Hill's Garage experience
08-01-2009, 11:24 AM
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Hill's Garage experience
Just wanted to let the local 350Z forum know I’ve had a fair amount of little things done to my Z at Hill’s Garage in Baltimore lately and I am extremely satisfied with his workmanship and customer service.
First, about a month ago I had him install a K Harness Bar in my car. Nothing major but he did a great job in preparation for me going to the track. Pictures attached. The next weekend before my track day I had some weird clicking sound coming from my front breaks when I would turn. Not a great thing especially coming off a long straight at 100 into a 90 degree right hander. Call him up in the morning on Saturday and he says bring it in. Not that he wanted to be spending his Saturday afternoon futzing with my car, but he had to put my car up on the rack 3 times before he figured it out. Finally it was the pad retaining pins in my AP breaks- a little grease and no clicking. No big deal in the end but worrisome none-the-less.
A few weeks later he installed by Works Bell paddle shifters in my Z (yes an automatic much to some people’s chagrin and amazement). Again, no big deal for a qualified Nissan master mechanic. Love the shifters and use ‘em all the time now. But there was something missing. I need the car to shift quick. Bang into those gears at the track and keep the tranny cool! Heat and dirt are the death of an automatic tranny as we all know. Asked Frank what to do and he recommends the TransGo shift reprogramming kit for the 5AT Z RWD . Not an easy thing to find but I found one in Oregon. Anyway, we schedule a whole Friday to do the shift kit, tranny cooler and HKS Camp2 with temperature sensor for the automatic tranny tied to the Camp2. Well, it was a little more than one man can do in one day, but that’s fine by me. Why you ask? Frank is the kind of tech who checks EVERYTHING twice and thrice before he does it. As you might imagine, the TransGo kit in the automatic takes some serious attention to detail. This guy even goes as far as to check EACH drill bit they send with the kit with a micrometer and match the sizes against the instruction sheet! Know any others who do that? The kit requires drilling out four different size holes in the plate and replacing 3 valves in the tranny itself. He fabricated the cooler lines from nice braided steel hose and used a B&M tranny cooler that ended up with a 30 degree cooling differential SITTING STILL in his shop. He was meticulous, methodical and extremely neat. He started on my car at about 10 and we did not leave his shop until almost 9 pm (even though his daughter goes to bed at 8). Now that’s customer service and getting the job done and done right the first time.
So, we got the shift kit and tranny cooler done and I have to return to hook up the Camp2 system. So what? My car was done right, it works perfect the first time, no leaks and did exactly what he said it would. I sat and pretty much watched him do the whole thing. As I indicated above, he is amazingly meticulous and neat in his work. No wonder he’s a Nissan Master Mechanic and was offered a job at Nissan North America. All I have to say beyond that is Frank and his family are my kind of people and he runs a tight shop!
First, about a month ago I had him install a K Harness Bar in my car. Nothing major but he did a great job in preparation for me going to the track. Pictures attached. The next weekend before my track day I had some weird clicking sound coming from my front breaks when I would turn. Not a great thing especially coming off a long straight at 100 into a 90 degree right hander. Call him up in the morning on Saturday and he says bring it in. Not that he wanted to be spending his Saturday afternoon futzing with my car, but he had to put my car up on the rack 3 times before he figured it out. Finally it was the pad retaining pins in my AP breaks- a little grease and no clicking. No big deal in the end but worrisome none-the-less.
A few weeks later he installed by Works Bell paddle shifters in my Z (yes an automatic much to some people’s chagrin and amazement). Again, no big deal for a qualified Nissan master mechanic. Love the shifters and use ‘em all the time now. But there was something missing. I need the car to shift quick. Bang into those gears at the track and keep the tranny cool! Heat and dirt are the death of an automatic tranny as we all know. Asked Frank what to do and he recommends the TransGo shift reprogramming kit for the 5AT Z RWD . Not an easy thing to find but I found one in Oregon. Anyway, we schedule a whole Friday to do the shift kit, tranny cooler and HKS Camp2 with temperature sensor for the automatic tranny tied to the Camp2. Well, it was a little more than one man can do in one day, but that’s fine by me. Why you ask? Frank is the kind of tech who checks EVERYTHING twice and thrice before he does it. As you might imagine, the TransGo kit in the automatic takes some serious attention to detail. This guy even goes as far as to check EACH drill bit they send with the kit with a micrometer and match the sizes against the instruction sheet! Know any others who do that? The kit requires drilling out four different size holes in the plate and replacing 3 valves in the tranny itself. He fabricated the cooler lines from nice braided steel hose and used a B&M tranny cooler that ended up with a 30 degree cooling differential SITTING STILL in his shop. He was meticulous, methodical and extremely neat. He started on my car at about 10 and we did not leave his shop until almost 9 pm (even though his daughter goes to bed at 8). Now that’s customer service and getting the job done and done right the first time.
So, we got the shift kit and tranny cooler done and I have to return to hook up the Camp2 system. So what? My car was done right, it works perfect the first time, no leaks and did exactly what he said it would. I sat and pretty much watched him do the whole thing. As I indicated above, he is amazingly meticulous and neat in his work. No wonder he’s a Nissan Master Mechanic and was offered a job at Nissan North America. All I have to say beyond that is Frank and his family are my kind of people and he runs a tight shop!
08-01-2009, 01:34 PM
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Frank's a great mechanic and a stand up guy. He deserves it and all true!
Last edited by Gator; 08-01-2009 at 01:50 PM.
08-01-2009, 02:02 PM
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Frank is an awesome guy and will definitely take care of your car. When we were doing the dress up covers on the wire harness he took the time to make sure everything looked perfect. I have seen first hand the quality of work he puts on his customers cars (especially forum members) and it is top notch.
Frank and Suzanne are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.....period. When my car is up and running I know that Hill's Garage is where I will take it for maintenence.
Frank and Suzanne are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.....period. When my car is up and running I know that Hill's Garage is where I will take it for maintenence.
08-01-2009, 03:46 PM
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Frank is the best tech I have ever had touch my car bar none!!!!! He did the Greddy install aswell as the JWT clutch, AAM fuel return, and many others while he was at AAM. Your are absolutly correct in that he is very miticulous. I am glad he finally got to be where he wants to be. Gator can you pm Hills address in Balt? I want to map it out to see if I can get there without going down 70. I am very wierd and dont take my car on the highway unless there is absolutly no choice. I hate rock chips! Thanks
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08-01-2009, 03:58 PM
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Frank is the best tech I have ever had touch my car bar none!!!!! He did the Greddy install aswell as the JWT clutch, AAM fuel return, and many others while he was at AAM. Your are absolutly correct in that he is very miticulous. I am glad he finally got to be where he wants to be. Gator can you pm Hills address in Balt? I want to map it out to see if I can get there without going down 70. I am very wierd and dont take my car on the highway unless there is absolutly no choice. I hate rock chips! Thanks
Hill's Garage
4700 Belle Grove Rd. Unit 15
Baltimore, MD 21225
(410) 636-5554
08-01-2009, 04:01 PM
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[QUOTE=bb1314;7609980]What is up with people and their laziness?!?! Did you know there's this cool new website called Google? You open up your Internet Explorer/Firefox/Chrome or whatever browser of your choice, type in the address www.google.com. In the search text box, you put in "Hills Garage Baltimore MD". Then click the "Google Search" button. OMG within like 0.2 seconds I found this...
Dang is somebody moody
Its not laziness. Who knows there might be more than one!
Dang is somebody moody
Its not laziness. Who knows there might be more than one!
08-01-2009, 04:10 PM
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Franks the man, i just want my car back, but it will be running stronger than before(fixing some orginal install issues that are over 2 years old) so it will be worth the wait. I had the silver G35 that was parked on the side while you were getting the shifter reprogram
Last edited by terps; 08-01-2009 at 04:16 PM.
08-01-2009, 07:58 PM
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What is up with people and their laziness?!?! Did you know there's this cool new website called Google? You open up your Internet Explorer/Firefox/Chrome or whatever browser of your choice, type in the address www.google.com. In the search text box, you put in "Hills Garage Baltimore MD". Then click the "Google Search" button. OMG within like 0.2 seconds I found this...
Hill's Garage
4700 Belle Grove Rd. Unit 15
Baltimore, MD 21225
(410) 636-5554
Hill's Garage
4700 Belle Grove Rd. Unit 15
Baltimore, MD 21225
(410) 636-5554
08-01-2009, 08:01 PM
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Saw your Fear the Turtle license frame so your forum name makes sense.
08-01-2009, 08:03 PM
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Thanks for the offer. I'll take you up on that next time I see you at a meet. The shift is a little stronger then I remember last night even in my car now. Third gear especially is a pretty good snap!
08-02-2009, 08:59 AM
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^lol well i had a broken turbo stud, and a few pinhole leakes around wastegates from orginal install, then i blew out my flex section on the crossover pipe. basically 3 or 4 leaking sections of the pipe are being repaired to fix boost leak
08-03-2009, 03:55 AM
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The things said here are spot on. Frank not only works on my nissan but my DD, my GF's toyota corrolla S (The S stands for SPOWER with a silent S and a silent POWER), and most of my friends cars. (regular maintenance.) Suzanne and Frank were there for me when someone hit me while we were on a test drive after the install of my new sways. They took pictures for me ant their shop and Frank made sure I could get the car home. If Frank tells me something cost X-$ I know thats the best price I will be able to get and it will be done right.
+1000000000 on everything said. Especially Cass. There is no better endorsement than one coming from him.
+1000000000 on everything said. Especially Cass. There is no better endorsement than one coming from him.
Don't ask, don"t tell.