A few years back I took my FD to cam over at Pettit racing for a new motor, I was super happy with the work and the motor is still running great to this day. Life happened and the car sat for a bit longer than I had expedited, I work in entertainment and the past year has been especially busy. Last time I really took her out and drove her seriously was last sevens day. Now with my work life slowing down going into summer I wanted to have her looked at/ a few odd jobs done before I finally commit to getting the car painted. I live in south Florida, Miami, area and Petit was my go to before, it was worth the trip. I've seen a few post about negative experiences there on this forum with a message from Manny about how things have gotten better since. Does anyone have any recent experience with them? I'd also like to know about any reputable shops in 2025 that anyone may have recent experience with. Things have changed a lot over the past few years so I think an updated thread would be helpful to other south Florida friends

 

I live Coral Springs
I'd be happy to help you with your FD
I've had my FD for 15+ years & have rebuilt multiple engines

 

We're not exactly local but it's rare to have one that is. We have a few customers throughout the state of Florida that make the trip here for work fairly regularly. If you are interested please consider us. I would suggest checking out our website and sub forum for information to help in your decision making. You're also welcome to call us and chat as well. We answer the phone AND return messages same day lol

We have had a good amount of forum members give us an opportunity, both local and out of state, with a great experience for both of us. I would suggest giving the person above a chance first though. Local and competent people not only have better pricing but are also local. Anyone who can keep an FD running that long has to know what they're doing.

 

This is great, I'll definitely DM both of you, its good to be back in the scene. I was worried that people were losing interest in these cars and I'm not ready to give um mine lol

 

There's lots of folks in florida who work on their cars, in fact it's the single most reason why I shut my shop down when moving here 10 years ago. The issue is getting to know and trust people and that is where social media groups come in.

Where i came from(california and nevada) there wasn't much competition, I was used to work coming to me and that wasn't the case in florida.

Miami does seem to be the single biggest place lacking a rotary shop(besides Pettit, but it sounds like their services aren't what they used to be) but unfortunately it's also the most expensive to open and run one so expect to have to drive some to have work done by any actual shops. Finding a local rotary owner who knows how to work on their cars might be your best bet.

Also don't place your full trust in anyone until you ask around about them. We've already had way too many horror stories over the years concerning small to major repairs turning into missing cars, missing parts and especially 4 and 5 figure losses of 100% up front deposits. Never pay in full up front, that's a huge red flag that some D'bag can't manage money or their shop it also removes the motivation to finish a job from the equation.

 

Yeah, Miami had rotarywerks for a while, I used to know eric but I haven't heard anything from that shop in years. Pettit was the closest one and it was still a bit of a drive. I also took my car to Edgar at mazda pros once, he's out in Hollywood. His websites still up but again, it's been a few years.

Yeah I've definitely witnessed some horror stories with a friend of mine that had an FD. Old boss of my buddy had offered to work on the car, long story short car was found at a paint shop completely stripped. He ended up selling the roller. Boss ended up doing time for something unrelated. That's part of why I've been so picky with shops/ company