Paid Engine builder and 1 year later not done.
 

Last year I found myself in a situation where needed a rebuild on my FD. Just a simple rebuild, nothing fancy. I had considered sending it off to RR to get the work done, but with my limited time due to work and a 1 year along with my other obligations, I did not have time to any of the work myself. I did however have the money to pay someone to do it. There is a shop not too far from me I had purchased parts and services from in the past. I spoke to them about it and although cost seemed a bit higher, it was close and I could easily drop the car off pretty easily. Things started well in just a couple weeks they had opened the engine and found a chipped Apex seal. Being as this was in October, I explained to simply have the car done by the following Spring of 2018 and I paid $2600 up front. Then as it got closer to spring I began to ask about completion dates. Then, I saw the builder getting other projects out before mine that it appeared came in afterwards. The months went on, I kept asking getting intermittent responses from a partner of the builder and not the builder them self. After months of trying they tell me they are going full steam on the engine. that was now approaching 2 months ago. it does not take over a year to do a simple rebuild. NO fancy porting, nothing. just new bearings.

Now, I am pretty understanding and in the messages I have left and the emails, and the facebook messages I have asked to simply give me a commitment - a date on when this is done. I want an expectation. Still, nothing. I received an invoice for the remaining amount and I thought, "okay, his is good." So I said asked if the car was done. no. I said I will pay the minute I am told it's done and come get it. nothing. Has anyone been in this situation? Does anyone have any good advice? I now have time to even do the work myself now that my daughter is older and I have a friend who has done tons of rebuilds who can likely help me out even (This friend was living out of state when I decided to go with this builder to begin with). I am starting to feel like I need to call the sheriff o something and go get the car. All I want is to get a commitment for a completion date, get it done and pay the build and be able to say how great the build is. With everyday that passes this looks more and more like a far off fantasy.

It's downright embarrassing when I go to car shows or events here and people ask where my RX7 is and I have to explain how the builder has had it for a year now and that I already paid a fair amount upfront. What should be done in a situation like this? I think the biggest issue is it seems like the builder is avoiding me now too. All I need is a commitment, or the car back.

Go to the shop and document what work has been completed on the car. Report back on the progress, if you want to take it back you may be out $2600 and received a disassembled car.

If you still have faith in the shop ask them to provide a timeline for completion and milestones for payment. One year is not unheard of but it's a bit ridiculous.

I'll see if I can drop by and take a few photos of the car and get a look at what's going on then. I think that's a good starting point. this shop has always kind of sucked at communication, but it's just the complete lack of response of late that really bothers me. I'll write the partner who does reply to see if I can stop by in a couple hours.

Sorry to hear buddy :( One full year is waay beyond reasonable for an engine rebuild. For everyone else reading this thread, never ever ever ever pay up front for a big job like this. If a shop requires you to pay up front, thats a massive red flag. Often times, they are using your money to finish other jobs they are already behind on it.

The technique I use for contractors with good success is: force them to give you a date when its done DONE. "You give me the date when its done and Ill come pick it up." And then you go get the car on that date (whether you drive it home or put it on a trailer).

Unfortunately, because you've already parted with your money, you cannot motivate them with payment. They've already been paid.

Right, My trust was misplaced I think. I've paid for a good chunk of the job already. I did call and ask if I could come to see the progress on the work and was given an excuse as to why I can't today. Hoping I don't have to go to the courthouse. I get that I've probably lost the "deposit" a this point too, but now it feels like I have lost the car. I'll keep posting as the situation develops.

You haven't lost the car. Ask them for the date when it will be done. And then tell them you will be there on that date to get the car, not 1 day after. And then go get your ride. Worry about the money once you get your car, then you take them to small claims court. But get the car back first before you go that route!

You're right, I am sure I haven't and I have insurance on it the whole time. I agree too, I really just want the car back. and if they would just finish the work, I'd even pay them no problem. I've had this FD for almost 20 years and never encountered a situation like this before. I'll keep you all posted. If I don't get a date by the end of the week, I'll have to go to the courthouse to be able to get the car back appropriately. I get it, the engine builder runs a business and has a life, but if he can't complete the work, he needs to tell me. If he is going to, he needs to say when and make a reasonable time. I work as an IT consultant and I would never conduct myself in this way. If a client asks for a completion date on a project, I get it.

In my experience, face to face interaction has a lot more effect than over the phone or email. Just saying, if the shop was near me, I'd be down there every f*cking day until i got some god damn answers. Just my opinion.

Looks like Elliot from Turblown has his car.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...303700aba9.png

If the situation is as clear cut as it seems. The shop should either...
1. Complete the job asap, eat any remaining expenses associated with the work, and extend a minimum warranty on the rebuild.
2. Admit they're too busy (for whatever reason) to perform this basic service and return your money as well as offer to cover the expense of having your car transported to either another shop or your home.
Unacceptable doesn't even scratch the surface of describing this type of experience in my opinion. I do realize, however, that almost no one is honorable enough to do either of those things and this shop seems to have demonstrated they are with the majority, in this case. You have my sympathies.

From what I read today, they're not even good at that.

Unacceptable. I'd get something in writing from the vendor regarding their commitment to complete the car. I wouldn't be too shy to get publicity on the forum to your cause. You'd be surprised how quick your car gets done ...

We do have a Good Shop / Bad Shop section of the forum. If you'd like, I can move this thread there and you can either choose to name or not name the vendor's name.

Oh snap. Never let a contractor get ahead of you. They work for the money. They will always have competing priorities, if they can get your money but work on someone else's stuff and get their money at the same time, they will, and then something else will pop up and they won't have any incentive to come back to yours.

Anyone have Turblown Engineering address for the shop? All I can find is an address leading to a residential area.

We have a strict first in/first out policy to prevent this from happening in our shop, unless the customer specifically requests that we push their project out for some reason (usually financial). Whoever pays their deposit first has their car worked on, it does not matter if it is a first time customer or someone we have been dealing with for 20 years. We build every customer a project website showing their build and give weekly updates via email as well as having Elaine at the end of the phone during normal business hours for any questions. Good luck getting this sorted out.

This is how to run a business :icon_tup:

If anyone has the address, check google maps and see if the car has been sitting outside. Usually the satellite images are within a year.

There is another thing we have going for us, we own 3 buildings with over 12000sq ft., every car is stored inside at all times.

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1987.../data=!3m1!1e3

Edit: don't want drama LOL

:popcorn::popcorn:​​​​​​​:popcorn:​​​​​​​:popcorn: ​​​​​​​:popcorn:​​​​​​​:popcorn:​​​​​​​:popcorn:​​ ​​​​​:popcorn:​​​​​​​:popcorn:​​​​​​​:popcorn:​​​​ ​​​:popcorn:

I dont mind some drama:):)

The RX7 community isnt a big one. Thousands of members of this community are on this website. If you get a bad reputation here (especially if you run an RX7 shop), word will get around, you will find your customers disappearing, and you may find yourself out of business.

My recommendation to the shop is to fix this NOW. Perhaps a link to this thread should be sent to them.

Good luck with this situation.

Get your car back asap. Someone in Miami did the same thing to me and got my pieces back and some missing. That's why now I buy what I want in my engine and I put tha shit together or at least watch it get it done. Since then any reference on the shop that did that is going to be " don't take it there,. No respect for them."
sorry bro...

I made the same mistake of paying in full up front, and waited over 2 years for a running engine. I also ended up spending over 20K to get my car back on the road.

Good luck. This is one of the things that is killing the rotary scene.

I am so sorry you went through this. I think most or many of us have been through the same thing or something similar. Maybe its a rite of passage thing. You need to resolve this. You need to inspect your car. People like this will cobble parts from your car to fix another car. They have already completely lost all trustworthiness. In most ways, I agree with those who say get your car and take them to small claims court. In Minnesota, the maximum small claims size is $15,000, which could well be enough to get back all your money.

If the shop is a paying vendor on this forum, please let us know.

Turblown....

Mine is easily found if you search the threads I've started.

The Vendor is Turblown. What will be done about this? I would like to see a reply/explanation/remedy from Turblown posted on this thread.

I have moved this thread to the "Bad & Fugly Business Thread" and will reach out to Turblown.

Thank you.
Jehan

Thanks for all the words and support everyone. The shop got back to me once and went radio silent again. I've drafted up a summons today. All I asked for is a date they can stick to to get it done or to tell me if they can't complete it and we can then come pick up the car. The shop can still come out good on this and no hard feelings by just committing to a date and sticking to it. However, I am not going to sit here and be stung along. I'll update as it goes.

I was feeling the same way not long ago. I tried to pick a builder with a good rep because I wanted to avoid this crap, but no such luck.

The rarer these cars get, the less sense it makes to work on them for a living, the less trustworthy shops bother to worry about our dinosaurs, the more we get burned by shops that would have been out of business by now in the '90s.when there was some competition.

We're playing rotary monopoly and 2 or 3 shops have all the hotels. :dunno:

Sorry to hear that Natey. I really should have just waited until had time and done it myself at least up to the point of plucking the engine and then shipping to a shop with a good rep. As I had dealt with this shop in the past and they were good to me, I thought it'd be no problem to have them do the work, even if the cost ended up being more than doing it myself - like I said time was the real limiting factor for me with my 1 year old daughter needing attention + the rest of my life. my wrenching hobby had to give. When the builder last replied, he did say that they plan to stop building engine as it's not a good fit for them any longer. I agree, it isn't. they do better with other aspects and I respected they conceded such. The fact remains though, my car is still there, I paid a decent deposit and it's been over a year now. I hope to see this come out amicably for the shop and myself. they are capable of doing great work, I hope they turn it around and begin doing so again. I'll post as I get updates.

What do you think? Could that be my Montego Blue FD?

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...84a2c4c1ea.png

Sure looks Montego Blue to me.

Also you're owed AT LEAST a full refund. Is he trying to pretend that he already started the rebuild and now stopping? What a farce. Nobody stretches a full rebuild over a year.

I do know he had plucked the engine and cracked it open to find a chipped apex seal. almost right after I dropped the car off, that step was done within a week or two. then nothing for months, granted I said "no rush" at that time, but I didn't mean no rush for infinity. I asked to have it done by May, so I could catch most of the MN driving season. I still can't get a completion date estimate either. I've been told many times "next week". I'll wait to hear back and hopefully get a response with a date to stick by. That's pretty reasonable to request a date and time that they can commit to have it done by for me to pick up the FD and pay for the completion of the work. I'll have an update this week as I am taking the next step tomorrow after work.

I would have to say that Enthu is one of the most reasonable people I've ever worked with! I originally worked on the car a few times to get it squared up when he needed it. Unfortunately, when he brought it to me the last time, I figured it had a cracked apex seal and I just graduated college, got a job 800 miles away, and had to do a rebuild on the engine in my truck, so I wasn't able to the rebuild on it.. I would have figured this would have been a gravy rebuild since all the major components were in good shape so it was a bit of cleaning and some new seals and springs and back in it goes.
I have also heard form others in the area about his miserable rate of progress and pricing on his work. If you get it back in pieces you know I got your back and will put it back to better than before for you.

I get pissed when I read this, cause brings bad memories lol. Why I keep ready,? Just to know that you've got your car back.
don't wait any longer, go and get your car. Don't hope for the best, it's already too late and you have been too nice and patient about it.
I was told same story and one day I went to the shop( different shop) and sure my car was dusty and missing parts,.
don't hope and sit waiting , it's your car and the sooner you deal with it the best for you.

(Three posts in a row praising these guy...lol, I have no affiliation with them, I'm just a happy customer.)

Not sure how out of resources you are, but the guys at SakeBomb Garage are the ones who finally got my car back on the road. If you have no other leads, there is at least one shop who's trustworthy, does good work, keeps in touch with you and seems to have some pride in their work. I don't think they'll rebuild the engine, but they can definitely sort your FD out once it's back in your possession.

Good luck with the rebuild and good on ya for keeping the rotary! :beerchug: I sometimes wish I would have LS'd mine....400lbs of smog legal torque is hard to ignore..., but then I'll start my car up and hear that growl that no other car makes. Keep the faith, young Jedi.

I heard back from the builder today. I was given a time frame but no specific date and time. As my wife and I prepared the summons last night during the documentation of communications I had asked for a completion date upwards of 10 times. I've been strung along. So, I will proceed with the summons, at which point in MN they have 20 days to answer. I've no interest in anything but coming out with my car running. in fact, I'll still pay if the work is completed. A this point I think it's important to make it clear that the work needs to be done and a clear time commitment is given. I get it that the builder is running a shop and is choosing to stop building engines, but this last job needs to be finished. There's really 3 outcomes here. Either they finish the build adhering to an agreed upon specific time and date, they return the car incomplete with all parts / pieces or the car is reported stolen because if neither of the two aforementioned outcomes occur I have no car.

Dude. Just get your car (including all pieces) and money back.

After all this and you are forced to sue them to make it right, you have no idea what they'll put inside your engine. You could end up with parts that show fine compression at first but are out of spec due to wear and have the engine degrade or not perform well.

Get your stuff and money and send it elsewhere. You can't trust someone that has shown this type of behavior.

This is correct. Get the Car + Parts, a refund, and then file a civil claim for any damages and additional rebuild expenses incurred due to their negligence.
You don't want your car branded with a "stolen" history and you don't want their quick stacked "get him out the door" engine. You have been patient for over a year, they have taken advantage of you.

Hi guys, this is Elliot now. To be clear Shawn sometimes logs into my name to catch up on messages etc. I do pay Shawn as an employee here to interact with customers as I am just usually too busy. Shawn for example answers the phones here. Shawn has always responded almost instantaneously to the OP BTW.

I am not holding anyone's cars, or money hostage here. Anyone is free at any time to pickup their car, etc. Unfortunately we do get pulled in too many directions too many times, and this one is way over due. I am at the moment almost done with the shortblock. We are at this moment in time not accepting any new engine builds, and have the intention of phasing out cars completely by winter time. We usually only do 3-4 a year anyhow, and those are usually all out builds, with no time frames, and blank checks.

Jeremy I spoke to you on FB on August the 7th, 30th, and this morning. So to be clear you have been in contact with, and to be honest if this was as big of a deal as you make it out to be, why haven't you driven over here? I only took this job on because I felt bad seeing a customer blow their engine, all of the money you have given us has been used on parts, we have seen zero profit. Again I am sorry this has taken this long, it was not my intention.

This is really a bullshit excuse. No business should EVER be run this way. You have had the car for a year. How is this not a big deal? You need to get your shit together, and make this right. You need to do it now, and you need to do it publicly, right here.

I agree with adam c.

And really, that bold line from your response is victim blaming b/s. Jeremy held up his end of the bargain and has no responsibility to apply pressure on you. You weren't doing him a favor; you were contracting a business transaction between service-provider and customer. Seeing his car (someone else's property) every day when you go into work should feel the same as though he were there, personally. It may not have been your intention to ignore this as long as you did but that's what happened and you're responsible. The least you could do is own that responsibility by apologizing for how you mishandled this without attempting to share the blame with the person who is suffering as a result.

Elliot, thank you for responding. I do believe you that this was not the intention, but as the aphorism goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The reality is the car is still unfinished. There have been many opportunities to placate me by saying this would take a year or more or to simply set a concrete completion date that you could adhere to. I have repeatedly requested this asking you to set an expectation. I do respect that you are ceasing engine builds. If it's a service you find doesn't fit your current business it's a good choice so things like this are completely avoided in the future.

Do I believe that this ordeal reflects the level of service for parts or tuning received? No, I don't. it's possible you are world class with other aspects. The previous services I had received from you are why I elected to have you do the build to begin with. It remains though, this job needs to be finished with an expectation set or the job should be aborted. I even opted to buy additional parts beyond just the rebuild as I trust you in this regard. There is still plenty of opportunity to complete this and everything goes great for us both. We can even do business in the future as my build will be far from over once I get the car back running.This thread can end with me saying I got the car back and you did great work. Please feel to call me or email me.

I know where my business is going. Thanks for the parts.

:icon_no2:

You only took this job on because you feel bad? The money and the fact that you are running a business didn't have anything to do with it? Since you are so busy, why would you keep burying yourself and not finishing older jobs work. Its your business you are responsible for your work flow. It was a conscious decision and you are just making excesses and it would probably still be sitting if legal action wasn't in play.
On another note how are you almost done with the short block? This isn't a 350 where you can just walk away from fitting rings and get back to it tomorrow. I hope Jeremy is getting a better than average warranty with this thing since the last excuses I heard you had for the delay was you were waiting on a bearing press tool. Who takes on an engine job without the simple tools for the job? If you needed one I could have borrowed you mine, assuming I'd get it back.