Ocala Auto Repair

Photo by kalhh from Pixabay   Florida weather can be a terrible thing to behold. Violent thunderstorms are the cost of enjoying Florida’s sunny, beautiful days. Each year, tropical storms and hurricanes move inland on Ocala, and just north of us, we’ve seen an increase in violent tornadoes over the last decade.    Once violent weather comes calling, the best you can do is react with heart and consideration. Here are our tips for what to do in the very worst Ocala weather:   Hard Rain - when the rain comes down so much that your windshield wipers can’t remove it, the strategy is to stop driving, as you can’t predict the road ahead of you. Turn your hazard lig ... read more

Photo by Spencer Everett on Unsplash   Are you ready for summer? In today's blog, we’re looking at surviving the summer heat in Ocala with a car! The summers in Ocala are scorchers and can be damaging to the unprepared. So here are our top 5 tips for surviving the summer heat in Ocala!   Stay hydrated - it’s the most straightforward step on the list. Make sure you are getting enough water in the day. Being properly hydrated will prevent many other problems.   Keep up with current traffic - a check on LocalConditions.com can save you a lot of heartaches later. You can find out where traffic issues lie, like constructi ... read more

Photo by Christopher Hooker   Welcome to Pals Ocala’s June blog! We hope that your spring was fun and that summer isn’t already turning out to be too hot for you this year. Stay cool when you can!   Here’s a reminder that if you and your family are getting ready to do some sightseeing this summer with things beginning to reopen, it might be wise to give your tires some attention. June is National Tire Month, and the last week in June/first week in July is National Tire Safety Month. The event coincides with the peak travel week, just before the 4th of July when the most significant percentage of the population returns to the road.   The treads on your tires decide two crucial factors to your drive: road traction and hydroplaning. With as much rain as Ocala sees, neglecting your tires is a terrible idea. Make sure the tread is enough to protect you on the road!    And that’s not just on the outside edge, that’s all over the ... read more

Photo by Tristan Billet on Unsplash   Welcome to our May blog! There’s loads of news and things to cover. But first, we invite you to a charity car show event that’ll be taking place May 16th called the Car, Truck, Jeep & Bike Show to support Boys & Girls Club of Marion County.    Before spilling the beans about all the cool events coming up, let’s chat about the issues that your car can develop from not being driven often!   With the pandemic, business models have changed, and more and ... read more

Photo by Kenny Gaines on Unsplash Welcome back to another PALS Ocala blog! We hope that life has been treating you well throughout March and you are achieving all your goals. The PALS Ocala website has a page for what we call ‘Partners’. These aren’t partners in the strict sense of capitalism; they represent our partners in building a better Ocala together. If you click the link and go to our website, you’ll discover some of the many charities and organizations Linda and I support. We’re proud of these organizations and the work they are doing for the life and soul of Ocala’s adults, children, families, and even pets.  It’s a collection ... read more

Welcome to March! With the new month comes the beginning of allergy season, and there are lots of things to do to prepare for it if you want to minimize the trouble it can cause you.   Allergies don't affect everyone the same, thank goodness, but your car can be a moving hotspot for irritants. And just as those irritants can trouble your body, a heavy pollen count can also disturb your vehicle.    A vehicle covered in dust, or pollen, or soot, means that tiny particles that form can try to get into the engine and can eventually clog up your fuel system, as well as your air intake. So if this year's pollen count is exceptionally high without enough rain to keep it washed away, consider these critical pieces of advice:   Wash your car and vacuum your engine out. Cleaning out the chassis helps prevent pollen from getting into the vehicle's engine and damaging the fuel system. Replace the air filters. In the heaviest pollen, they will begin to clog up ... read more

Welcome to February! It's a month so chock full of observances and events that you'll want to check back in to remember them all! We had to cut out more than a third of them. There were just too many to mention this month! We want to wish you and all the special people in your life a warm, affectionate St. Valentine's Day. We hope you are getting all the love you need in your life to succeed and thrive, and we most certainly want to make sure that every time you come to Pal's Ocala, you receive the kind of love, attention, and friendship you deserve as our valued customer, friend, and neighbor. There’s very few challenges we won’t accept at Pal’s Ocala, because it’s important to us to see your problems solved. Every visit to Pal’s Ocala should be coming home to old friends. If we’re not giving you the best in customer service with every visit you make, please let us know. We don’t want to be a joyless transaction center; we wa ... read more

Welcome to 2021, everyone! In July of this past year, we were honored to restore a 1966 Corvette for a client! We thought we’d take you through the process of restoring this beautiful car to show you why love restorations. She’s been a loyal client of ours for a few years. She was recently given her father’s old Corvette, and chose Pals Ocala Auto Repair to do the restoration on it! The Corvette has been garaged for almost 30 years, so it needed a full body and frame restoration. Chuck Perry estimated the repairs to be about $80,000 in the end. With her deposit in hand, we set to work restoring this beautiful classic to its original glory. Stage one was removing the body from the frame. The next step was delivering the body of the Corvette to a body shop for restoration.  The third step is to rehab the chassis. Every damaging blow to the underside of the chassis is being worked out and put back to factory specs. Our goal is to make certain that restoration woul ... read more

‘Tis the season! After a very rough 2020, we have finally reached the end of the year and can look forward to 2021 at last! We hope you’re excited as we are to move on to something else this year.    We’re pleased to report that December in Ocala is jam-packed with community goodness. Here’s just some of the fun events to put you in the holiday spirit:   A Christmas Carol at the Ocala Civic Theatre November 19th to December 20th Don’t miss this production, it ends December 20th!   The Nutcracker at the Reilly Arts Center November 30th  Fantastic Christmas ballet! Story Telling: THE POLAR EXPRESS at the Jenkins Open Air Amphitheater December 2nd The children’s favorite is read by actors a ... read more

November 9th marks the 400th anniversary of the day passengers of the Mayflower spotted the Cape Cod shoreline after 65 days of hardship in the crossing, in which a new child was born (named Oceanus). Passenger William Brewster led the pilgrims in a reading of Psalm 100 to thank God for their arrival, to lands that mean renewal and freedom. At Pals Ocala, we want to give thanks for so much this year. We want to thank you, our loyal and dear customers, for continuing to put your trust in us, as well as for exercising safe practices and consideration for others during the worst, most uncertain months. Thank you for helping us survive and thrive. Pals Ocala Auto Repair managed to remain open during the pandemic and as essential workers, we helped our customers keep their cars running. Our staff has survived as well. While we grieve for the friends we have lost this year, we also celebrate those that survived… especially all the other essential workers and medical/emergency person ... read more