My sad story...any offers?

[bkwashpa]

Well, I joined awhile ago and said I had a story to tell, but I wanted to get everything together, so here it is.....
I purchased a 1994 Mustang GT convertible 5.0 with 37k miles in 2005. Mint condition, red with a black convertible top. After a year or so I was tired of not having the power I had with my 90 LX 5.0. I knew nothing of the problems with performance shops and couldn't find the means to check on shops feedback.
I visited Strope's Speed(less) shop in my hometown of Washington, PA. I saw a Cobra that they worked on and it screamed, so I got an estimate and put money down. Their estimate was around $6500 for a Kenne Bell 8-18 lb SC and all necessary parts and tuning. Without getting into too much, they charged me over $11k, blew my head gasket(and made me pay for it) and had no clue how to tune it.
I chalked it up as a loss.
Next I had a friend that went to Ed's ASA Performanceless in Allison Park. I gave him $4k to start the work and get the car in shape. He decided to let one of his employees take it out to "run the rust off the rotors". In doing this, he somehow spun it into a 180 going uphill and totalled my baby into a telephone pole. Ed called me and told me their was some minor body damage and it was getting fixed at his body shop. I trusted him and didn't go take a look-besides, he was taking care of the issue. The minor setback was supposed to take about a week or so longer. About a week and a half later, I get a call from an insurance company in regards to my "total loss" of my vehicle. HUH? I was told it was minor damage and it was in the shop for repair. Nope, bent frame. After a month or so his insco offered me somewhere around $7700. HUH??!! I gave Ed $4k, paid $11k to Stropes and paid $9k for the car! Not a chance. I fought his insco and they increased the amount to somwhere about $8300. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!
Needless to say I got a lawyer and an appraisel from a specialty appraiser(came in at $24k if not wrecked). Submitted to his insco and they said they wouldn't accept it. I retained a lawyer(Bergren and Green in Washington-Highly recommend him for this. Washington BAR Assoc hooked me up with him and the first day I met him he had a button up Ford Racing shirt on and found out he has a 67 Mustang and is a member of a Pony Club-what are the odds??) After nearly 8 months and almos $2k in attny fees, we finally settled.
As part of the deal, I got my totalled car back and purchased a shell that was in average condition from Ebay. The next shop I took it too(which is my usual mechanic) charged me for I believe 80 hours of labor and parts to move from the wrecked to the new shell. Was billed over $4k here.
The car was supposedly ready to be went over with closely and tuned. I did my research and found Wolfpack. I took my vehicle to Mike(which I should've done in the first place, but live and learn). Mike was great. He spent time with me going over the car and we decided that the best idea would be to give up the dream and I agree. There's no doubt in my mind I'll be back to him once I recover and buy a new vehicle, but I have to give up on this one. I'm in the whole a little from this and this is why I am posting here. I am putting what I have up for sale. If anyones interested, feel free to drop me a line at bkwashpa@yahoo.com. I am putting it on Craig's list and EbaY. It's at Wolfpack if anyone wants to see it in person, but please call Milke and make sure he is okay with it. I'll have it there for a week or once I get rid of it, whatever comes first.
Attached are a few items....
Firsat my bills from Strope's and ASA Performance...
The first 4 pics are of my old car that ASAP wrecked.
The last pics are what I have now for sale.
The motor is a 5.0 with ARD headbolts. The supercharger is a Kenne Bell 8-18 lb. and has less than 50 miles on it. I'm not sure what all's in the car, but there's enough value in the motor and SC that I figured someone here will be interested. The seats are leather and in average condition. The intererior is in pretty good condition, but the old top had a hole and has a hint of a mold smell(I had the top from the wrecked Mustang moved and there are no leaks since, so top should be good). The bottom on the car is a bit rusty.
I'm not a mechanic, so I apologize if there's something I'm missing. I am selling as is. There are a good bit of goodies on it. If you are interested, email me an offer. I am also listing it on ebay today, but if you make a decent offer I'll cancel the auction. Any questions let me know.
If you read this Mike it was a pleasure to meet you today and I'll definitely recommend you and be back myself in the future.

[mustang50lx]

How much for the supercharger?

[SoLow]

Damn dude... that is f'n terrible ! !

glad to see you ended up @ wolfpack,. Mike is great guy & does awesome work

[HidalgoGT]

I would have burnt stropes down and killed the ass for wrecking the car.

[cam303]

I would have burnt stropes down and killed the ass for wrecking the car.

Did you read the sorry?
It says ASAP wrecked it.

[95riosnake]

I can't even express how much I hate ASAP. It's a shame what they did to you and your car. I drive past there about once a week or so and it makes me sick seeing the cars sitting out front that they will soon ruin.

Good luck with the sale, that blower alone should really up the interest in the car.

[bkwashpa]

Now he's sending me a certified letter to pay the rest of his $2700 bill or he's going to take me to court....after he totalled my car! I hope he does. I'll put a billboard up by his shop with a picture of my totalled car that says"Another fine piece of machinery from ASA Performance". If I get court docs, I'll make sure the world knows how he runs his business.
Mike was awesome....I wish I'd have known of Wolfpack in the first place. I'll be sending all my friends there for work.

[scott5]

sorry to hear man... Is it driveable now? You will probably get more interest in parting it out

[RUTHLESS]

ASAP Nnnnoooooo!! All I am going to say is "Another one bites the dust". That place has f'ed up more cars that the local junk yard and I have NO idea how that place is still open.

I drive by that place every day on my way to work. I swear to god the same cars have been sitting at that shop for years. Ok well some of them. They must have pulled the engine in that one car 10 times last summer alone.

[95riosnake]

I swear to god the same cars have been sitting at that shop for years. Ok well some of them. They must have pulled the engine in that one car 10 times last summer alone.

I have seen the same crazy yellow-colored mustang vert out front of that shop for about a year now, is that the car you're talking about? It's pretty much a permanent fixture in their lot.

[no1fordgirl]

Sorry to hear of your horrible experiences. Hope the sale goes well for you.

Good luck

[RUTHLESS]

Oh they have a few that have been fixtures. They had a red C5 vette, camaro, a truck with slicks on it, some little silver celica looking thing that had the wheels snagged because it was up on blocks for a few weeks, that nasty gold mustang (might be the yellow one you are talking about). The list goes on and on.

[Zakerid]

never dealt with ASAP... Strope is a piece of work...

[94Cobra]

Wow! Sorry to hear about your sad stories and all that money you spent.

[HidalgoGT]

Did you read the sorry?
It says ASAP wrecked it.
Yes I did "READ" the story or i would have said killed stropes. I said killed the ass who wrecked it. Did you read what I wrote and get mislead as to my reading abilities? :rolleyes:

[Martin0660]

Real sad story there.

[fork5o]

thats terrible. i feel for ya.

wish you would found this site earlier, theres a lot of great people and businesses on here.

[Rodeheaver's]

holy crap!!! that sucks, i am sorry to see this happen...

[Ares]

Wow I'm not even sure what to say after reading this. Not sure how upset or angry I would be.

[somethingclever]

I see stropes (I call them Stroke's) charged you 250 for a chip, 500 for a tune, and 150 for the guy's salary...wow...$900 for a (junk) tune.

Yep...that sounds about right...LOL


Then they charged you to R&R the cyl heads, new gaskets...etc...THEN charged you for another tune!!!!!!!!! (although at a cheaper rate)


Doesn't surprise me.....live and learn. Very sorry to hear about this.

[412mustangz]

wow man, that sucks ass!!

[Martin0660]

I see stropes (I call them Stroke's) charged you ......

LOL, I had typed a bunch of stuff about hat looked like double charging for tunes, spark plugs, oil change parts, etc, then deleted it. Glad i'm not the only one that read through the invoices ;)

[Viper_ed]

I like how Stropes charged you for 2 different sets of plugs ans ASSSSAP made not 2, but 3 custom O2 extension harnesses. Ed must of added that "Special" third sensor for better performance.:rofl:

This is a perfect example of why people should not be afraid to learn how to do their own work. You may as well of blown it up yourself, at least you would of learned something in the process in stead of having to deal with all the headaches. Hope it all works out for you.

BTW, let's all not forget to run out to ASAP and get a case of Boost Juice while it's still fresh! :D

[1Badbird]

Wow that really sucks! Sorry to hear you had to go through all that. I had a gf from wash. and she swore by Stropes, maybe they where stroking her?! That's sad what ASAP has done and is still doing to you. That guy must be a major jackass!

[AdamantiumSilvr]

Unbelieveable happenings goin on there, really sorry. I heard so many people swear Ed's the best, to hearin gutrenchin horror stories. That's tuff!

[SonofaBish]

Wow..... that really blows - the best thing to do is to start over and do it right this time....

I feel for ya, as I had something similar happen... i got a quote to do the Twin Turbo kit on my T/A and the labor was doubled by the end... luckily, i took the car off the guy and got it finished up somewhere else and ended up with a great car... Sorry that it didn't work out as well for you!

Good luck!

[Wolfpack Speed]

Good to meet you buddy and best of luck with everything, thanks for the kind words and support:goodidea:

[95DropTop]

Wow. Holy sh*t. I cannot believe that these guys can sleep at night treating people like this.

That is great that Mike treated you well. He is excellent, indeed.

There are other great shops on here too. Tim at Rodeheavers is great too. Street Lethal, GNL ... all of them. I would trust any of them to do work for me.

I live near ASAP and see the same cars sitting there all the time for months on end. The place just gives me the creeps. I would never go there. I did call them about 1.5 yrs back about a tune for my 5.0 (I have the same car as yours, basically). First, the guy I talked to insisted that my 95 GT did not have a 5.0 but instead had a 4.7. I said, "4.7 is MOPAR, you mean 4.6". He said.. "no.. it should be a 4.7". I said "thanks" and hung the F**K up. Yeah, maybe it was just some phone answerer / volunteer and not a mechanic, but... it scared the hell out of me to never call them or consider them again.

About the time I was calling, your car was probably there.

[bigmack]

i dont know if the lighting is odd in your pictures but is that the maroonish color ? im pretty sure thats not the bright red or is it? please let me know fore sure

[raynist]

Wow. Holy sh*t. I cannot believe that these guys can sleep at night treating people like this.

That is great that Mike treated you well. He is excellent, indeed.

There are other great shops on here too. Tim at Rodeheavers is great too. Street Lethal, GNL ... all of them. I would trust any of them to do work for me.

I live near ASAP and see the same cars sitting there all the time for months on end. The place just gives me the creeps. I would never go there. I did call them about 1.5 yrs back about a tune for my 5.0 (I have the same car as yours, basically). First, the guy I talked to insisted that my 95 GT did not have a 5.0 but instead had a 4.7. I said, "4.7 is MOPAR, you mean 4.6". He said.. "no.. it should be a 4.7". I said "thanks" and hung the F**K up. Yeah, maybe it was just some phone answerer / volunteer and not a mechanic, but... it scared the hell out of me to never call them or consider them again.

About the time I was calling, your car was probably there.

Yeah, I have heard some bad things about ASAP. I know a guy that had them install a vortech on his 94 vert gt. It never ran right. He was running 14's at the track, basically what it would have run stock.

I also talked with the owner once at a car cruise. Asked him some questions and got some answers contrary to what I know to be true. Was not impressed and ended up driving out to Kauffmann's for my tune and modifications.

[faststang91]

That is crazy it looks like eberyone but Mike took you through the ringer. . . I definately would rather do all my own work esp after reading that story thats insane!

[wick]

WOW. So the story finally comes out. Been waiting to see it in print. I was fooling around one time last year and called that idiot Ed about tuning my supercharged fox. He said sure but I would have to leave it there for a few days. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA Yeah,right!!! Also, why the hell was he blowing the rust off your rotors? Shouldnt even be driving it. And that hit, damn!!! Good luck man. Hope everything goes well for ya.

[Troll]

WOW. So the story finally comes out.
WOW and it is a doozy. :hyper:

I went to Strope's ONCE. Luckily it was just for a dyno RUN and not TUNE.

The son, Aaron (I think) seemed to know his stuff and was decent to talk to but that old man was like a constipated wildcat. He told me some stupid stuff and I thought, "Jeez, for a 50 or 60-something year old hot rodder, how can you be this stupid?"

I only read about that retard, ED on the internet and none of it was good.

Good Luck!

I didn't really understand why you're selling the car now. You got so much invested. Why don't you just keep it and drive it as it sits instead of taking a horrible bath on it ???

[John4cam]

Aaron Strope is an asshat, and everyone working for him is as well. Being from the area, Ive seen so many cars that were butchered up from that place and were taken to a friend of mine to be fixed.

I remember that lt1 car they called the firechicken, gm high perf. paid them to do it since they were the best gm guys around, yeah right.

The best they could do with a built 383 stroker was mid 13's, then gm HP yanked the car away from them in time to take it to someone else. These stories make me so upset, and it's not even my car. I don't know how you didn't go postal on somebody through this whole ordeal..

[07vbluestang]

i took my car to ASAP back in january to have 4.10 put in. hey i didnt know of anyone else, he said that he did hundreds of them. i had the gears already bought before i got there($175). he charged me $360 labor, $125 for bearing kit, $50 for lube plus $37 tax. then he wanted me bring it back after 200 miles and change lube and check gear pattern. i did that this past monday and he charged me another $123. that's a total of $850 it cost me to have 4.10 installed in my 07 mustang gt. SOUND RIGHT? i guess they are alright, he says 4.10 have alittle whine!

[HidalgoGT]

i took my car to ASAP back in january to have 4.10 put in. hey i didnt know of anyone else, he said that he did hundreds of them. i had the gears already bought before i got there($175). he charged me $360 labor, $125 for bearing kit, $50 for lube plus $37 tax. then he wanted me bring it back after 200 miles and change lube and check gear pattern. i did that this past monday and he charged me another $123. that's a total of $850 it cost me to have 4.10 installed in my 07 mustang gt. SOUND RIGHT? i guess they are alright, he says 4.10 have alittle whine!
You paid 850 to have gears installed? What a rip off. I think we use to install gears for 200$ plus cost of gears. If they had them set up right you had no issues to worry about and needing to have them change it again. Anyone can change the lube. What a joke.

[ArmyWarrant]

WOW, Man that sucks. I am from Avella, PA originally where the asshat Stropes lived while I was there. I heard so much about their work being half a!#ed. If you think Aaron is bad you should hear about Bill, good god I mean he actually fabbed his body kit on a 280z out of some cardboard from what I heard. I mean them guys are some real pieces of work. Sorry to hear about your car man.

[madmaxin22]

my car was at ASAP for 6 months after a tune that resulted in me picking the car up with no oil pressure... was a nightmare and made me start doing most of the work myself instead of letting an idiot F* you in the arse for months on end and ends up acting like he's doing me a favor... guy is an EXXON mechanic that decided to get into mustangs

[RAYZ02GT&93LX]

I had a bad experience with Old man Strope not to long after they opened the shop on Murtland. I bought a set of BBK shorties from Summit and not from the catalog either I stop at summit on my way home from a job and bought them. So I knew i had the right parts. He began to scream at me with a shop full of customers. He said that I wasnt a mechanic and that I probably bought the wrong parts and all I was going to do was tie up his lift as all the customers laughed. I said well youd get paid either way to put the parts on or to put it back together if I bought the wrong parts. The he said he didnt work on Fords and to get the Hell out. I told him my money spends anywhere and he would never see any of my or my friends money.

[Martini86]

it sounds like a lot of bad incedents with this place. Im sorry for all those victims.

[wick]

I had a bad experience with Old man Strope not to long after they opened the shop on Murtland. I bought a set of BBK shorties from Summit and not from the catalog either I stop at summit on my way home from a job and bought them. So I knew i had the right parts. He began to scream at me with a shop full of customers. He said that I wasnt a mechanic and that I probably bought the wrong parts and all I was going to do was tie up his lift as all the customers laughed. I said well youd get paid either way to put the parts on or to put it back together if I bought the wrong parts. The he said he didnt work on Fords and to get the Hell out. I told him my money spends anywhere and he would never see any of my or my friends money.

I would have hung that asshole on the lift with his belt.

[torqueboxer]

Wow im so glad i dont have to pay to have anyone do any work on any of my cars!!! Im really done, i had my girls car aligned by a 'tire" shop, 60 bucks and its not really any better than what i did with a tape measure in my driveway!! Im not really impressed with anything ive seen out there lately. i wont get into my latest project of fixing a completely botched up car that was done by a local shop. It is all fixed now, after hours of grinding and welding, all to fix work that was paid to be done by a professional shop.

[flappy188]

wtf is boostjuice 39.99?

[crusher101]

i say you buy a billboard near his store and post pictures of what he did to the car...

[o4c0b|2a]

Never heard good things of ASAP. Took my car to dyno at stropes once. Never went back. Picked two terrible shops sounds like. Can't believe they totaled your car driving it to "get the rotors cleaned up". Then knowing its that bad, then say they are going to get it fixed for ya. Yeah I agree with the hanging from the lift comment above. At the very least. Deserves far worse. There's definitely plenty more poor souls that will the find out the same lesson you did in the future.

[Deuce03]

Where is asap, I will stay away from there. And where is wolfpack?

[95riosnake]

Where is asap, I will stay away from there. And where is wolfpack?

Asap is on Rt. 8 in Allison Park, Wolfpack is on Campbell's Run Rd. (which runs parallel to 22), pretty close to Robinson.

[SAC81]

Holy shit! What an INSANE story!! I won't be back to ASAP *EVER* after reading this- and I was thinking of having them replace one of the front axles on my Buick in the next month or so since they're literally 4 minutes from my house. I wonder if Rodeheaver's wants to replace an axle on a FWD Buick...LOL