wats up with this B.S

[shawn]

http://milwaukee.craigslist.org/cto/1371263031.html

[Karps TA]

I've heard people have issues with them in the past. Matter of fact I've heard alot of people complain about their work.

Everything I've had done has been fine, and Mike has never treated me poorly. Everybody has bad experiences somewhere.

[Red97GTP]

My bro, 84hurst, has had problems with them, too. In his sig it says "Fuck Borchards." It cost my bro another $1000 to get it redone though.

[nismodave]

There are Bad stories from EVERY motor builder.

They must do something right to be around for so long.

[GTSLOW]

I'm guessing its a 50/50 shop.

[97z2801ss]

yea I have herd nothing but bad too, I heard thier mainly old school engine builders anyways.. but like i said I HEARD it never witnessed it. so I dont know

[84hurst]

His fuck up caused 2 spun connecting rod bearings on my Olds 350 after only 2300 miles so I can feel this guys pain. Mike was unwilling to work with me other than a small discount on labor. I had to buy all new pistons and rings, 2 connecting rods, whole new oversized bearing kit, cam bearings and of course, cleaning/magnafluxing the block and crank at a cost of just over $1000. From what we could tell, 2 wrist pins were installed too tight and the bearings couldn't take the strain.

[JC70SS]

that place sucks!

[Car Guy]

I had an 'experience' with him that cost me $4,000 to fix......:shades

[shawn]

i got a buddy who was thinkin of taken a small black there for machine work and about two minutes after i got off the phone with him i see that shit on craigslist.

[JC70SS]

C&s

[Car Guy]

i got a buddy who was thinkin of taken a small black there for machine work and about two minutes after i got off the phone with him i see that shit on craigslist.

There are MUCH better places in town that can do the work for your friend, I wouldn't let Butcher's touch my lawnmower if they were the last shop in town......:stare

[Al]

Does Borchardts have a web page? I tried a random Google search and found no home page.

[Smokey1226]

i got a buddy who was thinkin of taken a small black there for machine work and about two minutes after i got off the phone with him i see that shit on craigslist.

Call John @ Rocket Racing in Tichigan. He did my block work and has done machineing for many others on here. Top Quailty work, he will never BS with you, he will show you exactly what he will do on all of his machines and when its done you will be extremely impressed. Tell Him you want the same quailty of Chad Schmidt's SBF block :D :headbang

[86GUTLASS]

Yup John at Rocket Racing.Good guy top notch

[84hurst]

Call John @ Rocket Racing in Tichigan. He did my block work and has done machineing for many others on here. Top Quailty work, he will never BS with you, he will show you exactly what he will do on all of his machines and when its done you will be extremely impressed. Tell Him you want the same quailty of Chad Schmidt's SBF block :D :headbang

x3 for rocket. I've never heard a bad thing about them (especially regarding the Olds motors), but I did have my motor gone over (not assembled) by NVR in Butler and never had a problem with their work/parks in over 5 years. Easy to work with and he's seen plenty of Butchards fuck ups.

[Prince Valiant]

Full Disclosure:
I can say every time I've dealt with Mike or his wife, they've always been good and fair. Helped out a couple times when I was in a pinch and short for parts or a tool. Always did exactly what I wanted for a decent price machine shop wise. Always enjoyed talking shop with him. Used a short-block they built for a truck once and had no probs there either. They are NOT in any way an exclusive provider of machine work for me either, as I've gone with Kilpatrick's, C&S, and even MATC too...pretty much been happy where ever I've gone except in one case, needed a correction.

Rant: Threads like these bug me...every shop has their horror stories and screw ups. Every shop has a pocket of vocal, impossible to satisfy customers. Every single shop I've ever known.

Take another old school shop (that shall remain nameless) that enjoys a fantastic reputation to some, and a horrid to others. I've seen their great stuff AND their horrid stuff...so what's up with that?

Oftentimes it's the customer. They'll bring in their own parts or make their own demands on how they want something built. Sometimes the customer knows their stuff and got their stuff together and everything works out well....other times, the customer thinks they know more than they do, read something about how this works great according to some dude whose rep is through the roof on a forum he visits, so he knows this will work great when this shop build it for him. And when it doesn't work as advertised (or in some cases, the parts are completely incorrect) they're shocked when it doesn't work out as they read it would from a forum.

And it's not just forums they'll read this stuff from. Magazines are another great source of misinformation too...I'm sure every shop dreads it when a mag comes out saying "build this 600hp engine for $2,500!!!" and every customer wants to come in and recreate that build.

My favorite transmission guy gets this often too...guys will come in and spec their build, KNOWING it's what they need. He'll try and suggest another route to get the desired outcome and the customer thinks he's trying to scam them for more money....but of course, when the trans fails, they're back at his place demanding a rebuild on his dime.

Watched another friend of mine (he let me use his tools/equip while building the valiant, as I was still in college with no place of my own), and a mustang came in. The guy brought a bunch of parts that he was certain would get his convertible, 2.7x:1 geared auto-tragic w/ stock converter stang into the low 13's....I think it was stuff like a new MAF, TB spacer, long-tube headers and some chip for the distributer....needless to say, he needed much more. And he was pissed when the stang still was low 15's (it was probably a low/mid 16's car when it came in), blaming my buddies "shoddy work" for it. THEN he blamed my bud for him breaking his oil pump drive shaft too :rolleyes:

I can't say I know intimately every ones story, the details, the other side, etc...this is only a broad generalization based off what I've seen over the years. I know there are bad shops out there...I've seen them. And pretty much every shop I considered a joke for one reason or another went the way of the Dodo too...extinct.

These shops that have been around a while generally have been around because they do something (though not everything) right.

[TheRX7Project]

My dad has been taking his motors to Borchardt's for years... and the only problems he's ever had were things he brought on himself, by not following Mike's reccomendations (i.e. being a cheapskate and trying to save a nickel).

[Memphis]

I have to say I agree with this post 100%. I've worked in my share of auto shops, know friends who own shops of one type or another and you always get three kinds of people. The regular customers who like your work and understand if there is an occasional issue. And theres the guys who make an issue out of everything when there is no issue to begin with, then shoot there mouth off to anyone who will listen. Then the guy who has a legitimate issue, although usually I've seen the issues being able to be resolved. I can give you story after story, but it isnt the point. Now I believe those of you who say you had problems and it cost you money and for whatever reason they wouldnt work with you. Dont get me wrong, there are those stories. Just remember for every 1 of those stories there's another 50 that went well and the customer is happy. Lets just use Borchardts for an example. They've been in business for what, over 50 years? You dont stay in business that long if everything you do is like the examples that got posted here. It just doesnt happen. I'm not defending mike, I dont know the circumstances of your particular problems and I'm not saying you are wrong, this is just a generalization.


Full Disclosure:
I can say every time I've dealt with Mike or his wife, they've always been good and fair. Helped out a couple times when I was in a pinch and short for parts or a tool. Always did exactly what I wanted for a decent price machine shop wise. Always enjoyed talking shop with him. Used a short-block they built for a truck once and had no probs there either. They are NOT in any way an exclusive provider of machine work for me either, as I've gone with Kilpatrick's, C&S, and even MATC too...pretty much been happy where ever I've gone except in one case, needed a correction.

Rant: Threads like these bug me...every shop has their horror stories and screw ups. Every shop has a pocket of vocal, impossible to satisfy customers. Every single shop I've ever known.

Take another old school shop (that shall remain nameless) that enjoys a fantastic reputation to some, and a horrid to others. I've seen their great stuff AND their horrid stuff...so what's up with that?

Oftentimes it's the customer. They'll bring in their own parts or make their own demands on how they want something built. Sometimes the customer knows their stuff and got their stuff together and everything works out well....other times, the customer thinks they know more than they do, read something about how this works great according to some dude whose rep is through the roof on a forum he visits, so he knows this will work great when this shop build it for him. And when it doesn't work as advertised (or in some cases, the parts are completely incorrect) they're shocked when it doesn't work out as they read it would from a forum.

And it's not just forums they'll read this stuff from. Magazines are another great source of misinformation too...I'm sure every shop dreads it when a mag comes out saying "build this 600hp engine for $2,500!!!" and every customer wants to come in and recreate that build.

My favorite transmission guy gets this often too...guys will come in and spec their build, KNOWING it's what they need. He'll try and suggest another route to get the desired outcome and the customer thinks he's trying to scam them for more money....but of course, when the trans fails, they're back at his place demanding a rebuild on his dime.

Watched another friend of mine (he let me use his tools/equip while building the valiant, as I was still in college with no place of my own), and a mustang came in. The guy brought a bunch of parts that he was certain would get his convertible, 2.7x:1 geared auto-tragic w/ stock converter stang into the low 13's....I think it was stuff like a new MAF, TB spacer, long-tube headers and some chip for the distributer....needless to say, he needed much more. And he was pissed when the stang still was low 15's (it was probably a low/mid 16's car when it came in), blaming my buddies "shoddy work" for it. THEN he blamed my bud for him breaking his oil pump drive shaft too :rolleyes:

I can't say I know intimately every ones story, the details, the other side, etc...this is only a broad generalization based off what I've seen over the years. I know there are bad shops out there...I've seen them. And pretty much every shop I considered a joke for one reason or another went the way of the Dodo too...extinct.

These shops that have been around a while generally have been around because they do something (though not everything) right.

[Rocket Power]

other times, the customer thinks they know more than they do, read something about how this works great according to some dude whose rep is through the roof on a forum he visits, so he knows this will work great when this shop build it for him. And when it doesn't work as advertised (or in some cases, the parts are completely incorrect) they're shocked when it doesn't work out as they read it would from a forum.

Those guys are the best. They pretend to know everything,but then you see them asking the most basic questions later on.:rolf

[70 cutlass 442]

Call John @ Rocket Racing in Tichigan. He did my block work and has done machineing for many others on here. Top Quailty work, he will never BS with you, he will show you exactly what he will do on all of his machines and when its done you will be extremely impressed. Tell Him you want the same quailty of Chad Schmidt's SBF block :D :headbang

x4 in the past 3 years i think ive sent 4 or 5 complete engine builds there... all were done perfact :thumbsup