scout1669

iTrader: (1)

I was a scout in afghan in 03/04 then went to ranger bat then started mercin... soc then bw, now tc.

Yes my car is going to be wrapped, i had the front bumper painted along with the rear lid and bumper (keyed then kuruma z bumper) and i don't think it matches very well. Plus i've always loved the flat/satin colors and want this to be unique. The vinyl is more chip resistant then paint and is removable leaving the caribbean blue intact.
I'll try to give you a rough draft for the timeline as best as i can remember without scouring through hundreds of emails.

jan 08--- Car goes into local shop with greddy tt kit and a pre owned but brand new forged built longblock.

june 08--- i pick up car and drive it 80 miles and the entire motor lets go, destroying every bearing, piston, camshaft, heads, turbos. Local shop owner tells me he had a hard time gaining oil pressure so he tried to prime oil pump with pressurized oil from pickup. Trailer car to forged and drop off for teardown and analysis. Damage is assessed. Appears to be??? no oil, or turned over too long without oil pressure. Still not really sure, perhaps Sharif can chime in. Rebuild begins.

Nov 08--- I pick up car and drive it for a month, putting 1000 miles on it. Had been broken in on dyno and rough tune, 540whp i believe, but burning oil like a detriot diesel. I'm easy on it and glad to have my hands on it, stay out of boost due to the smoke screen it lays across 4 lanes of traffic.

Dec 08--- return to forged for a turbo rebuilt with HTA76's from forced performance.

present--- Nats Security system is not allowing car to start, suspected ground wire. Sharif has been working on it personally the past month...and a half...

Luckily for sharif i'm back on a short business trip and planning on coming home around new years so he's got 2 weeks of me not calling every day, however i can't ever seem to catch him while he's not at lunch... However these two weeks i'm willing to bet the shop will not be doing much work at all. All i want for god damn christmas is a car, i don't care if it's putting down 400whp or 900 at this point. Give me a car that runs and woln't blow up.

Oh i've had my fair share of suck, however being a contractor and working for the dept of state has its perks. My work car is a brand new $395,000 armored bmw.

str8dum1

iTrader: (11)

so do you realistically think you'll get it back in Feb bc you above expectations are not realistic.

bhk1004

iTrader: (6)

its only not realistic when 99% of shops do what all shops do.... bring in as many cars as possible... take payment.... then juggle 20 cars at a time lol. i guess its what they need to do? when they have your car, and money they dont care when you get your car back.... I mean im not saying FP doesnt do good work or whatever, im just saying the reason all these shops take forever is because of this practice. but then again it maybe they need to do this so that they can stay afloat, they need money. and also something else to keep in mind.... 99% of the time whatever promised date you get at a shop... will never be kept. its just a promise to make sure you commit. what can you do i guess.... lol.

honestly im curious how long a car would take if they ONLY worked on 1-2 cars at a time till its finished... ALL PARTS being there.... putting together a block, turbo install... etc etc 2-3 weeks? maybe even less im not sure. its like how it takes over a week for a turbo install which i think is beyond being careful and doing perfect work... just dragging your feet. problem is also i guess cause something always comes up or goes wrong. It is what it is if you start going down this road....

BoostedProbe

iTrader: (9)

This would make it a full year then???

I don't think any shop would make any money if they were honest and told customers how long it would really take. I would rather have them tell me that it will be 6 months and deliver, then tell me 3 months and it ends up being 6. I don't understand how a shop can take on so many cars and start so many projects at once. This greatly increases the chance of screwing something up, if you have one tech working on a few cars at once. Like mentioned, it's just the way everyone does it.

I have a hard time without a car during the winter, I can't imagine waiting this long.

Good luck.

rcdash

iTrader: (18)

The other way of looking at it is: turning away business is not conducive to staying in business. The repercussions of having a profitable business model are delays when the parallel workflow pipelines are full. If a shop hits a snag, they make a diagnosis, maybe order a part, then reallocate resources to the next car in the pipeline. The goal is overall efficiency and that sometimes means the car with a glitch takes longer than expected to fix. If you don't have a spare car then you went into this without appropriate expectations. The long build times have been experienced by everyone, at just about every shop, if that isn't clear yet. No shop wants to hold on to cars - just the nature of the business with some people with longer delays than others.

z2g

iTrader: (20)

WTF that a lot of money for a work car, must be nice. Do you have any pics of it

Quamen

iTrader: (14)

Eltness350's car has been there for eight months also. He is supposedly fighting the "security system" issue also. Didn't seem to have spark problems until the last time they took the motor out.

D350Z10

iTrader: (20)

Our builds our similar, my advice to you is patience. Plain and simple, Sharif is there to help you because his company name doesn't end with yourself. He is a man of his word.

I have had to make several trips to forged, but its the price I pay in order to keep my car running at an optimal level.

Keep in touch to discuss numbers and differences.

Dil

doug

iTrader: (5)

lol

doug

iTrader: (5)

you should talk to the Intense guys about patience.. i don't know details.. but Jorge and Eric have had builds going on for what seems like almost 2 years.. again i don't know the details.. it just seems that way

Jay'Z

iTrader: (118)

Wow, that would mean your car was there when i was..... I dont remember seeing a blue G..... I went there after sfas...... xmas 08/newyr 09

scout1669

iTrader: (1)

not sure where i said i expect it back in feb but no i expect it back halloween 2009 like sharif and i had been discussing since i dropped it off to have the turbo's swapped. I'm hearing people constantly say that this is normal or acceptable. ********, we're on the MF Moon guys, you're telling me it's acceptable to take this long to build a car with a full staff working 12 hours a day 6 days a week??? I work with deadlines often, always have, i always am on time, and at the first inclining that i may be late i'll work harder or adjust the deadline if possible. Yes time is money and when you mess with my money, especially when i'm running the roads of baghdad to earn it, you're quite literally messing with my life. Not acceptable. There have been several severe deficiencies with this project and the response from the SME is we're working on it.

I do but it's your average 7 series from the outside, just heavily armored with some nice james bond-esq. gadgets, not to mention it could be considered an operational security breech if i was to post them online rendering me unable to fund this nightmare and the forged team.

Extremely interesting

str8dum1

iTrader: (11)

unfortunately thats the way it is. Its not isolated to VQ cars. any tuner shop for any platform is the exact same way.

Had you not brought your problems, for lack of a better phrase, and started with forged from day 1 i guarantee it woulda been done by now.

I personally hate fixing other people's f' ups, even if they are paying me.

I'm sure the extreme miscommunication lead to these circumstances, but you are preaching to the choir about timelines. The rest of the world deals with schedules.. But like Rcdash said, you dont make money by turning away work. The nature of the beast makes product availability, etc unreliable and no shop wants to pay their techs to be sitting around waiting for parts to arrive..

hopefully you get your Xmas wish and Forged pulls this one out of the bag!

Jay'Z

iTrader: (118)

I wouldnt have bought a used FP built block or any used built block, no telling how the prior owner treated it.. IMHO.... GL with everything.

Sylvan Lake V35

iTrader: (23)

It was a new but previously owned block, i think the first owner sold it before installing it.

Jay'Z

iTrader: (118)

I still wouldnt buy it from anyone but the Vendor, because now who takes responsibility? Nobody....... He is at a loss... IMHO

Blwn_By_Twins

iTrader: (6)

This is exactly why I parted out and sold my Z. I laugh every time I hear someone basically say that 6+ months isn't a long time and you should just be patient. Not bashing any of the shops. I believe most of them do all they can to do a quality job as fast as they can. My hat's off to all of you guys that have the time and patients to go through building these cars. I would NEVER think that it was acceptable having to build and rebuild a motor & turbo's multiple times, spend 20-40k or more and have a car sitting for 6+ months, if not over a year, just to have a car that makes 700hp if your lucky and most likely won't last more than a couple of years at best. I realize some people have the time and money to waist and that the one's that have reaped the rewards of it maybe pleased. I just for one would be one of them even if I were a multi-millionaire.

I hope you get your car back soon bro and you know it's in some of the most capable hands in the business. At least when you get it back you know it will be as reliable as can be. GL

eltness350

iTrader: (58)

It has actually been 1 YEAR NOW I havent driven my car in 3YEARS!! except for break-in of the motor ....ohhh wait i dont have that motor...that was the one that the block split......
ahhh well anyway op i totally understand ur point of view since i had a "schedule" for my car also....just never seems to work....so i wish ur car better luck then mine!! since we BOTH dont have them yet..... . . .

Chris@FsP

iTrader: (4)

One of the advantages in being a smaller, lower volume shop is that we can really focus on the 1-2 cars that we have in the shop at any given time. Nothing against Forged at all (they are great people, do quality work and have nothing but the best intentions), but when you are a larger shop, and have 10-12 cars in your shop at any given time, it's that much more likely for something to accidentally slip through the cracks.

Again, in no way am I trying to bash Forged, or big shops in general. It's just the facts of life.

SargeZ350

Man this is quite a loooong time. My tuner told me he´s gonna complete my complete build within 2 months! My buddy is gettin his car done right now. 1 week after the car arrived at the shop the complete engine was disassembled and prepared for new parts. Within 2weeks the whole engine was built! I would never let any shop build my car with the expectation to get my car back in 6 months or even later! That´s crazy