Originally Posted by vipernicus42

Over a year ago (November 06) I bought a pair of 83LE rims that were destined for my 7 off a fellow forum member. That transaction went very well, but it's what occurred after that has me up in a knot.

trochoid (Scott) is a respected member of the 1st Gen Section and I'd had him do some powdercoating work for me before. Anyone who has been following my project saw me get all the rad panels, coolant tubes, battery tray, pulleys etc... from my engine bay powdercoated - that was trochoid. I also had gotten a set of + rims from him that he had powdercoated quite nicely.

So knowing that, I had the seller ship my 83LE rims directly to trochoid for powdercoating. The idea was that I wanted the lips polished but the centres done in gloss black powder, then the whole thing clear coated and a set of four Sumitomo HTR 200s installed on them. The price for all this, he asked, was 750USD, and I paid it. At the time the exchange made that over a thousand bucks Canadian, over and above the 350USD I paid for the rims themselves, but it was exactly the look I wanted so I went for it and paid him up front over a span of about a month.


That's when things went bad. He didn't touch the rims for almost a year. They were originally supposed to be ready before spring 07 and he was going to be driving up to Canada with a shell for dj55b (Sam, a story on its own!) and would bring the rims with him so I wouldn't have to pay shipping.

Needless to say, when I put the car away in fall 07 and still didn't have my rims I was getting a little impatient. I knew he was an old man and had his share of problems, but I found out that he had SPENT all the money I had sent him and the only thing he had done to the rims was to sandblast the centres with equipment he already had available.

He kept giving me the runaround about when things would progress further but it started to be very clear that they wouldn't.

So being the rather fair guy I am, I decided to try and re-work the deal and give him a chance.

I had since decided that the 83LE rims would get in the way of an eventual big brake upgrade, and during the time trochoid had burned not doing anything, Billy from ReSpeed released the new Rack and Pinion conversion kits.

So the new deal was laid out: A rack and pinion conversion kit including a 15:1 rack costs about $1000. Trochoid owed me $750 and the rims could be sold for about $350 so that meant that between the money he owed me and the rims he had, he could just buy me the rack.

So I gave him permission to sell the rims, on the condition that the money be wired straight to billy at respeed as a down payment for the rack kit. Trochoid would then sell one of his numerous "extra" vehicles or do work around his area to make up the money he had spent, and send that to billy so that come this spring I could have my rack and pinion kit waiting when the car comes out of storage April 08.



Last week he recieved payment for the rims. That's right. He accepted a money order for the rims. I only found out about it because I heard about someone buying them. When I confronted him about it, he said he had the money order in his posession, he had just been too couch-ridden with back pain to get to the bank, cash it and paypal the money over.

So now he has sold my rims and still hasn't sent THAT money to billy, let alone the 750 he owes me.


It's WAY too late to file a paypal dispute over it, and the cost to travel down to MO, missing work, to get a lawyer and take him to court over $1000 would be way too much.


I'm pretty much out of options. I'm sick and tired of his excuses. I've dumped about $1500CDN into this mess with the exchange rates as poor as they were at the time and now I have absolutely nothing to show for it.


I haven't called him out publicly on the forum because I know what a shitstorm that will create, and banning him from the forum would take away his only real way of selling rotary-related parts to make up the money he owes me.


I just don't know what to do. Any ideas guys? I'm not the only person who has had trouble. dj55b (Sam) went through hell to get his shell, and ended up flying down to trochoid's place, having to finish alot of body work himself that trochoid was supposed to have done, renting a truck and trailer and driving it home all at his own expense. Trochoid still owes him money but at least Sam has something to show for it - he got his shell. I got nothing and I *really* want to find a way to get trochoid to own up and get me either the $1100 ($750 I paid + $350 he got for the rims) or get him to buy me a rack conversion kit with a 15:1 rack.

I almost chewed him out in his thread that he posted today with the tutorial on modding the fender lip. If he has enough energy to do that, then he's got enough energy to wire the ******* money to billy goddamit!!!

Originally Posted by vipernicus42

Never pay entirely up front for service if you can help it. Split it 60/40 for start / completion or delivery. Or have -some- sort of assurance.

Jon