Steve Colletti, the incompetent lying mechanic.

Alright, let's start a little more from the beginning.  Why did I even choose Colletti Motorsports to start with?  Well, I dated and was briefly married to the daughter of an employee of Colletti Motorsports.  The employee's name was Bill Knabe and his daughter's name was Katie Knabe.  Unfortunately and sadly, both have passed away from cancer.  My truck had needed a new motor at one time and I needed somewhere to go to that I could trust.  As many people know, it is hard to trust automotive mechanic shops.  I was not married to Katie at this time.  We had gotten a dissolution and became friends again later on.  Knowing Katie and her father, I decided to go ahead and bring my truck to Colletti Motorsports.  They found a new motor to replace the broken down motor that was in my truck.  Changing motors does not take that much skill and they were able to do it with no problems.  That experience I had with them was fine.  It was the later experience, that this blog is dedicated to, that is my horror story.

My Buick Grand National was broken down and my Combat Medic Vietnam Veteran father had passed away and left a little bit of money to me.  We both enjoyed cars and he was a dirt track and drag racer back in his day.  I love taking care of and having my car, therefore, I wanted to spend some money to have my car fixed so that I could care for it and enjoy it as a sort of therapy from my father's loss.  Knowing Katie and her father, and the fact that Colletti Motorsports's website claimed they were "turbo specialists," (a claim they no longer state) I decided to come and talk to Steve Colletti (the "ripper off-er") about rebuilding the engine in my Buick Grand National.

My father had passed away on Veteran's Day in 2010.  I came to Colletti Motorsports right around that timeframe.  I told Steve Colletti (the "ripper off-er") that I would like to have the engine rebuilt and that I wanted it done around the beginning of March (2011) and that I wanted it to be around 500HP.  I also strongly pointed out that I heard these cars can be very tricky to work on.  I did not want to insult him, but at the same time I wanted to warn him.  A previous mechanic I had while living in Florida (Kevin King of KDK Performance) told me to never have anyone, who is not experienced with Buick Grand Nationals, ever work on my car.  He said typically, they will blow up the first day you get them back.  I have also read articles in GM High Tech Magazine that state this as well. Well, I had had Millet's Automotive in Piqua, OH, rebuild my Buick around 1999 when I was on leave from the Navy.  I was on a one month leave and needed the car done in 3 weeks.  Millet's Automotive did the job in 3 weeks and the car lasted me for 10 years.  I assumed if Millet's could do it, Colletti Motorsports could as well.  But they have obviously proved me wrong.  So, Steve Colletti (the "ripper off-er") told me, with a big smile, it would be no problem.  Not only did he say it would not be a problem, he said it would probably be done in January.

The end of February comes and I am asked to stop by.  I am excited to think that my car is done or almost done.  I get there and my semi-rare car is just sitting out in the front parking lot, which is not secure.  They have no fences or anything to protect your car from theft or vandals.  I go inside the shop and see my engine in pieces. (Remember, the car was promised to be done at the beginning of March.) I was pretty upset but I remembered that Millet's Automotive rebuilt my car in 3 weeks, so I still thought the car could be done on time.  Steve Colletti (the "ripper off-er") showed me that my Buick has, what I later found out on my own, an offset crankshaft.  He had apparently never seen one before and did not know what to do.  He had printed out an article in which someone had converted their Turbo Buick from an offset crankshaft to a standard crankshaft and recommended to me that we do this.  This also required that the timing order be changed.  I said I wanted to look into this plan of his.  It did not seem right to me.

What makes a Grand National a Grand National is its unique motor.  Once you change that, it is no longer a Grand National.  Most car enthusiasts will understand this point and especially if you are a Turbo Buick owner.  I looked into the matter of the offset crankshaft and discovered that there is a fluid channel in the crankshaft that gives it extra strength and that Buick Grand National crankshafts hold up to quite a lot of stress.  This was something Steve Colletti (the "ripper off-er") could not figure out on his own.  I had to tell him.  He apparently was either not intelligent enough, or too lazy and incompetent, or all of these to find this out on his own  This was when I started getting really nervous.  I was afraid that my car was going to blow up right after I got it back just like I had been warned and read about.  It was from that point on that I really started documenting everything.  I did not get my car back until January 2013 when it was supposed to be March 2011.