Can't get engine back from builder..been 3 months...help!
 

So here's the story....it's long and detail oriented so check out now if you don't want to read it all.

The guy who does my engines for the shop works out in the Bethelehem area of PA. Builds sprint cars motors for a living. I took the engine for the 66 Mustang I'm doing to him 3 months ago today. Just for a stock rebuild...should have been 3-4 weeks tops. Then the fun began. First he accidently ordered the wrong pistons. Then he started assembling the shortblock and fell sick with pneumonia. That knocked him out for about 2-3 weeks. Then he finished the shortblock and realized they sent him the wrong lifters so we wait for them. He's sick again....trouble breathing, tired, etc. Lifters show up. Finally about 3 weeks ago he starts putting the heads on. While he's putting the one on, the other one on the bench tips over and bends 3 valves. New valves arrive a few days later...wrong size....close but have to be cut. Finally they get cut. He gets REALLY sick. In the hospital 3 times a day for monitoring of his bloodpressure. Now let me give you a little background....this guy is 46 weights probably close to 400lbs and has already had 1 heart attack....he's a timebomb waiting to go off, but he builds great engines. Well I got him on his cell yesterday and he was in the hospital with a bloodpressure of 200 over 90....they wanted to admit him and said he could have a stroke but he wanted to leave. He told me his son was supposed to let someone else into his shop last night to finish my engine and then the son would call me. Well I got no call. I tried calling him honestly about 50 times today with no answer. I even went as far as to call the hospital out by him to see if they had him listed as a patient and they don't. So now I have no idea how to get my engine back because he's the only one who works at the shop and I only have his shop and cell numbers so I can't even call his house and hope his son is there. How do I get my engine back??
These are the few options I see and frankly I don't like any of them:
1. Wait it out and see if he calls me, could happen or he honestly could have died and I wouldn't know it.
2. Try to get in touch with a lawyer and get a court order to have the shop opened by the Sheriff and get my stuff out. Very difficult, I already checked with a lawyer friend of mine.
3. Go there and break in and take it back, running the risk of being arrested, going to jail, etc.

I'm open to any and all suggestions.

how far is his shop from you?
is the car otherwise done and ready for the engine to drop in and leave?

if the car is to the point that it only needs the engine i would keep calling and maybe take a run out to his shop to see if you can get a final answer.
if you need the motor now and he can't get it done immediately i would pick up the engine and demand a partial refund for whatever another shop will charge for the final assembly.

Shop is 1.5 hours away. Car is done and ready for the engine to be dropped in...has been for months now.

Running out to his shop could very easily be a 3 hour waste of time unfortunately. Like I said he's the only one who works there so chances are there will be nobody there when I stop by. This rules out picking it up incomplete as well.

i would recommend going by and at least leaving a letter under the door, that way if he never comes back to the shop, at least whoever cleans it out will have your info at least. and in the mean time keep calling him.

That's not a bad idea.....hopefully someone would see the note. Maybe I should just laminate it and staple it to the door? Atleast then it won't get swept up without being looked at.

switchboard??? to get a house number or something??

You have a PM. JR.

tried switchboard.....only got the shop number

reverse directory on the cell number?

reverse on a cell with only provide original carrier company and "due to number portability" current carrier may not be known....i've tried in the past lol

when i need to track people down, shop owners or deadbeat ebay people, i do this, once i acquire a first and last name, use the online peopel finder to get an address, sometimes it takes searching public records just through search engines. once you get an address for a matchign name, see the distance to the shop address, most owners dont live that far away. also see how common of a name it is, if you get a match within reasonable commuting distance most likely that is their home address if not most liekly close family. Call that number, and explain to anyoen that answers your situation. Ive tracked down several people that way who tried to screw me over with taking my money and leaving me just voicemail numbers.

Don't do #3 it's not a good idea

Give it another week then talk to a lawyer or someone in that area.

I may have caught a break today finally! His son called me and told me the engine is done and I can meet him tomorrow night. We set a time so hopefully he shows up. The builder is in the hospital and not doing good at all. I feel bad being such a jerk to him when he's so sick, but it's hard when you have people breathing down your neck for their cars.

hope everything works out for you. JR.

:stupid:

Yea, let us know how things go when you get the motor back....

- Justin

i would never take anything back to that place, once a bad experience i never return there, sucks my engine guy retired so when i need any more stuff done when/if i do im kinda screwed, but my man JR just opened up shop!!!

Yeah he won't be getting anymore work. I've been talking to a few potential new builders.

IMHO it would prolly help to keep the work more local. Who has time to be running all over creation for crap like you just went through?

Whos was the builder of the engine? if you dont wanna say it in here. PM me

true and false, bob. sometimes you have to endure for the best. if he was a really good builder, i would ship it out to him or take it there myself. an hour and a half isn't so far if he's good.

i work in bethlehem and live 10 minutes away, so if you need anything, let me know. Additionally, what shop is this, so i know not to go there???

Got it back last night. Shop is Nimey's Racing Engines. Good work but not timely at all