American Motorsports a cautionary tale

Are they 12s?

 

10's son, but i keep them clean.

 

sounds like a lot of shady shenanigans going on

 

I need to watch that movie again

 

Ok, a bit long overdue, but here we go nonetheless...

Met up with Brian after seeing a post he made on here looking to develop a long travel kit for a 2nd gen 5 lug Tacoma back in October of 2011. Drove down a few times to visit the shop and talk about the kit and the plan. Decided to bite the bullet and offer my truck to become the guinea pig for his kit after talking with him and checking out his work on his own 1st gen 5 lug. He assured me safety was his #1 priority. We also agreed that he would install the rear Total Chaos kit a buddy of mine had picked up for me.

From this point, I had driven to his shop a number of times to mock up some of the components and what not before leaving the truck with him when the kit was near completion of being developed. Near the beginning, he was very responsive to phone calls and texts, but as the time got longer and longer, that became less and less which worried me. He was very busy with other jobs he took on, but he needed to make money somehow.

After about 6 months, the truck was finally nearing completion and I was set to pick it up. I took the Metroline train down to Oceanside where Brian would meet with me and drop the truck off with me to drive back. The build must've come down to the last minute because once I got to the train station, I had to wait roughly an hour because he was still working on the last bit. Upon receiving the truck, I was stoked and very excited of course because it had been 6 months! Took a look around the truck, but couldn't see the finer details since it was dark. The kit looked good and it drove fine around the block. I was just so excited to have it back and to drive it to home.

Upon taking it home and then driving it to meet up with some friends in Gorman the following morning to go camping, I began to notice some issues. First, the truck wasn't really taken care of when it was stored. The paint on the hood was speckled with what was corrosion/sap, the rear bumper was dinged, dented, and scratched, the front Glassworks fenders were smashed in the corners upon full bump of the front tires when he had test drove it, the rear Glassworks fenders were scratched to the point where paint was taken off, one of the mounting points of the front bumper is bent, and to top it off, one of the brake caliper bolts came loose to the point where the front caliper had come off. Luckily I had just arrived at the campsite when my friend noticed my front wheel wasn't moving because the caliper was up against the wheel. Not to mention this was the 2nd time this had happened since the first was when the caliper actually punctured my old wheel right as I exited where I live after Brian had my truck to mock up some stuff. I had to get it towed then, but when it happened the second time, I had a buddy pick up a bolt on the way up.

Brian's invoice after everything was said and done had a few discrepancies as well. I noticed I was charged $100 for the wiring of my LED light and another $100 for the mounting of the stock airbox. I would've been fine wiring the LED bar myself and I would've been fine with airbox modification if it was more than just cutting a hole in it to fit the engine brace and halfass bolting it back up. I thought I was getting hooked up since my truck was the guinea pig, but with charges like this, it almost seemed as if he was trying to make up his money somewhere somehow.

In the end, I'm pretty happy with the way the truck performed the last few times I took it out to Barstow. Only issue I had was with the rear Total Chaos kit he had installed where upon full bump, the axle hit the smooth body reservoir shearing off the schrader valve. Makes me wonder if he even cycled the rear kit upon installing.

If I could do it all over again, I probably would've gone to a shop that was more reputable or I would've waited to see more trucks come out of American Motorsports before taking mine.

 

thanks for the input steve!

 

x2

 

I would've driven right back to this guy's shop if what you're describing happened to me...that's f'ed up.
Glad you guys are airing this guy out...sending trucks out in unsafe condition isn't kosher.

 

I still have a 250$ store credit I won...prob will never get to use it lol

 

Anthony, that $250 might end up costing you $2500 from these stories I'm hearing

 

For the record, I did confront Brian with the issues I had with the truck not being taken care of while at the shop and the charges on the invoice. All I got were excuses so I basically took it as a lost cause.

I'll get around to posting some pictures too.

 

Just be aware that there is a good chance the shop name might change a few times if he wants to keep business flowing.

 

haha! made me laugh my ass off

 

I can't wait to throw some fuel on this fire!

 

Hey BRIAN how about you tell all your buddies how dirt you did my rig? I can't wait to throw some fuel on this fire! Nothing like beating a dead horse...

 

Get your story straight.

 

Go on

 

Sup hoe, let's hear your story.
More importantly, pics of said fuck-ups.

 

So much suspense! Moar