Yeah, but an aluminum bat lacks the 'solid hit' feel...almost like your ricocheting off their head. All wood is the way to go.

On a more serious note...I am pretty much dumbfounded after reading those emails. Some people never cease to amaze me.

"The world is a beautiful place, it just has this disease called man."

The actual subframe for the LT1 may be simpler than all the trouble is worth. I learned this the hard way last time with grant. this time with the FD it really wasnt that hard, but harder than the FC.Sounds like a little cutting and moving may introduce the backing plates to the subframe, assuming the rest of the thing is up to par. I must say that if I lived that close to Grant I would definately make that subframe fit up Grants ass, I'm a pretty good fabricator! and that would make me happy.

You're right, it's not a huge project to modify the cradle so that it'll work correctly with the mounts with the backing plates installed, but again, it's the principle of the matter. I shouldn't have to modify the cradle. Grant knew full well which motor mounts I'd be using, and that the backing plates were required.

This sucks :(
More of a hold on your project and a big one. You definately have the means and determination to have your own made and made better than he could have possibly produced.
Good luck on whichever route you decide to go for a subframe and definately get a lawyer involved. Make sure he doesn't screw with people.
Too many shitty vendor stories :(

Speaking of which, maybe make the new cradle lower if there is any form of affordable dry sump (I doubt you'd want to spend an extra $3000 or so just to get an inch lower)

Hey Jim, you sure the guy's still in business?

He just updated his web site recently (12/1) with some more
information and the following message...

Guess I'd better allow a few extra days... :)

Yeah, and that's just what I'd say if I was running from creditors, or just feeling the effects of a marked downturn in toy spending from the great unwashed. I don't know anything about whether he is in or not, but this would be my excuse to take a little pleasure cruise (in the rain and wind. Thank GOD I got the radiator in this last weekend!)... if only to see if the lights are on. Or call a neighboring business, ask if there's been anyone around. I even got my UPS delivery fellow to give me the name of a dispacher in an area once, and got a driver to say whether anyone was at an address anymore. Nope, and left us with 3 grand in unrecieved recievables.

I really feel for you, mon. Car projects seem to have souls of their own, and disreputables REALLY eat at that sense of acomplishment!

Well, according the the timeline that you provided, there is a HUGE gap of non-communication from Feb. 2001 - Oct. 2001.

That is a LONG time of not talking/communicating w/ a customer.

I know of another 2nd gen owner who got screwed.
 

Now would be a good time for him to chime in!

He too was ROYALLY screwed by this Grant character.

Anyone up for a roadtrip? I'm up for a little old fashioned "midnight drill" if I can get just two more folks!!!

Grant, I know you're reading this - and I hope you sleep with one eye open! You're not going to get away with this one.

2nd gen "screwed" here....
 

I'm the guy ET3 mentioned.

Grant assured me an LS1 w/ T56 would fit great in my '87 TII.

"Why yes, Mark, the hood will close, no problem. The shifter comes up right in the middle of the hole."

Off goes my bank check for $426 to Grannys Speed Shop!

Others on this forum will tell you, I was so excited. Couldn't wait for that package next week!

After TWO FREAKING MONTHS, a $600+ phone bill, and catching him in the middle of mail fraud - My parts arrived!

Back to excited again! Although the cost is now over a grand.

Like Christmas morning, I oculdn't wait to play. Got everything opened up, to learn a trip to the hardware store is needed. Missing a lot of nuts and bolts! Done. Back to it.

Shit! Now holes aren't lining up on the adapter plate to the block. Out comes the Dremel. Fixed!

Herre we go! Lower, lower, lower.......Back, lower, back some more. Finally! It's on the mounts!

Looks great! BUT!!!!

I can't see the shifter! It's under the ash tray!

His mounts won't let the engine go back enough!

Long story short.....

He sent me another set. Not even similar to the 1st ones. Thats ok , they didn't help any either.

Called him...

"Why, Mark, something must be wrong with your car."

I politely got off the phone, never to call him again!

Ass hole!

Pictures of his crap NOT FITTING in my car can be found on my site below. Just look deeply in to the "photo archive".

I witnessed EVERYTHING Mark says, and I'd gladly go to court to testify for you Jim, if you want to nail his ass to the cross - which I bet you do! Because, after all - you're all about prinicple!

Looks like ole Grant is branching out... He's screwing the Viper folks now! Over $200K on this poor guy!

Can anyone here say CLASS ACTION SUIT?

http://vca1.viperclub.org/ubb/Forum17/HTML/006317.html

Geez!!! The drama never ends on this forum.

Some things that plague this forum:

1) Scandals involving certain vendors.
2) Scandals involving members.
3) Batman making posts in the Lounge which relate to sex in some way, shape, or form. (Batman, you know this is true. hahaha)
4) Blown motors and flood engines.

Damn, this is starting to get pretty big....its going to be the PFS scandel all over again haha

Damn, Jim I really do feel sorry for you. Its been soooo long, I guess now I know why your car was really taking so long.

So what are your plans from here??? Besides letting those bruises and raw spots on your ass heal lol

Could you use on of the new LS1 cradles and have some custom motor mounts made that will adapt a LT1 into that LS1 cradle somehow?

STEPHEN

Grant Robbin's business is "Granny's Speed Shop" (www.grannysspeedshop.com) located in Concrete, WA. Yes, the town is as small and boring as the name would imply... :)

Grant's Performance and that Viper thread are in no way related to this particular Grant. :)

Then you don't even want to hear about the engine... I just looked up that e-mail thread, and I sent the first parts to the builder/tuner in March of 2001... :)

The cradle I have will only require a small amount of modification to work with the motor mounts that I selected, thankfully, and I had already started looking at alternatives to Grant's other parts when none of them showed up after the test fitting in... 2001. :)

We're looking at putting a Mustang Cobra 8.8" IRS differential in the back. Gear selection is excellent (and cheap!), as is the selection of differential units, and strength is excellent. They're also cheap even new, and the Mustang axles are constructed almost identically to the RX-7's, which should make a conversion fairly easy. This will also elminate the torque arm in the rear of the car, which will keep weight and complexity down.

you should have stuck w/ a 13B ;)
damn Jim, glad you brought this to my attention. :)

I also had a bad experience with Granny Speed Shop with my own conversion but I have reframed from publicly bashing Grannys outside of my own V8 RX-7 forum (hosted by TorqueCentral) until now. I wish I could say that Jim's story about his problems are the only horror stories I've heard about Grannys but unfortunately since I've started V8RX7.com I have heard from numerous people with similar stories like Jim's.

http://v8rx7.com

copy to vendor section...

Still no response from Grant... :)

I left him a message on his machine 6-8 months ago so I'll let you know when I hear back from him:)

Send him a bag of coal for Christmas.

:rofl:

I notice www.grannysspeedshop.com is still using your project for marketing purposes.

Ken