Here's the latest on my potentially beautiful and very expensive (more so now) West Coast "turnkey". Many of you may remember all the problems I had upon delivery, which said delivery I had to force upon Vern, after almost 2 years from my first deposit/payment, as he was ignoring my car in a stall at his shop. It was delivered covered in dust if that tells you anything. You can see the dust in the pics of the delivery in my photo gallery. Right now after 5 months uncovered in my garage it does not have any more dust than the day it was delivered, mostly finished.
Well, here's the latest: Many of you may remember that when my cobra was at the transmission shop late last year for replacement of the ADJUSTABLE hydraulic throwout bearing (which was never adjusted, just thrown in there by Vern Redel.. said lack of proper installation was causing the o-rings to blow out and therefore the clutch no longer worked due to loss of fluid) Anyway, while there the shop allowed me to work on my car on the stand and install my permacool blower fan type
oil cooler. This is when I discovered COOLANT in my
oil 
3000 miles on the car and the bearings were shot. reason? Incorrect installation of the Edelbrock torker 2 intake on my otherwise perfectly fine new 514 crate motor (It had 80 psi and was otherwise a fine motor) I have pictures of the silicone seal Vern used for the end gaskets, and they literally fell out with zero adhesion to either surface when the intake was removed at the rebuilders. The intake also was not torqued properly..!
Now as if this was not all bad enough, Vern Redel has utterly failed to respond to my e-mails and even a registered letter requesting that he honor the WRITTEN and SIGNED warranty he provided. Since Vern Redel/West Coast cobras is a CANADIAN business it seems I have slim recourse. The 1 year warranty states clearly that all work performed by West Coast Dreams is covered. The warranty seems as good as a piece of toilet paper. I have waited for almost 5 months while continuing to write Vern Redel with NO response. Expect the same treatment once he gets YOUR money...
The motor is at a NASCAR machinist's shop for rebuild, and while there, a gentleman who has a great deal of experience with port matching will be opening up the Edelbrock intake to match my Cobra jet heads. So at least this will be one good thing. I am hoping to get the Holley fuel injection done later this year. it should have been done this winter but no way, with all the above.
The only other bright spot is that while we had everything apart I had the bellhousing and transmission powdercoated. I also have a 12 inch McCleod clutch and Tilton TO bearing and much better SS lines. I also will have a pedal stop when we put her back together. It'll look nice when done, It will be done RIGHT this time
and she should be back on the road about June at this point.
I will post further when I have more news. Total cost that Vern should have footed under the warranty is in the area of $6,000 not counting motor R & R and that's being generous on my part. A new 514 alone would be $7400, not counting R & R
Beware West Coast cobras/Vern Redel
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