Soon-to-be Marauder owner, few questions

[HotRaud90]

Hello, all Sunshine State Marauders. I'll be acquiring an 2003 Marauder in the very near future and just had a few questions for those of you more experienced than I am.

First off, the car is gonna need some work, inside and out. It's currently got 3.27 gears in it and it hasn't been tuned for them (yuck) and I don't really wanna waste my time and money gettin it tuned for the 3.27 gears when I'll most likely be changin them to 4.10s and gettin it tuned for that. I want someone experienced that could do the labor part of the gear swap for me if I provided the parts. Do any of you guys, especially in the central florida area, have any suggestions?

Also, I'm lookin to have a professional exterior detail once I have all the mechanical stuff where I want it to be. The interior looks really well kept, but the paint is a different story. Good amount of swirling and a botched pinstripe removal that left a hazy clear coat and some fine scratches where the pinstripes used to be. Got anyone in the central florida area that you entrust your cars to?

Thought about posting these questions in the larger forums, but I thought I'd ask some of you guys first. I've got some leads I'm workin on, but if I could find someone that you guys personally recommend for Marauder work and have had personal experience with, that would be awesome. Thanks.

[MOTOWN]

Welcome to the site bud, Stay away from Dennis Reinhart! he is a crook! and dont forget that should this message self destruct!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[lji372]

Welcome to the site bud, Stay away from Dennis Reinhart! he is a crook! and dont forget that should this message self destruct!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep^^^^ I've heard enough horror stories! they can't all be wrong :beatnik:

Congrats on your new ride man!! :beer:

[Cobra25]

Is their any members in Central Florida that can give him some leads on where he can go.

[BigCars4Ever]

Had a friend that used Power By Ford to put a clutch in his GT. Rates were pretty good and work seemed fine. For reference dealer wanted $3K he did it for around $1600. I'm sure they do a lot of 8.8 gear changes. As far as detail goes I got nothing, sorry.

[HotRaud90]

Is their any members in Central Florida that can give him some leads on where he can go.

'Preciate the bump, friend.


Had a friend that used Power By Ford to put a clutch in his GT. Rates were pretty good and work seemed fine. For reference dealer wanted $3K he did it for around $1600. I'm sure they do a lot of 8.8 gear changes. As far as detail goes I got nothing, sorry.

Thanks for the details. Glad to see they are in Orlando...not far from me. I appreciate the suggestion.

Any other suggestions are gladly welcomed, even if they might not be centered in the immediate central FL area. I'm just broadening my horizons and expanding my knowledge base. Always good to have references. Thanks guys!

[BigCars4Ever]

Your listed as Plant City, That's not very close to Orlando.

[HotRaud90]

Meh, I'm close enough. Right at about an hour away from my specific residence. I would consider it being far from me when I think 3-4 hours away. An hour away from me is not that bad, especially since it's a performance driven shop that deals heavily in Ford vehicles. Called PBF today and the guy said he had just put a Marauder back out on the road within the past couple days.

[Hotrauder]

Hello HotRaud90,

Jarrett Ford in Plant City has a master mechanic, Herb Rogers, who does all of their transmission work. He is a not only excellent but he has a lot of Marauder experience. He built my special tranny on my Trilogy Twin Screw Super Charged FruitPunch and did several of my mods to the engine and drive train and he can do your rear end blindfolded. Go see Herb in person. He is a great guy. Tell him I sent you.

You have been warned about Reinhart. Take it to heart. He is an amoral scumbag with a history that precedes Mercury Marauders, his favorite target.

Feel free to ask questions...I no longer have the FruitPunch sold it to another Sunshine State Marauder friend, Blackmobile over 3 years ago but when you can make the trip down to Davey, they are a very active group of great guys who meet every Friday evening for the car show and then go to dinner. They are the most active group in the country. You would see the FruitPunch there about every Friday. She has every mod known to man. Check out my gallery. Click on quick links, click on old gallery, select H and open Hotrauder. Have fun. All the best. Dennis

[HotRaud90]

Hello HotRaud90,

Jarrett Ford in Plant City has a master mechanic, Herb Rogers, who does all of their transmission work. He is a not only excellent but he has a lot of Marauder experience. He built my special tranny on my Trilogy Twin Screw Super Charged FruitPunch and did several of my mods to the engine and drive train and he can do your rear end blindfolded. Go see Herb in person. He is a great guy. Tell him I sent you.

You have been warned about Reinhart. Take it to heart. He is an amoral scumbag with a history that precedes Mercury Marauders, his favorite target.

Feel free to ask questions...I no longer have the FruitPunch sold it to another Sunshine State Marauder friend, Blackmobile over 3 years ago but when you can make the trip down to Davey, they are a very active group of great guys who meet every Friday evening for the car show and then go to dinner. They are the most active group in the country. You would see the FruitPunch there about every Friday. She has every mod known to man. Check out my gallery. All the best. Dennis

No kiddin! I pass Jarrett Ford all the time when in town. This is great news! Did he do your tranny build in shop at the dealership or did he do side work for you? I would love to supply parts and have someone I trust do the labor for me. If he is as good as you say he is, I will definitely be payin him a visit. May I get your name as a reference?

Already taken note about Reinhart. Saddens me that someone would do such things to a person's pride and joy. Steerin clear for sure.

Also, I already plan to meet up with said fellers once I get my Marauder here in about 3 weeks. Thanks! :)

[Hotrauder]

Herb did the work with my parts in the shop. He may be open to side work with the rear end. No harm in asking. He did most of my work for the 6 years. My name is Dennis Watts

In my photos you will find him working in the FruitPunch. I will try to paste here but if it doesn't work you can scan them.
Go to Quick links at the top of the page, select old gallery, select member gallery, select letter H for Hotrauder and open my gallery. You will find all kinds of stupid stuff but also you will find great pics of most of my mods. There are some pics under the photos link
http://www.mercurymarauder.net/showcase/files/3/8/5/5/IMG_0079.JPG

[Cobra25]

Let us know if you plan on going to the tower shops. Blackmobile has 2 marauders ( Fruit Punch & Lemon Aid ). If you wish too see the Fruit Punch Marauder let us know and we can ask Blackmobile to bring it when you come.

[HotRaud90]

Cobra, I will let you know whenever I plan to attend the Tower Shops show.

Dennis, thank you for the heads up about Herb. I will try and see if he is available to discuss some things tomorrow.

[HotRaud90]

Herb is proving to be a hard man to get a hold of. Called a few different times to see if he's in the shop, twice he hasn't been there, another time he was at work but not on the property at the time. Woman on the phone said people usually don't get to talk to the technicians...hmph, well then. Last thing I wanna do is show up and have him be super busy and not be able to talk. What I've been tryin to do is talk to him on the phone and set up a time that would be best to come in and talk with him personally. Guess I'll keep tryin...

[Cobra25]

Theirs always " Justin " at J & J Performance phone # 239-274-7678. He is in Cape Coral. Or you can try sending " Carfixer " a PM. AKA Claude B.

[martyo]

Get Claude to do your gear and I can send you a tune in a handheld or vie e-mail (if you have a tuner) if your mods are straight forward. Otherwise find a reason to come to Georgia and we can take care of your car from soup to nuts.

[Spectragod]

Get Claude to do your gear and I can send you a tune in a handheld or vie e-mail (if you have a tuner) if your mods are straight forward. Otherwise find a reason to come to Georgia and we can take care of your car from soup to nuts.


^^^^ ANOTHER good guy^^^^ to have do work on your car......

[HotRaud90]

Get Claude to do your gear and I can send you a tune in a handheld or vie e-mail (if you have a tuner) if your mods are straight forward. Otherwise find a reason to come to Georgia and we can take care of your car from soup to nuts.

Well, sounds like he's a pretty reputable guy. Does anyone know where exactly in Florida he is? If he's not too far away, I might have to pay him a visit.

I would love to come up to GA and put my car (errr, future car I should say...1 week away!) in your shop and get it all done there, Martyo. However, the wallet isn't affordin it at the moment. But trust me, I've already looked into givin you a holler when the time for a tune comes around :)

[L.Mark]

Get Claude to do your gear and I can send you a tune in a handheld or vie e-mail (if you have a tuner) if your mods are straight forward. Otherwise find a reason to come to Georgia and we can take care of your car from soup to nuts.


Did someone say nuts???

Oh it's just you...:D

[Cobra25]

Well, sounds like he's a pretty reputable guy. Does anyone know where exactly in Florida he is? If he's not too far away, I might have to pay him a visit.

I would love to come up to GA and put my car (errr, future car I should say...1 week away!) in your shop and get it all done there, Martyo. However, the wallet isn't affordin it at the moment. But trust me, I've already looked into givin you a holler when the time for a tune comes around :) Claude Babineau ( Carfixer) lives in Fort Meyers. He's a Master Teck from Ford & now he's a Director of service and a local dealer in the area. He does side jobs now and then.

[HotRaud90]

Claude Babineau ( Carfixer) lives in Fort Meyers. He's a Master Teck from Ford & now he's a Director of service and a local dealer in the area. He does side jobs now and then.

Thanks for the info, Cobra. I'll check him out in addition to Herb Rogers that did the work on Fruit Punch.

[Hotrauder]

Herb is proving to be a hard man to get a hold of. Called a few different times to see if he's in the shop, twice he hasn't been there, another time he was at work but not on the property at the time. Woman on the phone said people usually don't get to talk to the technicians...hmph, well then. Last thing I wanna do is show up and have him be super busy and not be able to talk. What I've been tryin to do is talk to him on the phone and set up a time that would be best to come in and talk with him personally. Guess I'll keep tryin...


HotRaud,

Calling is a good idea to determine he is there. He goes to lunch about 11:30 AM for an hour. He works only when they have tranny work. He is not a grease monkey doing $12.00 oil changes and he does not work by the hour so he will not be hanging around if he is not busy. He is not going to talk on the phone when he is ass deep in a transmission, however, he will talk if you go over. His stall is the last on the right as you walk down the shop. Do it. Introduce yourself to Herb. He is a good guy. Drive around to the other end of the service area and walk into the back of the shop and he is the first on the left. He has serviced all my cars while I have visited and watched and I have done the same with all of the techs. He will be happy to talk with you. Claude (carfixer here) did a lot of work on the FruitPunch including both Trilogy installs, big brakes, rear end and others. He is a personal friend and a total straight arrow. It would be worth a drive to Ft. Myers just to meet him. He knows Marauders as well as anyone as he had one of the nicest ever. The Stooges, Claude, Chuck and Mark did a truckload of Trilogy installs over the years. Man up, you know the lady in the office is the lady in the office. She is not doing the work. I have never let anyone touch my car when I wasn't there. I would trust Herb or Claude with my life but I want to learn and they are fun friends. The other guys, they are nice, sure, but I want to know what they are actually doing. If I can't go in the shop, my car doesn't either. Dennis

[HotRaud90]

HotRaud,

Calling is a good idea to determine he is there. He goes to lunch about 11:30 AM for an hour. He works only when they have tranny work. He is not a grease monkey doing $12.00 oil changes and he does not work by the hour so he will not be hanging around if he is not busy. He is not going to talk on the phone when he is ass deep in a transmission, however, he will talk if you go over. His stall is the last on the right as you walk down the shop. Do it. Introduce yourself to Herb. He is a good guy. Drive around to the other end of the service area and walk into the back of the shop and he is the first on the left. He has serviced all my cars while I have visited and watched and I have done the same with all of the techs. He will be happy to talk with you. Claude (carfixer here) did a lot of work on the FruitPunch including both Trilogy installs, big brakes, rear end and others. He is a personal friend and a total straight arrow. It would be worth a drive to Ft. Myers just to meet him. He knows Marauders as well as anyone as he had one of the nicest ever. The Stooges, Claude, Chuck and Mark did a truckload of Trilogy installs over the years. Man up, you know the lady in the office is the lady in the office. She is not doing the work. I have never let anyone touch my car when I wasn't there. I would trust Herb or Claude with my life but I want to learn and they are fun friends. The other guys, they are nice, sure, but I want to know what they are actually doing. If I can't go in the shop, my car doesn't either. Dennis

Don't worry, I'm on the same page as you. After finally pryin an answer out of that desk lady, I finally found out that he'll be back in Monday, most likely early in the day. I'm gonna try and go stop in Monday in the very beginnin of the day before he gets busy.

Only reason I haven't gone in yet is because I didn't wanna bother him while he was busy workin (at least I wouldn't want to be bothered if I was him) or he hasn't been in the shop when I called. Now that I have a straight answer about his schedule, a much anticipated visit with him will be happenin. As much as you talk him up, I am lookin forward to it. I'll probably give a vist/call to Claude as well. Good to know there are a lot of knowledgeable people in the surrounding area.

[martyo]

I would love to come up to GA and put my car (errr, future car I should say...1 week away!) in your shop and get it all done there, Martyo. However, the wallet isn't affordin it at the moment. But trust me, I've already looked into givin you a holler when the time for a tune comes around :)

Sounds good!!

[martyo]

Did someone say nuts???

Oh it's just you...:D

Whut'd I miss? :confused:

[Darigaaz]

Hey another Central Florida Marauder! I actually worked at the Staples there in Plant city for a few months towards the end of 2013 (lived in Lakeland at the time). I'm back being happy in Orlando now though.

[HotRaud90]

Hey another Central Florida Marauder! I actually worked at the Staples there in Plant city for a few months towards the end of 2013 (lived in Lakeland at the time). I'm back being happy in Orlando now though.

Nice! You ever go to the Tower Shops show? I really would like to make it sometime but work always keeps me from gettin out there in time.