I feel it my duty to the TR Community to leave feedback about Nick Micale. And I’m going to say first thing – that I’m concerned. As a result of my post regarding my challenges with fuel pressure, and a relatively short couple negative comments about Nick, I’ve since had two fellow TR members private message me, telling me they’ve also had very poor experience with Nick. One person rambled on about more stuff than it sounds like I will be, and let me tell you – this man is…extremely upset, to put it one way. The other, very respectful, in short stated that he fully understands my frustration; that he’s also had negative experience with Nick, but like the first person I mentioned – is concerned about complaining publically, as Nick is held in such high regard on this forum, and neither wants to get booted or have their reputation tarnished in the TR Community.
Of course I don’t either. Very importantly, I greatly value this forum, and with our high-maintenance, moody TR’s…we need this forum to maintain and troubleshoot them! But this isn’t Nazi Germany. We shouldn’t be fearful of getting shot (off the board) if we speak freely. But there’s something far more important than that. It’s the no-brainer value of respectfully communicated feedback. So when I saw this section, I thought that it was a great one. I wish two people I mentioned above would’ve spoken up, (maybe they did elsewhere that I didn’t see) so I had a better understanding of Nick’s history. The only thing I had heard, was in essence “Nick is the man; he’ll take care of you”.
I’m in Fountain, Colorado. I bought an ’87 TR with a very sick motor (loud clacking internal motor noise). I knew I would need to have it rebuilt first thing (as well as restore the interior and repaint). Of course the price was right, so I buy it, and did extensive research for a qualified TR motor rebuilder somewhere in Colorado. Search on my posts from 2014, and you’ll see them. No one offered anything too reassuring, and I only got suggestions for Nick Micale. This is my sixth TR since 1997. I r&red the motor on my 4th in 2002, but I wasn’t up to doing it again. So I pulled the trigger to ship it 800 miles to Phoenix. I absolutely loved the idea of having a veteran TR guru like Nick to work his magic on it, and set it up exactly right.
And I had the budget for it as well. So I paid $500 and had it shipped to him. And while I was initially thinking it would be a basic rebuild, I came into more money which justified more goodies, internally and out for the TR. So instead of the “$1,500” rebuild Nick said his start at, I had him to do the “$3,000”, which allegedly included full machining of the block, boring 0.020 over, and I requested forged pistons and crank, with a street cam, as well as ported heads. All this was itemized on the invoice. After further inspection, I would notice things like “new cam”, which got me suspicious...not an upgraded cam that I requested. It was when I would later ask Nick what cam he put in it, that irked me. He didn’t know…he just guessed, thinking maybe it was a 206/206.
I want to throw this in here: My suspicion as to Nick’s honesty didn’t take long. The day he gets it, he informs me that the block is cracked and unusable. He sends me a photo, and sure enough, there’s a chunk of the block broken out of it, just next to the dipstick tube hole. This was perplexing, because he was initially telling me the block was cracked when it arrived to him. But that wasn’t true. As I looked at the photos, I thought about it and it was such that there would’ve been a catastrophic oil leak when the car left Colorado. There was *no* oil leak at all. I had been directly underneath the car, and had been looking right at the same area (we had to, because we had to put the dipstick tube back in, and I was underneath it, doing that) right before it left…no huge hole in the block! And I spoke with the auto transport driver personally, emphasizing that the car is un-drivable, and that he is not to start it for any reason – explaining that the motor is very sick. He understood, and had a winch for his flatbed hauler.
(Continued...)
Of course I don’t either. Very importantly, I greatly value this forum, and with our high-maintenance, moody TR’s…we need this forum to maintain and troubleshoot them! But this isn’t Nazi Germany. We shouldn’t be fearful of getting shot (off the board) if we speak freely. But there’s something far more important than that. It’s the no-brainer value of respectfully communicated feedback. So when I saw this section, I thought that it was a great one. I wish two people I mentioned above would’ve spoken up, (maybe they did elsewhere that I didn’t see) so I had a better understanding of Nick’s history. The only thing I had heard, was in essence “Nick is the man; he’ll take care of you”.
I’m in Fountain, Colorado. I bought an ’87 TR with a very sick motor (loud clacking internal motor noise). I knew I would need to have it rebuilt first thing (as well as restore the interior and repaint). Of course the price was right, so I buy it, and did extensive research for a qualified TR motor rebuilder somewhere in Colorado. Search on my posts from 2014, and you’ll see them. No one offered anything too reassuring, and I only got suggestions for Nick Micale. This is my sixth TR since 1997. I r&red the motor on my 4th in 2002, but I wasn’t up to doing it again. So I pulled the trigger to ship it 800 miles to Phoenix. I absolutely loved the idea of having a veteran TR guru like Nick to work his magic on it, and set it up exactly right.
And I had the budget for it as well. So I paid $500 and had it shipped to him. And while I was initially thinking it would be a basic rebuild, I came into more money which justified more goodies, internally and out for the TR. So instead of the “$1,500” rebuild Nick said his start at, I had him to do the “$3,000”, which allegedly included full machining of the block, boring 0.020 over, and I requested forged pistons and crank, with a street cam, as well as ported heads. All this was itemized on the invoice. After further inspection, I would notice things like “new cam”, which got me suspicious...not an upgraded cam that I requested. It was when I would later ask Nick what cam he put in it, that irked me. He didn’t know…he just guessed, thinking maybe it was a 206/206.
I want to throw this in here: My suspicion as to Nick’s honesty didn’t take long. The day he gets it, he informs me that the block is cracked and unusable. He sends me a photo, and sure enough, there’s a chunk of the block broken out of it, just next to the dipstick tube hole. This was perplexing, because he was initially telling me the block was cracked when it arrived to him. But that wasn’t true. As I looked at the photos, I thought about it and it was such that there would’ve been a catastrophic oil leak when the car left Colorado. There was *no* oil leak at all. I had been directly underneath the car, and had been looking right at the same area (we had to, because we had to put the dipstick tube back in, and I was underneath it, doing that) right before it left…no huge hole in the block! And I spoke with the auto transport driver personally, emphasizing that the car is un-drivable, and that he is not to start it for any reason – explaining that the motor is very sick. He understood, and had a winch for his flatbed hauler.
(Continued...)