High Mountain Classics, Owner - Victor Holtorf 1954 Porsche Engine Restoration and Rebuild SCAM Berthoud Colorado
In April 2015, I hired High Mountain Classics (Victor Holtorf) to rebuild my 1954 Porsche 356 Super Engine based on the reputation of Jim Stranberg, founder of the company. I have since talked to Jim and he informed me he had sold the Company prior to my hiring Victor. In addition, he told me that he had never rebuilt a 356 Porsche engine in his entire career.
After 452 man hours, $42,000, and 9 months, I received the car via flatbed from Greeley to my sons’ warehouse in Denver. The car was delivered on January 8, 2016, and there were 12,656 miles on the car. During the 9- month period of time, I complained about the bills and the time it was taking. Victor would tell me the money I was spending was well worth it because the car was so valuable, and that the work was fully guaranteed to me as well as to a new buyer.
Upon arrival to my sons’ warehouse, the car was placed on a car lift for safety, and immediately listed for sale. A potential buyer responded to the ad and hired a 356 Senior PCA Judge for 23 years and a 356 mechanic with over 50 years of experience to inspect the car on his behalf. They arrived on Saturday, February 6th, at my sons’ warehouse and spent over 3 hours inspecting the car. Due to the weather, they could not test drive the car. The car was still on the lift and had not been started or moved since delivery of the vehicle on January 8th. Their reports (documents on file) indicate excessive amounts of oil leaking from the flywheel, fuel pump, valve covers and other areas. They also indicate numerous cotter keys, nuts and washers had not been installed where needed on the car. Further indicated, "the carburetors need rebuilding, the engine is imbalanced and the hardware plating is incorrect." And finally it failed a critical leak down test (Exhibit A).
On February 19th, on the recommendation of the 356 Senior PCA judge, I had the car delivered to another mechanic with over 40 years of experience with 356 engines. Between February 19th and March 29th, he performed repairs based on the following issues. The carburetor was flooding, valve cover gaskets leaking oil, push rod tube seals leaking oil, and missing heater cables (Exhibit B).
On March 15th, a potential buyer came to inspect the car. The starter would not engage and the car wouldn’t start. The buyer was no longer interested. The mechanic completed additional work in repairing the starter and re-timing the engine. On April 16th, the car was driven 1⁄2 mile from the mechanics shop to my warehouse (Exhibit C).
On May 4th, during a visit to my warehouse, I attempted to start the
car. The car would not start and I found an excessive oil leak of about 1⁄2 quart on the floor beneath the car. The mechanic came over, started the car, and drove it back to his shop. As a result of the oil leak and the bad leak down test, I asked him to determine the cause. The engine was removed and it was discovered the head nuts had no washers fitted, crushed O ring seals allowing oil to escape the cylinder heads, #3 piston had seized, and pistons 1,2 and 4 were hitting the cylinder head. As a result of the report, I asked the aforementioned 356 experts to come to the shop to give me their opinions on June 17th at 9:00a.m. Both concurred with everything found (Exhibit D).
After the meeting, the rest of the engine was disassembled. The following issues were found; rear main seal loose in case and had been bored oversized, front seal running on speedy sleeve radius (leaking), main bearings were failing due to incorrect material, rod bearings failing from low oil flow, crankshaft has bad grind and pitting, and incorrect oil pump fitted. The engine had obviously been overheated (Exhibit E & F).
As a result, we decided to send the engine block, crankshaft, cam shaft, and bearings to a machine shop in Colorado Springs. The owner has over 45 years of experience as one of the most qualified machinist’s in the United States. He confirmed everything in the reports. I asked him to review the invoices from High Mountain Classics. His response to the invoices can be summarized in a quote from his email "wow these hours billed...you could make a 356 from scratch in Ferdinand’s barn."
A timeline of conversations with Victor, owner at High Mountain Classics and me beginning 2 days after the inspection are as follows:
2/8/2016 — called 9:45 am. Told Victor problem- said it ran fine when I got it. Told him of the problems and emailed the report from the 356 mechanic. Said he would call back
2/10/16 — Victor did not return call. Called again at 9:30 said he was busy and hadn’t called the mechanic. Emailed his number to Victor. I got upset with him on the whole restoration process and end result
2/15/16. No call back to me or the expert 356 mechanic. Said he would have someone come down next couple of days and start the car. Victor said he would call tomorrow. He’s been busy. I lost it with him.
2/17/16 call. No answer. Left message at 9:30 am. Victor called back at 4:30. Said he left a message for my 356 mechanic. Would have someone come down and start car. (Never did).
3/2016-6/14/16 — The 356 mechanic never received call from Victor. During this time, I was having the car evaluated by 2 experienced 356 Porsche mechanics to determine the damage.
6/14/16 — Victor was talking about coming down looking at the engine. In beginning, he said he would - then started putting requirements on the meeting, Fred Paige (a Porsche mechanic Victor knows) had to talk to the mechanic first, and made other excuses. I emailed Victor – the two mechanics reports of the engine damage. I called at 3:30 today. He said he wasn't coming until they talked. I got mad. Said I didn't want to hire legal counsel, but may not have a choice. He started yelling and screaming. 4 letter words and hung up on me. After 4 months you can see what his full warranty is worth.
Immediately following the phone call where Victor hung up on me, I received an email from Victor:
"After reviewing the reports you have had prepared, dated February 6, 2016 and June 4, 2016, and after careful consideration, we will not be able to meet with your team to review the engine... Our technician drove the car out of the trailer, and drove it into the warehouse, with the engine running fine. Our job with the car was thus finished." (Exhibit G & H)
I received the car January 8, 2016 where it sat in a climate controlled warehouse. I had possession of the car for less than 30 days prior to the first inspection. It was in the middle of winter.
The car had not been started or driven during that time. Obviously, Victors 8 mechanics had no idea what they were doing when it came to rebuilding the Porsche engine. They ran the engine on a dyno for 32 hours, which fried the inside. All of the three 356 mechanics that inspected the engine stated it is unheard of to run a Porsche engine for that long on a dyno. (30 minutes max).
As you can see from Victor’s email, his warranty is only valid until the customer takes delivery of the car. Then you are on your own.
I have records of the High Mountain Classics invoice, Victors email, and the other mechanics’ reports on the car as well as photo proof of the damage.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
High Mountain Classics
Greeley,Colorado,
USA
Untruthful Report made by a con man who extorts money from automotive repair shops
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, February 21, 2017
High Mountain Classics, www.highmountainclassics.com has been around for decades, serving hundred of customers. But, like in any business, there are a few bad customers. In this case, we believe the customer is a con man, because he has a history of behaving strangely, then demanding reimbursements for work done from more than one shop. He has acted strangely, because months after the was done, and the car was proven to run, did he make complaints and demand money from us, using the internet to scam us to extort money from us.
The proper, customary, normal, ethical, and legal protocol is to have any alleged problems with a car immediately reviewed by the shop that did the work when problems are noticed. The fact that months went by, many othe people and shops were involved with and worked on the car, an unknown number of persons have driven the car, and the engine has been removed from the car and disassembled after we delivered the car to the customer, is a gross violation of proper protocol, smells suspiciously of a con job, and absolves us from any legal responsibil9ity or liability for any alleged problems with the engilne.
The fact is, there is absolutely no way for us to know what happened to the car from December 2015 when the running car was delivered to the customer, until the date of the first report, many months later. We do know, and can prove the the engine ran well, and was delivered, and received, by the customer's agents in good running condition, and have video proof of this. I even test drove the car, and this customer was difficult and argumentative from day one. What happened after delivery of the car is unknown to us.
If only the customer had done the normal and customary action of contacting us immediately with any problems. We would have gone out there and addressed the issue as he was only thirty miles away. Why did he purportedly get so many others involved? So much so that the engine was purportedly removed from the car and completely disassembled by others without communicating with us? If he really could not start the car, or if he had any other concerns, we could have let us fix the problems. But by allegedly going as far as he did, with so many other hands in the project postfacto, it is impossible to know who did what. However, the suspicious activity of purportedly enlisting many other to inspect, diagnose, and disassemble the engine is the problem now. Is it even th same engine? Or doesn we want another engine rebuilt for free? Who knows? There is no way a shop can warranty a job when there is no way to know just who did what and when. Sadly, all the customer had to do was to follow the normal protocol that any lawyer would have advised. But he did not. Ther is no way to know who is responsible for any alleged problems at this point. We feel this a con job, with the customer trying to get work done for free, and then extort money from us using the internet to slander our shop. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns aobut the quality of our work, through the link to our wedsite above, and please disregard this untruthful 'ripoff report' as it is part of a scam.