My Experience With Redline Powertrain

[Shawn1112]

I've been building cars for probably 25 years, you name it, I've probably done most of it. I've had everything from early/mid 80's Toyota Corollas, a Plymouth Horizon and Ford Escort up to Hellcats/Trackhawks and everything in between all that. Even the clapped out shit boxes, I either put rims on them, lowered them, sounds, neons underneath, to strobes inside etc. I've turned wrenches, busted my knuckles, cut my face, sweated and froze my balls off modding and working on my cars. I've built 2 cars, my 96 Neon lowrider and my 06 Charger that have competed nationally. Been invited to SEMA with my 06 Charger. So what I'm getting at is 2 things here.


Number 1: I know how hard it is to get aftermarket shit to work on cars no matter how much the seller tells you its a 100% OEM fit. I have personally installed 1000's of aftermarket parts on my car and friends cars. I also know a good shop and bad shop when I deal with them

Number 2: Before anyone says or thinks "bought not built". Suck my dick, because I have personally built cars in my garage and friends garages and done so with piss poor tools. A lot of times I/we had to get creative to make shit work lol. Now that I'm a little more stable financially, if I feel its worth paying someone to do something, then thats what I'm going to do. If I feel its a fair price and saves me a day or 2 worth of work with no lift and sometimes not all the correct tools, then I'm going to pay. You wouldnt believe some of the shit I've ghetto rigged and it worked when I couldnt afford to repair something on my car.

So after saying that, I'm pretty confident when I recommend a shop or a person to go to.

I talked to Carl@Redline about converting my 71 Impala to posi. He shot me what I felt was a fair price and besides that. That type of work is above my pay grade. I've never done that. Then I thought, well fuck if he has the car and its on the lift. Why not ask him to do the rear disc conversion, new brake lines, booster and master. I have done all that brake work I mentioned multiple times on G Bodies. He shot me a fair price on that as well, and said fuck it. That saves me a full day if not more pending what kind of issues I run into. Also saves me a sore back for a few days, as I mentioned I have no lift. Drop the car off, Carl called me and said he wanted to point something out. Head over and the guy who did my swap had the driveshaft shimmed with what looked like 2" of washers and Carl can chime in. Not only that, a bolt or 2 on the crossmember were only hand tightened if that. Explained what had to be done to correct that issue and explained what would happen if not corrected. Basically the pinion angle was way off. Carl also said if I could get rear upper/lower control arms he could take care of the issue while it was there. Well luckily for me, I already had ordered them from Trick Chassis about 2 weeks earlier. Called Trick Chassis and was told I would have in a few days. Gave Carl the go ahead to address that issue as well. Yes, I could have went back to the guy who did the swap, but figured I'd let Carl do it, the car is there and he does that shit often and I will just take it up with my swap guy afterwards.

So Carl@Redline and daturbosix both worked on my car. A 3-4 day job turned in to almost 3 weeks at no fault at all of Redline lol. Every fucking thing that could go wrong went wrong! Back ordered parts at Suburban Driveline for my driveshaft, to rear disc conversion not fitting to me ordering the wrong booster etc. I felt bad as my car sitting on one of Carl's lifts meant he is passing up work. Kinda like dead weight just sitting around. I know daturbosix spent a good amount of time on the phone with both Trick Chassis and the company that claimed the rear brake conversion works trying to get answers. To say these 2 went above and beyond is a severe understatement!!! They are masters at their craft and made sure everything was perfect. Special brackets had to be made, had to track down hardware, as mentioned spend time making phone calls. The whole time they kept me informed of what was going on and why this or that was needed. Was I getting frustrated, absolutely as we were supposed to start installing my sounds 2 weeks ago. I'm pretty sure they were just as frustrated and wanted my shit out of there lol. I know I'm forgetting a ton of shit, and hopefully Carl and or Jeff will explain a little better.

I know I have dragged this on, but I very rarely see any vendor reviews. I HIGHLY recommend Redline to anyone needing trans/driveshaft work and/or anything else they offer. Redline is truly the last of a dying breed when it comes to small shops. Your going to be hard pressed to find a shop that actually cares, takes pride in their work and offers fair prices. Guy that bought my Regal is going to them as well as he wants to ditch the turbo 400 for something with OD and I wouldnt hesitate to recommend them to anyone else.

Click to read more...

 

[Mook]

Thats awesome to hear. I've ONLY heard good things about Carl / Redline and obviously, I've known Jeff a long time and he's always taken care of me. Glad you wrote up a review. As you said, more people need to do things like this.

 

[daturbosix]

im glad it finally came together like we had planned. but man, what a bunch of hoops to have to jump through to get there!
notthing about that kit was "bolt on" ... well, aside from the front brakes. everythingfor the rear had to be made or modified.

 

[Carl@Redline]

I've been building cars for probably 25 years, you name it, I've probably done most of it. I've had everything from early/mid 80's Toyota Corollas, a Plymouth Horizon and Ford Escort up to Hellcats/Trackhawks and everything in between all that. Even the clapped out shit boxes, I either put rims on them, lowered them, sounds, neons underneath, to strobes inside etc. I've turned wrenches, busted my knuckles, cut my face, sweated and froze my balls off modding and working on my cars. I've built 2 cars, my 96 Neon lowrider and my 06 Charger that have competed nationally. Been invited to SEMA with my 06 Charger. So what I'm getting at is 2 things here.


Number 1: I know how hard it is to get aftermarket shit to work on cars no matter how much the seller tells you its a 100% OEM fit. I have personally installed 1000's of aftermarket parts on my car and friends cars. I also know a good shop and bad shop when I deal with them

Number 2: Before anyone says or thinks "bought not built". Suck my dick, because I have personally built cars in my garage and friends garages and done so with piss poor tools. A lot of times I/we had to get creative to make shit work lol. Now that I'm a little more stable financially, if I feel its worth paying someone to do something, then thats what I'm going to do. If I feel its a fair price and saves me a day or 2 worth of work with no lift and sometimes not all the correct tools, then I'm going to pay. You wouldnt believe some of the shit I've ghetto rigged and it worked when I couldnt afford to repair something on my car.

So after saying that, I'm pretty confident when I recommend a shop or a person to go to.

I talked to Carl@Redline about converting my 71 Impala to posi. He shot me what I felt was a fair price and besides that. That type of work is above my pay grade. I've never done that. Then I thought, well fuck if he has the car and its on the lift. Why not ask him to do the rear disc conversion, new brake lines, booster and master. I have done all that brake work I mentioned multiple times on G Bodies. He shot me a fair price on that as well, and said fuck it. That saves me a full day if not more pending what kind of issues I run into. Also saves me a sore back for a few days, as I mentioned I have no lift. Drop the car off, Carl called me and said he wanted to point something out. Head over and the guy who did my swap had the driveshaft shimmed with what looked like 2" of washers and Carl can chime in. Not only that, a bolt or 2 on the crossmember were only hand tightened if that. Explained what had to be done to correct that issue and explained what would happen if not corrected. Basically the pinion angle was way off. Carl also said if I could get rear upper/lower control arms he could take care of the issue while it was there. Well luckily for me, I already had ordered them from Trick Chassis about 2 weeks earlier. Called Trick Chassis and was told I would have in a few days. Gave Carl the go ahead to address that issue as well. Yes, I could have went back to the guy who did the swap, but figured I'd let Carl do it, the car is there and he does that shit often and I will just take it up with my swap guy afterwards.

So Carl@Redline and daturbosix both worked on my car. A 3-4 day job turned in to almost 3 weeks at no fault at all of Redline lol. Every fucking thing that could go wrong went wrong! Back ordered parts at Suburban Driveline for my driveshaft, to rear disc conversion not fitting to me ordering the wrong booster etc. I felt bad as my car sitting on one of Carl's lifts meant he is passing up work. Kinda like dead weight just sitting around. I know daturbosix spent a good amount of time on the phone with both Trick Chassis and the company that claimed the rear brake conversion works trying to get answers. To say these 2 went above and beyond is a severe understatement!!! They are masters at their craft and made sure everything was perfect. Special brackets had to be made, had to track down hardware, as mentioned spend time making phone calls. The whole time they kept me informed of what was going on and why this or that was needed. Was I getting frustrated, absolutely as we were supposed to start installing my sounds 2 weeks ago. I'm pretty sure they were just as frustrated and wanted my shit out of there lol. I know I'm forgetting a ton of shit, and hopefully Carl and or Jeff will explain a little better.

I know I have dragged this on, but I very rarely see any vendor reviews. I HIGHLY recommend Redline to anyone needing trans/driveshaft work and/or anything else they offer. Redline is truly the last of a dying breed when it comes to small shops. Your going to be hard pressed to find a shop that actually cares, takes pride in their work and offers fair prices. Guy that bought my Regal is going to them as well as he wants to ditch the turbo 400 for something with OD and I wouldnt hesitate to recommend them to anyone else.

Seeing stuff like this is a BIG reason why I am still holding on to the old school way of thinking. You had mentioned that we're the last of a dying breed...well, that goes both ways bro. You are the last of a dying breed as well. With the internet, price transparency, and a million and one pretenders out there opening up shops and muddying the market, it has created a new type of customer. So many people take the mentality of "I could get this done somewhere else for cheaper," and in reality, theres always someone cheaper. They may not be paying for an LLC, or taxes, or insurance, but they're cheaper and less pressured. Knowing that you've done a lot of this type of stuff yourself before, and have an understanding of how previously unforeseen circumstances can take over the job, makes all the difficulties way worth it in the end.

To me, part of being able to do stuff like this is being able to weed out the talkers from the do-ers, and even after 3 years, I still get fooled from time to time. Your review means a lot, because its what we aim for here. We're not the biggest, or nicest, or most well-funded place out there, but I'd rather try and do solid work on cars so the quality of work sells itself. Besides sponsoring here, sponsoring Anarchy, and an occasional facebook ad, I do NOT pay for advertisement. Something must be working, because we're booked about a month and a half out at this point. I'll respond later with some more of the specifics as far as the work goes, but I wanted to respond to the personal side of your post first.

Your patience and understanding was a huge factor here...because I'm the type of guy that will get a case of the "fuck-its" real quick when some YouTube master tech, or forum jockey askhole tries to tell me that the issues with a particular build aren't as bad as explained. Basically, everyone who claims to be a know-it-all can go and use one of those under the table, non-legal guys. This is technically the 3rd time we've worked together...the Regal TH400, this 80E, and now the diff, but between those jobs, other people have brought stuff and said you recommended us. THATS how advertising is supposed to work, my friend.

Thanks again, and hopefully you get a shit load of miles and smiles on that pig this summer!

 

[Gav'sPurpleZ]

Thats awesome to hear. I've ONLY heard good things about Carl / Redline and obviously, I've known Jeff a long time and he's always taken care of me. Glad you wrote up a review. As you said, more people need to do things like this.

but not to clog up the thread.

Well written reviews with specifics are high on my list. Any of the reviews that I have left for businesses on google have been anything but short.

Kudos to all involved here, sounds like both sides were happy with the outcome.

 

[Great White Drake]

I’ve sent at least 5 -10 people there who also send 5-10. Great guys!

also, Carl@Redline you guys rebuild rearends? I want a posi and basic rebuild for the wagon if so!! Lmk when I can get in!

 

[Shawn1112]

I’ve sent at least 5 -10 people there who also send 5-10. Great guys!

also, Carl@Redline you guys rebuild rearends? I want a posi and basic rebuild for the wagon if so!! Lmk when I can get in!

Rear ends not really my strong suit as said above, that shit is above my pay grade lol. But I would think and someone correct me if I'm wrong. If you just replace the whole carrier as I did to convert to posi. Doesnt that kill both birds with 1 stone? Your getting posi plus a gear and that pretty much is a new rear end, no rebuild needed. Unless your talking about doing axles as well.

 

[Great White Drake]

Rear ends not really my strong suit as said above, that shit is above my pay grade lol. But I would think and someone correct me if I'm wrong. If you just replace the whole carrier as I did to convert to posi. Doesnt that kill both birds with 1 stone? Your getting posi plus a gear and that pretty much is a new rear end, no rebuild needed. Unless your talking about doing axles as well.

I’m thinking about changing the gear ratio, depending on what’s in there now. It’s a 12 bolt and I’m assuming original to the car. Plus maybe some seals while I’m in there.

 

[Shawn1112]

I’m thinking about changing the gear ratio, depending on what’s in there now. It’s a 12 bolt and I’m assuming original to the car. Plus maybe some seals while I’m in there.

My new carrier came with a gear as well.