Met the MAN himself!!!

[Motorhead]

I had the chance to go to Seattle with a good friend of mine this last week. I have had the HOTS to get my auto transmission built up for towing and HP mods.

I took that chance in Seattle to drive to Abbotsford, BC and drop into Bill Kondolays shop, DTT.

What a nice group of people! My friend and I walked in, I introduced myself and told them what I wanted to do. Bills Wife, Shanti asked us if we wanted to go into the shop and talk to Bill. I sure as hell was not going to say no!!! I introduced myself to him and away we went. He showed me all of the trick stuff to put in my trans and said that He would welcome me to help and assist in the rebuild. Maybe it helped that I told him that I had 35 years mechanic experience... maybe not. Anyhow, WE talked for awhile and His wife is as sharp as anyone in all of the products and telling me what combo would work best for me. She talked me into DD2s and an Edge ez as a very good combo for my needs. CAN'T WAIT. !!! It is a 2400 mile round trip but it will be worth it. Even the US Border people when asking me where I had gone were familiar with DTT saying that they see alot of Dodges come thru there that have visited or had work done by Bill.



ONE other thing... Bill showed us five Allison (Dura-max) trannys that were fried already and that He is going to study them and give them his MAGICAL touch. Chris

 

[Bob Wagner]

oh my god

as soon as I read the the heading of this post.



I knew the name was gonna be "<b>Bill Kondolay</b>



LOL who else?

 

[Jim Fulmer]

Chris, I don't know what it is about those Candian's but they were sure raised right, you will enjoy working with them.



Jim

 

[Snow man]

Bob, I was thinking the same exact thing. It had to be Bill K. Motorhead,you will be the entire ride home after your trans mods.

 

[Doubleclutch]

Chris- you didn't let any of us locals know you were making a parts run... :{ I'm headed to Henderson and Pocatello next month. Any more parts that might interest you? We need to get together again with Mike and Dave to compare notes!

Greg

 

[SEmerson]

First thing I thought of too was it has to be Bill K.

 

[Motorhead]

Bill has a nice shop... set up for those cold Canadian days. He of course has an abundance of various trans parts around the shop. He also has a couple of drag pro stocks in the shop.

 

[JohnMcIntyre]

3rd degree!!

Originally posted by Motorhead

Even the US Border people when asking me where I had gone were familiar with DTT saying that they see alot of Dodges come thru there that have visited or had work done by Bill.

Chris

make sure your vehicle/driver's paperwork is all in order, when you're crossing the border back into the USA. When I made the "pilgrimage" in April 2001, I returned to Washington by the nearest customs post in BC and got the third degree. Admittedly the unusual combination of having a British driver's licence, and a truck with Montana state tags complete with US visitor's vehicle insurance issued in New York, did cause the customs officer to give me his undivided attention.

 

[Chipstien]

Hey John, what did you do? Buy the truck in Montana,drive it to Bill's, then ship it across the Atlantic? I don't want to know what that must of cost.

 

[JohnMcIntyre]

Read the small print.....

Originally posted by Chipstien

Hey John, what did you do? Buy the truck in Montana,drive it to Bill's, then ship it across the Atlantic? I don't want to know what that must of cost.

It's kind of complicated, (PM me for the long version) but the short version is that I bought my truck brand new ifor a Dodge dealer in Antelope Valley, southern California along with my Lance slide-in back around Easter 2000



It was originally registered with Montana tags as I could legitimately claim an address in Helena, Montana around that time. Why Montana? because they don't have a sales tax and every little helped..... I was also able to trade in my ECM for a more forgiving unit with standard Federal Emissions than the Kommiefornia spec item. Shipping across the Big Pond complete with insurance from New York to Southampton England was US3,000 and some small change.



Logistically it took a lot of planning, but the end result was well worth it! Because of the rarity of such vehicles in Europe, they command a sizeable premium, when they're up for sale as you just don't see them in significant numbers - my 11 year old son has already requested the keys as his inheritance, so I guess my truck will become a family heirloom.



JMc