Member-Endorsed Vendors

Last updated June 13, 1999

Here's a Quick Index of Northern Illinois vendors endorsed by our members.

C & C Upholstery

June, 1999

I have been wrapping up the last details of the restoration of my 1973 Stag. This included the many items that make up the interior. Kathy and my in-laws had obtained many interior items such as new seat covers, carpeting and other stuff that has filled my birthday, Christmas and other wish lists. The carpeting went in without a hitch and the restoration of the interior door panels (another story) went well. So how hard can redoing the seats be? Well as I learned, this is best left to a professional. I have fortunately come across a highly skilled and professional upholsterer who happens to be a real nice guy. A real plus was when he said he knew what a Stag was! His name is Craig of C&C Upholstery in Carpentersville.

One of the problems with the Stag seat foams is that they were made of a "bonded" foam material that comprised of many small foam pieces that were glued together. Well over time this had deteriorated to a semi sticky mess piled up at the bottom of the seats. Being of independent mind and body, I thought how hard could it be to reconstruct the foams (not made by anyone anymore) and slip the new fitted seat covers over it. I actually met Craig when I went to purchase new foam material for the reconstruction. I casually asked that if I couldn’t get the job done would he be able to do it. He said bring it over if I couldn’t do it. Over the course of a couple of days I realized that the total reconstruction of the engine bay was easier than doing these seats. So I dropped the seat backs off along with the new seat covers.

Irv Korey was over at the house as we were helping each other on various aspects of his TR4 racer and my Stag when we ran into town to pick up the seats. I was totally amazed at the transformation of the seats from before, they looked wonderful! Craig had reconstructed the seat foams and fitted the new seat covers and it turned out great! This was quite a testament to his skill, despite the oddity that British reproduction seat covers have.

The costs for the operation of making seat foams and recovering was VERY reasonable and as far as I’m concerned he will forever get my business. I urge you to take your seats to C&C and have Craig give you a quote. They do wonderful work at a great price.

C & C Upholstery
11 W. Main
Carpentersville, IL
(847) 426-4420

Joe "Stagmiester" Pawlak

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Davco Automotive Products

June, 1999

Over the last few years, I have experienced some electrical problems with the starter in my 1980 TR8 and the alternator in my 1973 Stag. If you've been around TR8s long enough, you soon find that replacement starters are pretty much made out of unobtanium. If you can find one, the seller knows it, too, and the prices are set unrealistically high. Being of restricted budget, I chose to have my starter rebuilt after I found that it would not turn the engine over fast enough to start it. After hearing about Jeff Rust's saga of a nine-month alternator rebuild attempt at a "foreign car repair shop" in Rockford (to remain anonymous), I started asking around to see if there were any other dependable rebuild shops in the Rockford area.

Jake Jaquet directed me toward Davco Automotive Products in Rockford. He had taken several generators and starters there and recommended them highly, so I decided to do the same. I was going out of town for several days, so I dropped the TR8 starter off at 3:30pm on a Monday afternoon, figuring that since it would probably take several days to get parts and whatnot, I might have it back by the next weekend. The counter man told me "$85 to rebuild it, it'll have a one-year warranty, and you can pick it up at noon tomorrow."

Noon tomorrow! I couldn't believe what I was hearing! No wonder Jake recommended them so highly. I took note of two motors on the counter that were out of a fork lift truck - they were covered in yellow gook and had also recently succumbed to a severe electrical overload.

I drove back to the shop just after noon the next day, and sure enough, my TR8 starter was ready. It looked brand new - just like the two fork lift motors that were sitting on the counter ready for their owner to pick them up.

Of course, I wasn't ready to put it back in the TR8 until the following weekend since I had no idea it was going to be ready so soon. TR8 starter removal requires dropping the exhaust, and I was waiting for replacement manifold-to-converter gaskets. Once I got it back in, the rebuilt starter has worked well, even after the one-year warranty ended.

Last year, Ann noticed that the alternator warning light was coming on intermittantly in the Stag, and the voltmeter simultaneously dropped from 13.5 down to 12 volts. I pulled the alternator and found that the front bearing was moving around in the alternator case to the point where the alternator rotor was starting to rub on the stator. I was starting to see big dollar signs on this project since I did not see an easy fix other than replacing the alternator. I decided to try Davco again, since they had done so well on my TR8 starter. Sure enough, the counter man said "$85 to rebuild it, it'll have a one-year warranty, and you can pick it up at noon tomorrow." I returned the next day to find that they came through again. They told me that the existing regulator and diode pack were OK so they didn't have didn't have to replace them, but they had replaced the front case half with a spare they had in their parts bin since the bearing housing was shot. The alternator looked brand new, and has worked flawlessly since I put it back in the Stag.

Although I like to do electrical work myself, there's a point where it's just not cost-effective to do some things yourself. I can't justify trying to guess at how to fix internal starter problems. For $85, I can't do it myself and have it ready the next day since I don't have all the parts on hand. I highly recommend Davco to anyone who has problems with their Lucas starter, generator, or alternator.

Davco Automotive Products
3631 Mansfield Road
Rockford, IL 61109
(815) 226-1860

Tim Buja

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