Don't ship your head if you can avoid it!
MAXRPM:I really feel for you man I had the exact same thing happen to me (another head guy)
Someone asked if you were burned why not speak up well quiet frankly it can be pretty traumatic and you don't even want to think about it.. I didn't.
Here is my story err slash that book err Nightmare! I don't want to steal your thread with huge long story just thought its kinda related and will give people a second thought about shipping your head somewhere!
The Hook:
I sent my head to a very well known head porter in CA. I'm in IL btw. My dad is not even into cars for the last 20 years and he knew his name. He had done allot of heads for the same engine, has a flow bench machine for port matching etc. I really felt good about sending it to him vs. local shop that is used to doing big blocks.
I gave him a call told him wanted to do and I had a budget of I think 1500-2000 at the time and made sure he knew it (some $$$ ferrea stuff, new oem lifter buckets/shims etc cost allot so maybe half was labor). He was a great talker on the phone, really friendly guy, also really knows what he is doing and that is true. He gave me a printout of what I was going to get for my money.
The Turn:
Sent the head out nicely packed sent a deposit to cover the parts. He said it would take maybe a month. Thats when it went bad. Hard to get ahold of him (later i found out he screens all his calls, and basically doesn't answer it if he knows who it is and he is still taking sales calls). Then he gives me bad news that his shop got broken into but my stuff is ok its just going to take a long time to get his equipment hooked up because they messed up his power or some bs. Months go by basically with more and more excuses and once and a while he says he got something done, always hard to contact he has to be in the right mood to answer for you..
After a full year of being in contact with him once every 2-3 months. I was starting to give up but whenever I would talk to him he was so friendly and assured me he still has my stuff and its almost done.. its just that some bs happened or he has all these race cars that pay him $$$$$$ he has to do first. This was all very painful and my project was on hold for this head..
The Surprise:
I finally talk to him and he tells me that he just got finished working on it and its basically done and he is going to send me a updated bill. (I already paid like 1500 of 2000 by now so I am expecting 500)
I get the bill and he wants 3500(2000 i owe now..) total now and its all explained.. He got every coating you can get.. coated valves, coated chamber, coated cams, coated cam bearing caps and on the head cant remember technical name heh.. Yeah its cool but..$800 just in coatings on the head... +more expense to him he basically found a way to charge the most he could.
What to do?? Every time I give the guy a hard time he just ignores my calls for 3 months.. He says he already had all the coatings done for sure, and he says he its “about” done and getting ready to ship. So I call up and tell him I didn't want all this stuff but that if its done I'll just pay because I want it now no more bs. I didn't even have the money, my dad gave me the money for this..
Days later I call him up to see if it shipped and nothing, i get ignored i think. I call a few times during the next weeks. Then finally he answers and gives me some more BS about him just finishing it up and he is going to box it up... really weeks later? I thought it was done before.. @#$%(@ now i know i just lost more money and the whole thing is going to be a write off...
Over the next months he still will answer once and a while, still talk friendly and say its going to be done someday but just not today....
The Plan:
So finally I get fed up after year two of not having my head and out almost 4k and also I have 20k worth of car sitting around getting rusty waiting on it. He is still answering my calls and says he has it which I was trusting was true I decide that I'm just going to drive there and camp out in-front of his building until I get my head back no matter what.
Note of stupidity: ..I don't even want to tell you what I did on this trip because looking back I am really ashamed and feel very very stupid for handling it this way.
I drive about 3500mi round trip (in the TDI woo!) driving to CA and back to go out to his shop. When I got there he was very shocked to see me! I had a friend that lived about 100miles away from the guys shop so I had a free place to stay. He had just moved to that state so no he was not around before to check on it for me.
When arrive I tell him I need my head, its hard to get ahold of you and its taking too long etc. He is a little bit put off that I did not trust him to finish it but he is ok and starts going around to get my things together. He is very friendly guy he supports his local church like crazy etc its really really hard to stay mad at this guy. So I ask him what would it take to just finish it. If I help can we get it all done today?, or the next couple days? He quickly gets happy again and says yeah sure. He says sorry a bunch of times and feels bad for not finishing my head etc.. He gets my head out and starts working on it.
I go out with my friend and come back later in the day to find him working on something else!?!? I'm like *** I need this before I go.. I thought you WANTED to finish it and do the work i paid you for? He basically says he has like no money to pay this months rent on his shop and his utility bills and he has to finish this other job for money...
The Mad Man:
After I spend more time with him its very clear to me whats wrong with his business and why he has peoples heads for long periods of time without doing work.:
He is a moral guy that is way into his church and wants to complete all the work. But he has very bad Adult ADD that is untreated. He trys to handle everything sales, paperwork, maintain his shop, complete jobs and he cant at all he just goes around randomly doing things that are unimportant and not jobs that could pay. He is not good without direction and he used to work under his father who was a expert tuner/porter. He is way strapped for cash he eats roman noodles every day. That is why he asks for payments in advance or he tricks people into thinking its done when its not because he really just needs the money right then.. he really thinks he will get the work done but it ends up getting put to the side.
Anyway.. so my trip..
I was traveling with someone that took off work to go vacationing somewhat nearby and was staying in a hotel. I end up driving to the shop every day from my friends house to make sure the guy stays focused on my head. The way it was when I arrived it was ported and had all the coatings he billed me for but none of the valve work was done, and also he didn't even have the valve stuff that i paid for.. Which was probably what was going on.. he used my money to pay bills and not to buy parts and now even if he wants to finish my head he cant because he cant afford to buy them..
Basically he worked on my head but is very very slow about it and constantly gets distracted with these other things he needs to get money for his bills... I help him as best I can just so I can get my damn head finished and not pay another person to finish what he started.. But basically he BSed me good he spent as much time as he could on the head without ordering the parts needed to finish it and he wouldn't actually tell me that.. I didn’t find out he was missing parts until my trip was almost over. He knows I already paid him for the parts, and to ask for money would be wrong, and to also tell me that he didnt buy the parts would be wrong, and he didnt want to send me away without finishing the job. He honestly thinks if he just finishes this other job then he will use that money to buy my parts and we can be cool... and he will not have to feel bad about ripping me off for the rest of his life or whatever.
My time runs out and he convinces me to stay more days to get things finished so I do, my friend has to take more days off of work and is paying 100+ a night at a fancy hotel.. I am driving 200miles a day going to his shop.. I stay a extra 2-3 days for nothing.
Here is the part that I will never forgive myself for.. Against my girlfriends advice I freaking leave the head with him to finish instead of taking it with me. I honestly don't know what I was thinking, he is just so friendly and I really thought if he got the money he would buy the parts for my head..
Trip over.. still no head. I’m an idiot.
The Regret:
Months.. few calls.. Regret. I get angry with him, and he ignores me.. I tell my local friend go by the shop to pick it up and my friend will just ship it to me. When my friend shows up and asks him about my head he gets furious at him for apparently the way my friend was being demanding of him and its not his business or something?? No idea, he represented me it so it is his business. I get very depressed that I left the head with him in the first place.. almost give up on it entirely and then finally decide that the only way I am going to get this back is to drive there like I did the first time and instead of asking what would it take to finish this, instead I just take the stuff and go.
I plan my trip this time my dad wants to go with me and I am glad because he is very good at dealing with people and not getting taken advantage of..
The Second Trip:
Another 3000 round miles this time in a giant gasser..
My father and I show up at the guys shop and this time since he knew what I looked like he basically completely ignored me / shut me out at first. Then after taking 5min to get himself to together he finally comes over and says hi welcome back sorry I’m STILL not done with your head..
We spend a good hour or so finding my parts, lots are missing. The intake manifold he did tons of work to and apparently it got stolen, I had expensive cams and stuff at his shop that he couldn’t find that day. We are basically ready to load up my stuff and go but this time my dad says what will it take to just finish it today kind of thing…. OH NO!
So I get with my dad and basically tell him that I already did all this and he just kept BSing me and didn’t actually finish it. And the stress.. I honestly can not keep doing this, I cant take another go around.. I cant drive to his shop each day to supervise again, I don’t want to spend any more time around him.. He basically agrees that he will do everything and I can just have a vacation in CA. He will do the supervising & he would much rather see me finish this project now and not have to find another guy or buy all these tools and learn to do it. I still fight him on it and don’t really agree but say ok.
The Mad Man Round 2:
I still do get involved, I don’t want to put all the burden on my father. However he supervises him for me. The guy didn’t have valve guides for my head (I paid for them already) so I think on day 2 or something he tells us to go pick them up from this 50mile away shop that makes them. I go drive to pick them up and surprise the cost and number of guides is twice what’s in my car.. He wants me to pickup guides for someone else’s head at the same time (pay for them). Get the F out!?? You serious? This is why I wanted to just go home… My dad decides that since its only $25 or whatever to just buy them and doesn’t ask for the money. (Also my dad buys him food etc)
Guides go in, he finds half of the valves (all paid for of course). He finds half of the lifter buckets (all paid for..).. Finally finds my cams.. Basically he puts most together and as finished as he can without actually having all the parts. He kind of sells it like he can’t get the parts in time but really he just cant buy the parts period. I think we left after 4-5 days, also stayed in hotel this time so more money.
Looking Back..
That it.. Last time I delt with the guy, he has called me a couple times since and I don’t answer his calls. That head is honestly a work of art, he did have skills and it has every freeking coating you can get on it but in the end with all the trips and hotels.. It probably cost me 4x what I wanted and took 48 times as long. It took so long that the rest of my project fell though and all that money basically went to nothing. I don’t even have a place to work on it if I could finish the car… I have a million dollar head coffee table for now.. one day I will put that car together. The whole deal just took so much out of me its hard to even think about that car.
So I guess in summary, Go local if you can!!! Once you have a bad feeling about a guy don’t give him more money! It may be worth just cutting your losses.. In my case I would of lost 1500 +1000worth of head and +600 worth of cams.. so 3100 loss. In the end with the time, hotel, gas, increased cost I ended up spending something like 6k+ and its still missing parts… If I had just cut my loss I would have had 3k to buy a new head and send to a new trusted local source.