Maintenance in a Small Town (Thursday, February 23rd, 2017)

Our boat is a 1995 Conquest that has been well cared for, but also a little bit neglected...darn!  We have needed a new gimble ring on our boat for a long time, but just haven't had time to do it, so while we are in Arizona, we decided to get it in for some much needed maintenance.  We have been using the mechanics at Quality Marine for many years, and they have always treated us and our boat well. So of course, we went back when we needed this work done.  

When we were here in early February, Steve made the appointment to get it fixed, and we delivered it to the shop a few days ago. When they work on the gimble ring, they have to remove the engine and the drive to put the new transom assembly in, so it seemed like the perfect time to buff out the back of the boat. 

Steve asked them to give him a call once the engine and drive were out so that we could go get the boat and do a little work of our own to it.

When they got the boat emptied out, they gave Steve a call, and Gary told Steve to "come on down".  Steve said he'd be right down with the trailer, and Gary said "you don't need your trailer", you can just buff it out in our garage.  

So we took our buffing equipment down there, and they had moved our boat into a bay by itself, where we could work on it while the mechanics worked on the transom assembly in a different bay.  We couldn't believe that they would let us work on our boat right in their shop.  Now that's what we call great service, and that's why we keep coming back!

Unfortunately, the gimble ring wasn't the only problem with the boat.  It also needs some upholstery work.  So while the boat was in the shop, our friends Alan and Linda re-upholstered our back seat cushion.  Alan and Steve cut and varnished a new board for it.

And Linda did the upholstery work.  It turned out beautiful!  We're not fond of the original upholstery with it's purple, teal and pink stripes, so we had her match the pattern, but in all white.  We're thrilled with how it turned out, and the white will be nice and cool on hot Arizona days. Maybe some day we can get the rest of the upholstery done in all white too, but for now, we love our new seat!

Top View

It's the little things in life that seem to make us happy.  A repair shop that knows how to treat it's customers, and good friends who make us a beautiful new seat.  Life is good in this small town!