I was finally getting my dream come true. I have always wanted a muscle car and now I was doing it.
I had spent allot of money on high performance parts, but I still was having problems with my engine, a 302. I heard of a guy, Ron Steel, supposed to be the "mustang mechanic" who new the in and outs of buliding an engine. So I took it over to him and said would you look at this and see if you can fine tune it. He said sure. I left it with him and that afternoon I got a call from Mr. Steel. Mr. Steel said there were some major problems with the engine and for me to come over and look at it.
Upon arriving he said the only thing that he could do to find out the problem was to remove the engine and take a look at it. I told him to go ahead. I asked Mr. Steel how long he would have my car. He told me not to be in a hurry. That should have been my first clue.
He gave me an estimate of two thousand dollars and that he would require half of the money up front, so I handed him a thousand.
A couple of weeks went by and I hadn't heard from him so I decided to call him. Well he told me that I was going to need a new block and crank because whomever did the machine work screwed it up. I said ok, lets get it done. Well a year and a half later I finally get a call and he tells me that it is finished. I go over and I can't believe my eyes. The engine is virabrating so much its shaking the whole car. I ask him if this is normal. He says it will smooth out. Now during this year and a half my car was sitting on his lot. During this time it got broken into by some drug addicted person who smashed out my window and stole my CD player. He did offer to replace the window, which he did, but said nothing about replacing my CD palyer.
So finally I got my car away from him. I thought I was home free. One day I started my Mustang up and heard a loud pop from the engine. I thought this cannot be good. I hauled it over to another mechanic and he said it threw a rod. He said who ever put this thing, the engine, together did not know what they were doing. So I spent another thousand getting my heads redone.
Now during this time I am not driving this car anywhere. I didn't even have a tag for it.
Finally, after all this the car is finally running. I get a tag for it, and I took it to a performance shop to have my fuel pump relocated.
Driving my mustang there it starts knocking a little. I let Steve, who is the owner of the speed shop listen. He says it sounds like the bearings, but there is no way to be sure unless he takes the engine out. I think to myself here we go again.
He told me he would take it out and see if there was anything wrong with it and let me know.
Well I got a call from him and its a good thing I let him take a look at it. He told me that the crank has pits in it, the cam shaft was missing a lobe and the block had been welded together.
By the way, my total bill at the FixEm up shop came to 2642.98 inculding tax.
Needless to say I do not know which steps I should take. If I take Mr. Steel to court, I doubt I will see any of my money. This has been the worst job I have ever seen from a so-called mechanic. If by chance you read this and live in the Asheville, NC area don't take your car to him or recommend him to no one. He'll rip you off just like me.
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