My review of RPM Motors Specialties Inc. Santa Clarita California
11-07-2014, 06:01 PM
#1
ISIS SUCKS FAT CHOAD
Thread Starter
My review of RPM Motors Specialties Inc. Santa Clarita California
Ok, I’m going to do my best to write a review on one of the “premier speed shops” out here in Southern California. The shop is RPM Motors Specialties Inc. out of Santa Clarita California and the shop owner is Charlie Williams
This review is as honest as I can be and I will do my best to keep it factual as well as disseminate information so that you guys are that much more informed when you’re making a decision as to what “premier speed shop” This is going to get a bit hairy, and I fully expect some backlash from either the shop or from others but I feel I have no choice. This will be long and I would like to apologize in advance for the manaughtny but I think careful reading in of upmost importance. Without further ado, here it goes.
Around April 22, 2013 I contacted Charlie and asked him if he could do some major work to my car. I sent him a list of what I wanted done and he told me that he and his shop could definitely take my car on but in order to give me an accurate price estimate for parts and labor, he needed the car at the shop. On or about May 3rd, 2013 I had my car towed the 160 miles or so to the shop so a more accurate assessment of parts and labor could be performed. On June 30th 2013, I received an email with a detailed quote. Saying, Mike give me a call once you get this so I did. (NOTE IN THE BELOW QUOTE YOU WILL FIND THAT I HAVE NOTED THINGS THAT DID NOT GET DONE YET I WAS CHARGED FOR) upon calling Charlie, myself He and Auston had sort of a conference call and they answered all of my questions at the time. $5,500 and they got started on the car.
Below is the estimate I received with my own notes in bold.
Mike van Paris vehicle build - estimate 6-30-13
Hours Discription Cost
2 Remount Fenders and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
2 Remount front bumper and head light covers and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
3 Battery relocation 300 (COMPLETED)
25 R&R motor and perform following while engine out of car. 2500
a) fix bellhousing bolt holes (b) install new camshaft (c) install LS2 oil pan and repair
blower return line fitting (d) install & wire electric fuel pump (e) correct front sway bar
(f) Clean up engine bay wiring harness (g) Install PS cooler and lines (h) Clean up oil cooler
installation (i) replace rear coolant plug
(A,B,C,E,G AND H COMPLETED;
D WAS DONE HALF *** AND ALMOST STARTED A FIRE WHILE I WAS ON THE DYNO, F WAS DONE WHERE I COULD SEE ONLY BUT AFTER CLOSER INSPECTION I FOUND NUMEROUS UNATTENDED HARNESS ISSUES)
5.5 Supercharger 550
(a) align pulleys and belts (b) bracket perpendicularity (c) tensioner modifications
(I HAD TO GO BACK AFTER PICKING THE CAR UP THE FIRST TIME BECAUSE THEY NEVER DID THIS AND IT CAUSED ME TO CHEW UP A BELT AND DESTROY MY HOOD LINER, YAY ME NOTHING LIKE HAVING TO RENT A TRUCK AND TRAILER TO TOW YOUR CAR 160 MILES FOR SOMETHING THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME)
(d) 2.75 install
(e) inspect all hoses and bead roll all tubing to preclude disconnections
(f) saftey wire or tie wrap all clamps (g) saftey wire or zip tie all vacuum lines (DONE HALF ***)
7.5 Intercooler 750
(a) remount and fab shrouding (b) mod "neck"- correct geometry (c) straighten condenser (THIS WAS THE BEST THING THEY DID ON THE CAR, THE INTERCOOLER INSTALLATION IS NICE)
5 Catch Can 500 (DONE AND IT SEEMS TO WORK WAS CHANGED AROUND BY CHARLIE AFTER THIS INVOICE)
(a) Mount Existing can
(b) Supply Separator
(c) Weld -10 bungs in covers
(d) fab aluminum "wall" and base
(e) modify intake manifold for -10 vacuum line (NOT DONE AT ALL)
4 Fuel System 400
(a) run -10 supply line from tank to regulator (b) mount regulator in catch can area ( “A” WAS NEVER DONE)
(c) extend wiring for gage (NEVER DONE )
2.5 Meth System 250
(a) Mount IAT in manifold (b) cleanup wiring (A WAS DONE BEFORE I EVER TOOK THE CAR THERE AND B WAS NEVER DONE AT ALL)
2.5 Electrical 250
(a) extend coil pack harnesses (i sent caspers coil pack extensions with the car) (b) inspect all grounds (DONE)
1.5 Repair HUD display 150 (NEVER DONE)
1.5 Trunk lid cable/electonic latch 150 (NEVER DONE)
6.5 Speed Density tuning 650 (DONE BUT NOT TO MY STANDARDS AT ALL)
68.5
Total 6850
parts
1 Battery Relocation kit - LPE 399.95
6 Feet of -10 hose for catch can 50
12 feet of fuel line hose -10 teflon lined 108
1 Wide Band
1 LS2 Pan & Pickup
9 Fittings for catch can(s) 135
1 fluids (coolant, oil, PS, Brakes) 125
1 Lines and fittings for fuel system? 100 ( NEVER CHANGED THE LINES IN THE FUEL SYSTEM AND I SUPPLIED ALL THE -10 LINES FOR THE CATCH CAN BUT BELOW IS A CHARGE FOR MISC. HOSES, HARDWARE AND MISC PARTS: MAYBE FOR THE -6AN LINES AND FITTINGS THAT WERE PART OF THE NEW CATCH CAN DESIGN AFTER THIS QUOTE?
1 Camshaft 395
1 hoses, misc. hardware, misc. parts 150
Total 1462.95
Tax 131.6655
Total 8444.6155 (NOTE ADD $450 to total for new starter because mine mysteriously broke a stud somehow) PLUS TECH BROKE BELLHOUSING AND SURGE TANK SHOP REPLACED
So as you guys can see, there were quite a few things that I was charged for that never got completed. There was also at least 400 worth of parts that I never seen again. I won’t include the brail battery that was brand new and cost a significant amount more than the interstate battery that replaced it, because I consider that a core exchange but I will include things like, the $350 RX Monster Catch can and the $40 one way breather for the oil cap. I want to note that about 3 weeks after receiving the invoice is when Charlie called me and said he was going to build a crank case EVAC system just like they do for the race cars they build. I said, ok you know what’s best but how much extra is this going to be? he said, I told you from the beginning that I would make every effort to keep your bill within what I quoted you and I’m going to stand by that. I said ok cool so it’s not going to be any more money? He said nope. I said, awesome, you da man Charlie! The fact is, it did cost me something now didn’t it?
So, I got the “it will be done in two weeks” line about 25 times before the car was actually done. In between that time, there was a young man by the name of Curtis that worked for Charlie. Curtis was assigned to do the necessary fabrication and mechanical work to my car. This is where it gets interesting. Let me start by saying Curtis is very young early 20s at best. He was always polite and courteous to me every time we spoke on the phone. Unfortunately, Curtis got upset with me at the end and I’ll explain why later.
At some point I called Charlie and asked him when my car was going to be ready, this had to be about 6-8 months or so after I initially dropped the car off. That phone call was unique because, Charlie said, it would be a little while longer than expected because; they found some excessive endplay and he was going to have the bearings replaces and have it polished up. (NOTE THIS WILL TURN OUT TO BE A FLAT OUT LIE AS YOU WILL FIND OUT LATER) I said, hmm ok Charlie, he gave me another two weeks line and We ended our phone call. Immediately after the phone call, I get on the horn with Vortech Engineering and give them the serial number to my blower and they say sorry guy, we don’t have your blower here. So armed with this latest intel, I’m pissed! I want to rip faces off and ask questions later. I somehow manage to stay cool and it isn’t until a few weeks???? Months **** I don’t know… They have had my car so long that time is all blending together at this point. Anyway sometime between the beginning and the end, Curtis is no longer working at RPM and he and I maintained a steady contact during his employment and after for a short period of time. Anyway, while he was still employed at RPM, I facebook messaged Curtis just to check in and see how things were going. He said, “I’m in a hurry, I’ll get back to you later but, I’m on my way to A&A corvette to get your blower. I said oh ok cool.. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks!! I said wait a minute, why do you have to go to A&A to get my blower? I didn’t receive a response. By now the gears are turning, so after a quick consultation with a fellow vette owner, I decide to call Charlie and ask him if vortech is done with my blower? He said yes, in fact, I just sent Curtis to pick it up. I said oh ok, cool. I didn’t mention to him that Curtis told me he was going to A&A
Oh yeah One thing I forgot to mention, I had already found out at that point with 95% certainty, that my blower never went to vortech or to anyplace. It ended up on another customer’s car. (Charlie did not know that I knew this) he also didn’t know at the time that I kept a copy of the serial number of my blower. Another thing I’m almost certain Charlie did not know at the time is that around October of that same year, A&A corvette started having their personalized serial tags put on every blower ordered through them. Did I mention, my blower had the old vortech tag.
As sure as the son rises every morning Curtis sent me a pic of the mockup of my blower after it allegedly returned from vortech or wherever the hell it was for new bearings and polishing. Low and behold what do I see in the picture, a damn black A&A tag. At this point some of you may be asking, why does he care what happened to his blower, he got a brand new one and a brand new A&A secondary drive. The fact is you are right, but this is not about getting a new blower, this is about some shady **** that is going on at a race shop that is supposed to be one of the best. To this day, I can not tell you with 100% certainty what led to the events leading to me receiving a new blower but what I can say is that to this very moment, Charlie denys that he put my blower on another customer’s car. Instead he, blames Curtis and say’s he believes Curtis stole it. My question to that is if Curtis stole it, why would Curtis still be working there months after it happened? Why wouldn’t Charlie call the police?
Here’s my theory, Charlie didn’t do any of those things because, Curtis did not steal that blower. Curtis did exactly what he was told and put it on another customers car. Curtis wasn’t happy with parts swapping like that but it was a job and he may have thought you know what Charlie? I’m worth more than what you’re paying me and if you don’t want to give me a raise, I’m going to have to go. In the end I think a lot of stuff was over looked on my car because Charlie lost money. Well that is not my fault. I had upto 15K to spend when I had my car delivered to the shop. He had ample time to quote it so there is no excuse.
Well, as it would turn out Curtis did cease to work at RPM motors and upon doing so laid it out to me. He told me that Charlie did tell him to put my old blower on a certain maroon C6 corvette. The car belonged to a guy named Havier (or something like that). I’ve synopsized this story about the blower in the C5 F.I. section, I have received more than a couple PM’s from old customers and even old employees of RPM who have said that they have seen Charlie do the same stuff in the past. That is Rob peter to pay paul. i.e. putting one customers parts on another customers car to get that one out the door and then taking that money to buy parts for the customer he took them from.
Now, with in the past 4-5 months I had a conversation with Charlie and I finally told him what Curtis told me and he acted surprised and said, you know mike, Curtis has taken stuff from me in the past and it don’t surprise me that he told you that in an attempt to cover his own *** and make me look bad.
My only thoughts on that are why would he need to cover his own ***? He didn’t work for me or RPM when he told me what actually happened. Why would it take so long for him to not work there if he stole my blower as you suggest? Sure maybe he could say it to make Charlie and RPM look bad but for what? He actually asked me to never tell Charlie that I knew certain things but I did anyway because I wanted to get to the bottom of things? Curtis got pissed at me after he knew I told Charlie what I knew and told me to never contact him ever again.
So, obviously by now you guys can see that Charlie didn’t do what I wanted him to do. Instead he was very deceitful and did a bunch of half *** work on my car. Now I will say, he did give me 180 bucks for wasting my time and gas to drive up to get my car only to find it not ready. (this driving up to find my car not ready happened more than once) He also gave me 300 bucks after I wrote a pretty nasty email saying how un happy I was with the work on the car and that 300 bucks was what it cost me to fix the ****** routing job of the fuel pump hot wire kit. (IT WAS ON THE HEADER AND EVENTAULLY BURNED UP ALMOST CAUSING A FIRE)
So, now you have a majority of my version of my experience at RPM Motors Specialties Inc. I’m not looking for money or for Charlie to come in here and apologize for that. The only thing I’d like to get (which I probably just threw that in the garbage now) is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. YES 2011.
All in all I still have not been able to enjoy my car.
I hope this review helps someone make a better informed choice.
This review is as honest as I can be and I will do my best to keep it factual as well as disseminate information so that you guys are that much more informed when you’re making a decision as to what “premier speed shop” This is going to get a bit hairy, and I fully expect some backlash from either the shop or from others but I feel I have no choice. This will be long and I would like to apologize in advance for the manaughtny but I think careful reading in of upmost importance. Without further ado, here it goes.
Around April 22, 2013 I contacted Charlie and asked him if he could do some major work to my car. I sent him a list of what I wanted done and he told me that he and his shop could definitely take my car on but in order to give me an accurate price estimate for parts and labor, he needed the car at the shop. On or about May 3rd, 2013 I had my car towed the 160 miles or so to the shop so a more accurate assessment of parts and labor could be performed. On June 30th 2013, I received an email with a detailed quote. Saying, Mike give me a call once you get this so I did. (NOTE IN THE BELOW QUOTE YOU WILL FIND THAT I HAVE NOTED THINGS THAT DID NOT GET DONE YET I WAS CHARGED FOR) upon calling Charlie, myself He and Auston had sort of a conference call and they answered all of my questions at the time. $5,500 and they got started on the car.
Below is the estimate I received with my own notes in bold.
Mike van Paris vehicle build - estimate 6-30-13
Hours Discription Cost
2 Remount Fenders and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
2 Remount front bumper and head light covers and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
3 Battery relocation 300 (COMPLETED)
25 R&R motor and perform following while engine out of car. 2500
a) fix bellhousing bolt holes (b) install new camshaft (c) install LS2 oil pan and repair
blower return line fitting (d) install & wire electric fuel pump (e) correct front sway bar
(f) Clean up engine bay wiring harness (g) Install PS cooler and lines (h) Clean up oil cooler
installation (i) replace rear coolant plug
(A,B,C,E,G AND H COMPLETED;
D WAS DONE HALF *** AND ALMOST STARTED A FIRE WHILE I WAS ON THE DYNO, F WAS DONE WHERE I COULD SEE ONLY BUT AFTER CLOSER INSPECTION I FOUND NUMEROUS UNATTENDED HARNESS ISSUES)
5.5 Supercharger 550
(a) align pulleys and belts (b) bracket perpendicularity (c) tensioner modifications
(I HAD TO GO BACK AFTER PICKING THE CAR UP THE FIRST TIME BECAUSE THEY NEVER DID THIS AND IT CAUSED ME TO CHEW UP A BELT AND DESTROY MY HOOD LINER, YAY ME NOTHING LIKE HAVING TO RENT A TRUCK AND TRAILER TO TOW YOUR CAR 160 MILES FOR SOMETHING THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME)
(d) 2.75 install
(e) inspect all hoses and bead roll all tubing to preclude disconnections
(f) saftey wire or tie wrap all clamps (g) saftey wire or zip tie all vacuum lines (DONE HALF ***)
7.5 Intercooler 750
(a) remount and fab shrouding (b) mod "neck"- correct geometry (c) straighten condenser (THIS WAS THE BEST THING THEY DID ON THE CAR, THE INTERCOOLER INSTALLATION IS NICE)
5 Catch Can 500 (DONE AND IT SEEMS TO WORK WAS CHANGED AROUND BY CHARLIE AFTER THIS INVOICE)
(a) Mount Existing can
(b) Supply Separator
(c) Weld -10 bungs in covers
(d) fab aluminum "wall" and base
(e) modify intake manifold for -10 vacuum line (NOT DONE AT ALL)
4 Fuel System 400
(a) run -10 supply line from tank to regulator (b) mount regulator in catch can area ( “A” WAS NEVER DONE)
(c) extend wiring for gage (NEVER DONE )
2.5 Meth System 250
(a) Mount IAT in manifold (b) cleanup wiring (A WAS DONE BEFORE I EVER TOOK THE CAR THERE AND B WAS NEVER DONE AT ALL)
2.5 Electrical 250
(a) extend coil pack harnesses (i sent caspers coil pack extensions with the car) (b) inspect all grounds (DONE)
1.5 Repair HUD display 150 (NEVER DONE)
1.5 Trunk lid cable/electonic latch 150 (NEVER DONE)
6.5 Speed Density tuning 650 (DONE BUT NOT TO MY STANDARDS AT ALL)
68.5
Total 6850
parts
1 Battery Relocation kit - LPE 399.95
6 Feet of -10 hose for catch can 50
12 feet of fuel line hose -10 teflon lined 108
1 Wide Band
1 LS2 Pan & Pickup
9 Fittings for catch can(s) 135
1 fluids (coolant, oil, PS, Brakes) 125
1 Lines and fittings for fuel system? 100 ( NEVER CHANGED THE LINES IN THE FUEL SYSTEM AND I SUPPLIED ALL THE -10 LINES FOR THE CATCH CAN BUT BELOW IS A CHARGE FOR MISC. HOSES, HARDWARE AND MISC PARTS: MAYBE FOR THE -6AN LINES AND FITTINGS THAT WERE PART OF THE NEW CATCH CAN DESIGN AFTER THIS QUOTE?
1 Camshaft 395
1 hoses, misc. hardware, misc. parts 150
Total 1462.95
Tax 131.6655
Total 8444.6155 (NOTE ADD $450 to total for new starter because mine mysteriously broke a stud somehow) PLUS TECH BROKE BELLHOUSING AND SURGE TANK SHOP REPLACED
So as you guys can see, there were quite a few things that I was charged for that never got completed. There was also at least 400 worth of parts that I never seen again. I won’t include the brail battery that was brand new and cost a significant amount more than the interstate battery that replaced it, because I consider that a core exchange but I will include things like, the $350 RX Monster Catch can and the $40 one way breather for the oil cap. I want to note that about 3 weeks after receiving the invoice is when Charlie called me and said he was going to build a crank case EVAC system just like they do for the race cars they build. I said, ok you know what’s best but how much extra is this going to be? he said, I told you from the beginning that I would make every effort to keep your bill within what I quoted you and I’m going to stand by that. I said ok cool so it’s not going to be any more money? He said nope. I said, awesome, you da man Charlie! The fact is, it did cost me something now didn’t it?
So, I got the “it will be done in two weeks” line about 25 times before the car was actually done. In between that time, there was a young man by the name of Curtis that worked for Charlie. Curtis was assigned to do the necessary fabrication and mechanical work to my car. This is where it gets interesting. Let me start by saying Curtis is very young early 20s at best. He was always polite and courteous to me every time we spoke on the phone. Unfortunately, Curtis got upset with me at the end and I’ll explain why later.
At some point I called Charlie and asked him when my car was going to be ready, this had to be about 6-8 months or so after I initially dropped the car off. That phone call was unique because, Charlie said, it would be a little while longer than expected because; they found some excessive endplay and he was going to have the bearings replaces and have it polished up. (NOTE THIS WILL TURN OUT TO BE A FLAT OUT LIE AS YOU WILL FIND OUT LATER) I said, hmm ok Charlie, he gave me another two weeks line and We ended our phone call. Immediately after the phone call, I get on the horn with Vortech Engineering and give them the serial number to my blower and they say sorry guy, we don’t have your blower here. So armed with this latest intel, I’m pissed! I want to rip faces off and ask questions later. I somehow manage to stay cool and it isn’t until a few weeks???? Months **** I don’t know… They have had my car so long that time is all blending together at this point. Anyway sometime between the beginning and the end, Curtis is no longer working at RPM and he and I maintained a steady contact during his employment and after for a short period of time. Anyway, while he was still employed at RPM, I facebook messaged Curtis just to check in and see how things were going. He said, “I’m in a hurry, I’ll get back to you later but, I’m on my way to A&A corvette to get your blower. I said oh ok cool.. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks!! I said wait a minute, why do you have to go to A&A to get my blower? I didn’t receive a response. By now the gears are turning, so after a quick consultation with a fellow vette owner, I decide to call Charlie and ask him if vortech is done with my blower? He said yes, in fact, I just sent Curtis to pick it up. I said oh ok, cool. I didn’t mention to him that Curtis told me he was going to A&A
Oh yeah One thing I forgot to mention, I had already found out at that point with 95% certainty, that my blower never went to vortech or to anyplace. It ended up on another customer’s car. (Charlie did not know that I knew this) he also didn’t know at the time that I kept a copy of the serial number of my blower. Another thing I’m almost certain Charlie did not know at the time is that around October of that same year, A&A corvette started having their personalized serial tags put on every blower ordered through them. Did I mention, my blower had the old vortech tag.
As sure as the son rises every morning Curtis sent me a pic of the mockup of my blower after it allegedly returned from vortech or wherever the hell it was for new bearings and polishing. Low and behold what do I see in the picture, a damn black A&A tag. At this point some of you may be asking, why does he care what happened to his blower, he got a brand new one and a brand new A&A secondary drive. The fact is you are right, but this is not about getting a new blower, this is about some shady **** that is going on at a race shop that is supposed to be one of the best. To this day, I can not tell you with 100% certainty what led to the events leading to me receiving a new blower but what I can say is that to this very moment, Charlie denys that he put my blower on another customer’s car. Instead he, blames Curtis and say’s he believes Curtis stole it. My question to that is if Curtis stole it, why would Curtis still be working there months after it happened? Why wouldn’t Charlie call the police?
Here’s my theory, Charlie didn’t do any of those things because, Curtis did not steal that blower. Curtis did exactly what he was told and put it on another customers car. Curtis wasn’t happy with parts swapping like that but it was a job and he may have thought you know what Charlie? I’m worth more than what you’re paying me and if you don’t want to give me a raise, I’m going to have to go. In the end I think a lot of stuff was over looked on my car because Charlie lost money. Well that is not my fault. I had upto 15K to spend when I had my car delivered to the shop. He had ample time to quote it so there is no excuse.
Well, as it would turn out Curtis did cease to work at RPM motors and upon doing so laid it out to me. He told me that Charlie did tell him to put my old blower on a certain maroon C6 corvette. The car belonged to a guy named Havier (or something like that). I’ve synopsized this story about the blower in the C5 F.I. section, I have received more than a couple PM’s from old customers and even old employees of RPM who have said that they have seen Charlie do the same stuff in the past. That is Rob peter to pay paul. i.e. putting one customers parts on another customers car to get that one out the door and then taking that money to buy parts for the customer he took them from.
Now, with in the past 4-5 months I had a conversation with Charlie and I finally told him what Curtis told me and he acted surprised and said, you know mike, Curtis has taken stuff from me in the past and it don’t surprise me that he told you that in an attempt to cover his own *** and make me look bad.
My only thoughts on that are why would he need to cover his own ***? He didn’t work for me or RPM when he told me what actually happened. Why would it take so long for him to not work there if he stole my blower as you suggest? Sure maybe he could say it to make Charlie and RPM look bad but for what? He actually asked me to never tell Charlie that I knew certain things but I did anyway because I wanted to get to the bottom of things? Curtis got pissed at me after he knew I told Charlie what I knew and told me to never contact him ever again.
So, obviously by now you guys can see that Charlie didn’t do what I wanted him to do. Instead he was very deceitful and did a bunch of half *** work on my car. Now I will say, he did give me 180 bucks for wasting my time and gas to drive up to get my car only to find it not ready. (this driving up to find my car not ready happened more than once) He also gave me 300 bucks after I wrote a pretty nasty email saying how un happy I was with the work on the car and that 300 bucks was what it cost me to fix the ****** routing job of the fuel pump hot wire kit. (IT WAS ON THE HEADER AND EVENTAULLY BURNED UP ALMOST CAUSING A FIRE)
So, now you have a majority of my version of my experience at RPM Motors Specialties Inc. I’m not looking for money or for Charlie to come in here and apologize for that. The only thing I’d like to get (which I probably just threw that in the garbage now) is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. YES 2011.
All in all I still have not been able to enjoy my car.
I hope this review helps someone make a better informed choice.
11-14-2014, 11:33 PM
#2
Team Owner
Member Since: Jan 2007
Location: cookeville tennessee
Posts: 28,846
Received 1,762 Likes
on
1,529 Posts
ttt
Dam buddy that sucks. From what I have heard for sure not the first.
12-23-2014, 06:43 PM
#4
Racer
1 in Covina as well
I too, went through the same ordeal. 8 months. Although i am happy with the installations. I know there's lots of shops out there doing this all the time. Just wish it would narrow down to a few shops to do business with. Even if it cost more. Im located in Los Angeles. But if i have to. Ill ship my vette to the East Coast to have an honest shop do major work on my vette.
12-30-2014, 03:46 PM
#5
Ok, I’m going to do my best to write a review on one of the “premier speed shops” out here in Southern California. The shop is RPM Motors Specialties Inc. out of Santa Clarita California and the shop owner is Charlie Williams
This review is as honest as I can be and I will do my best to keep it factual as well as disseminate information so that you guys are that much more informed when you’re making a decision as to what “premier speed shop” This is going to get a bit hairy, and I fully expect some backlash from either the shop or from others but I feel I have no choice. This will be long and I would like to apologize in advance for the manaughtny but I think careful reading in of upmost importance. Without further ado, here it goes.
Around April 22, 2013 I contacted Charlie and asked him if he could do some major work to my car. I sent him a list of what I wanted done and he told me that he and his shop could definitely take my car on but in order to give me an accurate price estimate for parts and labor, he needed the car at the shop. On or about May 3rd, 2013 I had my car towed the 160 miles or so to the shop so a more accurate assessment of parts and labor could be performed. On June 30th 2013, I received an email with a detailed quote. Saying, Mike give me a call once you get this so I did. (NOTE IN THE BELOW QUOTE YOU WILL FIND THAT I HAVE NOTED THINGS THAT DID NOT GET DONE YET I WAS CHARGED FOR) upon calling Charlie, myself He and Auston had sort of a conference call and they answered all of my questions at the time. $5,500 and they got started on the car.
Below is the estimate I received with my own notes in bold.
Mike van Paris vehicle build - estimate 6-30-13
Hours Discription Cost
2 Remount Fenders and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
2 Remount front bumper and head light covers and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
3 Battery relocation 300 (COMPLETED)
25 R&R motor and perform following while engine out of car. 2500
a) fix bellhousing bolt holes (b) install new camshaft (c) install LS2 oil pan and repair
blower return line fitting (d) install & wire electric fuel pump (e) correct front sway bar
(f) Clean up engine bay wiring harness (g) Install PS cooler and lines (h) Clean up oil cooler
installation (i) replace rear coolant plug
(A,B,C,E,G AND H COMPLETED;
D WAS DONE HALF *** AND ALMOST STARTED A FIRE WHILE I WAS ON THE DYNO, F WAS DONE WHERE I COULD SEE ONLY BUT AFTER CLOSER INSPECTION I FOUND NUMEROUS UNATTENDED HARNESS ISSUES)
5.5 Supercharger 550
(a) align pulleys and belts (b) bracket perpendicularity (c) tensioner modifications
(I HAD TO GO BACK AFTER PICKING THE CAR UP THE FIRST TIME BECAUSE THEY NEVER DID THIS AND IT CAUSED ME TO CHEW UP A BELT AND DESTROY MY HOOD LINER, YAY ME NOTHING LIKE HAVING TO RENT A TRUCK AND TRAILER TO TOW YOUR CAR 160 MILES FOR SOMETHING THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME)
(d) 2.75 install
(e) inspect all hoses and bead roll all tubing to preclude disconnections
(f) saftey wire or tie wrap all clamps (g) saftey wire or zip tie all vacuum lines (DONE HALF ***)
7.5 Intercooler 750
(a) remount and fab shrouding (b) mod "neck"- correct geometry (c) straighten condenser (THIS WAS THE BEST THING THEY DID ON THE CAR, THE INTERCOOLER INSTALLATION IS NICE)
5 Catch Can 500 (DONE AND IT SEEMS TO WORK WAS CHANGED AROUND BY CHARLIE AFTER THIS INVOICE)
(a) Mount Existing can
(b) Supply Separator
(c) Weld -10 bungs in covers
(d) fab aluminum "wall" and base
(e) modify intake manifold for -10 vacuum line (NOT DONE AT ALL)
4 Fuel System 400
(a) run -10 supply line from tank to regulator (b) mount regulator in catch can area ( “A” WAS NEVER DONE)
(c) extend wiring for gage (NEVER DONE )
2.5 Meth System 250
(a) Mount IAT in manifold (b) cleanup wiring (A WAS DONE BEFORE I EVER TOOK THE CAR THERE AND B WAS NEVER DONE AT ALL)
2.5 Electrical 250
(a) extend coil pack harnesses (i sent caspers coil pack extensions with the car) (b) inspect all grounds (DONE)
1.5 Repair HUD display 150 (NEVER DONE)
1.5 Trunk lid cable/electonic latch 150 (NEVER DONE)
6.5 Speed Density tuning 650 (DONE BUT NOT TO MY STANDARDS AT ALL)
68.5
Total 6850
parts
1 Battery Relocation kit - LPE 399.95
6 Feet of -10 hose for catch can 50
12 feet of fuel line hose -10 teflon lined 108
1 Wide Band
1 LS2 Pan & Pickup
9 Fittings for catch can(s) 135
1 fluids (coolant, oil, PS, Brakes) 125
1 Lines and fittings for fuel system? 100 ( NEVER CHANGED THE LINES IN THE FUEL SYSTEM AND I SUPPLIED ALL THE -10 LINES FOR THE CATCH CAN BUT BELOW IS A CHARGE FOR MISC. HOSES, HARDWARE AND MISC PARTS: MAYBE FOR THE -6AN LINES AND FITTINGS THAT WERE PART OF THE NEW CATCH CAN DESIGN AFTER THIS QUOTE?
1 Camshaft 395
1 hoses, misc. hardware, misc. parts 150
Total 1462.95
Tax 131.6655
Total 8444.6155 (NOTE ADD $450 to total for new starter because mine mysteriously broke a stud somehow) PLUS TECH BROKE BELLHOUSING AND SURGE TANK SHOP REPLACED
So as you guys can see, there were quite a few things that I was charged for that never got completed. There was also at least 400 worth of parts that I never seen again. I won’t include the brail battery that was brand new and cost a significant amount more than the interstate battery that replaced it, because I consider that a core exchange but I will include things like, the $350 RX Monster Catch can and the $40 one way breather for the oil cap. I want to note that about 3 weeks after receiving the invoice is when Charlie called me and said he was going to build a crank case EVAC system just like they do for the race cars they build. I said, ok you know what’s best but how much extra is this going to be? he said, I told you from the beginning that I would make every effort to keep your bill within what I quoted you and I’m going to stand by that. I said ok cool so it’s not going to be any more money? He said nope. I said, awesome, you da man Charlie! The fact is, it did cost me something now didn’t it?
So, I got the “it will be done in two weeks” line about 25 times before the car was actually done. In between that time, there was a young man by the name of Curtis that worked for Charlie. Curtis was assigned to do the necessary fabrication and mechanical work to my car. This is where it gets interesting. Let me start by saying Curtis is very young early 20s at best. He was always polite and courteous to me every time we spoke on the phone. Unfortunately, Curtis got upset with me at the end and I’ll explain why later.
At some point I called Charlie and asked him when my car was going to be ready, this had to be about 6-8 months or so after I initially dropped the car off. That phone call was unique because, Charlie said, it would be a little while longer than expected because; they found some excessive endplay and he was going to have the bearings replaces and have it polished up. (NOTE THIS WILL TURN OUT TO BE A FLAT OUT LIE AS YOU WILL FIND OUT LATER) I said, hmm ok Charlie, he gave me another two weeks line and We ended our phone call. Immediately after the phone call, I get on the horn with Vortech Engineering and give them the serial number to my blower and they say sorry guy, we don’t have your blower here. So armed with this latest intel, I’m pissed! I want to rip faces off and ask questions later. I somehow manage to stay cool and it isn’t until a few weeks???? Months **** I don’t know… They have had my car so long that time is all blending together at this point. Anyway sometime between the beginning and the end, Curtis is no longer working at RPM and he and I maintained a steady contact during his employment and after for a short period of time. Anyway, while he was still employed at RPM, I facebook messaged Curtis just to check in and see how things were going. He said, “I’m in a hurry, I’ll get back to you later but, I’m on my way to A&A corvette to get your blower. I said oh ok cool.. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks!! I said wait a minute, why do you have to go to A&A to get my blower? I didn’t receive a response. By now the gears are turning, so after a quick consultation with a fellow vette owner, I decide to call Charlie and ask him if vortech is done with my blower? He said yes, in fact, I just sent Curtis to pick it up. I said oh ok, cool. I didn’t mention to him that Curtis told me he was going to A&A
Oh yeah One thing I forgot to mention, I had already found out at that point with 95% certainty, that my blower never went to vortech or to anyplace. It ended up on another customer’s car. (Charlie did not know that I knew this) he also didn’t know at the time that I kept a copy of the serial number of my blower. Another thing I’m almost certain Charlie did not know at the time is that around October of that same year, A&A corvette started having their personalized serial tags put on every blower ordered through them. Did I mention, my blower had the old vortech tag.
As sure as the son rises every morning Curtis sent me a pic of the mockup of my blower after it allegedly returned from vortech or wherever the hell it was for new bearings and polishing. Low and behold what do I see in the picture, a damn black A&A tag. At this point some of you may be asking, why does he care what happened to his blower, he got a brand new one and a brand new A&A secondary drive. The fact is you are right, but this is not about getting a new blower, this is about some shady **** that is going on at a race shop that is supposed to be one of the best. To this day, I can not tell you with 100% certainty what led to the events leading to me receiving a new blower but what I can say is that to this very moment, Charlie denys that he put my blower on another customer’s car. Instead he, blames Curtis and say’s he believes Curtis stole it. My question to that is if Curtis stole it, why would Curtis still be working there months after it happened? Why wouldn’t Charlie call the police?
Here’s my theory, Charlie didn’t do any of those things because, Curtis did not steal that blower. Curtis did exactly what he was told and put it on another customers car. Curtis wasn’t happy with parts swapping like that but it was a job and he may have thought you know what Charlie? I’m worth more than what you’re paying me and if you don’t want to give me a raise, I’m going to have to go. In the end I think a lot of stuff was over looked on my car because Charlie lost money. Well that is not my fault. I had upto 15K to spend when I had my car delivered to the shop. He had ample time to quote it so there is no excuse.
Well, as it would turn out Curtis did cease to work at RPM motors and upon doing so laid it out to me. He told me that Charlie did tell him to put my old blower on a certain maroon C6 corvette. The car belonged to a guy named Havier (or something like that). I’ve synopsized this story about the blower in the C5 F.I. section, I have received more than a couple PM’s from old customers and even old employees of RPM who have said that they have seen Charlie do the same stuff in the past. That is Rob peter to pay paul. i.e. putting one customers parts on another customers car to get that one out the door and then taking that money to buy parts for the customer he took them from.
Now, with in the past 4-5 months I had a conversation with Charlie and I finally told him what Curtis told me and he acted surprised and said, you know mike, Curtis has taken stuff from me in the past and it don’t surprise me that he told you that in an attempt to cover his own *** and make me look bad.
My only thoughts on that are why would he need to cover his own ***? He didn’t work for me or RPM when he told me what actually happened. Why would it take so long for him to not work there if he stole my blower as you suggest? Sure maybe he could say it to make Charlie and RPM look bad but for what? He actually asked me to never tell Charlie that I knew certain things but I did anyway because I wanted to get to the bottom of things? Curtis got pissed at me after he knew I told Charlie what I knew and told me to never contact him ever again.
So, obviously by now you guys can see that Charlie didn’t do what I wanted him to do. Instead he was very deceitful and did a bunch of half *** work on my car. Now I will say, he did give me 180 bucks for wasting my time and gas to drive up to get my car only to find it not ready. (this driving up to find my car not ready happened more than once) He also gave me 300 bucks after I wrote a pretty nasty email saying how un happy I was with the work on the car and that 300 bucks was what it cost me to fix the ****** routing job of the fuel pump hot wire kit. (IT WAS ON THE HEADER AND EVENTAULLY BURNED UP ALMOST CAUSING A FIRE)
So, now you have a majority of my version of my experience at RPM Motors Specialties Inc. I’m not looking for money or for Charlie to come in here and apologize for that. The only thing I’d like to get (which I probably just threw that in the garbage now) is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. YES 2011.
All in all I still have not been able to enjoy my car.
I hope this review helps someone make a better informed choice.
This review is as honest as I can be and I will do my best to keep it factual as well as disseminate information so that you guys are that much more informed when you’re making a decision as to what “premier speed shop” This is going to get a bit hairy, and I fully expect some backlash from either the shop or from others but I feel I have no choice. This will be long and I would like to apologize in advance for the manaughtny but I think careful reading in of upmost importance. Without further ado, here it goes.
Around April 22, 2013 I contacted Charlie and asked him if he could do some major work to my car. I sent him a list of what I wanted done and he told me that he and his shop could definitely take my car on but in order to give me an accurate price estimate for parts and labor, he needed the car at the shop. On or about May 3rd, 2013 I had my car towed the 160 miles or so to the shop so a more accurate assessment of parts and labor could be performed. On June 30th 2013, I received an email with a detailed quote. Saying, Mike give me a call once you get this so I did. (NOTE IN THE BELOW QUOTE YOU WILL FIND THAT I HAVE NOTED THINGS THAT DID NOT GET DONE YET I WAS CHARGED FOR) upon calling Charlie, myself He and Auston had sort of a conference call and they answered all of my questions at the time. $5,500 and they got started on the car.
Below is the estimate I received with my own notes in bold.
Mike van Paris vehicle build - estimate 6-30-13
Hours Discription Cost
2 Remount Fenders and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
2 Remount front bumper and head light covers and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
3 Battery relocation 300 (COMPLETED)
25 R&R motor and perform following while engine out of car. 2500
a) fix bellhousing bolt holes (b) install new camshaft (c) install LS2 oil pan and repair
blower return line fitting (d) install & wire electric fuel pump (e) correct front sway bar
(f) Clean up engine bay wiring harness (g) Install PS cooler and lines (h) Clean up oil cooler
installation (i) replace rear coolant plug
(A,B,C,E,G AND H COMPLETED;
D WAS DONE HALF *** AND ALMOST STARTED A FIRE WHILE I WAS ON THE DYNO, F WAS DONE WHERE I COULD SEE ONLY BUT AFTER CLOSER INSPECTION I FOUND NUMEROUS UNATTENDED HARNESS ISSUES)
5.5 Supercharger 550
(a) align pulleys and belts (b) bracket perpendicularity (c) tensioner modifications
(I HAD TO GO BACK AFTER PICKING THE CAR UP THE FIRST TIME BECAUSE THEY NEVER DID THIS AND IT CAUSED ME TO CHEW UP A BELT AND DESTROY MY HOOD LINER, YAY ME NOTHING LIKE HAVING TO RENT A TRUCK AND TRAILER TO TOW YOUR CAR 160 MILES FOR SOMETHING THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME)
(d) 2.75 install
(e) inspect all hoses and bead roll all tubing to preclude disconnections
(f) saftey wire or tie wrap all clamps (g) saftey wire or zip tie all vacuum lines (DONE HALF ***)
7.5 Intercooler 750
(a) remount and fab shrouding (b) mod "neck"- correct geometry (c) straighten condenser (THIS WAS THE BEST THING THEY DID ON THE CAR, THE INTERCOOLER INSTALLATION IS NICE)
5 Catch Can 500 (DONE AND IT SEEMS TO WORK WAS CHANGED AROUND BY CHARLIE AFTER THIS INVOICE)
(a) Mount Existing can
(b) Supply Separator
(c) Weld -10 bungs in covers
(d) fab aluminum "wall" and base
(e) modify intake manifold for -10 vacuum line (NOT DONE AT ALL)
4 Fuel System 400
(a) run -10 supply line from tank to regulator (b) mount regulator in catch can area ( “A” WAS NEVER DONE)
(c) extend wiring for gage (NEVER DONE )
2.5 Meth System 250
(a) Mount IAT in manifold (b) cleanup wiring (A WAS DONE BEFORE I EVER TOOK THE CAR THERE AND B WAS NEVER DONE AT ALL)
2.5 Electrical 250
(a) extend coil pack harnesses (i sent caspers coil pack extensions with the car) (b) inspect all grounds (DONE)
1.5 Repair HUD display 150 (NEVER DONE)
1.5 Trunk lid cable/electonic latch 150 (NEVER DONE)
6.5 Speed Density tuning 650 (DONE BUT NOT TO MY STANDARDS AT ALL)
68.5
Total 6850
parts
1 Battery Relocation kit - LPE 399.95
6 Feet of -10 hose for catch can 50
12 feet of fuel line hose -10 teflon lined 108
1 Wide Band
1 LS2 Pan & Pickup
9 Fittings for catch can(s) 135
1 fluids (coolant, oil, PS, Brakes) 125
1 Lines and fittings for fuel system? 100 ( NEVER CHANGED THE LINES IN THE FUEL SYSTEM AND I SUPPLIED ALL THE -10 LINES FOR THE CATCH CAN BUT BELOW IS A CHARGE FOR MISC. HOSES, HARDWARE AND MISC PARTS: MAYBE FOR THE -6AN LINES AND FITTINGS THAT WERE PART OF THE NEW CATCH CAN DESIGN AFTER THIS QUOTE?
1 Camshaft 395
1 hoses, misc. hardware, misc. parts 150
Total 1462.95
Tax 131.6655
Total 8444.6155 (NOTE ADD $450 to total for new starter because mine mysteriously broke a stud somehow) PLUS TECH BROKE BELLHOUSING AND SURGE TANK SHOP REPLACED
So as you guys can see, there were quite a few things that I was charged for that never got completed. There was also at least 400 worth of parts that I never seen again. I won’t include the brail battery that was brand new and cost a significant amount more than the interstate battery that replaced it, because I consider that a core exchange but I will include things like, the $350 RX Monster Catch can and the $40 one way breather for the oil cap. I want to note that about 3 weeks after receiving the invoice is when Charlie called me and said he was going to build a crank case EVAC system just like they do for the race cars they build. I said, ok you know what’s best but how much extra is this going to be? he said, I told you from the beginning that I would make every effort to keep your bill within what I quoted you and I’m going to stand by that. I said ok cool so it’s not going to be any more money? He said nope. I said, awesome, you da man Charlie! The fact is, it did cost me something now didn’t it?
So, I got the “it will be done in two weeks” line about 25 times before the car was actually done. In between that time, there was a young man by the name of Curtis that worked for Charlie. Curtis was assigned to do the necessary fabrication and mechanical work to my car. This is where it gets interesting. Let me start by saying Curtis is very young early 20s at best. He was always polite and courteous to me every time we spoke on the phone. Unfortunately, Curtis got upset with me at the end and I’ll explain why later.
At some point I called Charlie and asked him when my car was going to be ready, this had to be about 6-8 months or so after I initially dropped the car off. That phone call was unique because, Charlie said, it would be a little while longer than expected because; they found some excessive endplay and he was going to have the bearings replaces and have it polished up. (NOTE THIS WILL TURN OUT TO BE A FLAT OUT LIE AS YOU WILL FIND OUT LATER) I said, hmm ok Charlie, he gave me another two weeks line and We ended our phone call. Immediately after the phone call, I get on the horn with Vortech Engineering and give them the serial number to my blower and they say sorry guy, we don’t have your blower here. So armed with this latest intel, I’m pissed! I want to rip faces off and ask questions later. I somehow manage to stay cool and it isn’t until a few weeks???? Months **** I don’t know… They have had my car so long that time is all blending together at this point. Anyway sometime between the beginning and the end, Curtis is no longer working at RPM and he and I maintained a steady contact during his employment and after for a short period of time. Anyway, while he was still employed at RPM, I facebook messaged Curtis just to check in and see how things were going. He said, “I’m in a hurry, I’ll get back to you later but, I’m on my way to A&A corvette to get your blower. I said oh ok cool.. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks!! I said wait a minute, why do you have to go to A&A to get my blower? I didn’t receive a response. By now the gears are turning, so after a quick consultation with a fellow vette owner, I decide to call Charlie and ask him if vortech is done with my blower? He said yes, in fact, I just sent Curtis to pick it up. I said oh ok, cool. I didn’t mention to him that Curtis told me he was going to A&A
Oh yeah One thing I forgot to mention, I had already found out at that point with 95% certainty, that my blower never went to vortech or to anyplace. It ended up on another customer’s car. (Charlie did not know that I knew this) he also didn’t know at the time that I kept a copy of the serial number of my blower. Another thing I’m almost certain Charlie did not know at the time is that around October of that same year, A&A corvette started having their personalized serial tags put on every blower ordered through them. Did I mention, my blower had the old vortech tag.
As sure as the son rises every morning Curtis sent me a pic of the mockup of my blower after it allegedly returned from vortech or wherever the hell it was for new bearings and polishing. Low and behold what do I see in the picture, a damn black A&A tag. At this point some of you may be asking, why does he care what happened to his blower, he got a brand new one and a brand new A&A secondary drive. The fact is you are right, but this is not about getting a new blower, this is about some shady **** that is going on at a race shop that is supposed to be one of the best. To this day, I can not tell you with 100% certainty what led to the events leading to me receiving a new blower but what I can say is that to this very moment, Charlie denys that he put my blower on another customer’s car. Instead he, blames Curtis and say’s he believes Curtis stole it. My question to that is if Curtis stole it, why would Curtis still be working there months after it happened? Why wouldn’t Charlie call the police?
Here’s my theory, Charlie didn’t do any of those things because, Curtis did not steal that blower. Curtis did exactly what he was told and put it on another customers car. Curtis wasn’t happy with parts swapping like that but it was a job and he may have thought you know what Charlie? I’m worth more than what you’re paying me and if you don’t want to give me a raise, I’m going to have to go. In the end I think a lot of stuff was over looked on my car because Charlie lost money. Well that is not my fault. I had upto 15K to spend when I had my car delivered to the shop. He had ample time to quote it so there is no excuse.
Well, as it would turn out Curtis did cease to work at RPM motors and upon doing so laid it out to me. He told me that Charlie did tell him to put my old blower on a certain maroon C6 corvette. The car belonged to a guy named Havier (or something like that). I’ve synopsized this story about the blower in the C5 F.I. section, I have received more than a couple PM’s from old customers and even old employees of RPM who have said that they have seen Charlie do the same stuff in the past. That is Rob peter to pay paul. i.e. putting one customers parts on another customers car to get that one out the door and then taking that money to buy parts for the customer he took them from.
Now, with in the past 4-5 months I had a conversation with Charlie and I finally told him what Curtis told me and he acted surprised and said, you know mike, Curtis has taken stuff from me in the past and it don’t surprise me that he told you that in an attempt to cover his own *** and make me look bad.
My only thoughts on that are why would he need to cover his own ***? He didn’t work for me or RPM when he told me what actually happened. Why would it take so long for him to not work there if he stole my blower as you suggest? Sure maybe he could say it to make Charlie and RPM look bad but for what? He actually asked me to never tell Charlie that I knew certain things but I did anyway because I wanted to get to the bottom of things? Curtis got pissed at me after he knew I told Charlie what I knew and told me to never contact him ever again.
So, obviously by now you guys can see that Charlie didn’t do what I wanted him to do. Instead he was very deceitful and did a bunch of half *** work on my car. Now I will say, he did give me 180 bucks for wasting my time and gas to drive up to get my car only to find it not ready. (this driving up to find my car not ready happened more than once) He also gave me 300 bucks after I wrote a pretty nasty email saying how un happy I was with the work on the car and that 300 bucks was what it cost me to fix the ****** routing job of the fuel pump hot wire kit. (IT WAS ON THE HEADER AND EVENTAULLY BURNED UP ALMOST CAUSING A FIRE)
So, now you have a majority of my version of my experience at RPM Motors Specialties Inc. I’m not looking for money or for Charlie to come in here and apologize for that. The only thing I’d like to get (which I probably just threw that in the garbage now) is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. YES 2011.
All in all I still have not been able to enjoy my car.
I hope this review helps someone make a better informed choice.
Reading between the lines in your latest, one thing stood out, which, was not cool, violated trust, that you revealed confidential information from Curtis.
(EDIT: removed third party unrelated comment that was quoted.)
Last edited by vettebuyer6369; 03-19-2015 at 11:22 AM. Reason: removed third party unrelated quote
01-01-2015, 04:36 AM
#6
Melting Slicks
Member Since: Aug 2013
Posts: 2,491
Received 312 Likes
on
227 Posts
St. Jude Donor '15-'16-'17-'18-'19-'20-'21-'22
I too, went through the same ordeal. 8 months. Although i am happy with the installations. I know there's lots of shops out there doing this all the time. Just wish it would narrow down to a few shops to do business with. Even if it cost more. Im located in Los Angeles. But if i have to. Ill ship my vette to the East Coast to have an honest shop do major work on my vette.
01-01-2015, 09:53 AM
#7
this is why i do my car 100% in MY garage me and my gf
shes a better mechanic than most shops alone
I had a real bad experience myself when i lived in a beach condo and no garage..so after that i moved out of beach condo and got a house with garage were i can do everthing other than tuning
i feel for u...to me the motto is
IF U WANT IT DONE RIGHT U HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF
shes a better mechanic than most shops alone
I had a real bad experience myself when i lived in a beach condo and no garage..so after that i moved out of beach condo and got a house with garage were i can do everthing other than tuning
i feel for u...to me the motto is
IF U WANT IT DONE RIGHT U HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF
03-11-2015, 02:04 AM
#8
Ok, I’m going to do my best to write a review on one of the “premier speed shops” out here in Southern California. The shop is RPM Motors Specialties Inc. out of Santa Clarita California and the shop owner is Charlie Williams
This review is as honest as I can be and I will do my best to keep it factual as well as disseminate information so that you guys are that much more informed when you’re making a decision as to what “premier speed shop” This is going to get a bit hairy, and I fully expect some backlash from either the shop or from others but I feel I have no choice. This will be long and I would like to apologize in advance for the manaughtny but I think careful reading in of upmost importance. Without further ado, here it goes.
Around April 22, 2013 I contacted Charlie and asked him if he could do some major work to my car. I sent him a list of what I wanted done and he told me that he and his shop could definitely take my car on but in order to give me an accurate price estimate for parts and labor, he needed the car at the shop. On or about May 3rd, 2013 I had my car towed the 160 miles or so to the shop so a more accurate assessment of parts and labor could be performed. On June 30th 2013, I received an email with a detailed quote. Saying, Mike give me a call once you get this so I did. (NOTE IN THE BELOW QUOTE YOU WILL FIND THAT I HAVE NOTED THINGS THAT DID NOT GET DONE YET I WAS CHARGED FOR) upon calling Charlie, myself He and Auston had sort of a conference call and they answered all of my questions at the time. $5,500 and they got started on the car.
Below is the estimate I received with my own notes in bold.
Mike van Paris vehicle build - estimate 6-30-13
Hours Discription Cost
2 Remount Fenders and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
2 Remount front bumper and head light covers and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
3 Battery relocation 300 (COMPLETED)
25 R&R motor and perform following while engine out of car. 2500
a) fix bellhousing bolt holes (b) install new camshaft (c) install LS2 oil pan and repair
blower return line fitting (d) install & wire electric fuel pump (e) correct front sway bar
(f) Clean up engine bay wiring harness (g) Install PS cooler and lines (h) Clean up oil cooler
installation (i) replace rear coolant plug
(A,B,C,E,G AND H COMPLETED;
D WAS DONE HALF *** AND ALMOST STARTED A FIRE WHILE I WAS ON THE DYNO, F WAS DONE WHERE I COULD SEE ONLY BUT AFTER CLOSER INSPECTION I FOUND NUMEROUS UNATTENDED HARNESS ISSUES)
5.5 Supercharger 550
(a) align pulleys and belts (b) bracket perpendicularity (c) tensioner modifications
(I HAD TO GO BACK AFTER PICKING THE CAR UP THE FIRST TIME BECAUSE THEY NEVER DID THIS AND IT CAUSED ME TO CHEW UP A BELT AND DESTROY MY HOOD LINER, YAY ME NOTHING LIKE HAVING TO RENT A TRUCK AND TRAILER TO TOW YOUR CAR 160 MILES FOR SOMETHING THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME)
(d) 2.75 install
(e) inspect all hoses and bead roll all tubing to preclude disconnections
(f) saftey wire or tie wrap all clamps (g) saftey wire or zip tie all vacuum lines (DONE HALF ***)
7.5 Intercooler 750
(a) remount and fab shrouding (b) mod "neck"- correct geometry (c) straighten condenser (THIS WAS THE BEST THING THEY DID ON THE CAR, THE INTERCOOLER INSTALLATION IS NICE)
5 Catch Can 500 (DONE AND IT SEEMS TO WORK WAS CHANGED AROUND BY CHARLIE AFTER THIS INVOICE)
(a) Mount Existing can
(b) Supply Separator
(c) Weld -10 bungs in covers
(d) fab aluminum "wall" and base
(e) modify intake manifold for -10 vacuum line (NOT DONE AT ALL)
4 Fuel System 400
(a) run -10 supply line from tank to regulator (b) mount regulator in catch can area ( “A” WAS NEVER DONE)
(c) extend wiring for gage (NEVER DONE )
2.5 Meth System 250
(a) Mount IAT in manifold (b) cleanup wiring (A WAS DONE BEFORE I EVER TOOK THE CAR THERE AND B WAS NEVER DONE AT ALL)
2.5 Electrical 250
(a) extend coil pack harnesses (i sent caspers coil pack extensions with the car) (b) inspect all grounds (DONE)
1.5 Repair HUD display 150 (NEVER DONE)
1.5 Trunk lid cable/electonic latch 150 (NEVER DONE)
6.5 Speed Density tuning 650 (DONE BUT NOT TO MY STANDARDS AT ALL)
68.5
Total 6850
parts
1 Battery Relocation kit - LPE 399.95
6 Feet of -10 hose for catch can 50
12 feet of fuel line hose -10 teflon lined 108
1 Wide Band
1 LS2 Pan & Pickup
9 Fittings for catch can(s) 135
1 fluids (coolant, oil, PS, Brakes) 125
1 Lines and fittings for fuel system? 100 ( NEVER CHANGED THE LINES IN THE FUEL SYSTEM AND I SUPPLIED ALL THE -10 LINES FOR THE CATCH CAN BUT BELOW IS A CHARGE FOR MISC. HOSES, HARDWARE AND MISC PARTS: MAYBE FOR THE -6AN LINES AND FITTINGS THAT WERE PART OF THE NEW CATCH CAN DESIGN AFTER THIS QUOTE?
1 Camshaft 395
1 hoses, misc. hardware, misc. parts 150
Total 1462.95
Tax 131.6655
Total 8444.6155 (NOTE ADD $450 to total for new starter because mine mysteriously broke a stud somehow) PLUS TECH BROKE BELLHOUSING AND SURGE TANK SHOP REPLACED
So as you guys can see, there were quite a few things that I was charged for that never got completed. There was also at least 400 worth of parts that I never seen again. I won’t include the brail battery that was brand new and cost a significant amount more than the interstate battery that replaced it, because I consider that a core exchange but I will include things like, the $350 RX Monster Catch can and the $40 one way breather for the oil cap. I want to note that about 3 weeks after receiving the invoice is when Charlie called me and said he was going to build a crank case EVAC system just like they do for the race cars they build. I said, ok you know what’s best but how much extra is this going to be? he said, I told you from the beginning that I would make every effort to keep your bill within what I quoted you and I’m going to stand by that. I said ok cool so it’s not going to be any more money? He said nope. I said, awesome, you da man Charlie! The fact is, it did cost me something now didn’t it?
So, I got the “it will be done in two weeks” line about 25 times before the car was actually done. In between that time, there was a young man by the name of Curtis that worked for Charlie. Curtis was assigned to do the necessary fabrication and mechanical work to my car. This is where it gets interesting. Let me start by saying Curtis is very young early 20s at best. He was always polite and courteous to me every time we spoke on the phone. Unfortunately, Curtis got upset with me at the end and I’ll explain why later.
At some point I called Charlie and asked him when my car was going to be ready, this had to be about 6-8 months or so after I initially dropped the car off. That phone call was unique because, Charlie said, it would be a little while longer than expected because; they found some excessive endplay and he was going to have the bearings replaces and have it polished up. (NOTE THIS WILL TURN OUT TO BE A FLAT OUT LIE AS YOU WILL FIND OUT LATER) I said, hmm ok Charlie, he gave me another two weeks line and We ended our phone call. Immediately after the phone call, I get on the horn with Vortech Engineering and give them the serial number to my blower and they say sorry guy, we don’t have your blower here. So armed with this latest intel, I’m pissed! I want to rip faces off and ask questions later. I somehow manage to stay cool and it isn’t until a few weeks???? Months **** I don’t know… They have had my car so long that time is all blending together at this point. Anyway sometime between the beginning and the end, Curtis is no longer working at RPM and he and I maintained a steady contact during his employment and after for a short period of time. Anyway, while he was still employed at RPM, I facebook messaged Curtis just to check in and see how things were going. He said, “I’m in a hurry, I’ll get back to you later but, I’m on my way to A&A corvette to get your blower. I said oh ok cool.. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks!! I said wait a minute, why do you have to go to A&A to get my blower? I didn’t receive a response. By now the gears are turning, so after a quick consultation with a fellow vette owner, I decide to call Charlie and ask him if vortech is done with my blower? He said yes, in fact, I just sent Curtis to pick it up. I said oh ok, cool. I didn’t mention to him that Curtis told me he was going to A&A
Oh yeah One thing I forgot to mention, I had already found out at that point with 95% certainty, that my blower never went to vortech or to anyplace. It ended up on another customer’s car. (Charlie did not know that I knew this) he also didn’t know at the time that I kept a copy of the serial number of my blower. Another thing I’m almost certain Charlie did not know at the time is that around October of that same year, A&A corvette started having their personalized serial tags put on every blower ordered through them. Did I mention, my blower had the old vortech tag.
As sure as the son rises every morning Curtis sent me a pic of the mockup of my blower after it allegedly returned from vortech or wherever the hell it was for new bearings and polishing. Low and behold what do I see in the picture, a damn black A&A tag. At this point some of you may be asking, why does he care what happened to his blower, he got a brand new one and a brand new A&A secondary drive. The fact is you are right, but this is not about getting a new blower, this is about some shady **** that is going on at a race shop that is supposed to be one of the best. To this day, I can not tell you with 100% certainty what led to the events leading to me receiving a new blower but what I can say is that to this very moment, Charlie denys that he put my blower on another customer’s car. Instead he, blames Curtis and say’s he believes Curtis stole it. My question to that is if Curtis stole it, why would Curtis still be working there months after it happened? Why wouldn’t Charlie call the police?
Here’s my theory, Charlie didn’t do any of those things because, Curtis did not steal that blower. Curtis did exactly what he was told and put it on another customers car. Curtis wasn’t happy with parts swapping like that but it was a job and he may have thought you know what Charlie? I’m worth more than what you’re paying me and if you don’t want to give me a raise, I’m going to have to go. In the end I think a lot of stuff was over looked on my car because Charlie lost money. Well that is not my fault. I had upto 15K to spend when I had my car delivered to the shop. He had ample time to quote it so there is no excuse.
Well, as it would turn out Curtis did cease to work at RPM motors and upon doing so laid it out to me. He told me that Charlie did tell him to put my old blower on a certain maroon C6 corvette. The car belonged to a guy named Havier (or something like that). I’ve synopsized this story about the blower in the C5 F.I. section, I have received more than a couple PM’s from old customers and even old employees of RPM who have said that they have seen Charlie do the same stuff in the past. That is Rob peter to pay paul. i.e. putting one customers parts on another customers car to get that one out the door and then taking that money to buy parts for the customer he took them from.
Now, with in the past 4-5 months I had a conversation with Charlie and I finally told him what Curtis told me and he acted surprised and said, you know mike, Curtis has taken stuff from me in the past and it don’t surprise me that he told you that in an attempt to cover his own *** and make me look bad.
My only thoughts on that are why would he need to cover his own ***? He didn’t work for me or RPM when he told me what actually happened. Why would it take so long for him to not work there if he stole my blower as you suggest? Sure maybe he could say it to make Charlie and RPM look bad but for what? He actually asked me to never tell Charlie that I knew certain things but I did anyway because I wanted to get to the bottom of things? Curtis got pissed at me after he knew I told Charlie what I knew and told me to never contact him ever again.
So, obviously by now you guys can see that Charlie didn’t do what I wanted him to do. Instead he was very deceitful and did a bunch of half *** work on my car. Now I will say, he did give me 180 bucks for wasting my time and gas to drive up to get my car only to find it not ready. (this driving up to find my car not ready happened more than once) He also gave me 300 bucks after I wrote a pretty nasty email saying how un happy I was with the work on the car and that 300 bucks was what it cost me to fix the ****** routing job of the fuel pump hot wire kit. (IT WAS ON THE HEADER AND EVENTAULLY BURNED UP ALMOST CAUSING A FIRE)
So, now you have a majority of my version of my experience at RPM Motors Specialties Inc. I’m not looking for money or for Charlie to come in here and apologize for that. The only thing I’d like to get (which I probably just threw that in the garbage now) is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. YES 2011.
All in all I still have not been able to enjoy my car.
I hope this review helps someone make a better informed choice.
This review is as honest as I can be and I will do my best to keep it factual as well as disseminate information so that you guys are that much more informed when you’re making a decision as to what “premier speed shop” This is going to get a bit hairy, and I fully expect some backlash from either the shop or from others but I feel I have no choice. This will be long and I would like to apologize in advance for the manaughtny but I think careful reading in of upmost importance. Without further ado, here it goes.
Around April 22, 2013 I contacted Charlie and asked him if he could do some major work to my car. I sent him a list of what I wanted done and he told me that he and his shop could definitely take my car on but in order to give me an accurate price estimate for parts and labor, he needed the car at the shop. On or about May 3rd, 2013 I had my car towed the 160 miles or so to the shop so a more accurate assessment of parts and labor could be performed. On June 30th 2013, I received an email with a detailed quote. Saying, Mike give me a call once you get this so I did. (NOTE IN THE BELOW QUOTE YOU WILL FIND THAT I HAVE NOTED THINGS THAT DID NOT GET DONE YET I WAS CHARGED FOR) upon calling Charlie, myself He and Auston had sort of a conference call and they answered all of my questions at the time. $5,500 and they got started on the car.
Below is the estimate I received with my own notes in bold.
Mike van Paris vehicle build - estimate 6-30-13
Hours Discription Cost
2 Remount Fenders and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
2 Remount front bumper and head light covers and align properly 200 (COMPLETED)
3 Battery relocation 300 (COMPLETED)
25 R&R motor and perform following while engine out of car. 2500
a) fix bellhousing bolt holes (b) install new camshaft (c) install LS2 oil pan and repair
blower return line fitting (d) install & wire electric fuel pump (e) correct front sway bar
(f) Clean up engine bay wiring harness (g) Install PS cooler and lines (h) Clean up oil cooler
installation (i) replace rear coolant plug
(A,B,C,E,G AND H COMPLETED;
D WAS DONE HALF *** AND ALMOST STARTED A FIRE WHILE I WAS ON THE DYNO, F WAS DONE WHERE I COULD SEE ONLY BUT AFTER CLOSER INSPECTION I FOUND NUMEROUS UNATTENDED HARNESS ISSUES)
5.5 Supercharger 550
(a) align pulleys and belts (b) bracket perpendicularity (c) tensioner modifications
(I HAD TO GO BACK AFTER PICKING THE CAR UP THE FIRST TIME BECAUSE THEY NEVER DID THIS AND IT CAUSED ME TO CHEW UP A BELT AND DESTROY MY HOOD LINER, YAY ME NOTHING LIKE HAVING TO RENT A TRUCK AND TRAILER TO TOW YOUR CAR 160 MILES FOR SOMETHING THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE RIGHT THE FIRST TIME)
(d) 2.75 install
(e) inspect all hoses and bead roll all tubing to preclude disconnections
(f) saftey wire or tie wrap all clamps (g) saftey wire or zip tie all vacuum lines (DONE HALF ***)
7.5 Intercooler 750
(a) remount and fab shrouding (b) mod "neck"- correct geometry (c) straighten condenser (THIS WAS THE BEST THING THEY DID ON THE CAR, THE INTERCOOLER INSTALLATION IS NICE)
5 Catch Can 500 (DONE AND IT SEEMS TO WORK WAS CHANGED AROUND BY CHARLIE AFTER THIS INVOICE)
(a) Mount Existing can
(b) Supply Separator
(c) Weld -10 bungs in covers
(d) fab aluminum "wall" and base
(e) modify intake manifold for -10 vacuum line (NOT DONE AT ALL)
4 Fuel System 400
(a) run -10 supply line from tank to regulator (b) mount regulator in catch can area ( “A” WAS NEVER DONE)
(c) extend wiring for gage (NEVER DONE )
2.5 Meth System 250
(a) Mount IAT in manifold (b) cleanup wiring (A WAS DONE BEFORE I EVER TOOK THE CAR THERE AND B WAS NEVER DONE AT ALL)
2.5 Electrical 250
(a) extend coil pack harnesses (i sent caspers coil pack extensions with the car) (b) inspect all grounds (DONE)
1.5 Repair HUD display 150 (NEVER DONE)
1.5 Trunk lid cable/electonic latch 150 (NEVER DONE)
6.5 Speed Density tuning 650 (DONE BUT NOT TO MY STANDARDS AT ALL)
68.5
Total 6850
parts
1 Battery Relocation kit - LPE 399.95
6 Feet of -10 hose for catch can 50
12 feet of fuel line hose -10 teflon lined 108
1 Wide Band
1 LS2 Pan & Pickup
9 Fittings for catch can(s) 135
1 fluids (coolant, oil, PS, Brakes) 125
1 Lines and fittings for fuel system? 100 ( NEVER CHANGED THE LINES IN THE FUEL SYSTEM AND I SUPPLIED ALL THE -10 LINES FOR THE CATCH CAN BUT BELOW IS A CHARGE FOR MISC. HOSES, HARDWARE AND MISC PARTS: MAYBE FOR THE -6AN LINES AND FITTINGS THAT WERE PART OF THE NEW CATCH CAN DESIGN AFTER THIS QUOTE?
1 Camshaft 395
1 hoses, misc. hardware, misc. parts 150
Total 1462.95
Tax 131.6655
Total 8444.6155 (NOTE ADD $450 to total for new starter because mine mysteriously broke a stud somehow) PLUS TECH BROKE BELLHOUSING AND SURGE TANK SHOP REPLACED
So as you guys can see, there were quite a few things that I was charged for that never got completed. There was also at least 400 worth of parts that I never seen again. I won’t include the brail battery that was brand new and cost a significant amount more than the interstate battery that replaced it, because I consider that a core exchange but I will include things like, the $350 RX Monster Catch can and the $40 one way breather for the oil cap. I want to note that about 3 weeks after receiving the invoice is when Charlie called me and said he was going to build a crank case EVAC system just like they do for the race cars they build. I said, ok you know what’s best but how much extra is this going to be? he said, I told you from the beginning that I would make every effort to keep your bill within what I quoted you and I’m going to stand by that. I said ok cool so it’s not going to be any more money? He said nope. I said, awesome, you da man Charlie! The fact is, it did cost me something now didn’t it?
So, I got the “it will be done in two weeks” line about 25 times before the car was actually done. In between that time, there was a young man by the name of Curtis that worked for Charlie. Curtis was assigned to do the necessary fabrication and mechanical work to my car. This is where it gets interesting. Let me start by saying Curtis is very young early 20s at best. He was always polite and courteous to me every time we spoke on the phone. Unfortunately, Curtis got upset with me at the end and I’ll explain why later.
At some point I called Charlie and asked him when my car was going to be ready, this had to be about 6-8 months or so after I initially dropped the car off. That phone call was unique because, Charlie said, it would be a little while longer than expected because; they found some excessive endplay and he was going to have the bearings replaces and have it polished up. (NOTE THIS WILL TURN OUT TO BE A FLAT OUT LIE AS YOU WILL FIND OUT LATER) I said, hmm ok Charlie, he gave me another two weeks line and We ended our phone call. Immediately after the phone call, I get on the horn with Vortech Engineering and give them the serial number to my blower and they say sorry guy, we don’t have your blower here. So armed with this latest intel, I’m pissed! I want to rip faces off and ask questions later. I somehow manage to stay cool and it isn’t until a few weeks???? Months **** I don’t know… They have had my car so long that time is all blending together at this point. Anyway sometime between the beginning and the end, Curtis is no longer working at RPM and he and I maintained a steady contact during his employment and after for a short period of time. Anyway, while he was still employed at RPM, I facebook messaged Curtis just to check in and see how things were going. He said, “I’m in a hurry, I’ll get back to you later but, I’m on my way to A&A corvette to get your blower. I said oh ok cool.. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks!! I said wait a minute, why do you have to go to A&A to get my blower? I didn’t receive a response. By now the gears are turning, so after a quick consultation with a fellow vette owner, I decide to call Charlie and ask him if vortech is done with my blower? He said yes, in fact, I just sent Curtis to pick it up. I said oh ok, cool. I didn’t mention to him that Curtis told me he was going to A&A
Oh yeah One thing I forgot to mention, I had already found out at that point with 95% certainty, that my blower never went to vortech or to anyplace. It ended up on another customer’s car. (Charlie did not know that I knew this) he also didn’t know at the time that I kept a copy of the serial number of my blower. Another thing I’m almost certain Charlie did not know at the time is that around October of that same year, A&A corvette started having their personalized serial tags put on every blower ordered through them. Did I mention, my blower had the old vortech tag.
As sure as the son rises every morning Curtis sent me a pic of the mockup of my blower after it allegedly returned from vortech or wherever the hell it was for new bearings and polishing. Low and behold what do I see in the picture, a damn black A&A tag. At this point some of you may be asking, why does he care what happened to his blower, he got a brand new one and a brand new A&A secondary drive. The fact is you are right, but this is not about getting a new blower, this is about some shady **** that is going on at a race shop that is supposed to be one of the best. To this day, I can not tell you with 100% certainty what led to the events leading to me receiving a new blower but what I can say is that to this very moment, Charlie denys that he put my blower on another customer’s car. Instead he, blames Curtis and say’s he believes Curtis stole it. My question to that is if Curtis stole it, why would Curtis still be working there months after it happened? Why wouldn’t Charlie call the police?
Here’s my theory, Charlie didn’t do any of those things because, Curtis did not steal that blower. Curtis did exactly what he was told and put it on another customers car. Curtis wasn’t happy with parts swapping like that but it was a job and he may have thought you know what Charlie? I’m worth more than what you’re paying me and if you don’t want to give me a raise, I’m going to have to go. In the end I think a lot of stuff was over looked on my car because Charlie lost money. Well that is not my fault. I had upto 15K to spend when I had my car delivered to the shop. He had ample time to quote it so there is no excuse.
Well, as it would turn out Curtis did cease to work at RPM motors and upon doing so laid it out to me. He told me that Charlie did tell him to put my old blower on a certain maroon C6 corvette. The car belonged to a guy named Havier (or something like that). I’ve synopsized this story about the blower in the C5 F.I. section, I have received more than a couple PM’s from old customers and even old employees of RPM who have said that they have seen Charlie do the same stuff in the past. That is Rob peter to pay paul. i.e. putting one customers parts on another customers car to get that one out the door and then taking that money to buy parts for the customer he took them from.
Now, with in the past 4-5 months I had a conversation with Charlie and I finally told him what Curtis told me and he acted surprised and said, you know mike, Curtis has taken stuff from me in the past and it don’t surprise me that he told you that in an attempt to cover his own *** and make me look bad.
My only thoughts on that are why would he need to cover his own ***? He didn’t work for me or RPM when he told me what actually happened. Why would it take so long for him to not work there if he stole my blower as you suggest? Sure maybe he could say it to make Charlie and RPM look bad but for what? He actually asked me to never tell Charlie that I knew certain things but I did anyway because I wanted to get to the bottom of things? Curtis got pissed at me after he knew I told Charlie what I knew and told me to never contact him ever again.
So, obviously by now you guys can see that Charlie didn’t do what I wanted him to do. Instead he was very deceitful and did a bunch of half *** work on my car. Now I will say, he did give me 180 bucks for wasting my time and gas to drive up to get my car only to find it not ready. (this driving up to find my car not ready happened more than once) He also gave me 300 bucks after I wrote a pretty nasty email saying how un happy I was with the work on the car and that 300 bucks was what it cost me to fix the ****** routing job of the fuel pump hot wire kit. (IT WAS ON THE HEADER AND EVENTAULLY BURNED UP ALMOST CAUSING A FIRE)
So, now you have a majority of my version of my experience at RPM Motors Specialties Inc. I’m not looking for money or for Charlie to come in here and apologize for that. The only thing I’d like to get (which I probably just threw that in the garbage now) is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. is my cam card as promised as well as an itemized list of parts that were put into my engine that I was promised back in 2011. YES 2011.
All in all I still have not been able to enjoy my car.
I hope this review helps someone make a better informed choice.
03-19-2015, 03:20 PM
#9
ISIS SUCKS FAT CHOAD
Thread Starter
I have followed some of your threads in other postings with RPM.
Reading between the lines in your latest, one thing stood out, which, was not cool, violated trust, that you revealed confidential information from Curtis.
(EDIT: removed third party unrelated comment that was quoted.)
Reading between the lines in your latest, one thing stood out, which, was not cool, violated trust, that you revealed confidential information from Curtis.
(EDIT: removed third party unrelated comment that was quoted.)
One thing that I learned through this whole ordeal is that Charlie will manipulate both his employees and customers to his benefit. This happened with Curtis and I. The sad part is Ive have former employees of his and former customers tell me he does this and It went right in one ear and out the other. Why? Because at the time I thought I knew Charlie and I was drinking his cool aid big time!!!
The purpose of this thread is not to start a pissing contest but rather to give an experience. There have been plenty of others who have had similar dealings with aforementioned shop and person but choose for whatever reason not to post it publicly.
I choose to post my dealings publicly, If I can save one person from going through the same thing I did then that means this worked.
03-26-2015, 02:01 PM
#10
Team Owner
Member Since: Jan 2007
Location: cookeville tennessee
Posts: 28,846
Received 1,762 Likes
on
1,529 Posts
That is right.. I did do that. For the record, I have publicly and personally apologized to Curtis for that. Though it wasn't right, Curtis understands why I made the choice to reveal information he passed to me. It is not important for me to discuss those circumstances but know that Curtis understands that I did not reveal any information with malicious intent, I merely wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on.
One thing that I learned through this whole ordeal is that Charlie will manipulate both his employees and customers to his benefit. This happened with Curtis and I. The sad part is Ive have former employees of his and former customers tell me he does this and It went right in one ear and out the other. Why? Because at the time I thought I knew Charlie and I was drinking his cool aid big time!!!
The purpose of this thread is not to start a pissing contest but rather to give an experience. There have been plenty of others who have had similar dealings with aforementioned shop and person but choose for whatever reason not to post it publicly.
I choose to post my dealings publicly, If I can save one person from going through the same thing I did then that means this worked.
One thing that I learned through this whole ordeal is that Charlie will manipulate both his employees and customers to his benefit. This happened with Curtis and I. The sad part is Ive have former employees of his and former customers tell me he does this and It went right in one ear and out the other. Why? Because at the time I thought I knew Charlie and I was drinking his cool aid big time!!!
The purpose of this thread is not to start a pissing contest but rather to give an experience. There have been plenty of others who have had similar dealings with aforementioned shop and person but choose for whatever reason not to post it publicly.
I choose to post my dealings publicly, If I can save one person from going through the same thing I did then that means this worked.
03-26-2015, 09:15 PM
#11
Drifting
Charlie did some work for me some years ago. So who are his mechanics now? Quite a few have left.
03-27-2015, 12:47 AM
#12
ISIS SUCKS FAT CHOAD
Thread Starter
I'm not sure who he has now. In my tenure doing business with RPM when Charlie built my engine in 2011, Edwin was the mechanic there. When I brought my car there for the latest work I had done, Curtis was the head mechanic and fabricator. Curtis Left about 4-5 months before I got my car back and at that point it was just Charlie and Auston (possibly one helper)
03-28-2015, 02:45 PM
#16
ISIS SUCKS FAT CHOAD
Thread Starter
I've been contacted by the administrator savewave concerning this thread. I just want to say that savewave (Jim) has been very helpful and he asked me if there had been any sort of resolution or response from Charlie with any resolution to my complaints. I informed Jim that after several attempts to contact Charlie, I had not heard from him. Essentially savewave asked me what I was looking for in a resolution.
The point I wanted to make most clear is that what I want most from Charlie at this point, is a copy of my cam card which I was promised upon pick up of my car and the detailed list of components used in the engine he built for me back in 2011. I've been promised that list since 2011 and I was promised it again when I picked up my car this last time.
The only thing I received was a blue print sheet back in 2011 but as some of you may or may not know, the blue print sheet does not list an individualized list of components used in the engine.
I've already chalked up the misfortune that has occurred in my latest transaction as a loss. I'm not looking for money or any of that. If I wanted that I would go file a small claims case.
I just want my detailed list of parts and my cam card. This thread serves as a purpose to share my experiences.
The point I wanted to make most clear is that what I want most from Charlie at this point, is a copy of my cam card which I was promised upon pick up of my car and the detailed list of components used in the engine he built for me back in 2011. I've been promised that list since 2011 and I was promised it again when I picked up my car this last time.
The only thing I received was a blue print sheet back in 2011 but as some of you may or may not know, the blue print sheet does not list an individualized list of components used in the engine.
I've already chalked up the misfortune that has occurred in my latest transaction as a loss. I'm not looking for money or any of that. If I wanted that I would go file a small claims case.
I just want my detailed list of parts and my cam card. This thread serves as a purpose to share my experiences.
03-29-2015, 12:19 AM
#17
Team Owner
Member Since: Jan 2007
Location: cookeville tennessee
Posts: 28,846
Received 1,762 Likes
on
1,529 Posts
03-30-2015, 01:00 PM
#18
Drifting
I too, went through the same ordeal. 8 months. Although i am happy with the installations. I know there's lots of shops out there doing this all the time. Just wish it would narrow down to a few shops to do business with. Even if it cost more. Im located in Los Angeles. But if i have to. Ill ship my vette to the East Coast to have an honest shop do major work on my vette.
03-30-2015, 07:29 PM
#19
Melting Slicks
Member Since: Aug 2013
Posts: 2,491
Received 312 Likes
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227 Posts
St. Jude Donor '15-'16-'17-'18-'19-'20-'21-'22
Rick Kim of RKT Performance in Frederick, MD is a top mechanic. I will not let anyone else work on my car and am sure there are other Forum members who will agree with me.
He will explain in detail what needs to be done He will not push you to do unnecessary repairs. He has clients as far as the West Coast.
(NSV link removed)
He will explain in detail what needs to be done He will not push you to do unnecessary repairs. He has clients as far as the West Coast.
(NSV link removed)
Last edited by vettebuyer6369; 04-12-2015 at 11:56 PM. Reason: NSV link removed
03-31-2015, 09:45 AM
#20
Drifting
rktperformance
Rick Kim of RKT Performance in Frederick, MD is a top mechanic. I will not let anyone else work on my car and am sure there are other Forum members who will agree with me.
He will explain in detail what needs to be done He will not push you to do unnecessary repairs. He has clients as far as the West Coast.
http://rktperformance.com/
He will explain in detail what needs to be done He will not push you to do unnecessary repairs. He has clients as far as the West Coast.
http://rktperformance.com/