My FD along with countless other FD's were burnt up in the puresports fire of last may. It's time that all of us affected by that band together to share info to help our individual situations. Please post any info about puresports or Seth on this thread to help solve this once and for all for everyone. Please list ANY info you might have.

Thanks,
Alan Simpson

 

For everyone who is debating posting in this thread. Keep all posts factual and not your opinion or feelings towards Seth. So if you aren't posting contact info, what exactly happened to you, or something else HELPFUL then don't post in here. If you do then your post will be deleted and you will be banned for 7 days. I'm tired of Puresports threads getting out of hand and turning into flame wars.

 

we'll as a ex worker there lets start with what we know so far:

shop burned down, seth works at JMC motorsports
has anyone gotten any info on their Ins. or anything

 

Seth works at JMC in clairmont, as mentioned above.

Contact info
619-230-8866

 

Seth has worked on my FD and he's the ONLY person in San Diego I trust to work on it besides myself (I'm an ex mechanic).

When my motor finally needed a rebuild (140K miles) I took it to Puresports because I no longer have the time for something as time consuming as a motor rebuild on an FD anymore.

He took about 5 weeks to finish the job - about what he told me expect since his shop was very busy. (I think the large amount of customers and REPEAT customers is testament to his workmanship)

He did an excellent job on the rebuild and his prices were very reasonable.

I was lucky and my car left his shop two weeks before the fire.

Trust me - as bad as anyone feels who lost their car I can assure you that Seth feels worse. Seth is passionate about cars including those that were in his shop. He also had tons of equipment, tools and spare parts collected over the years - not to mention several of his owns cars, business records, computers etc etc...

My family has been through a fire and trust me... if you've have not had it happen to you then you can't even begin to understand the type of total loss it entails.

Unfortunately his insurance company has decided to not pay any claims. How can this happen you ask? Trust me, it does. I now work in the insurance industry and a dirty fact is that insurance companies only legally have to pay out immediately on a certain percentage of claims. There are some insurance companies (not all - but Puresport's insurer turned out to be one) that will decide that it is cheaper for them to fight a claim in court for years to delay the expenses than to pay right away - even when they know it's a legitimate claim. Plus the landlord's insurer (since the fire was found by the investigators to be the fault of the landlord) is trying to deny responsibility also and taking everything to court.

It will be years before Seth or anyone sees a dime from any insurer in this case.

Meanwhile Seth is stuck with the legal bill, has lost his business and has to work as a mechanic for someone else now to try to pay his bills. Some equipment companies that he leased equipment (a dyno in particular) has come after him personally for large sums of money so he had to declare Bankruptcy (something nobody wants to do, trust me) to avoid losing his home.

I feel VERY bad for everyone that lost a car in the fire. Unfortunately it's going to be years before anything is settled with the property insurance companies and if you didn't bother to have your car insured you're going to be out of luck at the present.

I imagine Seth has been hard to contact personally. He had to start working again right away to earn a living and he can't spend hours each day talking to puresports customers about the fire. It's very overwhelming when something like this happens and I'm sure he just wants to get on with his life.

The only negative stuff I've heard about Seth has been on this forum. Two incidents involve SPD which was an unsuccessful performance parts business he was involved with for a time (something about a Mazda Protege Hood Group Buy gone wrong and a dispute with the owner of this very forum about RXTuner magazine advertising) The other was a recent post from someone who was mad about defects found in a car he purchased over a year ago from a third party which Seth had told him was in good condition.

I can't deny on confirm any of the above claims.

Is Seth perfect? I'm sure he isn't. As a busines owner myself I know that no matter how hard you try you'll never be able to may everyone happy and sometimes you will make mistakes.

My experience, along with many others, has been that Seth is not only a good mechanic and fabricator but also a very nice guy.

 

I have to say i've heard bad stories from former employees and customers before. my car had a engine bay fire and with the help of seth was able to get my car running again. the first time i met him he ended up just giving me what i needed to fix my car(used wiring harness, compputer, counterweight, and both ignition coils) when i couldn't get it started he came down to the shop i was at and diagnosed it, got it running, and tuned it on the spot for me. i agree with the guy above me, as a buisness owner owner you make some mistakes but he really is a good guy.

 

He doesn't seem like such a good guy after you read this thread:

https://www.rx7club.com/bad-fugly-members-185/horrible-experience-seth-scally-formerly-puresports-608852/

 

like i said, i'm not trying to defend him or whatever i'm just telling everyone about my expierience with him. i never had my car at his shop, it was strictly some side help from him. and i was pretty good friends with the two guys that worked for him. if one of seths customers needed a smog he would refer them to m buddys shop that i was working at at the time. thats how i knew him and thats why he was willing to come down and help me out with a bunch of ****. the two dude's that worked for him still come by every now and then, not for a while though.

my buddy's shop still does smog, and the owner/manager is knowlegable as far as emissions related problems on rx's, also most regular problems too, his shop info is in my profile.

 

I have had my car worked on by Seth only twice. A clutch/tranny swap, and replace my thermo. I have not had any problems with the car. He is a very nice guy, and I have not yet have had a problem with him. He even replaced some worn washers under my poly mounts without asking me, because he saw that it was dangerous. He also threw in my counter weight for free when he did my clutch job. I wouldn't know anything about losing a business due to a fire, but I bet he's going through financial hell right now.

-Jeff

 

Whoa, sorry to hear about the garage insurance.

This past year I have been concentrating on finding a better job and moved up to LA so I wasn't so in touch with the boards.
My car was at Seth's shop for a popped apex seal. My motor only had 19k on the rebuild and had been in the car 3 years. I babied my car. Weird situation in the first place, but I can say that I wasn't worried at all leaving it with Seth.
This was the first time I was having him do anything to it this in depth. I had however been up there for some help on catalytic converter/midpipe swaps. I had referred locals in the area to him and those stories ended up happy ones.
It was not uncommon to see a group of kids working on their FC(s) in the outter perimieter of the shop. They did this because they could use Seth's tools and have him at arms length in case they got into something they needed to know. I wish some of these kids were in some of these discussions on what type of guy Seth is.
My personal experience with my loss was through my own car insurance State Farm. After this, I can say never pull your insurance when your car is sitting. My car had been sitting up there about 7 weeks in total and I almost did.
It took several weeks for my insurance company to get in there and my claims adjuster was amazed at how many burned shells there were.
Thank goodness for paypal as I had all the receipts for every part I bought off this forum which I got credit -20% for.
I had to eat the cost of mazda malloy bushings deal I bought. They were sitting in the passenger's seat during the fire and are not covered under my car insurance. Oddly enough its covered under my renter's insurance with a deductible of $500 and it wasn't worth it.
I guess now I also have to eat the $3500 worth of engine parts that were in the shop. I had just been there the Saturday before and saw them, as my car was next in line to get worked on.
State Farm gave me a fair settlement, turned out to be the avg 'for sale' price of 2 FDs with similar mods in the SOCal area, plus my paypal parts. From the day I bought my FD to the day it burnt down this insurance company has been the best IMO.
Now my money sits in a CD until it matures this April and I can pursue another FD.

I don't think I can help anyone with trying to get claims via the shop, but if anyone has questions as to how my car insurance calculated everything I still have all the paperwork they sent me.

 

See, now this is really useful for those who feel they've been f*ucked. I too feel that Seth is a good guy, and I think looking into your own insurance is the way to go.

 

[QUOTE=Meiogirl]
It was not uncommon to see a group of kids working on their FC(s) in the outter perimieter of the shop. They did this because they could use Seth's tools and have him at arms length in case they got into something they needed to know. I wish some of these kids were in some of these discussions on what type of guy Seth is.
QUOTE]

i was one of those kids. seth gave me a rolling chasis GXL, and helped me pull an engine out of another GXL. a week later his shop burnt down with engine in it.

im kinda putting 2 and 2 together, im sorry i cant really remember your name. but i think you brought your white FD in to seth, cus you blew an apex seal. i think your name is Fisa, sorry if i spelled it wrong lol. but if that was you, i was there at seth's shop. by the way if it is you, everyday when i was there, he would always talk about how clean our FD was and how well you took care of it.

i hope this doesnt get deleted and i get the 7 day ban lol.

 

Fisa, I remember your car from when it was at Gotham. Really sorry to hear about it's fate

 

doh, hey guys thanks for the words. She had a good run and got to see many different states, a good life for a car I'd imagine.
I have to say whiles its been nice this past year to have some extra income (sans FD expenses), I got the bug and I have to have another. Ive explained it to my friends like its an ex-boyfriend, sometimes you want it back that bad. ok thats nutty.

Jones, you get a replacement? I hope with what you learned you'll want another one too.

Man Rich I still can't believe I haven't met you. My car was at your place! Stupid Iraq, heh.

 

[QUOTE=Meiogirl]

Jones, you get a replacement? I hope with what you learned you'll want another one too.
QUOTE]

yes i got one about 6 months later, and just totalled it lol. but im getting another one.

by the way your FD was so freakin clean!!! lol. im sorry for your loss. i actually watched them put out the fire, and talked to seth a couple days after. he was crushed, i could tell, he wasnt his normal self even though i only knew him for a couple months.

wasnt a pretty site.