baggedexpo
+1y
Edited: 4/6/2011 12:59:58 AM by baggedexpo
Edited: 4/6/2011 12:57:32 AM by baggedexpo
If want to have your pride and joy bagged and layed out professionally, do not take your ride to Medicated Metalworks. After speaking with the owner Justin Brill, says he was a former employee of Ekstensive Metal Works, convinced me by showing me his previous builds that he could lay out my 1998 Ford Expedition and keep it as my daily driver. I wish i would have just taken my truck to a reputable shop instead of saving money going with Medicated Metalworks, which cost me more money in the long run. If only i could have looked into the future.
In March 2010, I dropped my truck off at his shop in Alvin, TX along with 60% of the money that he was charging me to lay it out. This is what my truck looked like:
In May 2010, about 8 weeks after I dropped off my truck, I went to visit his shop to see the progress and take a few pictures. Everything was looking good to me, although I had no idea of what needed to be done to it lay out correctly.
Two weeks later, I stopped by the shop randomly to see what else they had accomplished and to take more photos. When I pulled into the drive, I noticed that my truck was outside, off to the side where it looked like it hasn't been worked on in a while. When i looked in the shop they were working on someone else's truck. As I walk up to my truck, I saw a complete dash board setting outside my Expo that looked like it belonged in my truck. I also noticed there was grinding dust all over my paint and brand new 26s! As I look to find Justin, one of his employees approached me and said, "I'm sorry, it was an accident." Confused about what he was talking about, I said what was an accident? his employee said, "We caught your truck on fire!" That is when my heart sank and time stopped. I walked back over to my expo and saw from the outside that my windshield was dark and cracked from the fire.
After opening up my truck and seeing the my ostrich wrapped sun visors and headliner burned, dash was melted and caved in, black soot and ash was everywhere, my truck smelled like burned ass. At this point I'm angry, shocked, and sick to my stomach. Justin Brill then comes out and tells me that everything was going to be taken care of and I had nothing to worry about. He told me he was going to replace the whole dash, complete wiring harness that melted, A/C and heater housing, clean up all the smoke damage and re-wrap my headliner. He also said they would paint my dash for the damage and mess they caused. After telling me what his plans were to fix their fuck up, I decided to give them the opportunity to fix their mistakes and make it right.
At the beginning of June, I received a text message from Justin that he wanted to trailer my Expo to Texas Showdown to show off my truck and his work, because the truck was still not running due to a "bad relay." I said ok, whatever, thats cool. My truck had been there for about 4 months, why not.
Mid to end of June, I kept trying to get in contact with Justin, but he would never answer my phone calls, but would reply to some of my text messages every once in a while saying that for some reason, they cant get it started. It would only run if you put fuel in the throttle body. He said he had an ASE certified tech looking at the problem and would have it running asap. I said ok and waited for another 4 weeks.
After waiting 5 months to lay my truck that was already on bags to start with, and constantly thinking about how unreliable, unprofessional and shady Justin had became, I decided to go pick up my Expedition and take my business elsewhere. The first place I trailered my truck was the Ford dealer, so they could hook up to the OBD2 port to see if they could tell me why my truck was not starting. They wanted me to leave it there and pay 85 dollars an hour, for a minimum of 10 hours. After being ripped off by Justin, my funds were running low, so I decided for them to just do a diagnostic, and take my truck home and think about what I should do.
After saving some money up, I took my truck to one of my best friends that is mechanically and electrically inclined. He found this:
More pictures of suspension and steering work to come.