Cam Tech Auto Repair

You know that awful feeling you get when you are far from home and you start having car trouble? This is a tale of such an experience and how it was transformed from a tough day to an incredible restoration of faith in the goodness of people. Thursday July 3^rd, at about 1 in the afternoon I was driving North on Hwy 99 from my home in Ventura County to visit family in Sacramento for the 4^th of July holiday weekend. It was over 100 degrees in the valley heat. Literally the worst time for a breakdown.
As I cruised North my 95 Chevy Pickup truck began to lose power and hesitate, eventually I was white knuckled with the pedal to the floor, doing 45 on the freeway and stressed to the max. I made it into Tulare and after consulting Unilocal I visited a well reviewed shop, the shop was full and preparing to send their staff home for the long holiday weekend, but directed me to another shop that might be able to help. I was bounced from shop to shop 3 times before finally being sent to Cam-​Tech Automotive.
What a relief it was when I got to Cam-​Tech and met Carlos Camara and his wife, who own the shop. It is a newer business and although Carlos was working diligently on another truck, he took time to see me and help a traveler who was stuck on the road. The shop was new and by far the cleanest mechanic shop I have ever been in. Carlos was friendly and listened to my description of what was going on, and put my truck on the lift to investigate. I got a bit of the story, Carlos had been in the business for over 20 years in Tulare at his brothers shop, Camara Automotive, and just in the last month had ventured out to open his own shop. His wife invited me to sit in the air conditioned office and have a bottled water — nice. After cooling down and bit and refreshing myself I stepped out and made a few calls to my family to advise them of the situation I was in.
After a short time Carlos showed me that when he shook or tapped on the catalytic converter it obviously rattled due to contained debris. It all clicked and made sense, I had replaced the cat several months before and last month one of the gaskets fell out and had to be replaced. I thought it had fallen out on the road, nope it had fallen into the catalytic converter and broken and baked itself to all the important surfaces, clogging it and intermittently robbing my truck of power.
Cam-​tech does not do welding or catalytic converter work but they do have a relationship with a nearby shop called Autocom that does. Carlos took the catalytic converter and me in his personal vehicle over to Autocom for them to inspect and diagnose. A new cat was required, and they had it in stock, but to be installed the whole vehicle would have to be brought to Autocom. Carlos brought me back to his shop, reassembled my truck and after about two hours was ready to send me on my way over to Autocom. I received the bill and they had only charged me for a half hour to diagnose, I tried to give them more money but they would not accept it! Then to really tie to bow on it, he gave me a card with his personal cell number so I could text when all was done and let him know I made it to my destination safely!
Usually when things are bad like this day had been, you expect to be gouged for a repair. That did not happen here. I was treated so well by Cam-​Tech and I am so grateful for their help when it was really needed. I made it safely to my destination and back to Southern California the following Sunday. I only hope this review brings more of you, my kind fellow Unilocalers, to take your business to Cam-​Tech Automotive where I hope you will have as pleasant and positive of experience as I did.