Anyone Use Coastline Imports in Santa Ana, CA? NM, need someone accepting work

[DaveinOC]

After crawling under the rear end again I am pretty certain my "clunk" bushing is bad. Back a couple of years ago member Johnny C asked for references to get his rear axle rebuilt. One shop mentioned was Coastline Imports in Santa Ana, but no one used them for a repair, and I suspect Johnny C used someone closer to his Escondido location.

Anyone had a significant repair done at Coastline? Any comments are greatly appreciated.

Dave

Update, I spoke the the owner and he's not accepting any new SL work for at least a year. He was polite but said he has too many long term SL projects right now. Anyone know what the book time is for this repair? I would hazard a guess that R&R of the rear axle is 4-6 hours and another 2-3 to replace the bushing, guessing from the descriptions of the project here. Am I even close at under 10 hours? Not sure how that translates to a "long term project" but it's his business decision.

Any other likely candidates in Southern California, preferably Orange County?

[Rahul]

Hey Dave,

I have used Coastline when I first bought my car in 2020/2021. I dealt with Stuart who is a great guy, very honest and easy to deal with. When I arrived at the shop he had a bunch of old Mercedes cars he was working on, including several pagodas. He has also come recommended by the guys at Sun Valley for transmission work fwiw. They did the following work for me:

- Full service, flushing of the transmission fluids
- Repaired the driver side window mechanism, and got a locksmith in to repair a door lock
- Replaced my exhaust with a Timevalve system (note they use an external shop for welding)
- Repaired my emergency brake

At the time all local shops were suffering from Covid-related issues (parts shortages, labour shortages, growing backlog of work as new business came in during lockdown) which meant things took longer than I had hoped to complete, but understandable and all in all I was happy with the work. Stuart was reasonable in his assessment of what was worth doing and what wasn't (I felt that some shops were overly critical and gave me a laundry list of items with high quotes to get them fixed), and he was cooperative when I was able to source various parts for him to use. The labour rates were also very reasonable at the time.

The only issue I had was with the location of the shop, it's right by the DMV in Santa Ana and whilst the parking lot is secure it is pretty visible from the street - so I would check that he is able to house the car in the garage overnight.

Since then I have also used Don @ DDK Motors in Costa Mesa who is similarly great to work with (general service work, engine mount replacement, Petronix ignition installation), Raul @ Roberto's for upholstery and interior work, and Darren @ Dr Detail for cleaning, detailing, chroming recommendations and other small items. I have had very positive experiences with all of them, though just be prepared that everyone seems to be pretty slammed these days!

Hope that helps, and tell Stuart I said "hi"!

Rahul

[Rahul]

Apologies, I only just saw your update, hope the other information helps

[dirkbalter]

Dave,
I have worked with a Company called Rhinetrade in Santa Ana, which is actually close to Coastline Imports. I worked with them (Mike) to get my car painted. He had a couple of pagodas in his shop at the time and may be an alternative.
PM me if you are interested.     

[DaveinOC]

Thanks for the suggestions Rahul. Stuart was polite but it sounds like he has his hands full with Pagodas. I also wondered about the sketchy neighborhood, and if he's that booked up I doubt I could get my car inside overnight even if I waited a year for him to call me back. I guess this is the result of my doing all my own work for the 35 years I've had this car. When I was in college and shortly afterwards I worked in an indy mostly Mercedes shop, but we didn't part on good terms so even if his son is running a good shop I wouldn't go there. (I somehow noted the old man's obit about 10 years ago.)

I told the missus I wouldn't try to do this by myself, but may reconsider if I can't find anybody willing to do this. I did replace a broken slip joint and separately the tranny about 25 years ago but I was 25 years younger then too!

Thanks for the suggestion of DDK, I'll probably run by there to talk to them. I am reluctant to drive the pagoda all over SoCal in this condition but if I find somebody good and able to do this repair I can transport it on a u-haul trailer, they are only about $55 a day locally, but probably $550 or $5500 one way to Texas or Florida, LOL.

Just saw your suggestion dirkbalter, thanks I will check them out too!

Greatly appreciate the suggestions guys!

Dave