[jellybytes2]

I wasn't planning on bring this up in public prior to resolution, but since Nate brought my name up, I need to clear it.

My '97 SVX needed a headgasket job in the spring of 2014. I worked out the details for Nate to do the job. I believed that Nate's experience would allow him to the job more efficiently than my local mechanic. I also bought a '93 off of him at the same time. He towed the '93 out to me and picked up the '97 and a Subaru reseal kit that I had purchased. Several weeks later I sent Nate $1500 via paypal to cover his parts costs as he worked on the car.

Starting in October of that year Nate claimed that the car was completed and he just needed to work out his schedule to deliver it back to me. The first proposed delivery date was around Halloween 2014.

In January of 2015, Nate informed me that the engine was back out of the car and at a machine shop. The quoted facebook message follows.
"i should be able to get the mileage, and the engine is back out do to bottom end noise. I dropped it off along with luckily having a set of rings and bearings at the machine shop on Monday, supposed to be done tomorrow. I know there is a time crunch for getting the car back to you asap for the tristate. Started it up last weekend and had some bottom end noise. This kinda thing can happen randomly. Luckily I had/have all parts available to get it taken care of."

In June 2015, Nate once again claimed the car was completed. I asked him to get the car inspected so that I could pick it up and drive it home instead of waiting for him to deliver it. I flew into Erie, but when I arrived Nate told me the car was locked up in the inspection shop and he couldn't get it.

Nate finally brought the car out in October 2015 and dropped it off at my mechanic's shop. I did not meet him because it was rather late when he arrived. After dropping off the car, Nate informed me not to worry about a closed off vaccuum port on the intake manifold because it was something that the OBD I had but OBD II did not. When I inquired about the changed manifold, he informed me for the first time that he had put a different engine in the car.

I inspected the car with my mechanic the next day. The "new" water pump was leaking at the thermostat housing where a large chunk was missing, the plastic tray under the engine was missing and exhaust hangers were also missing. The car had been sitting so long that the rotor had rusted (Nate did leave a set with the car) and a rust spot that was starting on one door had rusted through. The worst thing though was that the engine has what my mechanic describes as a "rod knock" that the previous engine didn't have and sounds worse than my '93 which is barely above a parts car.

After several weeks of little response from Nate, I paid my mechanic $600 to clean up the sloppy job. On the first test drive, the upper radiator hose blew because Nate had put a clamp on lopsided. The hose was not original, I had it replaced with the radiator.

We got the radiator hose replaced and I managed to drive it for one day before the alternator wires melted. I admit it may have been a coincidence, but that does not seem likely.

One other item that probably developed with the car sitting for so long was a u-joint is now squeaking very badly. Again, possibly not the direct result of Nate's work, but between the time it sat and the fact that he disconnected the drive-shaft to tow the car each way he likely contributed to it.

Throughout the time Nate had the car, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, even defending his slow responses and intermittent "disappearances." I was even giving Nate the chance to resolve this without discussing in public, however since Nate decided to throw my name in the dirt, I felt the need to respond.

Andrew Goldstein