Hi Guys,

I'm unfortunately in urgent need of someone who can pick up my 2.0 engine and hold on to it for a week or so till I can fetch it.

The engine has been at a rebuilder for 6 months. He's been paid in full for the work (long story) and has a bunch of new parts I supplied. I've seen pictures of the motor assembled, but it hasn't started...despite multiple promises for the past 4 months that "it'll run tomorrow." I'm getting the full monty of BS... tall tales...avoiding calls for weeks...sickness...family excuses...you name it. I finally spoke with the guy tonight and the situation has gone from bad to much worse.

Running or not, at this point the engine needs to be out of his shop...if he even still has it. Yeah, it's that bad.

So...if there's anyone in the Charlotte area who can help, please PM me and I'll give you more details. Happy to pay you or make a donation to your favorite charity. Or, if you have any suggestions on frieght companies that might be able to handle this, please lmk.

PS If you have a sense of who I may be talking about, please don't guess in this thread. There'll be plenty of time to tell the full story once everything is in my possession. Hopefully it will have a happy ending, but right now I have that sinking feeling...and need to act quickly.

Someday this will make an interesting video....

Thanks,

Ian

I am North of Charlotte I can help
I am heading to CT at Christmas time and can bring the engine north to you at that
time..... I will send you a private message with my contact info so we can talk

Oh crud - fingers crossed.

Thanks so much, Joe. This community is awesome. Definitely a bright spot in this dark deal.

I read the reviews and saw how many stars for each place I plan to possibly do work for my car. Great to have lots of experience on the VWs and/or 914s

A thousand thanks to @joea9146 for rescuing my engine!

Happy to report that the "seal team 914" mission was a success...though the story keeps getting crazier. Can't wait till I can share all of the deets. For now, I'm just focused on getting the car and all its parts under my roof. And that's now possible, thanks entirely to Joe and this forum.

The generosity and "pay it forward" spirit of this community is awe inspiring. Kinda renews my faith in humanity in these nutty times.

Here's a pic of the engine just after its liberation.

Fun videos to come. THANKS JOE!!!!!


Click to view attachment

Always great when a plan comes together. Button it up and stuff it in.

There’s a good video on YouTube that shows how... :

Its all there too!

Great job guys!

I hope it all gets better for you now

Bob B

Phew!

Can't wait to hear the story but glad to see you didn't get burned.

Thanks. This story will be worth the wait. Like @mikey914 's new relays.

My plan was to take a bumblebee from roller to the street, creating a full video series of each step. I thought the first video would be "rear bearings and trailing arms." Instead, it's gonna be called "some people will do and say anything." Either way...entertaining

Fortunately, the car itself is fine. It's a real bumblebee (at least the VIN, title and registry say so), and it appears to be very solid. What remains to be seen is how much effort will be needed to get it to the point I thought I already paid for.

Glad to see you have the engine in safe hands.
Sounds like a cool concept for documenting the LE.
Good luck Ian. Looking forward to more.

“What remains to be seen is how much effort will be needed to get it to the point I thought I already paid for.”

Amen. BTDT.

were you able to solve the mystery of the headlight bucket?

I am very pleased to see you recovered your engine. We 914 owners and World members, tend to be trusting and consequently are occasionally taken advantage of. Not nice. I can only tell you putting that experience in your rear view is gratifying and with time the pain fades.

Thanks, guys. and Cairo...you're absolutely right. There's so much good will here that it's easy to let your guard down. Lesson(s) learned. Glad to see that the craziness you went through with your car is well in your rear view and fading....

FYI I'm not going public about the shop...yet....for a few reasons. 1) They owe me some parts and there's still time for the owner to at least partially redeem himself, and 2) I've lost enough time on this deal already...I really don't want to engage in a pissing match or compare my experience to others who may have been happy with this shop. That said, I think it's super important to share info so others can make more educated decisions. Once this deal is totally done I will name names and either credit them for making good on the issues, or call them out for unprofessionalism. In the meantime, I'm happy to chat privately if anyone is considering a shop in the area.

Thanks so much for the support!

It goes to the saying trust but verify.
We do tend to be quite trusting. But it's always good form to check.

Ian sorry this happened to you, but this could have been any one of us.

I had looked at this purchase but found a local one. I honestly can say it did look like a good solid deal.

Well put, Mark. More backstory to help others...

I did a fair amount of homework, checking a bunch of online reviews of this shop and the positive experiences vastly outnumbered the negative ones...online anyway. Every shop has some customers that aren't happy, so I tend to look at the ratio and overall volume. Also, the owner definitely knew his stuff, was communicative (in the beginning) and seemed like a good guy. I consider myself a pretty good judge of character and can confidently say this guy is skilled at deception. How calculated and pre-meditated that deception is remains to be seen. But this guy definitely has a problem being transparent and prioritizes whatever work will pay him the most at that moment. Then he does that work in the quickest possible way, with little regard for quality.

The lesson learned for me in hindsight is to actually request pics and/or a portfolio of cars they've worked on before trusting that their standards are in sync with mine. And to solicit online feedback, rather than just search for it. It's amazing how many people have PM'd me and guessed this shop correctly, telling me horror stories and tales of its fall from grace. None of which appears online.

Live and learn. And as you (and Reagan) say, trust, but verify!

What shape is the chassis in now?

Maybe a build party should be planned? Get it running and on the road.

Wow great result,lucky the builder let the engine go,shame it wasn't run,I've just done a 1.8 t4 carb build,theres always small jobs to do after test running,I had 2 small oil leaks and an exhaust leak to deal with,but more of a hassle to run up a FI out of the car also sounds like the guy was just lazy,sad really because you most likely payed for that .
Well you can only move on and go up from here as this sort of thing is a lot of grief, good luck .

Happy to help and great that you have the engine back in your possession..... Well almost see you in a couple of weeks. Hopefully things will get better for you and your build from here forward

Bullet dodged. One for the good guys. Excellent !

The chassis is in pretty good shape. Needs some minor metal work before paint. If anyone can recommend a body guy within 100 miles or so of NYC who knows 914s, I'd appreciate it.

Tangerine Racing

Yeah, Chris was my first call. Not sure he has the time/space.

I'm really glad to hear you have or are recovering OK from the predicament! A few years back I went thru a similar thing with a shop/owner in the process of 'imploding' who had several customer cars and engines trapped in his shop. It was approaching BAR and lawyer territory. Nobody needs that sort of stress and hassle, especially when you're trying to just have fun with a car project. Our particular mess was resolved satisfactorily though... whew.

Onwards and upwards with your project!

Cheers,