Ok, I got home early the morning of Thanksgiving. The next day, I went out to start wrenching on the car....my new GTM 3" exhaust had been delivered the day I was traveling to Forged. A buddy and I got the car on stands and quickly saw things I didn't like.
1) The Passenger's side Down Pipe has been dented in severely. It looks like Forged used a hammer and beat the crap out of it. These parts are made for these cars and should be going in without any issues. Sam confirmed this as well.
2) The metal around one of the mounting holes on the Driver's side wastegate has been broken/cut off. Basically only half of one of the bolts was pushing against anything. Sam confirmed this as well.
3) The Driver's side Dump Tube is loose. Actually, the whole assembly (dump tube, wastegate, etc.) moves, so I think the exhaust manifold or something are loose. I can hear a vibration/rattle at times and I believe this, along with the charge pipes knocking into each other, is the cause. Did I mention something about an exhaust leak? Obviously there is one when the exhaust manifold is so loose. Sam confirmed this as well.
4) The Dump Tubes have different bolts in them where the wastegates attach to them. The Passenger's side has Allen-Head bolts where the Driver's side has normal ones. Yes, this is trivial, but just shows a lack of attention to detail and quality in my opinion.
5) The lower clamps that connect the Driver's side Charge Pipe to the pipe coming from the intercooler was turned the wrong direction. The bolts from the clamp were protruding into the inner fender and keeping the inner fender lining from going back all the way. I fixed this myself before I decided to send my car to GTM.
6) The Drive's-side front inner-fender was missing two snap clips (the ones in the back to the left of the strut). The inner fender was not completely attached due to this and the item above.
7) The Driver's-side front inner-fender is missing a snap clip (the one by the outer edge next the quarter panel). Again, this along with the items above meant the inner fender was not in place as it should be, and the inner portion was so loose it could move around.
8) The passenger's side charge pipe would make a knocking noise against the pipe it connects to. The pipes simply needed adjusting within the coupler to prevent this. I fixed this myself before I decided to send my car to GTM.
9a) On the passenger's side Blow-Off-Valve, the part where the vacuum line attaches was loose and would spin around freely. I fixed this myself before I decided to send my car to GTM.
9b) Passenger's side Blow-Off-Valve
10) The instructions called for 3 vacuum taps to be made in the Intake Collector. Instead of doing this, Forged only did the one in the rear and used a Vacuum Block. I questioned Sharif about this and he told me they always do this and it is fine. I'm sorry, I paid for the Turbo kit that GTM created and I want it installed as GTM says it should be. Sam confirmed this and said using the vacuum block is not recommended unless it was using a larger tap and input tube to it. Sam also stated that it is better for each blow-off valve to have its vacuum line running independently to each side (inlet) of the intake manifold.
11) The Passenger's-side front inner-fender is missing a snap clip (the one by the outer edge next the quarter panel).
12) One of the two bolts/screws holding the front bumper on from the inner fender is missing on each side.
13) The pipe going to the inter cooler on the driver's side was extremely loose, and would knock into the intercooler outlet causing a noise. I temporarily fixed this myself before I decided to send my car to GTM. I used some larger wire ties to basically hold it in place.
14) There is a very noticeable clunking noise coming from the front passenger side of the car when going over bumps at slow to medium speeds. I asked Sharif about this, and once again, he told me this was normal. He said it was my new sway bars. I spoke with Sam about this, and he said there should not be any noise like this due to the sway bars. Sam has confirmed the noise is there, but has not yet determined the cause of it.
15) The steering wheel seems to be off slightly.
16) The headlights seem to be weird. They point low and they have an unusual pattern in them in the middle of the car. It is as if the driver’s side light points too far to the left and creates a void or something in the middle.
17) There are some retaining clips (the things that clip to the plastic so a bolt can thread into them) missing on the cover under the engine.
18) One of the holes in the engine is stripped where the cover under the engine mounts.
19) The little rock guard (I guess that is what it is??) on the driver's side under the car is missing.
20) Forged mounted the EVC inside of my Ash Tray location. It looks nice, but the round button/dial on the EVC is depressed when the ash-tray is closed. I'm not sure what this could do, I guess it depends on what mode the EVC is in when this happens.
21) The EVC display isn't mounted at the proper angle. This makes it hard to read, especially during the day. Again, it looks nice, but it needed to be adjusted to a different angle.
22) The Glove Box sticks/hangs when opening and closing...it is not smooth like it should be.
23) I discovered why the front Radar Detection Unit was working, the fuse was blown.
24) I had asked Sharif to make sure my car was not too low, especially after seeing David’s car which was way too low...his rear tires would scrape. Sharif knew I was going to be putting a larger exhaust on the car. I'll admit, the car looked great so low, and that is what Sharif kept telling me, how good it looked. This is my daily driver, and he knew that. Needless to say, after installing the new 3" exhaust, I had to raise the rear of my car myself. I was driving at a whopping 5mph in a Sears’s parking lot and the exhaust hit on a manhole cover barely protruding above the pavement.
25) This is trivial, but why when I have stressed that I wanted the inside of my car to look totally factory, why do they mount the IR sensor for the CAMP 2 on my vertical center console. They should have at least asked me. In my opinion, it would have been pretty simple to put it inside of a vent.
26) They lost my Intelligent Cruise Control module. This is a $2200 part and the main brains to my cruise control. Forged ordered one, but not until right before I was coming for my car, and of course they are on back order with no expected date. So, I would have to put this on myself, and I have to go without Cruise Control until it comes in.
27) I purchased a mirror with a small light on it attached to a telescoping handle from Sears. I used this to try and verify what turbos were on my car. For the Stage II turbos, you should be able to see the ".86" stamped on the housing when looking at the rear of the passenger side housing. It is tough to see up in there, but from what I could see, I noticed something that looked like a symbol of some sort where the ".86" should be. As you will see below, I now know what this symbol is. The Stage I turbos have the ".64" stamped in a different location that you just can't see with the turbos mounted. They do have the symbol I just mentioned though.
At this point, I had seen enough. I am pretty mechanically inclined and have worked on many cars in my life. I have rebuilt a small block for my first car (78 Z-28). I have done things like brakes, tune ups, and even rebuilt the Turbo-350 Transmission in my Camaro. I have also worked professionally in a high end car audio shop where I was an Installer and have done everything from simple head unit replacements, to building custom door panels and enclosures, fiber glass work, etc. In my opinion, the workmanship was very poor on the car, things were missing, things not hooked up correctly, noises, etc... every step along the way when I would bring something up to Sharif, it was the same response...that is normal. Never was it something like, "We will look into that". Now that I had my car back in Missouri, I just did not want to send my car back to Sharif. When spending this kind of money with a supposedly high end performance shop, this stuff should have never happened. I was especially concerned about the over boosting and still wondering whether I even had the right turbos on the car. So, I called Sam at GTM and told him I wanted him to look at my car in more detail. A few days later a semi arrived at my house and loaded up the car for California.