, and discovered a great deal of rust and debris swirling around in the gas. The fuel line had apparently corroded while the car sat idle for the last three decades, which in turn caused the carb to get gunked-up on our test drive.
Allen cleaned out the carb, reinstalled it, and tuned on it some more before calling it a night. He apologized unnecessarily for taking up too much of my time, and I assured him that I had enjoyed every minute that we had spent together. While I watched him work, we talked about our jobs, our families, grandbabies, classic rock, and of course hot rods. It was a great evening—and a welcome change of pace from the conversations I have at school with my eight-year-old students.
At Allen’s insistence, I drove the 442 to his shop the next day for an oil change and to button up a few odds and ends. As he suspected, the extra fuel from the flooded carb had seeped into the engine and fouled the oil. He changed the oil and filter, tightened the alternator belt, lubed the front end, topped off the brake fluid, and gave me some tips and advice for future maintenance including installing a new fuel filter (a task that I can actually do myself!). We also made a plan to upgrade the car’s brakes, replace some worn interior parts, and have Matt install a custom exhaust system that will make that old big block roar like it should.
We won’t get all of those projects done at once. And that’s fine with me. The more we spread the work out, the more I get to visit with my friends Allen and Matt. They’re two genuinely good human beings who care about the quality of their work and making their customers happy. They are two examples of why I love this community.
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