AMERICANMUSL - LAPD-No quality control!

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This is a bit long and well overdue...actually a continuation from my previous thread "blew my stroker"...you can do a search if you if you want the specifics.

As far as I'm concerned, my business with LAPD is done...I feel I have given them(Al)...he is the person I comunicated with @ LAPD...fair amount of consideration(most especially finance and patience) in regards toward my car.

After the 9K I dropped into the Stroker and the wonderful 500mi and 1/2 warm up lap at Big Willow, I hauled the car to LAPD with the assurance that Al would have the Engine torn apart by the end of the week.I told Al that it had racing Fuel in it and to call me when he hears something...I had also requested that when an actual determnation was concluded that I have all original parts shipped/picked up to/by me again...three weeks and many phone calls later, the results: no parts, engine is out at Engine builder but no conclusion ...2 weeks and more phone calls to Al: bent forged steel Lunati Crank, Oil Pump malfunctioned, thrust bearing destroyed on side facing away from Clutch, crack in block, pistons/rods/cam/lifters and top end still good...Al's conclusion was either bad detonation and or Oil pump...After some deliberaton, I decide to pull plug and haul the thing home. Al states that he could put Stroker package together including labor for just over 2200.00(my cam, lifters pistons and rods and top end), since I just previously spent a small fortune and alluded to fact that during the first build he should have upgraded the Oil pump. I accept and state that I still want the orig parts and want the heads and manifold to be port matched and to pin crank. In addition, give the car a once over and replace(after calling me) anything need be. Al tells me 2 weeks...2 weeks later--- no parts, no progress...he is having trouble finding a crank for price we discussed...3 days later---no progress, no parts. Al does tell me the clutch assembly needs replacing so I purchase Centerforce and deliver it...Al then tells me that the project is looking to be under 3500.00 with clutch install but no labor for exhaust as engine will be out as well...I agree and ask Al to call me ASAP...I call one week later to find out parts are supposedly being cleaned and inquire on progress. Par for course, no parts, no progress but with extra labor for cleaning lines,Accusump, slave cylinder, Flywheel etc, he would try to keep the price under 5K At this point, I just want my car back but decide to take advantage of the LPE short block(346 as I could not afford the stroker currently), I saw on this forum and decide to re-use my top end and cam with the new set up...Al states I'll need some head work to which I agreed and it would take 2 weeks later after the engine arrive from LAPD...I ask him how much are we looking at and he a=states that he will make it worth my while...2 weeks later after Engine is there and assembled but not in car or complete I call and ask for update...Al being a bit long winded says 1 week. I tell him jokingly, will it be ready before Xmas...one week before Xmas I call and find out Engine is in car but...I tell Al if car is not ready by Friday 24th I'm trailering it home...Friday I arrive and it is not complete...stay there for 4 hrs for them to complete and Al tells me Accusumpi valve they had ordered is not slip fit like orig so Sump and Oil cooler is not hooked up. I still paid 200.00 for the uninstalled valve, however...I should have looked the car over more thorough but just wanted to get on the road. Oh yeh, still no parts I ended up paying him some, well well over the orig est...didn't care, just glad to be in the car again! While on the highway...ping,ping,ping and 1/2 doz codes PO 131,134,171,174, 1133,1153 and strong fuel smell...call Al and he states come back for tune next week...probably due to racing fuel he forgot! I take it to buddy's car shop that day and this is what we had found: Oil leaking from disabled Sump and lines to ground was dirty and had minute metal shavings, leak from transmission from cracked fill hole, rear diff oil cooler pump frozen, gas leak from fuel tank tube, idle stalls/rough/rich, the worst botch of this whole thing was that the pcv system had air leaks everywhere(one hose was actually held together (loosely) to another by a spark plug wire insulator ...since then a majority of issues have occured too long(yeh right) to list...lets just say intermitant limp modes and upshifts

6 weeks of trouble shooting and such, my vette compadres have convinced me to seek Andy's help as she is very ill

I have not been in touch with Al or LAPD since and since I am not looking for anything in return, I felt (with the encouragemnet of other vette owners aware of my misfortune) that I need to advise those that regardless of LAPD likelyhood of hiring a few shoddy people, it appears they have no quality control for there finished product.

Yeh, Dope!

Starting to educate myself slowly...I'm really more upset with myself for going along with it for so long so I might save a few bucks...expensive lesson! I'm trying one more time with Andy of A$A corvettes...hopefully nothing major is wrong and he does me right! :rolleyes:

I don't owe them anything as I do not want anything...I realize there are those satisfied customers I'm not one of them and as far as parts ordering, not an issue for me in the past...I'm a Firefighter by trade and I give credit where credit is due but again no quality control...I'm a back yard mechanic at worst and my forte is in the first gen motors...these comp controlled engines are a mystery to me which is why I let others work on them...after a thorough inspection of my car, it was clearly rushed...there is absolutely, completely no excuse for the botch work that was done to my car(it took 5 hours on the rack to re-route oil lines and D/C Accusump just to get oil cooler functional)...again, I do not owe LAPD any consideration whatsoever...I do appreciate the feedback and expect the rest but take note of your cars---no quality control!

Who is AL? Al is the Engine tech at LAPD who oversees all projects...he is also the Ex engine tech of MorganMotorSports!

I also had a bad experience with LAPD

I was looking got the best deal on 04 Z06 shocks and LAPD happened to have the best price (i thought)

Snawn told me that he would match Fred Beans price of 322$ shipped but when i checked my Credit Card bill he charged me 345$, so i give him a call and he tell me the difference was CA tax ( i am in Ca)

I thought 322$ was shipped price but i was tricked

I shoulf have bought shocks from a different VENDOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MUKAKsC5,

Is that a joke? If you are a CA resident you have to pay sales tax, period. I didn't know we had to spell that out. Doesn't that go without saying? If you were so unhappy, you should have let us know and we would have refunded your money. Didn't know paying the obligatory CA sales tax made you so unhappy and if you were in doubt in anyway, you should have asked. Forum members ask me tons of little detailed questions before purchasing and we answer them happily because we don't want them feeling as if we left them in the dark in anyway.

Ed,

It would have been a bit nicer or more considerate to allow us to handle the situation or take care of the issue before posting. We would have made it right no questions asked. That is our philosophy and everyone that has dealt with LAPD so far has seen nothing but our best efforts set forth.

I am not going to post a long drawn out explanation other than the fact that we would have made it right if we were contacted initially and like you said you never contacted us to allow us the chance to rectify this so what was the point of posting a long run on paragraph?

Sorry you feel that you had to take a lot of time posting a long story rather than pick up the phone and call us. Other shops have issues with vehicles as well, but when they are brought up those shops fix them and that is why nobody hears about it. Nobody is perfect and I would never claim that, but we aren't the only ones that make slight errors sometimes. In fact, we have re-done A LOT of other shops' inferior and mickey mouse worksmanship and continue to do so to date.

We have been on this forum for over 5 years now which is longer than most of the other shops or vendors here and have earned respect because of the way we conduct ourselves. This post is just evident that you have gone out of your way to attempt to harm our reputation and I am sure the forum members see that.

Respectfully,

Shawn

Dan, That boot thing was at another location...I know what you are talking about...this was actually a spark plug insulator.

Shawn, thanx for the grammar lesson(guess those 4 years of CoLlaGe were all for not) I expected some feed back from AL actually but simply put, if you are the owner of that business and my car is an example of your reputation, you should have nothing to worry! Al will talk his way into another job just like when he was with MorganMotorsports.

I just want to tell everyone here that it is my life long ambition to harm your rep ...through encouragement of other fellow Vette owners I decided to do write this as this is a forum after all and since I have recommended and refered many Vette comrades to your business, I felt they should be aware of certain issues.

The lines of communication often are the first to fail any business/profession...I deal with this on a daily basis with my job...this is why I pride myself on clarity...I was very specific with Al and my Info/ requests/timelines with the car and he/you did not meet one of them. Take that back...I did get the car back the day before Xmas.

Phone call...are you kidding! Too numerous to mention!

Again, poor quality control.
Aplogoes for the bad GrAmAr!

Ed,

Bottom line here is that the opportunity to fix whatever issue the vehicle had or has should have been given to us. We were never made aware of the issue so how would we resolve it? Posting back and forth on this forum is NOT going to resolve or fix the car, will it?

The second the car had issues, we should have had that car back, PERIOD. What more can we say?

Shawn

Never bought parts or had work done by LAPD but have heard about alot of bad business from them. I will never be a customer.