WARNING - Tru6 Restoration (with business reply)

[matt2491]

This is a review of Tru6 Restoration & Design in Watertown, MA. Shaun is the owner.

What started off with so much promise has turned into a nightmare. I’m not sure what else to do at this point besides write this review as a warning to others.

I’ll start with the positives because it’s short: Shaun is a pleasant guy to talk to (when you can get a hold of him)… That is until recently, when he replied to a check-in text with “If you text me again I’m throwing it out the window.”

Where do I even begin with the real negatives? I dropped off an aluminum grille, along with a few other parts to be restored, back in October of 2021. Yes, 2021. Over two YEARS ago. The light at the end of the tunnel is gone, and I must be a fool for continuing to believe Shaun will ever get these parts done. I email, text, and/or call regularly. I’ve been nothing but reasonable and respectful. Rarely will Shaun respond, and when he does, it’s yet another excuse or reason for the countless delays. Shaun is the least dependable person I’ve ever dealt with. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard a version of “your grille will be done next week”. All empty words unfortunately.

I’m not sure what I did to deserve such poor treatment. I understand quality work takes time, but what I cannot accept are the endless false promises… if not straight up radio silence. When I dropped the parts off, Shaun quoted a 4-5 month turn around. That was 26 months ago. I’m sure Shaun’s work is second to none, but what good is it if it never actually gets done?

This extreme delay has prevented me from finishing this particular build, which has had a negative domino effect on several other things I have going on. On top of that, I’ve spent far too much time trying to communicate with Shaun to no avail. I wish Shaun had simply told me that he didn’t want / had no time for my business back when I first reached out.

I resisted writing this review for a long time, continuing to give Shaun the benefit of the doubt. My intention is not to bash anybody. His uncalled for and unprofessional most recent text message was the last straw. If he feels that I am bugging him, I make no apology. Every time in the past he has given me a finish date, I’ve patiently waited and only touched base again at that time. I told Shaun I would be writing about my experience, so this should come as no surprise to him. I really did not want to do this.

Shaun, if you see this review, just get the grille done. If you can make that happen, I’ll consider deleting this review. If you can’t, then I’m just sorry we’ve wasted each others’ time for over two years. What a disappointment.

[preS]

Thanks for sharing your experiences with Tru6.

I have a tall grill that probably only he could restore as no one else can, but the mixed reviews and now your experiences tells me to forget about it.

Richard

This is a review of Tru6 Restoration & Design in Watertown, MA. Shaun is the owner.

What started off with so much promise has turned into a nightmare. I’m not sure what else to do at this point besides write this review as a warning to others.

I’ll start with the positives because it’s short: Shaun is a pleasant guy to talk to (when you can get a hold of him)… That is until recently, when he replied to a check-in text with “If you text me again I’m throwing it out the window.”

Where do I even begin with the real negatives? I dropped off an aluminum grille, along with a few other parts to be restored, back in October of 2021. Yes, 2021. Over two YEARS ago. The light at the end of the tunnel is gone, and I must be a fool for continuing to believe Shaun will ever get these parts done. I email, text, and/or call regularly. I’ve been nothing but reasonable and respectful. Rarely will Shaun respond, and when he does, it’s yet another excuse or reason for the countless delays. Shaun is the least dependable person I’ve ever dealt with. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard a version of “your grille will be done next week”. All empty words unfortunately.

I’m not sure what I did to deserve such poor treatment. I understand quality work takes time, but what I cannot accept are the endless false promises… if not straight up radio silence. When I dropped the parts off, Shaun quoted a 4-5 month turn around. That was 26 months ago. I’m sure Shaun’s work is second to none, but what good is it if it never actually gets done?

This extreme delay has prevented me from finishing this particular build, which has had a negative domino effect on several other things I have going on. On top of that, I’ve spent far too much time trying to communicate with Shaun to no avail. I wish Shaun had simply told me that he didn’t want / had no time for my business back when I first reached out.

I resisted writing this review for a long time, continuing to give Shaun the benefit of the doubt. My intention is not to bash anybody. His uncalled for and unprofessional most recent text message was the last straw. If he feels that I am bugging him, I make no apology. Every time in the past he has given me a finish date, I’ve patiently waited and only touched base again at that time. I told Shaun I would be writing about my experience, so this should come as no surprise to him. I really did not want to do this.

Shaun, if you see this review, just get the grille done. If you can make that happen, I’ll consider deleting this review. If you can’t, then I’m just sorry we’ve wasted each others’ time for over two years. What a disappointment.

[BOYER73S]

This is a review of Tru6 Restoration & Design in Watertown, MA. Shaun is the owner.

What started off with so much promise has turned into a nightmare. I’m not sure what else to do at this point besides write this review as a warning to others.

I’ll start with the positives because it’s short: Shaun is a pleasant guy to talk to (when you can get a hold of him)… That is until recently, when he replied to a check-in text with “If you text me again I’m throwing it out the window.”

Where do I even begin with the real negatives? I dropped off an aluminum grille, along with a few other parts to be restored, back in October of 2021. Yes, 2021. Over two YEARS ago. The light at the end of the tunnel is gone, and I must be a fool for continuing to believe Shaun will ever get these parts done. I email, text, and/or call regularly. I’ve been nothing but reasonable and respectful. Rarely will Shaun respond, and when he does, it’s yet another excuse or reason for the countless delays. Shaun is the least dependable person I’ve ever dealt with. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard a version of “your grille will be done next week”. All empty words unfortunately.

I’m not sure what I did to deserve such poor treatment. I understand quality work takes time, but what I cannot accept are the endless false promises… if not straight up radio silence. When I dropped the parts off, Shaun quoted a 4-5 month turn around. That was 26 months ago. I’m sure Shaun’s work is second to none, but what good is it if it never actually gets done?

This extreme delay has prevented me from finishing this particular build, which has had a negative domino effect on several other things I have going on. On top of that, I’ve spent far too much time trying to communicate with Shaun to no avail. I wish Shaun had simply told me that he didn’t want / had no time for my business back when I first reached out.

I resisted writing this review for a long time, continuing to give Shaun the benefit of the doubt. My intention is not to bash anybody. His uncalled for and unprofessional most recent text message was the last straw. If he feels that I am bugging him, I make no apology. Every time in the past he has given me a finish date, I’ve patiently waited and only touched base again at that time. I told Shaun I would be writing about my experience, so this should come as no surprise to him. I really did not want to do this.

Shaun, if you see this review, just get the grille done. If you can make that happen, I’ll consider deleting this review. If you can’t, then I’m just sorry we’ve wasted each others’ time for over two years. What a disappointment.

I'll go one or 2 better.....

I have also had a grille with Shaun for well over 2 years and like you have received all the bullshit, lies and excuses about why it has not been done.

I am out of pocket the cost of the grille and the money I have paid Shaun and have given up ever seeing either again.

He advertises in our Magazine and his ads should immediately be refused as I know of at least 2 others in the same boat as us.

He is a crook, a fraud and a liar nothing to do with quality work taking time all to do with him being a fraudster.

I could copy and paste all his return emails here to prove my point so forget about trying to defend him like I have seen in another thread.

His behaviour and business ethics are not defendable in any way.

First person in the Porsche community that has defrauded me in 28 years involvement.

DO NOT send your product to him if you do it is at your own peril

[billh]

someone named shaun@tru6 appears to have plenty of time to post on Pelican Parts
Lots of posts in Politics forum, BMW forums etc
Don't know if it's the same person....

[72targa]

This business has been notified directly by me via email for a response to this post. Hoping all is rectified.

[Shaun 69 E]

Thank you Peter, I appreciate it.

Matthew, I am a little surprised at your post since your grille is 95% done. I'm ordering rivets for the metal tabs for it tomorrow. Matthew's grille is a 1964 Ford F100 grille that I took on years ago when I had two technicians working with me. It has taken too long just the same as 911 grilles do. There are many real world reasons why they are, or really any work that is obscenely late is.

1. Technicians used to be difficult to hire, since the pandemic, impossible. They do come and go for many reasons, the most common is 3-5 months in, they just can't do the work and they move away following girlfriends. My current tech has been with me 9 months now. Just 2 weeks ago he could do a full a set of anodized window frames to the quality I do. I can't believe I kept him for 9 months, should have let him go at 4, but so glad I did. I've never had a tech try so hard with such a good attitude and it turns out you can teach perfectionism.

2. When I am training techs, my productivity is low. Their productivity is very low. Even working 7 day weeks, there's only so much I can do.

3. Being a perfectionist, I do and redo things all the time. I fix the tiniest flaws many/most here would never see. That takes time. And then there's processes and jigs and tooling that takes time. For 3 three years I have had Ralph I's SWB grille. It took too long to do and when it was done, it wasn't as good as could be. So I had to fabricate all new tooling. That's done now so he'll have it for Amelia Island. I am pretty sire I'm the only one in the world who restores 68.5 to 73 grilles to equal to or better than original. Perfectly straightening SWB ribs is a lot more difficult than LWB U-channels. But I am finally there.

4. You would not believe all that can happen to a shop like mine that depends on other vendors. Just recently my plater stopped doing cadmium plating so they could do platinum for hydrogen fuel cell cars. The plater's parent company took over the cadmium and after a lot of discussion, they were supposed to talk with the original plater to get the chemistry and processes do duplicate the color and quality. We agreed in person discussion and in email that they would. Did they? No. What happened to the very large batch that they did. See pic below. 2 caliper halves were good, the rest were closer to clear cadmium, in fact that's what I thought they did. The entire batch was supposed to be just stripped of the chromate and then I would retumble and repolish it and give it back for a proper chromate like the original company did. Did they do that? No. They stripped the entire batch down to base metal. I had to redo everything from scratch over an entire week. Given all of this, I have literally 120 hours invested in this one batch of yellow cadmium.

Some pics and then more to come.

[Dexterpix]

Shaun is a great guy with terrible business sense. He does great work but is not willing to schedule service and only take in parts to be worked on in a real time context. He is clearly using deposit for work to be done as operating capital. While this is to his benefit it leaves customers frustrated with long time frames, money deposited and parts in limbo.

In Shaun's defense this is not anything NEW in doing business with him. If you send your parts to him YOU should expect this at this point. There are reviews going back years on this board and the Bird. To continually bring this issue up is truly the definition of insanity: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Joe

[Shaun 69 E]

More.

5. The hiring, training and rehiring and training of techs is the number one reason things are so late. Another big reason, and I know everyone hates this when I say it, but it's a very real thing. Special projects are proposed all of the time. For all of these I have 2 options: don't take them and take them and figure out how to them and existing work. There isn't an option of OK but you have to wait a year. These a projects that I can't realistically turn down, one being doing all of the clear cadmium plating and bumperette anodizing for the first 1954 production Speedster that took best Porsche at Amelia this year. We can debate if I really should have taken that work with the backlog that I have. To me it was an opportunity I could not pass up. They job took too much time as I first had to convince the shop that it was cadmium and not zinc. They I had to create a surface prep process to make the cadmium look like it would back in 1954. For the aluminum bumperettes, they needed to be satin, closer a Fuchs than a door frame. So I had to test and create a new surface prep and anodizing process for those. What should have been a 2+ week job too 6-7. This happens a lot.

6. Customers are in line and then all of sudden the need their parts ASAP for a number of reasons. You would not believe how many times I rush to get something done, out of line, because a customer is desperate for it and then 6 months later I find out they didn't need it at all. There are a lot but best example is customer was on top me for a month, had to get the door frames, etc. all done ASAP. I got it done 2 months early (shocking, I know), they picked it up but we forgot the glass. Any guesses when they came back for the glass? 6 months later. I jump from fire to fire these days. This is happening a lot these days.

7. Anodizing. Pre-pandemic when I finished pieces in a set of frames, I would put them in ultra-soft fleece tubes and brought them to the anodizer who had a 99.9% success rate in getting them done perfectly, every piece, every single time. They were 12 mintues away. Post-pandemic there was a buying spree of small businesses. Both my plater and anodizer were bought. The company that bought my anodizer tried to do the work but the success rate was inverse, literally single piece had a scratch on it from careless handling. They are 30 minutes away. The solution is for me get up at 4:30 am and get to the anodizer at 5 so I can do my own anodizing. That takes a lot out of you but at least success is 100%. There was also a month of testing to dial in new settings to get the right finish.

8. More on crazy things that happen out of my control that eat up time like you wouldn't believe. Cerakote Cobra Black. It used to be 2-3 coats for a flawless surface. 2022 is started to act strangely in terms of gloss/satin/matte. I talked with Cerakote, sent them pics, they were suprised, said everything was good. I spent a good 2-3 weeks testing techniques and temperatures and times to no avail and then spent another 2 months, on and off, testing other Cerakote blacks. Nothing was a deep and rich and UV safe. Went back to Cerakote and then they found/admitted a manufacturing flaw in the Cobra Black and they used me for real world testing. That wasn't so bad and a fix was created, but not a manufacturing fix, a workaround fix. That just sucked the life out of me and put me very far behind. the bad news is the workaround require a single perfect coat. And with Cerakote, what you shoot is what you get. If you don't get a perfect coat, you strip and redo it. That is the hardest thing I do right now.

9. More special projects. In the last 2 years I've done gratis work for two individuals with weeks left to live. One recently. For those I drop everything and do them. One took a week out of my schedule, another 2 weeks.

10. Grilles. Whether Matthew's Ford grille or Clydes or Ralph's grille, they are the one thing that takes a back seat to everything else, and that is unfortunate and I am really sorry about that. The biggest reason why they started to take a back seat is the new anodizer strips anodizing for me but again, they don't care about my pieces like the old shop does. After 8 years of anodizing, you would think I would know if something is stripped fully or not. Window frames are easy to know. Grille ribs are not. Years ago now, I got 2-3 set of grille ribs back. They sanded. Lot of grey in the water. They conducted electricity (anodizing doesn't) But there was a micro layer of anodizing that was still present. And that meant they wouldn't polish to chrome level before anodizing. Finally figured it out so grilles being done in a few weeks will perfect again.

11. Clyde is rightfully very angry about his grille. It could have been done long ago but there would have been either a slight pink or green tint to it because of the new anodizer's seal chemistry. Mind you, you really have to look for it but once you see it, you can't unsee it. For Matthew's Ford Grille I jumped through huge hoops making a long narrow hot water bath seal and buying a submersion heater that ultimately didn't work because of the amount of time needed to get to 190F. I created a solution for his grille and have found a new anodizer for hot water sealing for decklid grilles. That was a big problem with the Ford grille, it was too big to fit in any local hot water seal tank.

[Shaun 69 E]

There's more but I'll take a brake for now and put some thoughts down. The net net is the constant churn of vendors, technicians, customers and stuff like this: See this 914-6 suspension. I did this 4 years ago, Hagerty 1. Was rushed to get it to the body shop. They put it on the car and then continued to work on the car, sprayed it down regularly on and off for 4 years with caustic soap that they let sit on it, never washed it off. Everything was damaged. Car is being sold. Rush to get it all redone.

[mfitton]

He is clearly using deposit for work to be done as operating capital.

Joe

A recipe for disaster!! Requiring a deposit before the work is even done is not a good business model. He is holding your parts as collateral for you to pay when the job is done prior to shipping back to you. My guess is he is losing these technicians for non payment of wages, maybe do a search on Tru6 at California EEOC. I agree with Dexterpix this is true insanity.