my car is at lamotta preformance /cal hartline since march 2010 waiting on lonnie to correct or replace the transmission ,lonnie was supposed to come down & work on the car back in july but then decided to replace the converter & transmission & lamotta agreed to pull the tranny out again @ no charge to get this done . patrick & jake at lamotta have spoken to lonnie several times but to date no tranny i have paid them to take the tranny out , ihave paid for shipping back to lonnie & he sent it back claiming it was fixed & it is not i now have $6500 in a tranny that won't preform .by the way my car has 100 miles on it jack ,patrick & cal hartline can confirm the car was never driven after a complete restoration .
I never choose to butt heads with a customer but in this case there are corrections needed. Jim my object to this response is to do nothing more than fill in the blanks that you have selectively chosen to leave out of your story.
I dont owe you anything. I built the trans for you well over 2 years ago. I am not replacing anything under warranty. Lets get this clear. Details to follow.
I did travel 1000 miles down shortly after you got your car up and running as you had transmission issues. I found that the transmission was installed improperly at the body shop and the pump rotor was damaged. I removed repaired and replaced the transmission while I was there. (take note I can not control converter installation) I also worked on your car for a day and a half on other items that were not done correctly to get the car drivable that had nothing to do with the transmission. You received no bill for my time or my trip. Cal can also confirm this as we spoke on the phone as to what he needed completed on the car for him to Dyno the car. We also drove the car maybe 10-15 miles or more before I left. Car was dynoed and you drove for months until another problem you had that is not related to this deal or my trans what so ever.
Jumping months forward.
You took car to Lamota they called me explained the TV cable was unhooked and trans was damaged and slipping. (please explain why this would have been warranty) You sent it back. I fixed for free. Transmission was installed in a car tested and returned. The same transmission and converter that was sent to me. You only paid shipping of the transmission.
I was called about 3 maybe 4 months ago and was told the car would not rev over 5000 rpm and it was the transmissions fault. (same transmission and converter that you used on previous dyno pulls) That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. You were told the only way that I would consider doing anything else would be if I came down and was present. I done the transmission work etc. You were also told after testing of the transmission I was done with it. I also explained that I could not nail down an exact date for the trip. The car was running and driving just not seeing RPM above 5000. I seen no reason to shut my shop down to make this trip. It would be unreasonable for anyone to expect me to do so.
Patrick called me about 1 month ago and asked if I would replace the transmission and converter for them. They wanted the car out of their shop. They assured me that they would return the trans and converter that was in the car. I asked him once again what was wrong. He once again told me transmission operates fine does not shift as hard as they would like to see but car would not rev over 5000 and they were not going to go any further as they believed that it was the transmission or the converter or both. They did not want to run the bill up on you. They offered to do the R&R and pay for fluid and guarantee return of old trans and converter back to me to get this resolved. If I would provide the replacement unit and shipping at no charge. I agreed to send transmission and converter shipping included both ways. We agreed on the phone rpm numbers or not that was it. I was done. It was explained it would be on my time frame. I am a one man show. Cant snap my fingers and make a transmission appear. My agreement was with Patrick not you. I built the transmission and purchased new converter and sent in good faith that I will receive the other back.
Transmission has been replaced and you have tracking info. The transmission and converter you receive has been in car tested.
I am sorry that you feel like you have been unfairly treated. I see nothing more that I can reasonably do under the circumstances. I have a $3000 transmission and $1000 converter out with nothing more than a promise of its return. I had several hundred dollars out on a trip to do nothing more than make you happy and repair someone else's screw up and prep your car for a dyno pull.