A counter, a ladder and a lot of small boxes
Four people, two thousand four hundred part numbers, and a rule that nobody guesses.
Why we write the fitment down
Fahi opened in 2014 selling belts and rollers to three garages on the same street. The shop grew on cycles, because Malé runs on them, and then on small cars once the parking on the new roads filled up.
The habit that built the shop is unglamorous. Every time we sell a part and it goes on a machine that we can confirm, somebody writes that machine onto the card for that part number. Twelve years of that is why this site can show you a filter box that narrows a shelf of ninety items down to four.
It is worth being clear about what that is. It is a record of what has been fitted, kept by hand, by people who make mistakes. It is not a catalogue from a manufacturer and it is not a compatibility database. A part that has gone onto forty of one machine will almost certainly go onto yours. A part with one line on its card means one mechanic told us once. The counter treats those two differently and so should you.
The other thing that grew was the island trade. About a third of what leaves this shop is boxed, labelled and carried to a cargo boat. We have learned to write the garage name and the island on four sides of the box, because a box that loses its label in Malé harbour is a part nobody sees again.
The people who answer the telephone
Adam Faheem
Opened the shop in 2014 with belts and rollers for three garages. Still the person who says no when a part should not be ordered.
Mohamed Zahir
Keeps the fitment cards and is the reason the filter boxes on this site narrow a shelf to four items instead of forty.
Ali Shamikh
Boxes, labels and hands over every island order, and photographs each one before it leaves the shop.
Fathimath Reeha
Runs the thirty one monthly accounts, matches transfers to order references, and chases the statements nobody likes being chased about.
What happens when a part does not fit
What does the fitment filter actually tell me?
It tells you what this shop has written on that part's card: the machines we have sold it for and had confirmed back to us. It is a filter over our own notes.
It is not a compatibility database and it is not from a manufacturer. Treat it as a way to narrow a shelf of ninety items down to four, then check the number on your old part before you buy one of the four.
What if the part does not fit?
Bring it back within fourteen days, unfitted and in its box, and we exchange it or refund it. That is on us if we recommended it, and it is still on us if you chose it from the site.
What we cannot take back is a part that has been fitted, turned, drilled or forced, and electrical items that have been wired in. That is not a policy we invented; a fitted pad or a wired relay cannot be sold to the next person.
My machine is not in your filter. Do you have nothing for it?
Probably not what you are looking at, but ask anyway. The filter only knows what somebody has written on a card, so an unusual machine looks empty even when a shared part is sitting on the shelf.
Send the number off the old part. A great many parts are shared across machines that look nothing alike, and the number is what shows that.
Come in with the old part
Ameenee Magu, Malé. Open until nine at night, Saturday to Thursday.