crhemi (Bill) posted:A ride through the gravel at 60 is one you don't forget.
Yeah, I hear you...
Teby S posted:Mr Stan, can I call you by your first name Mr Stan?
You See, here in California it's all reality.. Now you coming out or what?
Oh and on your way pick up AL would ya?
Tebs
It would be a long drive, Tebs, for Stan to pick me up on the way...
Stan: Forget the fish taco. Have you ever had a "Shrimp Burger"?
There are several places in and around Beaufort, SC, that offer Shrimp burgers, but my favorite is out at the "Shrimp Shack" on St. Helena Island, way out on RT 21, before the causeway to Hunting Island.
So picture this: Take a bunch of "popcorn shrimp" caught fresh that day within 10 miles of the restaurant, and lightly batter them in a Cajun seasoned buttermilk batter, then let them sit for a few minutes. Then, when the batter is starting to get a little tacky, moosh them all together into a burger shape and deep fry them for about a minute or so til they're tender. Serve on a Kaiser Roll (I tend to make my shrimp burgers a tad big) with either Tatar sauce or Thousand Island Dressing (if you're a tourist) and a whole mound of really righteous French Fries and/or onion rings. DO NOT drink beer with this sandwich - This is a "Southern Sweet Tea" dish if there ever was one.
THAT, Dear Leader, is Friggin awesome and WAY, WAY, WAY better than any ol' "Fish Taco".
Even from Fresno, the "Fish Taco Capitol and gateway to Bakersfield".
On the way back from the Shrimp Shack, especially if it is on a Saturday, I have two stops for you: Drive back into Frogmore and then take a left at the Gullah Grub restaurant onto Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. Drive about a mile and stop at the Penn Center Visitors Center. The Penn Center was a school for the children of freed slaves. It was established by two abolitionist sisters from Rhode Island. It is also the place where Martin Luther King wrote his "I have a dream" speech. Tour around. Talk to people. You will be uplifted. You'll get to see this house:
After the Penn Center, stop in at Gullah Grub at RT 21 (Sea Island Parkway) and Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. Anthony Bourdain has eaten there. Get ANYTHING at Gullah Grub (I highly recommend the fish chowder) as a chaser for the Shrimp Shack and after you're touring the Penn Center. If it's later on Saturday, ask about the fish fry out back and stay for it. You have not lived until you've been to a Saturday Night Fish Fry in the South. You will definitely be lighter complected than most people there, but you will be welcomed and will remember it for the rest of your life. St. Helena folks are the salt of the earth and many are friends of ours. Like Hoss Hallstrand, Kathy and I have "jumped the broom" with our Gullah Friends.
"Fish Tacos"...... Meh.
Attachments
Nice pic --is Vince back on board??
I like that you know Anthony Bourdain. I don't watch much TV but when he's on, I enjoy his travels.... he presents a very down to earth, lay of the land type of existence.
And he did a show here in Charleston, during which favorite place appeared to be drinken late nights at the Waffle House. Go figure.
Ya made me awful hungry there, Gordon!
Hmmmmmmmm............
It don't take much for you there, Lane........
Re: Shrimp Tacos and the So-Cal Lifestyle
14 years ago, I commissioned JPS to build me a speedster, incorporating a Fibersteel Glasspar hardtop in the build. I could've had an IM for about $2K more, but I wanted Fibersteel (Russ Rodriguez) and JPS (John Steele) to work together making the hardtop fit the car, and vice-versa. They were both SoCal guys-- so I made the introduction in a conference call, and sent my money out. I thought I was a freaking genius.
The ensuing 6 months were a slow decent into the outer rings of Dante's replica hell. I documented the process shortly after the fact, but suffice it to say: it was the single most disappointing transaction of my life. Not "SAS"-level disappointing, but close.
At long last the car was done! Jeanie and I bought tickets to LA, boarded the plane, and were in the process of flying out to pick up the car (with the idea that we would drive it home). John Steel called me while I was on a layover in Minneapolis on the way out to LA to let me know that the hardtop "wasn't quite done".
The first time I met Mr. Steele was in the "Arrivals" section of LAX. He picked us up in a mid-80s Coupe DeVille, put my 34 y/o babe of a wife in the front seat, stuck me in the back, and proceeded to throw out thinly (and not so thinly) veiled passes at her. I'm not a violent man, but I was seriously considering hitting him in the face with my fists: but he had about $30K of my money, and was driving (although a quick little pop in the nose probably would have been safe for all of us).
He stopped at "World Headquarters" in North Hollywood (which sounds significantly more swanky than it actually is... kinda' like Fresno). Anyhow, his shop was (is?) in the back of a warehouse in a seedy part of town under the flyway of John Wayne Airport. When I saw the "not quite done" hardtop, it had been popped out of the mold about the same time I was collecting my luggage from the carousel at the airport. No paint, no trim, and when I set it on the car, the front missed the windshield by about an inch or so.
What's this have to do with shrimp tacos? Across the street from the JPS shop was a sit-down Mexican place called "Rigo's Tacos" where I went to drink a Corona, eat some Mexican, and contemplate whether or not to kill Mr. Steele with one of the two dozen or so broken 12" crescent wrenches laying around his ship.. My wife wisely persuaded me that it wasn't worth jail time, although I was giving it some thought.
The shrimp tacos were one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth, and really took the edge off the situation. We decided to make the most of a bad deal, and drove the speedster around LA for a weekend (it broke down twice), bought return tickets and flew home.
I could go on for a few thousand words, but I'll stop here. I still remember those tacos, and they'll always say "Kalifornia" to me. Rigo's Shrimp Tacos= mighty fine eating.
I know of someone back on 2003 that was told his JPS with the first hard top "was done" The new owner to be, drove out the 3000 miles in a motor home and planned on towing the car back to PA . Upon arrival, it wasn't done ( surprise) said buyer spent 5 days in a motel waiting .....Frustrated, he flew back here to PA and three weeks later, flew back out and got his JPS. I ended up refitting the hard top because it was off set by nearly 2" and repaired other "complications".
. .........Regretfully the "hits" just keep on coming , I know of someone that has waited in excess of two years and still as of this post is waiting for their JPS Speedster...There's something drastically wrong when I just finished a part time complete custom speedster build in my home shop in just 4 months.
... yeah, the hardtop...
They say time eventually heals all wounds, but that hardtop thing is still a little raw. Mr. Steele upcharged me $1000 or something from Fibersteel's already outrageous $4000 or so (at the time) to make it "fit the car"
I guess the way it shook out was that Russ Rodriguez took one of his tops to meet John Steele, who persuaded him to leave it for a few days "for measurements". John proceeded to have a secret mold splashed off the top. A couple of days later, Russ came by to get his top and John told him his services were no longer required. The "not quite ready" freshly pulled top I saw that day was the first (and last, I think) top out of the stolen mold.
It arrived with a glue on headliner, not edged in any way. The gaps at the windshield were big enough for insects to crawl through. The side curtains gapped away from the top by about 2" at the back of the door. I looked at the car I'd waited 9 months for, and almost threw up I was so gut-punched.
I built an enormous crate with about $200 worth of dimensional lumber and sent the top out to Fibersteel (who had made not one dime on any of this) LTL freight ($1000). Russ did about $2000 worth of repairs: real headliner, his trim, etc., then shipped it back (another $1000). I built side curtains to fit the top (which was not symmetrical side to side). It looked great after Russ was done with it-- but it never did fit right, and I was now about $8-10K into the hardtop.
It was a long time ago now, but as I said: it was the single most disappointing transaction of my life. John Steele is still out there in LaLa land, taking money on custom stuff he has no idea if/how he's going to deliver. He does a decent job on standard paint and interior stuff, but I'd never ask him to color outside the lines of the coloring book where he's most comfortable. But honestly, whenever somebody says stuff like that, it sounds a lot like, "Other than that, how was the drive, Mrs. Kennedy?"
When there are companies like Intermeccanica, or Special Edition, or Vintage Spyder who actually deliver on their promises, albeit for a bit more money, it's hard to sit still on forums like this while somebody talks about how they're going to be the guy to get the special build out of somebody else.
Every day, I love my IM a bit more.
Back to Teby's engine...
That's a kickin' little engine! I'm really, really glad for you, and happy you like what you've got. Pat really is the man.
Don't drive a car with a 5-speed, though. You'll be wrecked.
Stan and Alan:
Those are two really sad - nay, pathetic - stories about someone not delivering what is promised. It really is disappointing to hear of stuff such as this.
X-2 Bob's comment...
But I'd upgrade it from a "pathetic story" to a nightmarish horror story. I'm surprised Steele's walking around on unbroken knee caps!
I am still very happy with my Beck, as well as looking forward to the new coupe, and am particularly happy with my Pat Downs-built (PDB) engine with nearly 50k miles on it. Nice segue back to Teby's PDB engine, huh? 
There are some really great builders out there, like Factory Five, Gibbons, Lone Star (all Street Rod builders), Special Edition, Vintage Spyders and Intermeccanica. There are also great shops for the Original crowd like Meister Restorations. The difference between the good shops and guys like Steele is a simple concept;
A commitment to excellence and great Customer Service.
The good things you do for your customer before and after the sale remain with them, word spreads and you gain more business and loyal customers.
The bad things you do for your customer before and after the sale remain with them, word spreads and you get less business and forum threads like this. I suppose that's OK for the bad guys, because they never have to see THAT dumb-ass customer again, right?
You reap what you sow.
All in all, I'm very happy with Penny, a 2004 JPS Speedster. Yep, all it took was a boat load of money and pharmaceuticals and several years of anger management therapy...
Tebs, great news on the engine! I'm looking forward to seeing you at SLO.
I'm not so sure, Gordon. That's the way it works with almost any other commodity or service. However, things get weird when people are chasing a dream.
It happens all the time when people fall in love. Please see what they want to see, they hear what they want to hear, and information that runs contrary to what they have already decided is disregarded (or worse). Nobody wants to hear that it will end badly.
I had recounted my entire JPS story on this site by the time Tom Dewalt was specing his green hornet, but he was determined (by the force of his own will) to have a different outcome than I (& others) had warned him about. He (like all the rest of us) got the car that John Steele was able to build, which is to say not at all what he was promised. He was in love with the wrong suitor.
If these guys were plumbers, or lawyers, or insurance salesman, they would have been bankrupt and waiting tables a long time ago. But, they are selling dreams, so they just keep cashing checks (see Steve Lawing as a proof of concept), kept in the style in which they have become accustomed by starry-eyed sugar daddies (like me) who think this is true love
All we the jilted ones can do is offer cautionary tales, and they won't mean much if someone is smitten.
There is no question in my mind that there are builders who work to keep their clients and have a good understanding of build, business and client service. There are those unfortunately who are in business and do not.
Even the best of builders, who has to make a car right, after the new car has left the shop, and has the support challenges of distance, parts, shipping, labour let alone communication to a client who may or may not have a good grasp and who is self diagnosing the issues he is facing.
To compound the issue are the parts suppliers i.e.: Tranny, engine etc who may or may not feel that they have any responsibility to fix, replace or even compensate the builder for errors and omissions let alone for labour to fix or replace the parts. Did I mention Shipping parts, cars etc.
On top of this there are parts suppliers who do not inform the builders, and in fact use the builders to do their R&D development testing. Many of those have changed a part, made a new version of that part, which is actually "A NEW DESIGN". This can lead to all sorts of issues and even near catastrophic issues for the owner of the car when the info is not shared to the builder to look into or monitor the changed part.
Once the car is in the hands of the owner any major failure, front bearing seizing, tie rod failure, tranny failure etc could put YOUR LIFE AT RISK and have your wheels pointing upwards.
To compound the issue is the builders desire and need to make profit or to at least break even and if there is a screw up protect himself from possible legal pursuit.
Sometimes due to the nature of these cars you could wonder if your involuntarily participating in a build cycle, knowingly or unknowingly that will last forever. It started with the deposit and it is now a money pit to the other side of the world and that you paid someone for the privilege of being part of some club. You did not know it, but you have been drinking some sort of Jones Town Koolaid and you have become a zombie who goes "Ummm" bowing in front of a 356 car cloud of cars.
You know that in the real world of REAL drivable cars, "Mercantilability" is something that is upholdable in a court of law and prevents builders from arrogantly thinking we are just minions who buy what they want to sell us... Just Saying.
Pick your story, but there is one for every owner of sorts. The pain and aggrevation that was most times hard to deal with, and may stay with you for years.
This forum exists to try to help each other to be more informed consumers. We do hope that the builders who are knowledgeable about this site will use it to build better, support better, be better for all concerned and have a great business from realistic satisfied owners.
The Madness though, cannot be cured from a distance neither is there any potion that can be made to numb the senses ... well maybe a good bottle of spirits would do. 
Ray
Stan Galat, '05 IM, 2276, Nowhere, USA posted:I'm not so sure, Gordon. That's the way it works with almost any other commodity or service. However, things get weird when people are chasing a dream.
It happens all the time when people fall in love. Please see what they want to see, they hear what they want to hear, and information that runs contrary to what they have already decided is disregarded (or worse). Nobody wants to hear that it will end badly.
I had recounted my entire JPS story on this site by the time Tom Dewalt was specing his green hornet, but he was determined (by the force of his own will) to have a different outcome than I (& others) had warned him about. He (like all the rest of us) got the car that John Steele was able to build, which is to say not at all what he was promised. He was in love with the wrong suitor.
If these guys were plumbers, or lawyers, or insurance salesman, they would have been bankrupt and waiting tables a long time ago. But, they are selling dreams, so they just keep cashing checks (see Steve Lawing as a proof of concept), kept in the style in which they have become accustomed by starry-eyed sugar daddies (like me) who think this is true love
All we the jilted ones can do is offer cautionary tales, and they won't mean much if someone is smitten.
SAS is living proof of that Stan. In the year and a half I've been on this site a half dozen people have come on trying to find out how to contact them to have a car built. Some move on after hearing the stories some don't. They just stop coming on here. Further proof is in the fact that others have been waiting for up to 15 years and CONTINUE to wait for an SAS car.
I think that this forum, as I have spouted off about before, does both our replica community and those who venture upon the site, a pretty good service by discussing the manufacturers who have repeatedly abused their customers by turning out shoddy products or no product at all. It is only one aspect of what goes on on the forum, but it is important.
We shined a light on Custom Coachwerks and they are gone. We continue to call out SAS and JPS, yet they remain in business. We support the good guys, IM, Special Edition, Vintage and the spyder builders as well, and we watch Rockwest and Kitman to see if they are what they appear to be and can prosper.
We take care of the hobby and those who are long time enthusiasts as well as the newcomers, if they are willing to listen.
We balance each other out with our comments and observations and do a pretty good job of looking at issues from a variety of angles.
Not bad......not bad at all my friends.
Stan...I think you should write a book. You have a special gift for telling stories about your experiences. You are eloquent, articulate, philosophical, candid, and unafraid to express how you think and your knowledge shows through in brilliance !......Bruce
aircooled posted:Stan...I think you should write a book. You have a special gift for telling stories about your experiences. You are eloquent, articulate, philosophical, candid, and unafraid to express how you think and your knowledge shows through in brilliance !......Bruce
Amen Bruce. I've been telling Stan the same thing for years. I thought I was intelligent -- but after reading Stan's posts, I feel like I should go back to writing with crayons and reading Where's Waldo.
Stan, Namaste (as we say where I come from)! You're the MAN.
Anand
arajani posted:Amen Bruce. I've been telling Stan the same thing for years. I thought I was intelligent -- but after reading Stan's posts, I feel like I should go back to writing with crayons and reading Where's Waldo.
Stan, Namaste (as we say where I come from)! You're the MAN.
Anand
I know what you mean. I have not only had to have many of Stan's posts translated into something more understandable for my level of intellect but have also had to seek counselling for feeling inferior as a direct result of Stan's posts.
Stan is working on his retirement career .... we all know it will be writing... keep entertaining us, captivating us with your prose. It is salted with just the right amount of introspection and you do have a unique ability to provide us with a 360 degree vision of just about any topic which allows all of us to identify with it Ray
Rusty, I think you wanted to say.... "the shadow of my wisdom has fled"
Charlton Heston quote, when given the choice between all the daughters of Jethro for a wife ... "The shadow of my wisdom has fled"
aircooled posted:Stan...I think you should write a book. You have a special gift for telling stories about your experiences. You are eloquent, articulate, philosophical, candid, and unafraid to express how you think and your knowledge shows through in brilliance !......Bruce
"Stan...I think you should write a book."
The title could be, "The Pipefitter and the Porsche" ..........One man's Quest for Perfection
I LIKE it!!!
When things start to drift off course here, Stan is the one who always seems to know how to work the GPS.
"The title could be, "The Pipefitter and the Porsche" ..........One man's Quest for Perfection"
by line "The Psychology of... How to build a Replica and still keep your sanity"
Robert M ... you made me chuckle as I sit here by the pool... Ray
Here is another ... The Pipefitter and the Porsche .... written by the Speedsterowners' own inhouse Psychologist and Rabbi, Stan Galat.
"The Psychology of How to Mindfully build a Replica without losing your MIND, your Marbles, and most of all your Money "
How about "The Art of Zen and Speedster Nirvana" ??...........Bruce
Stan, I'd be sitting in jail...
If Zen and all that isn't your style Stan could go for something the rest of will understand,
"Replica Speedsters for Dummies"
Everything you Need to Know and What /Who to Avoid.........Ask me How I Know
A poetic insight of 'Who' we are and an explanation of 'Why" we are is clearly profiled within Max Zimmer's 47 stories that comprise the 272 page Actual Mileage...Kick back and take a look in the mirror!
"... Ask me How I Know": now that's the truth.
I never set out to be a cautionary tale, but here I am: the guy who had to make every single mistake himself. I might have played things differently and gotten into something less addictive and expensive (perhaps a heroin habit), but here I am. Had I resisted the siren song, I might have been retired on a beach somewhere, rather than busting my back doing whatever it is that I do for a living.
Anyhow, you're all very kind, but this is the Tebster's engine thread and I seem to have hijacked it unwittingly.
Stan Galat, '05 IM, 2276, Nowhere, USA posted:
...Anyhow, you're all very kind, but this is the Tebster's engine thread and I seem to have hijacked it unwittingly.
Don't worry about it, Stan; it's what makes this place so damn interesting...
Stan Galat, '05 IM, 2276, Nowhere, USA posted:"... Ask me How I Know": now that's the truth.
I never set out to be a cautionary tale, but here I am: the guy who had to make every single mistake himself. I might have played things differently and gotten into something less addictive and expensive (perhaps a heroin habit), but here I am. Had I resisted the siren song, I might have been retired on a beach somewhere, rather than busting my back doing whatever it is that I do for a living.
Anyhow, you're all very kind, but this is the Tebster's engine thread and I seem to have hijacked it unwittingly.
Actually, I thought it was quite unwittingly Witty.
Stan reminds me a lot of The Baltimore Chop, who is a merchant mariner but writes his ass off and tells the truth in a way that only someone who lives outside of the precincts where "professional writers" usually dwell can. He is a threat to my livelihood, because he does for free that for which I require payment. Yet I can't do his job--for free or otherwise--because I lack skill.
Yeah, it's kind-of like following in the footsteps of Damon Runyon. Or Max Zimmer, for that matter. We're "car guys", after all......
Wow, so much here, including hot babes. It just does not get better than this. Pretty much an entire encapsulation of all things SOC, and in one thread, only on its second page.
I can offer only this wrt JPS: My car was put together around the same time as the Green Hornet, mentioned above. I was, unabashedly, following a dream, and doing so without a lot of knowledge about other builders. Things did not go swimmingly, but I did get pretty much what I asked for, more or less when promised, and I had a lot of after the sale support for stuff that was not as it should have been. As Stan has said, I was asking for what JPS does well, not coloring outside the lines. Yes, sorting was protracted. The JPS business model, to the degree that there is such a thing, is to build to a price point. I admit that this attracted me. I am a wiser man now, and if I had had some of that wisdom at Day One, I might have decided to spend a little more to get a little more somewhere else. I have no plan to buy another Speedster, but if I did, I would not be a repeat JPS customer. And yes, I was all-in about pursuing a dream -- still am.