First visit to Mo's!

[psyberemt]

Copied and paraphrased from another thread I posted in Shop Talk. After visiting Mo's for the first time with my new-to-me Marauder I wanted to share my experience.


I can't say enough good things about the guys at Mo's. It's hard enough to find an HONEST shop nowadays, let alone one that specializes in such a niche car only 20 minutes from my house. They were very up front about what needed replacement / repair vs what didn't, what could be kept as it was, what could be upgraded, what I could do myself, etc. I didn't feel pressured in the least. Honestly, it just felt like a group of fellow enthusiasts who also happen to run a shop. With the exception of 1 repair that may still be covered under Ford recall Mo's is the only shop I'll consider.


NOW. With that said...seeing all the amazing Marauders and Mustangs and Crown Vics and other kickass cars around the shop, my wallet was screaming for me to get the hell out of there! They've done some amazing work on some amazing cars. Every time I mentioned a mod that I'd heard of or thought about they just showed me a car where they'd done it. :bows:

Can't wait for them to get it back to it's original glory!

[justbob]

Been there, done that. 10 hours on a trailer however.. Worth every mile!



At 9MPG...


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[RubberCtyRauder]

My first Marauder was there in 2013 for vortech s/c install, then in 2014 my 2nd Marauder was there straight from purchase. Then there again in 2017 for upgrades. Now my 67 Chevelle wagon is there right now for MO treatment. I live 680 miles away.

[psyberemt]

Hmmm. Wonder if I could setup an AirBNB Mo-tel for out of town Marauder owners [emoji23]. No nightly charge, I just get to test drive your car when Mo's is done with it lol!

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[MyBlackBeasts]

My 1st trip to Mo's (pay attention to post 35): https://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?89520-My-trip-to-Mo-s

My 2nd trip to Mo's:https://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?108349-My-new-Marauder-exhaust&highlight=

Marty & crew are great!

My review after 1st trip to Mo's: https://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?89555-Mo-s-Speed-Shop-review-by-MyBlackBeasts

[1Marauder]

I am just flat out jealous! My first, second, and third, and fourth Mo's shop purchases and services were done by phone. He also personally saved my cross country trip (breakdown) on a Sunday! "Pull the car a little closer to the phone!"
Can't wait to get there live and in person.

Owe him one... or three... And owe his wife one too (for the Sunday assistance)!

[ChiTownMaraud3r]

I visited in 2016 for some work and was great. Marty, Jeff and staff know their stuffs. Need to get back there soon for some tuning after headers and minor odds and ends. Definitely worth the road trip.

[psyberemt]

I got the Marauder back yesterday and spent the afternoon and evening driving around with a stupid grin on my face. Jeff told me it was the same car I dropped off...I'm not so sure LOL! Without exaggeration it feels and drives better than a brand new Marauder off the showroom floor...with almost 94,000 miles on it.

When I took it in it was a mess. The car ran and drove, but not well. It had a lot of age, wear and issues related to a very poor tune and at least 1 failed modification. I'm going to put together another thread with all of the repairs and mods that both Mo's and I have done so far. In this thread I wanted to keep things limited mostly to my experience at Mo's rather than the car itself.

If you don't want to read the entire post, the tl;dr is that every single positive thing you've read or heard about how awesome these guys are is 100% gospel. I said in my first post about my first visit that I never felt pressured to buy or agree to anything extra or unneeded. That continued throughout the entire repair and mod process. Obviously as they took a nearly 17 year old car apart they found some other small repairs that needed to be made and we added those on. Many of them, though, didn't have a labor charge since they had already taken apart whatever was needed to get to the item in question. They just called me, let me know what they found and took care of it, charging me only for the parts.

The real proof of these guys commitment to their customers came when it was time to tune the car. I should mention that I bought the car without any documentation on mods that had been done. One or 2 previous owners are no longer living and the SC kit was apparently done by Reinhart, so good luck getting any history from there. All I knew for sure was what I can see. We have no idea if any of the engine internals were built up.

Jeff called and said the car was making over 450hp after he tuned it, but that worried him not knowing the state of the internals. The stock cast internals just aren't up to the kind of power this engine can make. He said this could easily be a 500+ HP car with forged internals. Jeff said if it were his car he'd dial it back a little bit to be on the safe side then if and when the engine blows or I just decide I want to, build a new engine right and turn it into a monster. I agreed fully.

A less scrupulous shop would've seen the future income of an engine rebuild or replacement and encouraged me to crank it to the max, knowing they'd guarantee themselves a repeat customer. Instead, Jeff suggested a course of action that will get me the most life and enjoyment possible out of the car.

I don't plan on tracking the car or taking it to the drag strip. It's a car I've wanted since the day it came out, and I want to drive and enjoy it. I believe he dialed it "back" to around 420-440ish HP and lowered the red line to 6k from 6500.

I should mention that he dialed it back from the results of his own tune, not the hot garbage tune that was on it before. The tune that was on it before was a mess. It didn't make nearly the power it does now. It shimmied, sputtered, hesitated and ran pretty rough. Now it's as smooth as the day it drove off the dealer lot, just a helluva lot faster, tighter and better composed. And now I'm not afraid to actually get on it and make it work, knowing that it has a clean bill of health and was re-assembled properly.

This won't be this Marauder's last visit to Mo's! I have to get buying a house out of the way first. Once that's done I keep seeing all these Coyote swaps, Roots blowers, 6-spd auto, manual trans swaps and all the other crazy mods you guys are doing. I won't ever turn it into a track monster that I can't enjoy on the road...but she can always go faster!

[justbob]

Crazy mods? I thought they were boredom mods? [emoji16]

Never a doubt they’d take good care of you!


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[PRCARGUY]

Wished I lived closer to his shop, brought my car car to Mo's back in August of 17' and I'm still smiling.