757 Shop Review
10-01-2011, 09:48 AM
#1
757 Shop Review
Well its about that time to share my experience with the rest of the community so that no one else gets taken for a loop by this place. 
Business Name: East Coast Truck and Auto/East Coast Customs
Full Street Address: 850 W 40th Street, Norfolk VA, 23508
Business Phone Number: (757)-351-0000
Short Description of Services: full motor build with TT install....
Now the story....
July 2009: My Z had been supercharged since I bought the car at the end of 2007 with a Vortech V2 blower and DC Sports headers and Nismo cat back. It made good power and was fun to drive, but then i joined this forum and saw what some of the ppl here were doing with FI and wanted more, so not having a lot of funds I installed a Walbro 255, DW440's, Utec, and the 3.13 pully. Had the tuned and it was a blast, I was making 370hp and 305tq... but the FI gremlins struck and I blew my motor...
A good friend of mine was opening a shop and convinced my that he would take care of the car and do my build. He and the other partners of the busness had done several cars in my area and had done great work. I was about to leave for a deployment and had a second car so I decided to pull the trigger and go all out with my build.
Now this is where things start to get a little hard to follow, the shop that my friends were opening was going to be co-located with another shop that would house the bays and what not. Long story short my friends had a bit of a falling out with the owner of the building and other part of the shop, in the shuffle my car was left in the hands of the building owner who also owns the above named shop...
This is where all the shinanigans start, before I had left for my training, I had given them 8000 dollars to get started with the build. I got back from my 30 days of training and had 2 weeks of down time to kill before I headed over to the land of sand. They had ordered a built long block from IPP that had all the checks in the boxs that I wanted, 8.8:1 compression; 272 cams yada yada... cool things are moving along nicely. Then I left for deployment I got nothing from the shop as far as updates for the next 3 months... so I called them one day and was like "WTF, whats going on with my car?" "Well we took the motor that you ordered and put it in Franks car." 
(Frank is the owner of said shops son) "We have a block here in the shop that we will build in house for your car" so me being the VERY patient person that I am I said, will it still be done when I get back?" (I was assured that it would be done when I got back, I was going to be gone for a year) They said yes it will be done when you get back.
So fast forward to when I get back from deployment, I go to look at my car and see the progress, I'm expecting to see like at least a block put together maybe even in the car... they dont even have a single part for my car... the donor block that was "in the shop" wasnt there, no pistons, no clutch, no heads, cams, TT kit, nothing... so at this point I've given them the entire cost of parts and they have nothing in the shop
mind you this is March 2010 now. Now that I was home I started to swing by every two or three days to put a foot in the owners *** and get things moving along. I wont go into detail on this but i didnt get my car back untill DEC 2010. Now the original plan for the build was to make about 550 or 600, the car was tuned by a third party shop, but they claimed to make 529hp on 18psi, the dyno sheet that they gave me was usless though...
Ok cool beans, I have my car back
I was in the market for a better ECU though, and ended up running across a deal on here for a Hydra, so I snatched it up and proceeded to MY tuner that has tuned the car from day one that I've had it, hoping to get some thing close or higher and for better drive ability I dropped the car off. well he calls me at work and asks how much boost I wanted to run, I said well, it was tuned at 18psi, so lets do that. To which he reply's we can only make 13psi and we've tried 3 other boost controlers besides yours
... Ok, well tune at 13psi and get what you can out of it... he ended up making 450/410
Well I was happy that i had my car back and it was making great power and pulled like a freight train. Tuner said well lets take it out on the street and smooth it out a bit and call it a day. While we were out tuning, sitting at a light, I lost half the motor...
we get back to my tuners shop and pulled the passenger side valve cover off and lookie at what we found...
well theres your problem Chuck!
So I call the guys at the other shop and tell them whats up, owner responds, "yeah bring it back and we will make it right for ya". Now this is around FEB 2011... again things move slower than old ppl ****ing while i'm waiting for them to put the heads back together and put the motor back in... I eventually get fed up being lied to and waiting for them to finish the car, so i show up one day with a flat bed to claim my property... low and behold, they want to charge me 4 grand for putting the heads back on and putting the motor back in the car... well that **** went over like a wet fart in church. We eventually came to an agreement and I got the car back in my garage.
Now I start to go back through the car and tidy up things that need to be fixed, mostly its making things look pretty and getting things out of the way, I also start to compile a list of things that are wrong with the car, to include but not limited to: the paint is beat and looks like someone was using a grinder right next to the car shooting the shavings onto it
I'm now missing my A/C compressor
my door handle is missing...
and my seat belts are ghetto rigged...
now here is the kicker, got stuff worked out and finally got the car started and it runs like crap, but I figured it would, I changed the cams when I had the heads rebuilt so the tune is off a bit. Today I was tearing the top of the motor down a bit so that I could fix a leek on the coolant cross over pipe on the back side of the motor, ended up taking the whole plenum off, right down to the runners... you'll never guess what I found in one of the runners...
Other random things that messed up...
One fender was pulled, in one spot... paint is chipped away there as well...
Also missing the inspection cover off the transmission and the block is missing a peice where the trannay mates up to the block...
Business Name: East Coast Truck and Auto/East Coast Customs
Full Street Address: 850 W 40th Street, Norfolk VA, 23508
Business Phone Number: (757)-351-0000
Short Description of Services: full motor build with TT install....
Now the story....
July 2009: My Z had been supercharged since I bought the car at the end of 2007 with a Vortech V2 blower and DC Sports headers and Nismo cat back. It made good power and was fun to drive, but then i joined this forum and saw what some of the ppl here were doing with FI and wanted more, so not having a lot of funds I installed a Walbro 255, DW440's, Utec, and the 3.13 pully. Had the tuned and it was a blast, I was making 370hp and 305tq... but the FI gremlins struck and I blew my motor...
A good friend of mine was opening a shop and convinced my that he would take care of the car and do my build. He and the other partners of the busness had done several cars in my area and had done great work. I was about to leave for a deployment and had a second car so I decided to pull the trigger and go all out with my build.
Now this is where things start to get a little hard to follow, the shop that my friends were opening was going to be co-located with another shop that would house the bays and what not. Long story short my friends had a bit of a falling out with the owner of the building and other part of the shop, in the shuffle my car was left in the hands of the building owner who also owns the above named shop...
This is where all the shinanigans start, before I had left for my training, I had given them 8000 dollars to get started with the build. I got back from my 30 days of training and had 2 weeks of down time to kill before I headed over to the land of sand. They had ordered a built long block from IPP that had all the checks in the boxs that I wanted, 8.8:1 compression; 272 cams yada yada... cool things are moving along nicely. Then I left for deployment
I got nothing from the shop as far as updates for the next 3 months... so I called them one day and was like "WTF, whats going on with my car?" "Well we took the motor that you ordered and put it in Franks car." (Frank is the owner of said shops son) "We have a block here in the shop that we will build in house for your car" so me being the VERY patient person that I am I said, will it still be done when I get back?" (I was assured that it would be done when I got back, I was going to be gone for a year) They said yes it will be done when you get back. So fast forward to when I get back from deployment, I go to look at my car and see the progress, I'm expecting to see like at least a block put together maybe even in the car... they dont even have a single part for my car... the donor block that was "in the shop" wasnt there, no pistons, no clutch, no heads, cams, TT kit, nothing... so at this point I've given them the entire cost of parts and they have nothing in the shop
mind you this is March 2010 now. Now that I was home I started to swing by every two or three days to put a foot in the owners *** and get things moving along. I wont go into detail on this but i didnt get my car back untill DEC 2010. Now the original plan for the build was to make about 550 or 600, the car was tuned by a third party shop, but they claimed to make 529hp on 18psi, the dyno sheet that they gave me was usless though...Ok cool beans, I have my car back
I was in the market for a better ECU though, and ended up running across a deal on here for a Hydra, so I snatched it up and proceeded to MY tuner that has tuned the car from day one that I've had it, hoping to get some thing close or higher and for better drive ability I dropped the car off. well he calls me at work and asks how much boost I wanted to run, I said well, it was tuned at 18psi, so lets do that. To which he reply's we can only make 13psi and we've tried 3 other boost controlers besides yours
... Ok, well tune at 13psi and get what you can out of it... he ended up making 450/410 Well I was happy that i had my car back and it was making great power and pulled like a freight train. Tuner said well lets take it out on the street and smooth it out a bit and call it a day. While we were out tuning, sitting at a light, I lost half the motor...
we get back to my tuners shop and pulled the passenger side valve cover off and lookie at what we found... well theres your problem Chuck!
So I call the guys at the other shop and tell them whats up, owner responds, "yeah bring it back and we will make it right for ya". Now this is around FEB 2011... again things move slower than old ppl ****ing while i'm waiting for them to put the heads back together and put the motor back in... I eventually get fed up being lied to and waiting for them to finish the car, so i show up one day with a flat bed to claim my property... low and behold, they want to charge me 4 grand for putting the heads back on and putting the motor back in the car... well that **** went over like a wet fart in church. We eventually came to an agreement and I got the car back in my garage.
Now I start to go back through the car and tidy up things that need to be fixed, mostly its making things look pretty and getting things out of the way, I also start to compile a list of things that are wrong with the car, to include but not limited to: the paint is beat and looks like someone was using a grinder right next to the car shooting the shavings onto it
I'm now missing my A/C compressor
my door handle is missing...
and my seat belts are ghetto rigged...
now here is the kicker, got stuff worked out and finally got the car started and it runs like crap, but I figured it would, I changed the cams when I had the heads rebuilt so the tune is off a bit. Today I was tearing the top of the motor down a bit so that I could fix a leek on the coolant cross over pipe on the back side of the motor, ended up taking the whole plenum off, right down to the runners... you'll never guess what I found in one of the runners...
Other random things that messed up...
One fender was pulled, in one spot... paint is chipped away there as well...
Also missing the inspection cover off the transmission and the block is missing a peice where the trannay mates up to the block...
Last edited by tonyzS/C03; 10-01-2011 at 04:52 PM.
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10-01-2011, 01:59 PM
#7
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tonyzS/C03 you have the brickyard colored Z right? I remember seeing your car there during the grand opening of SAGE auto in Norfolk. I think is BS that SAGE would move to VA Beach and leave your car in Norfolk. I can't believe Jim put your IPP short block in Franks Z. I think I meet you at the AAM meet a while back, I had a blacked out G35.
On the bright side that Frank crash is Z into a tree in Long Island, and if he did use you IPP block I give 10% chance that it didn't blow up yet.
Now you see why I the only one to work on my car.
On the bright side that Frank crash is Z into a tree in Long Island, and if he did use you IPP block I give 10% chance that it didn't blow up yet.
Now you see why I the only one to work on my car.
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10-01-2011, 05:18 PM
#15
you need a full refund and damages. i'd also call your insurance company and notify them of the loss. get a police report too. you need to step your game up. i can help, but this is not simple. i'd take this thread down before you poo on yourself.
10-01-2011, 05:47 PM
#16
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Man, i've had my truck (back when i had a Lightning) stuck in someone's shop like that before. They didn't do me dirty by leaving an entire tube of Permatex inside my motor, or just not torquing things to spec, causing things to break and then charge me to fix their mistake, nor did he steal parts from inside my vehicle and give me back a partially parted out car... but I know that when things are taking longer than they should, or longer than you were promised, it leaves you feeling like you can't do anything. It's not like your vehicle is in your possession the whole time and you know what's going on with it, so i can understand why you left it with them as long as you did.
But... I know for a fact they worked on my buddy Dewy's S2K. It's a grey one with a carbon hood. One of the few that puts down ~500. Anywho, when he picked it up from the shop, it had a STRONG smell of fuel under the hood. I took a quick look @ it over @ my boy Tim's house a few hours later... They overtightened the fuel rail to the point that it crushed the lower part of one of his injectors, and crushed the o-rings on several of them. They were Siemens 60# injectors, so they were a bit taller than stock ones, but anyone with any mechanical aptitude whatsoever knows when something doesn't fit.... you can't just keep wrenching on it til' it "fits". It was a safety hazard and very easily could have left Alan in a flaming vehicle. There's just no excuse for this kind of stuff to slip by un-noticed. I hope you find a good attorney and I hope they get you 100% of your money back and make them foot the bill for another shop to do the work. There's no way they should get away with it. I mean, come on, you're an active duty military guy... and you were deployed overseas... on the ground... and these guys were sitting on their butts scheming against you (obviously by stealing YOUR motor in the first place) and then asking for more and more money. In fact, you may want to go to an attorney that specializes in people that take advantage of military personnel. Get em' black listed by the military.
Anywho, I'll shut up now. I know this may look odd because it's my first post, but I've been around the whole time (just without a "Z" account) and this is getting rather ridiculous.
Best of luck
-Brian
But... I know for a fact they worked on my buddy Dewy's S2K. It's a grey one with a carbon hood. One of the few that puts down ~500. Anywho, when he picked it up from the shop, it had a STRONG smell of fuel under the hood. I took a quick look @ it over @ my boy Tim's house a few hours later... They overtightened the fuel rail to the point that it crushed the lower part of one of his injectors, and crushed the o-rings on several of them. They were Siemens 60# injectors, so they were a bit taller than stock ones, but anyone with any mechanical aptitude whatsoever knows when something doesn't fit.... you can't just keep wrenching on it til' it "fits". It was a safety hazard and very easily could have left Alan in a flaming vehicle. There's just no excuse for this kind of stuff to slip by un-noticed. I hope you find a good attorney and I hope they get you 100% of your money back and make them foot the bill for another shop to do the work. There's no way they should get away with it. I mean, come on, you're an active duty military guy... and you were deployed overseas... on the ground... and these guys were sitting on their butts scheming against you (obviously by stealing YOUR motor in the first place) and then asking for more and more money. In fact, you may want to go to an attorney that specializes in people that take advantage of military personnel. Get em' black listed by the military.
Anywho, I'll shut up now. I know this may look odd because it's my first post, but I've been around the whole time (just without a "Z" account) and this is getting rather ridiculous.
Best of luck
-Brian
10-01-2011, 05:50 PM
#17
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Insurance company... that's an interesting route. They'd probably total the vehicle out though. Wouldn't that defeat the point? Thinking about it... it could in fact be the way to go, because they'd sue for you if they had to. (Possibly)
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