Vin
Proven Member
- 156
- 15
- Feb 23, 2016
-
New Smyrna beach,
Florida
I don't even know where to start. If anyone thinks they have bad luck we'll here is the short version. You can go back to my 1st posts from 2021.
My 1990 GST I was having built for half mile and mile "wanna go fast" type roll racing on airport runways was my retirement dream build. Now I have a lawyer and it's been a complete nightmare. I won't mention the shop until after the legal fiasco Is over and it has just begun.
So I did have Dennis King from Redline do my original basic build back in 2018ish. I was lucky enough to find John Estrada from Jester Tuning and paid him to come out to the east coast and try and tune my ECMLink. Under his advice I should go stand alone and bigger injectors etc., well after seeing AG MOTORSPORTS make 1200hp with their 4g63t Dodge Colt I called them down south and got a quote and what I needed to procure parts wide.
Here is a brief list:
Fully built 4g63t from a guy who had a 9sec 1st gen and had a new spare motor on a pallet. he was having a baby and the race car had to go and he had a lot of good parts. This was early 2020.
I got JMF intake, fully built 4g63t with (forged) Wiseco HDs, rods, crank, Brian Crowder stage 3s, I later bought AEM adjustable pulley set and Kevlar belt, balancer delete etc. Magnus 6 bolt crank girdle.
2) Got a billet QUAIFE diff new from UK that took forever to order and ship.
3) Had LIBERTY GEARS build me a custom 1 off transmission that they said they would never do again. That was a small nightmare since they lost parts of mine and wouldn't compensate me for the loss so I took it on the head and paid them to finish the transmission parts ( cryogenic treatment for entire internals, then micro peened, face plated since it was difficult to get into 3rd at 9,000 rpm etc.) So the box of parts came from liberty Gears and I had OSTAR MOTORSPORTS who I a year prior bought one of their race car manifolds they had for their drag car a new precision 6466 ceramic ball bearing new gen back then, TIAL liquid cooled Wastegate.
4) I called Buscher Racing and saw they were running 7s and figure if they have the fastest fwd they know what their doing (in retrospect I should have paid the extra money and had a professional car hauler company take my 90 GST to them to build but after watching youtube videos of horror stories on car shippers I decided not to). Buscher Racing made my ignition system coil pack assembly.
5) I live in an area with no ethanol only and wanted it easy for my wife to drive and not have to remember to put alcohol in it so I wanted a pump gas 93 octane real street car. So FUEL INJECTOR CLINIC matched the correct CC injectors for my precision 64/66
6) The massive intercooler was off another 1000hp turbo build I was doing and needed to only have the brackets tig welded and the outlets changed/clocked to make it work with my 1st gen GST.
7) I had the DRIVE SHAFT SHOP make me custom 1000hp+ axles
8) The transmission took over a year for OSTAR to assemble since apparently someone quit and my tranny sat there. This was nothing compared to what followed. So the tranny was assembled now over a year later and did I mention liberty gears took over a year as well, but ok so now the transmission is done and I can call AG Motorsports who gave me a reasonable cash quote and I was going to pay in full in cash. Since this took so long to procure the parts they said they couldn't take on the project.
9) Miscellaneous items like larger throttle body and AEM/HALTECH were suggested so I said ok to both from the shop I chose after reading some positive reviews on the forums.
(today in 2024 there are no less than a half dozen people like me who some have paid over $25,000 upfront and had their cars not finished and sat there like mine for over 2 years) but all I needed was the turbo piping tig welded, front bumper brace which a company online makes for only a couple hundred but was told by the shop they would take care of everything.
It would be dyno tuned and keep my A/C functional which was my only request besides hitting the 900+hp map and having a 6-700hp street tune or whatever was most drivable. (oh I forgot "competition clutch" brand double plate clutch I bought as well.
If you've been following along I didn't skimp on anything. since it's FWD it would be damn hard for the tires not to spin before it would break the components I bought (quaife, drive shaft shop axles, custom liberty face plated trans, forged internals, magnus crank brace etc)
The shop lied multiple times and luckily I have only corresponded with them via text and email which I saved all of them and gave to my lawyer.
The 1st lie was the brand new 64/66, I purchased from OSTAR motorsports was not spinning freely even though it was new in box and needed to be sent to precision turbo for warranty etc.
I worked in aviation overhaul and repair so I'm familiar with traceability of parts and chain of custody.
So I simply asked for the RMA and the lying shop gave me an RMA. I contacted Precision Turbo and they said that's not even an RMA format that they use!
I contacted the shop that still has my car now in 2024 and they said oh it must be a mistake and it wasn't shipped out yet they were waiting to send a few back at a time to save on shipping. Ok that makes sense, wish they would have said something. 2 months past I call Precision and again we do not have any RMA or your turbo. I contact the shop via email and the owner chastising me like I'm a punk street urchin. "why would you call our vendor, it makes us look bad. yadda yadda" I said you told me this is an RMA and I've been waiting to see what the issue with the brand new turbo could be.
They said oh it just needed a little oil on impeller shaft since it may have had some corrosion from sitting in the box. So they never sent it out. I was pissed but they had my car so I figure ok 1 red flag.
I forgot to mention this whole time I paid in advance the whole amount for the build.
I get an email Dec 2021, You excited to get your car done by xmas? I said wow yes it will finally be done, yes the shop said, but we need more money. I said no problem, send me pics so I can post on the DSM forums to show my build. He sent 3 pics of my new competition clutch installed and car in rack. I replied ok was that an old pic? The transmission isn't bolted in with the ARP studs as we discussed etc since of course I didn't want to use 1990 bolts for this build.
No response.
I asked for pictures showing the labor that I paid for and was told the Ostar manifold wouldn't fit and would hit the block with the 64/66 which was bullshit since the other shop had the same car albeit an Eagle Talon and that's what the manifold came off of and was test fitted on mine w the turbo with a few ARP studs. So that was all BS. I said ok you have to cut the turbo manifold at the collector to make room. He said yes. Red flag number 2.
Then COVID hits and hurricane Ian. My misses has social media and I do not use any FB or social media like that. She went on the shops Facebook and saw my car outside and asked when they would post pics. HER COMMENT WAS IMMEDIATELY deleted and he texted me why is your wife posting questions on FB. As pissed as I was I asked what was the issue with asking? It's been over a year now.
Well this nonsense went on and around Christmas 2023 I happened to lose my best friend who had bought a BMW s1000rr and crashed in front of me. We have track bikes and my misses rides as well. We weren't riding fast, he had diabetes, and had some unknown blood sugar spike and his vision went and he barely low sided but died from his injuries at age 55. So I was dealing with his family and rebuilt the bike etc. I wasn't even thinking about the car.
I went on Google and figure let me check the Google reviews maybe they lost some staff like Ostar did and are behind. So I searched from lowest rating 1st and BAM, multiple customers with my same issue, paying thousands in advance then being asked for more money when nothing was done on the car to justify $2000 in labor let alone what I paid.
Then I get a bill for $18,000 randomly. I call, no answer. They told me they had phone troubles and the phone lines were down. So I emailed and asked what this huge bill was about?
It was basically my original bill and all the labor was triple and quadrupled. Since I had all the parts basically brought with the car on day 1 it was odd to randomly get a bill when I didn't even get pics, videos nothing about my cars status. I asked again can I see pics of my car and an itemized breakdown so I can see where all this labor is going?
NOT A WORD.
Then recently in 2024 I get pics of my intercooler on a jack stand and turbo piping being welded with a message that my car will be dropped off on my lawn or something to that extent. I contacted a lawyer and now I have to deal with this.
$10s of thousands of dollars in parts, years wasted and I saw 1 star review of a young man who said he took his car from THIS HORRIBLE SHOP to another shop and they completed his car and it came out great. So I've been trying to have my wife find this kid on social media to ask him questions about his horror story which he wrote about in his 1 star reviews of this popular Orlando shop. I also wanted to ask him about the shop that completed his build.
If you have had issues with a shop in Orlando please please DM me. They have ripped off customers $100s of thousands of dollars and if there is 40 people that have been through (which there Is about a dozen I've read online already). This shop should be closed down. PHAWK the money, it's about ripping people off and lying.
Florida has a state statute for car shops that say any bill that exceeds 10% of initial estimate has to be signed by car owner for shop to bill the customer.
So that's where my car status is as of May 6th 2024.
Mind you I'm retired, I don't put up with nonsense but I get my stress out with Brazilian jiujitsu and powerlifting. I'm a 1 stripe blue under Ralph Gracie and the last thing I want is conflict over a car so I'm smart enough to stay away from this horrible lying shop owner.
Just a warning to ANYONE, always check the google reviews LOWEST 1st. You may have a few PITA customers I get it, but this company apparently from what I read in the reviews, 1 upset customer said the shop did this 7 years ago~ and declared bankruptcy after taking customer money.
I believe the new shop the other kid who was ripped off $25,000 said I should try is Central Florida something. I forget the name but my wife has the screenshot and I submitted a request on their website so we will see if they take my car.
LISTEN this car is super important. I also have some health issues I'm battling as I hit the half century birthday. If someone knows any shop that will dyno tune my cat and have my A/C working with my current intercooler etc. I have the money and obviously I have the time to wait to have it done right.
Please if anyone here really gives a shit about a guy who has been phawked over for 3 years now.
PLEASE GUYS find a shop that will help me out. I can have the car dropped off on a flatbed anytime. I have money. If someone out there can help me out I would really appreciate it.
the anxiety and stress this build has caused over 3 years even affected my misses. So many plans for "wanna go fast" event went down the drain.
If you know a shop in central Florida or within 200miles of Central Florida please ask someone to read this and if they can make my dream 1st gen build come to fruition. It's 90% done
Thank you in advance
poppanitrous
My 1990 GST I was having built for half mile and mile "wanna go fast" type roll racing on airport runways was my retirement dream build. Now I have a lawyer and it's been a complete nightmare. I won't mention the shop until after the legal fiasco Is over and it has just begun.
So I did have Dennis King from Redline do my original basic build back in 2018ish. I was lucky enough to find John Estrada from Jester Tuning and paid him to come out to the east coast and try and tune my ECMLink. Under his advice I should go stand alone and bigger injectors etc., well after seeing AG MOTORSPORTS make 1200hp with their 4g63t Dodge Colt I called them down south and got a quote and what I needed to procure parts wide.
Here is a brief list:
Fully built 4g63t from a guy who had a 9sec 1st gen and had a new spare motor on a pallet. he was having a baby and the race car had to go and he had a lot of good parts. This was early 2020.
I got JMF intake, fully built 4g63t with (forged) Wiseco HDs, rods, crank, Brian Crowder stage 3s, I later bought AEM adjustable pulley set and Kevlar belt, balancer delete etc. Magnus 6 bolt crank girdle.
2) Got a billet QUAIFE diff new from UK that took forever to order and ship.
3) Had LIBERTY GEARS build me a custom 1 off transmission that they said they would never do again. That was a small nightmare since they lost parts of mine and wouldn't compensate me for the loss so I took it on the head and paid them to finish the transmission parts ( cryogenic treatment for entire internals, then micro peened, face plated since it was difficult to get into 3rd at 9,000 rpm etc.) So the box of parts came from liberty Gears and I had OSTAR MOTORSPORTS who I a year prior bought one of their race car manifolds they had for their drag car a new precision 6466 ceramic ball bearing new gen back then, TIAL liquid cooled Wastegate.
4) I called Buscher Racing and saw they were running 7s and figure if they have the fastest fwd they know what their doing (in retrospect I should have paid the extra money and had a professional car hauler company take my 90 GST to them to build but after watching youtube videos of horror stories on car shippers I decided not to). Buscher Racing made my ignition system coil pack assembly.
5) I live in an area with no ethanol only and wanted it easy for my wife to drive and not have to remember to put alcohol in it so I wanted a pump gas 93 octane real street car. So FUEL INJECTOR CLINIC matched the correct CC injectors for my precision 64/66
6) The massive intercooler was off another 1000hp turbo build I was doing and needed to only have the brackets tig welded and the outlets changed/clocked to make it work with my 1st gen GST.
7) I had the DRIVE SHAFT SHOP make me custom 1000hp+ axles
8) The transmission took over a year for OSTAR to assemble since apparently someone quit and my tranny sat there. This was nothing compared to what followed. So the tranny was assembled now over a year later and did I mention liberty gears took over a year as well, but ok so now the transmission is done and I can call AG Motorsports who gave me a reasonable cash quote and I was going to pay in full in cash. Since this took so long to procure the parts they said they couldn't take on the project.
9) Miscellaneous items like larger throttle body and AEM/HALTECH were suggested so I said ok to both from the shop I chose after reading some positive reviews on the forums.
(today in 2024 there are no less than a half dozen people like me who some have paid over $25,000 upfront and had their cars not finished and sat there like mine for over 2 years) but all I needed was the turbo piping tig welded, front bumper brace which a company online makes for only a couple hundred but was told by the shop they would take care of everything.
It would be dyno tuned and keep my A/C functional which was my only request besides hitting the 900+hp map and having a 6-700hp street tune or whatever was most drivable. (oh I forgot "competition clutch" brand double plate clutch I bought as well.
If you've been following along I didn't skimp on anything. since it's FWD it would be damn hard for the tires not to spin before it would break the components I bought (quaife, drive shaft shop axles, custom liberty face plated trans, forged internals, magnus crank brace etc)
The shop lied multiple times and luckily I have only corresponded with them via text and email which I saved all of them and gave to my lawyer.
The 1st lie was the brand new 64/66, I purchased from OSTAR motorsports was not spinning freely even though it was new in box and needed to be sent to precision turbo for warranty etc.
I worked in aviation overhaul and repair so I'm familiar with traceability of parts and chain of custody.
So I simply asked for the RMA and the lying shop gave me an RMA. I contacted Precision Turbo and they said that's not even an RMA format that they use!
I contacted the shop that still has my car now in 2024 and they said oh it must be a mistake and it wasn't shipped out yet they were waiting to send a few back at a time to save on shipping. Ok that makes sense, wish they would have said something. 2 months past I call Precision and again we do not have any RMA or your turbo. I contact the shop via email and the owner chastising me like I'm a punk street urchin. "why would you call our vendor, it makes us look bad. yadda yadda" I said you told me this is an RMA and I've been waiting to see what the issue with the brand new turbo could be.
They said oh it just needed a little oil on impeller shaft since it may have had some corrosion from sitting in the box. So they never sent it out. I was pissed but they had my car so I figure ok 1 red flag.
I forgot to mention this whole time I paid in advance the whole amount for the build.
I get an email Dec 2021, You excited to get your car done by xmas? I said wow yes it will finally be done, yes the shop said, but we need more money. I said no problem, send me pics so I can post on the DSM forums to show my build. He sent 3 pics of my new competition clutch installed and car in rack. I replied ok was that an old pic? The transmission isn't bolted in with the ARP studs as we discussed etc since of course I didn't want to use 1990 bolts for this build.
No response.
I asked for pictures showing the labor that I paid for and was told the Ostar manifold wouldn't fit and would hit the block with the 64/66 which was bullshit since the other shop had the same car albeit an Eagle Talon and that's what the manifold came off of and was test fitted on mine w the turbo with a few ARP studs. So that was all BS. I said ok you have to cut the turbo manifold at the collector to make room. He said yes. Red flag number 2.
Then COVID hits and hurricane Ian. My misses has social media and I do not use any FB or social media like that. She went on the shops Facebook and saw my car outside and asked when they would post pics. HER COMMENT WAS IMMEDIATELY deleted and he texted me why is your wife posting questions on FB. As pissed as I was I asked what was the issue with asking? It's been over a year now.
Well this nonsense went on and around Christmas 2023 I happened to lose my best friend who had bought a BMW s1000rr and crashed in front of me. We have track bikes and my misses rides as well. We weren't riding fast, he had diabetes, and had some unknown blood sugar spike and his vision went and he barely low sided but died from his injuries at age 55. So I was dealing with his family and rebuilt the bike etc. I wasn't even thinking about the car.
I went on Google and figure let me check the Google reviews maybe they lost some staff like Ostar did and are behind. So I searched from lowest rating 1st and BAM, multiple customers with my same issue, paying thousands in advance then being asked for more money when nothing was done on the car to justify $2000 in labor let alone what I paid.
Then I get a bill for $18,000 randomly. I call, no answer. They told me they had phone troubles and the phone lines were down. So I emailed and asked what this huge bill was about?
It was basically my original bill and all the labor was triple and quadrupled. Since I had all the parts basically brought with the car on day 1 it was odd to randomly get a bill when I didn't even get pics, videos nothing about my cars status. I asked again can I see pics of my car and an itemized breakdown so I can see where all this labor is going?
NOT A WORD.
Then recently in 2024 I get pics of my intercooler on a jack stand and turbo piping being welded with a message that my car will be dropped off on my lawn or something to that extent. I contacted a lawyer and now I have to deal with this.
$10s of thousands of dollars in parts, years wasted and I saw 1 star review of a young man who said he took his car from THIS HORRIBLE SHOP to another shop and they completed his car and it came out great. So I've been trying to have my wife find this kid on social media to ask him questions about his horror story which he wrote about in his 1 star reviews of this popular Orlando shop. I also wanted to ask him about the shop that completed his build.
If you have had issues with a shop in Orlando please please DM me. They have ripped off customers $100s of thousands of dollars and if there is 40 people that have been through (which there Is about a dozen I've read online already). This shop should be closed down. PHAWK the money, it's about ripping people off and lying.
Florida has a state statute for car shops that say any bill that exceeds 10% of initial estimate has to be signed by car owner for shop to bill the customer.
So that's where my car status is as of May 6th 2024.
Mind you I'm retired, I don't put up with nonsense but I get my stress out with Brazilian jiujitsu and powerlifting. I'm a 1 stripe blue under Ralph Gracie and the last thing I want is conflict over a car so I'm smart enough to stay away from this horrible lying shop owner.
Just a warning to ANYONE, always check the google reviews LOWEST 1st. You may have a few PITA customers I get it, but this company apparently from what I read in the reviews, 1 upset customer said the shop did this 7 years ago~ and declared bankruptcy after taking customer money.
I believe the new shop the other kid who was ripped off $25,000 said I should try is Central Florida something. I forget the name but my wife has the screenshot and I submitted a request on their website so we will see if they take my car.
LISTEN this car is super important. I also have some health issues I'm battling as I hit the half century birthday. If someone knows any shop that will dyno tune my cat and have my A/C working with my current intercooler etc. I have the money and obviously I have the time to wait to have it done right.
Please if anyone here really gives a shit about a guy who has been phawked over for 3 years now.
PLEASE GUYS find a shop that will help me out. I can have the car dropped off on a flatbed anytime. I have money. If someone out there can help me out I would really appreciate it.
the anxiety and stress this build has caused over 3 years even affected my misses. So many plans for "wanna go fast" event went down the drain.
If you know a shop in central Florida or within 200miles of Central Florida please ask someone to read this and if they can make my dream 1st gen build come to fruition. It's 90% done
Thank you in advance
poppanitrous
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