graffkid732

iTrader: (44)

Good to see he is being helped out. One thing though, both shops shouldn't be bashing or name calling any other shop. Definitely not an attractive view for potential customers. Just shows immaturity and how unprofessional the "establishments" are. I definitely think the shops could have brought their sides to the public in a more mature manor.

travismaser

iTrader: (8)

hey guys, sorry i didnt post back yet tonight...i was busy at work and school....lol but you know...i must work for free since i get all my money from student loans haha...but i will take some time to respond properly tomorrow sometime after morning class and work...

c_morse

iTrader: (14)

Did anyone save the response from Shifted? If so, could it be posted here?

OCMan

here it is:

----------------------------------------------------


Shifted Performance...just read.
I originally started my day saying I was going to keep my cool and make sure the world saw that we have been slandered beyond what I could even explain to everyone. But as I found myself on the forums reading what has been going on for the first time and I cannot feel anything, but pure anger, hatred, and sadness. I would like to start out by saying we Shifted Performance did accept the blame to Travis for poor coolant line placement (not allowing an Intake.) You must understand all of the threads together have had over 1mil views and that is the stock location for the coolant lines. Toyota had spent an abundance of money figuring out the most practical location for these lines. So the fact that no one ever mentioned this being a problem until Travis showed up at home and brought the car to Walmart where “everyone” laughed at him is ridiculous. The coolant lines do block an intake, but that is all they do. They are absolutely not the reason why the original turbo blew. The turbo blew because it had been beat on its whole life. It was used and you could hear the bearings inside almost grinding. The JB Welded fittings we have also taken blame for. Anyone who knows these motors knows the valve covers cross thread rather quickly. The Ceramic coating job was free and after the first USED turbo blew we had to take almost all of the coating off to make the headers back to a t4 flange from the t3 that we had on there before. And with the rush that Travis had put on us we had no choice, but to just paint them. The original 35r never touched the brake line in the engine bay, but again being rushed by Travis because he wanted his car back so bad with or without a road test we never got to correct this when the much larger 40r replaced the 35r. The exhaust on the bumper again we took blame for it. Same goes for the few scratches on the car.
It is funny to see how Travis and NSN Garage have neglected to mention that we settled all of this personally, maturely, and everyone was happy. What everyone must realize is that at the end of the 15 thousand dollar build Travis being the child he is rushed us because he wanted his car back that moment. We begged and pleaded with him please give us more time or trailer the car back. He was stubborn as could be, and drove the car 7 hours with not a hiccup. People seem to over look this fact. We never test drove the car. The motor was never crooked when it was in our shop. If the motor had cocked under a road test it would have been corrected. The vacuum lines for the BOV and the Boost controller again would have hooked up. Under the rush Travis created they had been taken off to replace the Turbo and we forgot to replace them. The cocked intercooler was perfectly level before we were rushed to disassemble it to hook up the fans. The blown alternator was no ones fault at all. Travis knew his battery was dead, and anyone who knows anything at all about cars knows that you cannot charge a fully dead battery by the alternator. The alternators job is to recharge the little bit of power drained during starting and to maintain a battery not to fully charge one. Travis and Josh did not care though and felt it was ok until the Alternator finally kicked it. I think Travis forgot to mention to everyone that we gave him an alternator on the spot to help him out on his trip home. Also he must have forgotten to mention the 36 spark plugs we gave him for free on pick up day because Josh was incapable of tuning the car and continued to foul out plugs with his shitty rich tunes.
Travis has been complaining that we build took too long, but at the end of the day it came down to money and Travis did not have enough student loan money to pay for the car by his originally set date of new years eve. If funds had been there the car would have been done and road tested. What really created the rush at the end was the inpatients of a child who has been spoiled with a car like this built off of money that he hasn’t even properly earned.
I would like to say that even though everyone thinks we must hate Travis I will defend him by saying that I know for a fact he did not rip on the car on the ride home. As far as Josh from NSN garage is concerned I cannot say the same. This back yard hick mechanic who does not even know the difference between a rod knock and a valve tap pinned the car at 25lbs of boost on a horrible tune several times. I do have videos of this which I will post. Josh seemed like a very cool guy and seemed to know somewhat of what he had been talking about. This is until I turned around and caught him on the forums every 5 minutes trying to figure stuff out.
The in and out wires for the piggy back had been installed backwards and when the problem was resolved Josh chuckled and said “if I could only count the amount of times this happened to me.” Josh also sat there and ranted on about how this set up was a MAF set up and how we were trying to tune it wrong so he went into the piggy back and changed the settings to a MAF set up for a half hour. Anyone who knows anything at all about 2JZs knows that the US spec 2J runs off a MAF sensor and that a JDM spec 2J runs off a Map system. After breaking down a spare harness 4 times with him he finally realized that it was a map sensor and returned to the previous settings. The engine had a slight misfire but Josh said don’t worry Travis you can drive it 7hrs back on a misfire. Nothing will happen.
I personally feel horrible about this whole situation and considered Travis a friend of ours. So we sat aside and let him get his anger out by bad mouthing us even though half of the problems weren’t even our fault. One specifically is when Travis ran to Facebook to begin his onslaught of our company someone mentioned the fact that the power steering reservoir had been zip tied on. That is funny to us because Travis had sent us a picture of the original bracket we used with a bolt in it. Looks like NSN garage has been sitting there pushing their problems onto us. Also as soon as the car got back Josh spent days trying to figure out this misfire. He is truly incapable of diagnosing anything. When a middle aged man who claims to be a “tuner” can’t find out why a misfire is being presented or completely relies on using MegaSquirts because they have an “auto tune button” there is a problem. I guess everyone failed to mention the fact that Josh specializes is DSM because that is all he works on, oh and a few 7M’s which he claims to be greater than 1Js and 2Js. Apparently this DSM mechanic is fully qualified to tear apart a car such as Travis.
I cannot stress enough that we never road tested the car so almost all of the problems could not have been detected. What I can do though is show you the photo of the release forms which I will type out below and post a picture which truly shows what I mean about this being ridiculous and blown out of proportion.
“By signing this consent form, I, “Travis” am agreeing to paying the remaining invoice listed and accepting the return of my vehicle AS-IS in its current state, by accepting the vehicle in its current state I fully alleviate Shifted Performance L.L.C. and all of its affiliates of any to all responsibilities of said vehicle. By signing the document I am attaining full responsibility on my behalf. I am fully aware that the vehicle has NOT been road test nor has the car been through any vigorous testing prior to the delivery. By signing these documents I am fully agreeing to all terms with complete understandings and accept all and every liable risks.”

This is our first 350z we have produced this swap kit for and it had never been tested to begin with. He just ran off with the car in frenzy and started tearing it apart with little to no knowledge of the in depths of this build. If ANYTHING was wrong with the swap kit it would have been corrected before delivery. Travis knew this going into the swap and this is why his labor was only $4000. So by rushing us at the end he was a fool because there is absolutely nothing we could have done after the car was taken home unless he brought it back to NJ.

We have accepted responsibility for what we have done wrong, but almost all of these problems would have been solved in house without a hitch. If we had just one more week, but this is what happens when you rush something. I know that anyone who is reading this must realize that if you had spent money to the caliber that Travis has that you would not rush it by forcing a shop to release a car a week early. Only a fool would do this. Travis told us that after the ride he did some hard pulls in the Walmart parking lot. I don’t know anyone in their right mind who would be doing hard pulls on a bad tune and an uncheck motor. I am sorry I have to say this, but these problems have been brought on Travis by only his own will. We have and will always accept what we had done wrong, but this has gone too far and too much is being blamed on our company. Our name is being destroyed by a couple of full grown children. These excuses of “men” were on Facebook threatening us like 17year old boys in high school. Instead of being a man about anything and trying to resolve this in a mature way, they had been implying they were going to come down to our shop and rough us up. Not to mention the fact that Travis brought a .38 with him on pick up day and continued to flash it around in his waist band as the night carried on.
Below will be several pictures and links to videos. All of which will include our release form so that everyone can see that Travis knew he was taking the car home early, videos of Josh ripping the car around the parking lot maxing out boost on a bad tune, a picture of Travis smiling next to his new exhaust that he loved on pick up day along with the rest of the car, and a few screen shots off of Facebook depicting these children threatening us.
Travis is being suckered and destroyed by these fools at NSN garage and is being taken advantage of. Travis is tearing apart a car that had imperfections, to have it full rebuilt by someone who doesn’t even know these motors what so ever. At the end of the day we cannot do anything about what ever any of you think. And Travis’s spoiled little boy attitude had completely become something much larger of the forums than I had originally thought was possible. This will be our one and only response to these claims that these 2 children are making. We just could not sit around anymore as lie after lie was poured from their mouths and broadcasted to everyone out there. I do wish the best of luck to Travis with his car and hope that he doesn’t get played too much by the these idiots at NSN, but when you rush a build that would only take another week to road test this is what happens. And I am sorry I have to say this, but at the end of the day this is Travis fault for rushing us.

KingBaby

iTrader: (3)

Not reading that! What about that shift ****?

Cass007

iTrader: (34)

Travis... permission to spell correct the title... its driving my OCD crazy

03threefiftyz

iTrader: (25)

Me too, so I did without asking .

BoomerZ33

iTrader: (23)

+1 need cliffs

all i know is that the shift **** is a chocolate masterpiece

RyuuChi

so, is there some reason the lines wouldn't be relocated when this was discovered? or was 16k not enough for a truly custom job? maybe it could have been disclosed to Travis so he could understand why more time was needed? or was "eh, f**K it" the attitude here?


You must understand all of the threads together have had over 1mil views and that is the stock location for the coolant lines.
[/QUOTE]
what do these two things have to do with eachother??


Toyota had spent an abundance of money figuring out the most practical location for these lines. So the fact that no one ever mentioned this being a problem until Travis showed up at home and brought the car to Walmart where “everyone” laughed at him is ridiculous. The coolant lines do block an intake, but that is all they do.[/QUOTE]
why didn't YOU mention this to Travis, or better yet, FIX the problem as you were being paid to do??

They are absolutely not the reason why the original turbo blew. The turbo blew because it had been beat on its whole life. It was used and you could hear the bearings inside almost grinding.[/QUOTE]
again with the disclosure, if you actually knew there was a problem present, which i doubt, as the builder, you should have recomended a rebuild, new turbo, or flat refused to use that one.

The JB Welded fittings we have also taken blame for. Anyone who knows these motors knows the valve covers cross thread rather quickly..[/QUOTE]
so, if you knew this, why weren't you careful, and if they stripped anyway, why didnt you do the right repair, re thread, helicoil, or flat out replace the part??

The Ceramic coating job was free and after the first USED turbo blew we had to take almost all of the coating off to make the headers back to a t4 flange from the t3 that we had on there before. And with the rush that Travis had put on us we had no choice, but to just paint them. ..[/QUOTE]
again, why didn't you tell him? at least give him the option of waiting for it to be re-coated or wrapped, or painted? seems like a no brainer to me..

The original 35r never touched the brake line in the engine bay, but again being rushed by Travis because he wanted his car back so bad with or without a road test we never got to correct this when the much larger 40r replaced the 35r.[/QUOTE]
again with the disclosure... am i seeing a theme here?
The exhaust on the bumper again we took blame for it. Same goes for the few scratches on the car..[/QUOTE]
I'm gonna file this point under be more careful, and do it right the first time...


you know what? I'm not going to continue any further, cuz its just more of the same crap and i'm getting repetative. Even by this guys own admission, the build was riddled with problems, shoddy workmanship and zero communication with the customer. Flat out, this guy took on a job that was out of his league and now he's trying to save face by blaming Travis for rushing him. no excuse. Man up dude. you messed up. you're probally out of business after this, so i'd just cut my losses and close down now while you still got a penny to your name. not to mention the fact that you're so upset by what everyone's saying about your shop and yet you turn around and say all the same crap right back... pot/kettle anyone?

One thing is for sure, I won't be headed to your shop anytime soon, and i doubt anyone that reads this will be either...

Highway Riding

iTrader: (6)

All forum readers from NJ will see this see. RX-7, Clublex, & Zilv etc... These type of shops burn me up. Think they are god's gift to true enthusiasts because they have a lift and a bunch of power tools but no true auto mechanical background!

pmab9918

iTrader: (3)

From what they said on Facebook that it was custom for someone else, however it fit on Travis's car so they let him use it. Not those exact words but you get the idea.

SlideFox

c_morse

iTrader: (14)

First observation: This shop seems a lot like Lawrence with Strafe. They screw a customer over horribly then hide behind TOS and release forms.

This really goes beyond incompetence. The problem with this guy is that not only was he incompetent in almost all of his work, but he tried to cover a lot of this up! That shifter relocation kit, cracked in half and then JB Welded KILLED ME! Straight up if you break a part like that, the proper course of action is to have it WELDED back together. And if you were concerned with a quality job you'd sand the welds down and polish everything back out.

As pointed out above, JB Welding fittings into a valve cover is amateur BS. You either retap or helicoil the cover... and if that fails, you buy the customer a new damn cover!

That driveshaft is atrocious. The only proper fix for that is a new driveshaft, and any decent driveway mechanic could see that problem and realize it needed to be rectified.

The one half-way out I will give to that shop is with the exhaust touching the bumper. If it was fabbed and fitted before the new turbo was installed, it's possible that the down pipe changing position slightly would have altered the geometry of the exhaust, pushing it closer to the bumper. Of course this should have been noticed and could have been fixed by reworking the down pipe so it ran to the original location.

As for the shop's retort, especially their claim that OP is taking the car to a shop that "doesn't know these engines," any good mechanic with an operating knowledge of any kind of motor and a shop manual can build a motor. Not a difficult task.

I honestly believe that 90% of this job I could have done in my driveway, and done with much more attention to detail and quality. Of course I couldn't have fabricated the mounts or driveshaft, but I could've properly installed them and noted any problems with them.

This is all with a car on jackstands mind you.

Anyway, OP I feel for you and hope you're able to half-way rectify this situation. Luckily word of mouth travels great on the forums.

djamps

iTrader: (1)

Sorry too see this... but with all the issues, Jesus man, just burn the car in a fire.....

Highway Riding

iTrader: (6)

Jeez man it ain't not that bad lol. Essentially OP will just have to start all over again. Good thing is that 2J's are a dime a dozen so finding a useable block should be cake (not sure i'd rebuild the motor instead)unless the new guys have experience with actual motor builds. Pulling the motor and slapping it back in should cost around 2K (basic motor swap $). I forsee no more than 5K or so to get that ***** running right depending on what all can be re-used.

travismaser

iTrader: (8)

im going to have aaround mid 2g in replacing all the internals, polishing the crank and fixing all the problems...NSN is helping me out so much with everything

we are building new motor mounts (since the ones from shifted seem very cheaply made) and trans mount (shifteds is mehhhh...)

we also ran the coolant lines how they should be ran...PLENTY of room for an intake now and the turbo is getting proper flow of coolant (this was done b4 the motor went)

everything will be polished correctly, painted correctly, and actually bolted in...

wasuber

iTrader: (32)

I was gonna say, those mounts they made looked like ****! Those welds were crap for an 850 dollar part? GTFO!

ace32x

iTrader: (10)

Highway Riding

iTrader: (6)

GL man...

JDSMotoring

iTrader: (15)

huge disappointment. good luck with the rebuild.