Auto Repair Santa Monica | Beverly Hills | Brentwood Santa Monica Radiator offers a full range of car service to take care of your air conditioning, brakes, tune ups, electrical and steering. 310 395 2196.
Remember Your First Car? Mine was a 1957 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. I wish I had known about one of the leading auto repair shops in Santa Monica, in those days. I bought the car for $375 when I turned 16. I also bought a book called “The Compleat Idiot’s Guide to Volkswagen Repair” so that I could learn how to fix a car. The first thing that happened was that the horn stuck. I pulled over to the side of the road, popped the cap of the steering wheel and disconnected the wires. Then I drove home and looked up the problem in the book. It said, whatever you do, don’t disconnect the wires under the steering wheel cap. You don’t be able to repair it. So I drove the car for two years without a horn. One day a lady backed up into me, damaging my front end. Her husband asked: “Why didn’t you honk your horn?” I said: “Because it happened too quickly.” Then I thought the car wasn’t running right, so I read the whole book. It recommended, for some reason, replacing the distributor cap. So I went to junkyards around my town trying to find the right distributor cap. One man sold me one for $10 and even though I could see it was not the same shape and form, I tried to use it as a replacement anyway. It didn’t fit of course, so I put the wires back in as best I could. I’m lucky the car started. Then the emergency brake cable snapped. I also looked that up in the book and it explained how to replace the cable. But you needed to get under the car to do it and I didn’t have a lift so I had to bring it to a mechanic.
And those were just the first of my many headaches with that car. Had I known of a great repair shop, maybe I would’ve bought a newer model for more money without the goal of learning how to fix my car myself! Santa Monica Radiator, which was named “Best Mechanics in Town” by Los Angeles Magazine, started in the early 1920s in Oxnard, then expanded with several other locations in The Los Angeles area. Santa Monica Radiator also offers a courtesy shuttle service or rental car pickup from the shop at 1537 Lincoln Blvd. in Santa Monica. Towing services can be provided, too. Santa Monica Radiator guarantees its work in writing. For more information, call 310-395-2196.