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In December of 2006, I was pretty content with my car, and the way it was. I had already begun collecting parts for an engine build, but I wasn't planning on any body work. That all changed with this little incident:
I was pulling out of work, and a guy on a bicycle, not paying attention, slammed into me and landed on my hood. The damage was minor, but I would have needed work on the hood and fender (probably new), and work on my Erebuni front.
What ensued, well, was total mayhem. I decided to take the engine out, get it rebuilt, and at the same time, get custom body work done. I ordered all my Volvo parts from FCP Groton, who was and still is the only vendor I deal with for OEM parts, unless I'm in a pinch and run to the dealer or a member for something.
For my aftermarket parts, I decided to contact Joseph aka JHEIII874T5M. I ordered my wastegate, injectors, turbo, and blowoff valve from him, and also my Quaife limited slip differential. I got the lines and fittings for the turbo from Mark aka BlackT5. I ordered hoses from Sig at StylinMotors. I wasn't set on tuning yet, so I kept my RICA tune, and got a "base map" from John aka JRoss for my setup.
For body work, I went to a local shop (BlackJack Autobody and Paint) that had done work on my car before, including my Erebuni kit, restoring my Tritons, and other minor paintwork such as the hood. They were patients of mine at the dental office, so they cut me a really good deal. I went with them because they had worked on my car before, we had become good friends, and because they were close to work, and I could go in anytime I wanted to help with the car, learn, and throw some ideas at them.
So, I first took the car over to an engine builder that worked on VW cars, and had been referred to me by a couple of VS members, and a friend who really trusted the guy, and knew his work. The builder agreed to remove the engine, and do the build with the parts I provided. He had a machine shop that he used, so he was going to handle everything with the engine. I would just need to get the parts to him.
I ordered China rods from R-Sport, which arrived on time, and I ordered pistons in stock compression, OS1, from R-Sport, which promised them in one or two weeks. Well, it ended up being almost 2 months, during which time I really reamed Jonathan at R-Sport, got desperate and was searching for other pistons, but just ended up waiting for the R-Sport ones. During this two month wait, my engine builder got frustrated, and handed me my engine back in a million pieces. I don't really blame him (I blame R-Sport), but it really got me stressed out since I was getting closer to leaving for India, and I needed the car back together.
I was getting desperate to have the engine done, so I called a VS member who had worked on Porsches, and he agreed to do the assembly in his garage. He had a machine shop he used, so he took care of boring, balancing, etc, and then assembly.
I also decided to give VMS a chance (wow, what a mistake), and I ordered a performance head from Terry, and got it a month and a half later (was supposed to have it in a week). The head looked good, and even Mike (the engine assembler) said it looked good, and the shop also said it looked good. We should have examined it closely, but we didn't have the time, and we expected a $1500 product to be 100% good. Mike got the engine assembled, and when he got the head on, the intake cam wouldn't spin, so we were at a loss. We took the engine over to the guy who did my manual swap (and had worked on race engines), and he tried, no luck. During the inspection, he noticed a crack in the VMS head...well, we put the cam cover on once, and that crack became opened up and a piece of the metal fell off....We now had confirmation of VMS quality control (non-existant). I was getting really desperate since I had very little time before I had to move back to TX and then off to India. I bought another head, had it rebuilt, and tried that on, and intake cam wouldn't spin. We tried boring that one, and it still wouldn't spin. Now, I was in a pinch, and I decided to buy a stock motor and put it in the car so I could get home. Got it, and got it in and the car running.
Here are pics of the VMS head and it's quality....shitty porting, shitty quality....We tried this head on atleast 50 times, and then the other head too!
I called Terry a hundred times when it was taking forever to get the head, and after we found out it wasn't working, and after we found the crack. He told me some crap about his niece getting in a wreck or some shit (we all know how many of his family members have died when there was a problem with his parts). He told me that the head was good when it left him, and that they do quality checks on all of them, blah blah. Long story short, I lost $1800, and Terry claimed he went bankrupt, even though his site is still up, along with another one. Don't ever buy from Terry Coon.
Okay, so you know about why the engine took so long, and all of the stuff associated with it. It should have been done in February or March, and it ended up getting done in July, mainly because R-Sport took 2 or 3 months to get me the pistons, and then the cylinder head issue. Now, let's back track to the body work. I was expecting the body work to be well on it's way in January, and hopefully done by February or March, to coincide with the engine, but that was not going so well. BlackJack was REALLY busy, and since I was getting a deal, my car was worked on very sparingly, and usually after-hours, and while I was there. Don't get me wrong, the guys worked really hard on my car when they could, but I needed the car back. From December to April or May, this is the progress:
In December, after getting the engine pulled, I towed the car to BlackJack, and pulled off the door panels and other extra stuff to permit a proper paint job. We had planned to shave the handles, do a flat hood with scoop, fender vents, wide body, and a candy red paint job. We didn't have any plans for the custom body work, and just kind of went along as the days went by. Alot of it was my thinking, and alot was BlackJack's thinking, but it was just going really slowly. We used lots of fiberglass, and did lots of welding. Here are pics in December:
Here are pics of how the hood was going in January and February. It's really hard for me to picture things, so I had to have BlackJack help me with how things would look. I thought the hood vent looked pretty darn good, and I liked where it was going. I also liked the idea of the flattened hood.
In the meantime, we did some M5 fender vents (I got a new used fender for the side that was hit), and I decided to do something else which hasn't been done before.....mold in a V70R bumper, and get rid of the Erebuni front. For that, we cut the top off of the V70R bumper, and put it right over the 850 upper bumper piece with rivets, and then molded it in with urethane and figerglass.
We had also started working on making the fenders wider. We were doing things all over the place just to get the basic ideas onto the car. Notice that it was March by now, and alot still had to be done. The pistons still hadn't arrived, and the whole VMS ordeal was about to ensue, and I had already been handed back my engine in a million pieces by the original engine builder.
Here's more of the hood vent and bumper coming along. That's my boy Juan at BlackJack welding in the pieces:
Now it's April, and there is still alot to be done, including the paint job, and putting the car back together. I'm freaking, and still no pistons! WTF! We're going slowly, but the shaved handles and side trim has been welded and fiberglassed:
