Ok guys,



Here is the story. Last year as we all know Martin (Fiskerxseven) trusted me with the rebuilding of his motor and the instalation of all the products he wanted added as time progressed. He was extremely patient as shipping delays and other unforseen interuptions came about delaying the delivery of his car. Most were not the fault of my shop. I had the car close to 6 months. The engine was ported, and reworked, polished and everything installed for the operation of the car. I had some extreme wiring problems, and I also had some fuel problems after we had it all together. But I put it all together and fired the motor 6 hrs before I had to be on a plane to the middle east, I called Martin that night and he heard the motor running prior to my departure. Due to the condition of all the parts that had to be removed for troubleshooting and other things the car was not ready as promised.



Martin came down to the shop after I had left when the car should have been ready. I am not sure what was wrong, and why it would not fire after I had left. I was told it was a programming problem, but I had used the maps given to me by two of the best tuners on here.



Dragon was flown in by Martin to have a look at the car, there was a problem that was not brought to the forums. The front pully bolt had worked its way out of the eccentric shaft and threw oil all over the front of the engine. Dragon and one of the guys from my shop pulled the motor, and the front cover for inspection. Upon disassembly it was found that a FC front bearing had mistakingly been replaced instead of the correct FD bearing, and some of the residue from glass beading the engine was found as well. Dragon, Martin and my guy plus a lot of help in the backround got the engine back in, fired and somewhat tuned. Turns out the Davincci wastegate would not operate correctly and they had a few boost spikes while tuning.



Why am I telling you all of this? Because as a small company I feel it is my duty to let you all know I made some mistakes. Martin did not post any of this because he did not want to drag me, nor my business through the mud. I was unable to access the forums for quite a while in the middle east and he felt it would not be fair without me being able to defend my actions or my problems.



Now that I am back, I wanted to share this with you all. I have spoken to Martin a few times since I have been back, I have offered any assistance that I could to make things right. I hope to be back in the swing of things very shortly and hope to do business with a few of you this summer.



I hope Martin will reply to this and offer up some insight as to what went on from his side.



I just wanted to make sure that all of you hear it straight from the Camels mouth.





Sean

**** happens, sounds like you did what it took to get it straitened out and there's nothing more anyone could ask of you.



Welcome back to the US, wish you could have made it down for the retreat!

What fuel problems did you guys run into and is martins motor broken now? I am cunfused. https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683561.gif

Well at least you are fixing what you screwed up. So that is more then anyone can ask for.



People are humans and make mistakes but it takes a real human being to honor it and fix it.



Great Jerb https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/smile.png

that takes some guts..



however, mistakes happen, and by admitting them to others and being willing to fix them is a quality hard to find in most people.



no one is going to question your credibility.. just keep up the good work and stay honest with people...

for a good long time, i was upset .... from around september til about the time sean arrived from the middle east. i have had several good conversations with sean since he got back that eased a lot of anger and stress that i had.



sean i really appreciate your offers to fix whatever is still broken, and writing about most of the things that have happenned here in the forum.



i have a suggestion for your shop though.... i know you're a good mechanic, but that doesnt mean you surround yourself with people with the same skill. a lot of the problems that has gone wrong with my car in my opinion has come from poor time management, and preparation and too many inexperienced people trying to give a helping hand.



i really feel that your business can do pretty well once you set everything right, and as of now, as much as i want to help out your business, i dont think its advisable for people to do business until your shop's problems are straightenned out.



sean, thanks again for writing this post... it really helps your credibility

the day after i took the car home (about 1 mile away from my house) the car suddenly stalled and refused to start again. i found out that the fuel was pouring out of the primary fuel rail. the injectors in my rail were nippon denso japanese style injectors, when the rail needed an american bosche type injector, so 50psi of fuel and injectors that didnt fit the rail..... all i can say is THANK GOD!! that the rubber spacer stayed intact for my 3 hour journey home, otherwise my car and myself could have been in really deep trouble.



and since dragon has arrived and fixed most things in my car... it has been running pretty much everyday. although there are still a lot of kinks to be taken cared of.... dragon did what he could with the several days he stayed with us here in jersey

that's the problem with every smaller shop. you have one guy who gives a ****, and takes his work very seriously, and everyone else is there for their ego/hourly wage (which is a scary combination)



hopefully camel is assuring the quality of everything that leaves his shop, or disasters such as these will continue.

That is very honorable of you, Camel, to post this. Too bad INTERPARTS OF TULSA does not follow the same good ethics.

Folks this was a courtesy, I just wanted to make things right. Some of you will see the work I did on this motor, understand there was a lot more work done to this car than we have stated. And another thing that was not mentioned was the total cost. As this was to be the first major makeover vehicle my shop was doing I think we did a lot for a very fair price. Even with the problems Martin faced after I left, no shop in the country would have done it cheaper than we did. I wanted the problems I had out in the open, and to make sure that people understand that things have been done to assure that they will not happen again.



When some of you see the work we did, you will be impressed, just keep in the back of your mind that there were some things that were a setback.



I will not be doing anything of this magnatude again for at least 6 months.

Good to hear everyone being honest about the situation. Never fun to have mistakes eat up time and money, but sounds like things will be made right one way or the other.





Josh- what happened with the guy you delt with here in Tulsa?

Back when I had that non turbo FC you saw, I had lost one of the heater core hoses and drained all of my coolant at a stoplight...overheated it BAD. Completely fried a water o ring, so I was in the market for a rebuilt or low milage donor engine. Called all around Tulsa looking for someone who knows about rotaries, and the only bite i get is at this shop called INTERPARTS OF TULSA. Its ran by a father and son, Bill and Robert Yuan. I go down there, get a price on my "Low mileage Japanese engine," then pay 1555 off of my debit card for this engine, which i'm assured will have less than 30k on it. I"m driving the blown engine around, until the "big day" to drop off my car. I"m promised a 2 week turn around time due to the amount of other cars they have around....2 weeks turns into 2 months. Finally they call me and say its ready. They have rigged a fuel pump cut off switch, which they show me how to use to START MY car. Apparently, during the course of them having my car, my injectors began to leak, which would flood out the car. Nope. The engine had very poor compressing. I did some research on FC engines from Japan, and learned that to the extent of the website i was on (FC3S.org, if i remember correctly) there WERE NO FC JAPANESE ENGINES. So they're also liars. I would have to crank the engine for 30 seconds with my right arm, and with my left arm, toggle this damn switch to starve it enough to get the fucker to start. Killed 2 starters and 3 batteries like this. They also made me pay for those, too. And an alternator. And they let it roll down a hill and into their building, messing up the front end. They put a dent in the front even you Dan, the Ding King, could not remove. They blamed all this on "thats how we got the car," which was total bullshit. When I took it back a second time, they pulled that engine to have it rebuilt because I took it to mazda who did a compression test and it was compressing to like 25 front, 30 rear. So they have my engine shipped off to a guy in california (they made me pay for the shipping, but not the rebuild) who ended up being the guy I take it to now. They just had the core rebuilt. My current mech. didnt put the engine in, and had he did, he wouldn't have dropped a crush washer into the front rotor housing then tried to crank the engine, which obliterated the apex seal and the housing...So I call, asking about my car, they give me lies. They tell me its all because of the injectors, so I go buy new injectors from Vato Zone. 393.04. Now its problems with the wiring harness. They find a decent used one from a junkyard for 50 bucks, but it turns out its an 87 and 1/2 year model car, when they switched injector types from center pin to side pin. So again, i'm screwed. Anyway, after about a month, they get it "running." Now the car does not shut off when you turn the key off. Thats what the fuel cut off switch is for. It sounds like there is dirt in my oil, and the engine running sounds "dirty." There's no power to be made by this engine either. They make me buy a new fuel pump that does not make the problem any better, so I take it back. Months go by. 7, to be exact, with a call daily to this shop asking wtf is up. Finally I show up in person, and they are moving their shop to another location. They've got the last truckload of their shop and they're pulling out of their driveway as my Dad and I pull up. They confront us on how we owe them for this and that, and how they're gonna put a mechanics lien on the car for non payment. I'm so mad I almost haul of and deck the SOB but my Dad chills me out. We go to the police, file a stolen car report, and then call the police right back, saying we've found the car, come assist with the recovery. I'm armed with my invoices, labor records, receipts, and one of Tulsa's finest when we go back. They're all waiting for us, but back off when they see the cop. Allied towing shows up, we tow my car off to my mechanics house, who tells us the whole story about how bad I was getting bent over (as if I didnt already know) and he has it running better than I'd every seen it, for 1000. Tried to get some of my money back from that ass of a company through the BBB, and in every reponse letter they wrote, it was full of lies. I'd attach reciepts when they said I didnt pay for this or that, or my mechanics testimony when they said THEY did all the work, etc. I ended up spending over 10k on that damn FC, and then I sold it for 2k when I bought my FD.



You live, you learn.



And this was the Readers Digest version.

Wowza.

yup.

My shop was at fault for much of the problems Martin and Dave had - but I'm sure we've all read those threads. I've done my best to fix what I can with money out of my own pocket. I don't work at my shop but a few hours here and there.. as I'm a government contractor full time+. I'm just an investor, but I felt ultra shitty when they received turbo kits that just didn't work.. I'm not sure where all the disconnects happened, but all issues have since been addressed. I just sent Dave's DP back, hopefully in perfect order so he can finish his car..



Ron, Don and Mark (other 3 owners) are really good guys - I just think we got in a little deep with putting together kits..on top of opening a full custom chassis shop and collision center. Lots of stuff didn't work as anticipated; and I did some poor advertising using pics of my kit that had some different parts. I didn't know that, but regardless.. I should have checked up on it.



The Rotary community is very important to me. I learned everything I know from this forum. Hopefully everything irons out and I can meet and shake hands with some of you in the future.

oh yeah.. jsut so you know justin... the oil return line for the turbo, cracked right in half yesturday, and 3qt's of oil .... or more, is on the garden state parkway right now.

The silicon line? Or the fitting?

lets just say i took the rubber/silicone line off in two peices.. it completely detatched and split in 2 peices.



that peice of **** line could have costed me a turbo and an engine

come to think about it... it could have caused damage to the bearings that i dont know about or could feel.

I must admit that I've never seen that happen before.. At this point Martin, I really don't even know how to deal with all of this. I'll send you a piece of braided line and make sure Ron knows what happened. I also told Ron what happened to the Jet-Hot and he advised they do warranty the coating.. Although I know that helps none, as you'd be without a manifold..



PLEASE call them.. I think hearing your frustrations personally will do better than me just relaying it. But I will still advise them of the situation.



PM me your address.



Justin

well they are the people that were trash talking me on the forums(remember the thread that was closed.. that i never saw) i'd rather not talk to them. and just so you know... i cant send jet hot anything without a reciept...... i already have a replacement manifold, where the welds are reinforced, so its better than the one from the kit you sold us.

and the saga continues

this is why you get what you pay for 99% of the time unfortunately

took the words right out of my mouth...sometimes that extra few bucks pays for itself 10 fold when all is said and done...



sorry about everything that has happened martin...even though i don't know u that well, i still hate to hear of people getting the shaft...

yay for martin getting ripped off!!!

i completely agree with what vosko and stangklr.



unfortunately, its late for me to realize that, i wish i had the the money when the crutial decions were made, but i guess the timing of my engine blowing up and everything wasnt the most opportune moment for me.



next time something big happens, you guys will hear about it in the "cars for sale" section of the forum. ill go back to bone stock fd

its part of the game ! very few cars are built without problems. you just want to minimize them.......

that was a scary ride home.

oh yeah, i forgot to tell you guys that paco was following me the whole way home, and he saw the smoke come from the bottom of my car... and the oil spilling out from the enginebay. and even saw the silicone hose split in half.

Damn man... That really sucks. I wish you the best of luck getting it semi-reliable.

thanks... it will take time... and a lot of money to get there

I thought you just recently got your car up and running? Did it break down again?

well running and running the way i want it to is completely different

your car is cursed and being cheap isn't helping https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683358.gif

I'm sorry to hear that, here's to working the bugs out and pounding the pavement https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...>/beerchug.gif

gee golly, thanks for callin me cheap.... just financially challenged

being cheap on the wrong things costs twice as much later, ask me how i know!!!





you are damned if you do and damned if you don't!!!

big goals... little funds.... what can i say...

should have given my your 2 cents .... about 6 months ago when i didnt know these .things yet.



although i really appreciate your opinion in the matter..... saying it over and over seems more like rubbing it in rather than advice

i'm pretty sure i did give almost everyone my 2 cents since i spent way too much and way too long building my car but oh well https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub..._DIR#>/sad.png



ok i will stop https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/bigok.gif