Ok, so I keep hearing people asking me to post a reply to this message. Anyone who knows me and knows my shop will tell you that this story is exagerated in the customers favor. My good friends and customers also know that I will not join in message board fights because I feel they are childish and a waste of time. With that said I will post the full story now... Dave came to me with a supercharged focus. The car had over 140,000 miles on it with a blown head gasket. He came to me and asked if I would work on the car. I said NO, " I do not work on those cars at all" he asked me almost begging that he couldn't find a shop to work on the car and that he would spend anything to have it fixed. Previously, I was going to start working on more than mustangs and I hired a kid who claimed to be a focus expert, it turned out that he couldn't even change oil but he had brought dave's focus in for some work and I had to finish it for the kid. I later fired that kid and stopped working on ford focus's. Dave had kept my number and asked if he could bring the car to me. After coming in and calling over and over I said that the only way I would work on the car was to rebuild the entire engine, or install a new engine from ford with a warranty. I told dave that a car with that many miles on it would not last if I just fixed the head gasket. Dave said if we are going to rebuild it then I want good parts in the bottom end and I want the head ported or a ford racing head. So here is the first problem with Daves story. I do not build engines. I have no machines to build engines, I don't claim to build engines. I don't advertise that I build engines never have... So I said I will call the machine shop and get an estimate. I told Dave that I would charge him what they charge me and I wanted a thousand dollars to do the engine and supercharger swap. Dave agrees to the price on the engine and the labor and gives us a deposit. I pull the engine and bring it to Eddies Valve grinding. They rebuild the engine and install all the good parts, they port the head and I get back a complete long block. We put the supercharger on and reinstall it. We start it up and take it for a test drive. I get a block away and the car starts to run poorly, I head back to the shop to find that there is metal in the oil and oil filter. I called dave right away and explain the situation. He said no problem things happen and I remove the engine and send it back to the machine shop. I get it back a few weeks later to find that there is metal still in the oil pan. I call the owner of the machine shop and he comes over and said that they must have missed something and takes it back. I get the engine back later the next week and we get started on the install right away. The engine is installed and running for no more than 30 seconds and it has a load noise and shuts off. Now I'm really mad, I also feel really bad for Dave. I call dave and advise him of the situation. One of the brand new manley valves broke and fell into the engine which stopped the piston. I can't blame the machine shop at this point but I don't feel comfortable going back to them either so I call B&B a really good mustang shop I have delt with to diagnose what is going on. They tell me that the valve broke because the new cam needed to have the valves shimmed and Eddies valve grinding didn't do it properly. He also tells me that the rods are still black frm the first time the engine blew up. I called Dave and told him what happened. I offered to rent him a car but he said no that he had a relatives car for the time being and he wasn't really worried about it. Dave did say well since the motor is out again I want to install a traction lock in the trans. I told him that I didn't rebuild front wheel drive transmissions but my friend Pat at Level 10 did. So I towed the car up to Level 10 on a saturday and towed it back FOR FREE because I really felt bad all dave paid was the parts bill. I also paid B&B to fix the entire engine the correct way and paid extra to get it back asap. Anyone who knows B&B knows that he builds great engines but you will wait about a year to get it back. So I paid him over $2400 to fix the engine again. So now I have R&R'ed the engine 3 times and spent $2400 of my own money to rebuild the engine. I felt responsible since I recommended Eddies but I'm still out thousands of dollars. I get the engine back shortly after dropping it off. I get it into the car and fire it off. The car runs good but needs to be tuned. I told dave that I don't tune focus and he gets a mail order chip. The car runs well and he takes the car. A month or so later and the car comes back that it isn't running properly and I'm and "ass hole and this and that" I open the hood and find that he changed the mass air meter and the cold air kit and has installed a snow alcohol kit improperly. I told Dave that all this needed to be tuned but he said "no it doesn't". I removed the air intake and meter and reinstalled the original ones and I turned off the snow kit and guess what, It ran great again. Dave leaves and says he is sorry. Again a few weeks go by, about 6 actually and dave leaves his car in front of my bay door with no keys in sight and I get the same pissed off message. I call him back and ask where the keys are and he says I have them, I wanted to make sure you couldn't work todday and that's why I blocked your bay door. I asked what the issue was and he says the car has a sever oil leak. I said that's weird that it would happen months after the engine was installed but if he dropped off the keys I would take car of it. I get the keys and the first thing I see is a brand new oil pressure gauge that was never in the car before. I put the car on my lift and find that the oil line out of the block to the gauge is broke and spraying oil out. There is a long brass fitting broken off in the block. I call Dvae and said who installed this new oil pressure gauge. at first there is silence and then I hear "uuummm I did why"? I said because you used a 4" long brass fitting that broke off in the block. Then dave says, "oh man I'm really sorry for yelling can you fix it"? I said no problem and started by drilling the fitting out of the block. After 6 hours I have the whole thing fixed. Dave picks up the car and asks how much. I told him that the labor was on me because I still felt bad about the engine and had him just pay the $40 for the peice of line I needed to fix the gauge properly. then I don't hear from dave for awile until once again I have a focus blocking my door and no keys. I come inside to another pissed off message from dave. I get the keys later that day and open the hood. There it is, broken idler pulley and a missing cam belt. I tell dave what the issue is and he says why didn't you install new pulleys. I said that you don't install new pulley's with an engine rebuild, that a rebuild is just internal parts. I also told him that I had recommended the ford engine because all moving parts would have been replaced but he didn't want that engine he wanted the engine with no warranty from a speed shop. I told dave that I looked up in the computer that this was an interference engine and that it may have damaged internal parts. I suggested pulling the head and checking everything out before we just put the belt back on. I wanted to make sure that the valves weren't bent and that the pistons weren't damaged. I told dave that I there is no warranty on the engine and he had had the car back for over 6 months but because of all the issues he had I was willing to pay the labor if he paid for all the gaskets and fluids or we could split the bill in half whatever was cheaper to him. Dave said that he would think about it and get back to me. The next day Daves wife calls and asks what happened and if it was from dave racing the car and I explained what was going on and what I was offering to do for him. She started talking about what a waste of money this car was and that she wanted him to get a new car and that she couldn't understand why he did all this to the car. Dave comes in the next day and says that he is taking the car home to part it out and that his wife just wants him to get a new car. He then asks again why I didn't put new pulleys on the car and that he wanted everything in the car to be replaced with new parts. ( this is the other quote that dave said I said that is wrong) I said Dave "if I was to replace every possible thing in the car with new it would cost over $20,000 and that it would have been better to just get a new car." I told him that I would help with whatever he needed be it parting the car out or fixing the car. He said ok and left... I don't hear anything for months, nothing from the better business bureau, nothing from an attorney and nothing from dave. I have been in this business for 12 years. I started it a year out of High school. I work very hard and I employ only the best. I have a 97% customer return rate of customers who come here more than once to have work done they are so happy with our work. I have customers that I have gone to weddings for and customers that I have become good friends with. I realize that you cannot make everyone happy even though I really try to. This is one customer that I will never be able to make happy. I lost thousands of dollars working on his car which stinks but having my name trashed bothers me the most. I am a man of my word and I try very hard to keep people trusting me. That is why I don't get involved with the internet. Because everyone that posted a reply was like "YA fry him in court and take away his house" but you internet people don't realize what you are doing. Your killing this hobby. I come to work everyday to make your cars faster. I miss time with my Kid to make your car a little better and when 1 guy says something just a little bad you all jump on the band wagon and tear that shop up. Maybe before you post coments about shop you should get the entire story because what is going to happen is one day all of us shops the ones that keep the sport alive are going to say **** IT **** these people, we will get other jobs and just let all you guys figure your cars out for yourselves and then were will you be, up shits creek. It's already started with places like Kenny Brown. We are tired of the B.S. associated with the internet and the mindless people that have posts and post replys. So for all that posted "why won't he post a reply" here it is. My side of the story. You can beleive me or not but every single word is true. Anyone who wants to talk to me directly can call me at the shop (732)553-9050
One last comment about Dave and his marriage- anyone who would loose their family because of a car is just stupid. No car or item is worth loosing your family over, and if you do loose your family because of your car you are stupid and deserve it. That's all and thanks for reading my reply, Chris Winter Crazy Horse Racing....
