It's a good thing I have a sense of humor.

I just pulled my short block from the second machine shop after they stored it for 11 months. Don't mind the second short block in line that is rusting to my engine stand in the shop. All I needed was a balance, rods resized, and a few other small things. The shop owner informed me that he a) sold the business and is retiring b) really, really sorry (I don't deal in sorry) and c)don't worry we are going to hit it hard next week. Nice guy, but delusional.

After six months of "two weeks, your trans is third in line" the folks at Lenco finally shipped my brand new ST1200 4-speed. It disappeared at the UPS facility in Fontana, CA and has not surfaced since. If they don't find it by Friday we are going to have to make a claim. I am not doing so good on this Lenco deal but the irony is kind of humorous, no?

Lastly, to really get thing going the right direction I dropped off my last running and driving muscle car at the painter on Saturday. I might have to pump up the air in my bicycle tires if things don't turn around.

I'm a patient, cash paying customer but the Hellcat route is looking pretty good right now. If you have a running car enjoy it! My red car has no engine, black car no engine/trans, and now the silver Coronet is in body shop jail. Sans the Lenco I have everything to make each project complete. Why is it so hard to get people to work these days? How do you pay your bills without income? It baffles me to no end.

Welcome to the wonderful world of...

While I cannot understand how any shop can possibly keep their doors opened with either (a) poor schedules and/or inaccurate work, (b) the inability to perform said work due to lack of knowledge and experience, (c) common sense AND good work/business practices. It bewilders me to see the lackadaisical attitudes of today?! Hope things turn around for your cars...

Perhaps I am more suited to model railroading? Can we convert the upstairs shop? Howdy neighbor!

Man do I feel your pain! I ordered a fiberglass trunk lid in December of last year. Still waiting. I ordered a dana 60 form Strange in January. Still waiting. I am hoping to have the parts, that I ordered and should I say paid for, before the end of race season.
Good luck,

Digger73 (Mike)

I can better that, I think. About 5 years ago I decided I wasn't going fast enough with my B1 stuff (7.30's@183 in Vegas) in my dragster. I had a few bucks save and thought I could afford to either the PSO's, or the Predators. All the while all of my GM buddies were telling me I was wasting my money, that I should go that route, but I explained the need to stay with the Mopar stuff.
So I call a guy to remain nameless, and start on a Predator project. I believe that was the beginning of 2010. The plan was to start with a mildly ported set of heads, a chinese 4.500 stroke crankshaft, and build a 572. By the time I was done, I had an aluminum 604 with all the bells and whistles, and was around 38K into it not counting all the parts I bought and sent. It was finished at the end of 2010, went in the car in the beginning of 2011, made 20 passes, was light on oil pressure and ran a best of 7.20@186 with a tail wind and was shipped back to be fixed. The guy I bought everything from took very good care of me through all of this.
That engine lasted 7 more passes. When it blew up, it took out the cam, rods, block, crankshaft, pistons, all the lifters (Isky EZ rolls) needed repair, rocker arms were mostly unusable, you get the idea. Anyway you get the idea.
Again, the guy that sold me all the parts gave me every part he had saved for himself to help compensate for the engine. He is and was a very stand up guy. I put in the old dependable B1 original engine and put another 110 passes on it.
In the meantime, I sold all my B1 original stuff and bought some B1/MC heads and started gathering parts to build another Predator. A friend of mine here (boatracer 572) helped me get that engine together at the end of last year. He has been running the original Predator stuff for years successfully, and he has been a great help. Oh, and the reason Tony said he would help was because my parts and such sat in a machine shop that will also remain nameless for over a year. When I received the motor, it went into the car, I started it up, and it was leaking massive amounts of water into the valley. No one really knew what head gaskets to on the hemi block, with wedge (Predator) deads, so we had to guess. After over $1200 in gaskets being shipped back and forth, I finally stopped the head gasket leaking issue.
Because of the water leakage into the valley diluting the oil several times, and there were other issues too long to mention, it spun the main bearings at MATS earlier this year, 7 passes.
Tony (boat racer) also helped me with another Predator engine, but it still needed some final touches to finish it up when I picked it up.
So.....here I sit with 2 engines that are almost ready and I will miss the first 4 out of 9 races we have in Salt Lake City, this year.
The good new is, I didn't hurt anything too bad and both are almost ready.

Oh brother. I guess I'm not the only guy with two large buildings full of disassembled, half finished projects? It really starts to grate on me having all of these loose ends. As I told machine shop #3 I don't have time to make money to pay the bill and prod my project along. I'm not even doing anything exotic either. In the meantime we acquired a bulldozer in case I decide to smash everything and bury it out behind the shop.

Anybody ever try wood working? Perhaps glass mosaic art would suite me better?

Fiberglass business is a subset of the auto body industry which seems to be largely made of crack heads. I have thrown away more of the glass parts we purchased over the years than we actually used.

On the Strange Dana did you order it directly from them? I was thinking of getting one for my red stick car to save time instead of narrowing a housing. Now I am concerned about that too lol.

Anyody into brewing beer? That could be pretty fun.

There are some good machine shops over in Oregon and Washington that get things done. I can get you some names if you like, just PM me. We have less shops in Salt Lake.

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On the Strange Dana did you order it directly from them? I was thinking of getting one for my red stick car to save time instead of narrowing a housing. Now I am concerned about that too lol.
[/quote]

The dana issue isn't on Strange. It has to do with the gears. It seems that the 4.30 pro gears are only manufactured by one company. This has been the hang up all along. I have read several threads on this board and others that the 4.30 pro gears are never on the shelf. Referring back to your comment of how do they stay in business? If they have the monopoly on a very in demand part they can do as they wish. To answer your other question. No, I did not order straight from Strange. I ordered through Dr. Diff. Cass has been very helpful through this whole adventure. I strongly recommend him and I will use his service in the future.
As for jumping to another hobby, I have considered underwater basket weaving.

Digger73 (Mike)

I was lucky as I received my lesson at the age of 20. I waited 13 months for an engine to be built for me and I told him when I picked it up I would never wait for an engine again. He laughed and said ok. My first engine not only lasted longer than his did but it was quicker too. It takes my machine shop 7-10 days to machine a block, sometimes less then I take over. I wait for no one as I even took night classes for painting cars

I had to wait on a 4.88 pro gear for a dana also.

I waited 3 years for a block, 2-1/2 years once for a set of heads. It can get very frustrating at times. I've had excellent service from most of the shops I've dealt with but it's that minority that can really throw a monkey wrench in one's plans. I took up competitive smallbore shooting.Dave

My machine shop is a two man operation, they turn pretty much everything around within a week, and always have 3-4 engines on stands getting assembled in there. They move quite a few engines from what I can see. I don't know what takes some places months/years to get stuff machined.

I'm into drinking it!

I got tired of the BS every time I turn around it was more money and more money. Took up all my spare time so I've just stopped for awhile. I've stopped before, sometimes for years. When it ceases to be fun it's time to lay off and re evaluate my priorities. So I've just been enjoying life, playing my guitars and learning new songs. I've been thinking of hitting a few open mike nights around town to see what the reaction is.

Wood working doesn't work either. I have a half finished couch and chair upstairs in my makeshift woodshop. I need an extra set of hands to help with cutting some mortises. Seems like when I have time, my friends are all tied up or out of town. I may just make a jig to hold everything. Then back to the cars.

Viola! One down, about eight hundred to go!

I appreciate the input and perspective. It's funny how you can't win sometimes.

I had an Aunt named Viola.

The word is Voila, from the French 2 words voi, see and la, this. Or, see this!

That's some pretty aluminum.

R.

Thanks for the lesson on that one.

I almost fell off my stool when the machine shop (#3) called! I dropped my 1st engine off for pin fitting, balancing, etc. last Friday. They said bring the other short block/parts and we should be good to go.

If I would have know that this post was going to solve all of my problems I would have made it allot sooner.

That's what it takes. I learned to do some sheetmetal work on my own since all the shops around here wanted to put me on their list but somehow I never made it to the top. I'm just glad they didn't bring the car in but never finish it.