So in short I have been waiting for almost 3 months for work to get done, was told Tuesday to come get my unfinished parts.

(Here is the full story)
This is a long review but I needed to share this experience and highly suggest reading it before doing business with Twin City Auto Machine.

My experience with this business was terrible, and only got worse as time went on. The first 3 visits while bringing parts in, I tried to talk to various employees and get an established order made so they would know what I wanted done to my engine parts. All 3 times nothing was wrote down or repeated to clarify the agreement of services. After this I called one day and was referred to Doug.

Doug was extremely unprofessional, had no communication skills, was rude and irritable. Doug implied it was my error that no one knew what services I needed done and even mocked me when going over the order. I requested an estimate that day and a second time over a week later, both times Doug didn't give a reason for not having an estimate but said he would call back that day. Both times he did not call back at all and I waited over a week to make contact each time. I met with Doug in person and requested an estimate for the 3rd time. The response was nothing short of wild. Doug gave a quote but not without mentioning that he had PUSHED MY WORK BACK BECAUSE HE DIDN'T THINK I COULD AFFORD IT and/or would not pay him. He also made sure to mention that "This little honda engine isn't worth this work, so if I do this work and don't get paid, I'll be stuck with a honda engine that no one wants". Where he got the idea that I wouldn't or couldn't pay for the work, I have no idea but it was highly insulting. He seemed upset that I requested an estimate 3 times over 3 weeks time and proclaimed the request for an estimate as his reasoning that I could not / would not pay him?? At this point we were 5 weeks in and nothing had been worked on at all.

I should have took that experience as a sign to cut my losses and take my business elsewhere. Unfortunately we discussed everything and I THOUGHT we had an agreement. He said that at that point they were further behind than before and I was looking at about a month to be able to pick up my parts. I accepted this and played the waiting game again. (BTW through the entire process I have been extremely patient).

On Tuesday I finally called and asked for an update, I had not heard from or talked to anyone at Twin City in over 6 weeks. Doug answered the call and came off again as upset to hear from me and stated "WE'RE WORKING ON YOUR PARTS NOW!". He then put me on hold and transferred me to the machinist which was odd because I only asked for an update, not to speak to someone else. Also I should add I was very polite when calling and not pushy, I didn't even ask for a new projected date.

(HERE IS WHERE IT REALLY GETS WILD!)
The machinist answered and then said they were working on my parts now and said he was going to check the crank and cut it down if needed (this had previously been discussed with Doug, Doug said they couldn't harden the crank and wouldn't recommend cutting it down). When I told the machinist what Doug had told me and asked him to just check the crank for warp and balance as Doug had written down and recommended 6 weeks ago, he responded with (UUUUGGGGHHHHH well how about this, I'm going to load your parts on a cart and place it by the front door for you to come by get them because I'm not working on your parts. How does that sound?) I was obviously lost as to why he said that but I told him that would be great because him and Doug both were extremely hard to work with. This must have rang true as it made him very upset and he began yelling over the phone. A few choice words on both ends of the call later and now the machinist tells me to come on down so he can fight me. Wow what a great business you guys are running.

The next morning I picked up my parts, thankfully without conflict as I did not want that. ALSO I found out that no work at all had been completed on my parts although Doug and the machinist both on Tuesday said my work was in progress??

For the life of me I do not know why things went this way and I tried with everything in me to express patience and kindness but some people just simply aren't going to like you in life.

 

Knuckle up buckeroo.

Consider it a blessing that they didn't actually work on your parts, and that you got everything back. The only thing you lost was time, if they had actually done anything there's a 100% likelihood they would have fucked up your parts.

I unfortunately had an extremely similar situation happen to me a couple months ago with a shop in town, which also cumulated in an angry phone call with the owner yelling at me while I was at work not 15 feet away from my boss, telling me that if I didn't run over to pick up my car then and there they'd charge me $200 a day in storage. The bonus point to this is they were only ever open from 9AM -> 5PM and would very frequently lock up the shop early, so basically I had to drop everything then and there to go literally rescue my car on a trailer before they did more damage.

I've said it many times before, but I'm sorry it's largely true - Professionalism is dead, there's VERY few people or shops you can count on anymore. We've entered a time where for anyone building these cars, you'd really need to be able to learn and do almost everything yourself. Moral decay is a very real thing and we're seeing that slope slide further downwards every day.

Edit: I looked them up, and of course they're rated 4.5 stars They will have many more victims in the future.

 

Ouch. Terrible. To me, this is why if you don't already have a relationship with a local shop, it's worth the money to pack up your stuff and mail it to one of the shops that specialize in Honda engines (JBR, Golden Eagle, CNC Werx, Prestige Racing, Bad Guys, Laskey, Ramey, 4 Piston, etc.). The cost of shipping is worth sleeping easy.

 

It's really a sad thing man. I put my 2 cents in with a descriptive review on google but with there rating, one can only hope people read the review. I'll even admit I have taken them a couple heads to have them checked and shaved. Those two times were a pretty quick turn around and weren't a hassle, but this time was way different. Idk if there main focus being large diesels was a factor but I seriously just feel like they didn't want to do the work for this engine. To me money is money but if they just said hey this isn't our expertise or even hey our machines aren't really designed for this work, I would have appreciated that time saving honesty and went to somewhere else. But all seems well and I'm looking at a new option now. And absolutely it's a huge blessing to have my stuff back not worked on. I hope they didn't do any foul play to my parts but they didn't look like they had even been touched while there.

I'm glad you got your car out of there man, I've also had a bad experience with a custom shop before but instead of them not doing work or messing it up, they took me for a ride that emptied my bank account and then some.

 

I am looking at one more place before I take one of those routes but I will gladly go that route if this doesn't work. Basically when the big hassle with these guys started, I got in contact with a guy I've known for years. He builds a ton of Hondas along with supras and older gtr's, He gave me the info on his machinist and welcomed me to tell that machine shop that he sent me. The only draw back its about 2.5 hrs away, but he has maintained a great report with them over several years.

 

Sounds like a winner.

 

From what I have experienced now, I guess I will take the next place a list of what I need done and or checked. If they can't discuss pricing and take the list that day, then I walk. I don't mind a bit to pay for good work, but I don't like going into something involving so much money blind either! When he finally gave me a quote, I feel like it was just an attempt to get me to take my stuff and leave because he quoted $2,500. The quote was for as follows (Check and or line hone, Check crank for warp and possible grind if needed, Bore cylinders and hone, check block deck and shave if needed, check valve seats and replace if needed, check head and shave if needed, fix engine mount threads with time cert). That same day he removed magnafluxing (which had previously been discussed) and cutting the crankshaft (also previously discussed because they can't harden) which magically brought the quote down from $2,500 to $550-700. I swear it was a tactic to get me to pack up and leave, which now I know I should have left but hindsight is 20/20.

 

Sounds like a solid plan.

I was 100% ready to give up on finding a builder and just assemble my engine myself, but Highschooler/Matt sent me a message on here and recommended a shop that he had found in San Antonio. I almost just dismissed it because of how sour everything had gone for me up until that point, but I finally gave them a call and was immediately impressed with their communication. They asked me questions, told me what they thought, their advice and ideas seemed very reasonable and sane... And they gave me a quote and time frame that same day. So far everything has continued to go well with them, so I'm pretty confident by the end of it I'll have a very solidly built B16.

 

We had a very good shop local to us. They would cover anything you wanted done and give advice on what to add or take away from a build you wanted. If you insisted on something they still did it for you. Was a great place and thats the guy that tuned my k series back in the day. If he was still around, no question I would have took it to him to send out for the machine work.

 

UPDATE: So I was going over my parts again and noticed a white residue on the new crankshaft. They lied when they said they didn't do any work, the crankshaft has been cut down but question is, how far. I give up on this project. If anyone needs parts I have a lot of D series parts BNIB that I'll take %50 of the original price for. If any interest at all I'll make a marketplace thread with pics of parts and name, date, etc.

 

Very sorry to hear that, and that you're letting the project go.

@highschooler Would most likely be interested in many of those parts, but I have no idea when or if he'll come back.

 

Yeah, that's a bummer. I'm not in a "flush with cash" situation right now, but do post a link here to your list if you make a marketplace thread.

 

I will send highschooler a PM. No worries about this project, I have too many projects and ideas. Best to let some of them go and focus on one at a time.

And Dax I am going to get some things together tomorrow and get ready to post them. When I get it all uploaded I'll be sure to share a link here.