[my69gto]

This is an older article - someone sent me this from another discussion last year... draw your own conclusions I guess....

http://home.earthlink.net/~rvandegrift/fulper.htm

[pont406]

Dragrcr, well your assumption is WRONG, on this one, She did get her block back! I Know Carole ,and her son Patrick, I even cruised around with them in her GTO one time last summer! She was so happy with her dealings with Bruce, she bought him a round trip plane ticket to Indy, where she lives, to see and ride in the car! don't know if the blocks "repairable" or not, but they have it, if they decided to do so!

[Glenn]

Not everyone is unhappy with R&R. Mike Arcaro who had his engine done by Bruce a couple of years ago is very happy with his job....It took several months longer that he was first told, but from what I'm hearing that is true from just about every engine builder. Mike owns a very large body shop in Palm Springs and has turned out some very nice restorations that have won some major awards in concourse competitions here in Southern California. His paint jobs are some of the best I've seem anywhere.

[cdrookie]

my experiences with RRE have all been positive.

[Jim Hand]

Cdrookie,
Normally, I don’t waste my time with anything associated with Flopper! But since you listed my name in some association with the guy, I am forced to ask you to explain exactly what your point is, and why you chose to associate me with this discussion.

Tell us more about “his infamous jim hand timing retort” as you referred to it it. I presume you are referring to the time when Flopper ran his mouth in a later issue of High Performance Pontiac, (Feb, 1996) about correct information I had presented in HPP, Dec, 1993. And the Editor of HPP retracted Flop's comments two months later (April, 1996)!

I suggest you be very careful because I have the material and facts as published in HPP, and will most certainly post all of it here if you choose to either not discuss it, or lie about it!

By the way, it is most interesting that your very first post deals with Fulper. You don’t happen to know Lou G. do you?

Jim Hand

[cdrookie]

Jim Hand,

in no way was my response a bash towards you or a praise for fulper. if i remember correctly(it's been years)- you responded to someone, in HPP, that they could advance their timing a few degrees at a time till their quarter mile time started falling off, then back it off 2 degrees. or something along those lines. fulper, in another response, bashed that info. things like that kind of stick in my mind cause how many magazines would print such a reply? while talking with bruce i brought that up and he said that's why HPP gave him the boot, i guess you could say he wasn't playing nicely with others...

and i don't see why you would find it odd my first post was on this thread? gotta start somewhere and i have first hand experience with RRE, so i posted my dealings. it just so happens that my experience was positive. apparently not everyone likes bruce, thats fine, but that doesn't mean i can't/shouldn't post my experience does it? i'll go edit my previous post to get your name out of it and will do the same here in a few. and i don't know lou g.

[Brian Baker]

Took you a few years to get your heads, cdrookie? That would be because Bruce took your money to finish something for a customer that was in line 4 or 5 customers before you came along, and he had to get 4 or 5 more customers after you to pay for your heads. Ask Bruce why AFR won't CNC port any more heads for him unless they're paid in full up front. Ask him why he has been uninvited to every major Pontiac racing event in the country. Ask him why he has been uninvited from writing any tech articles or spending any advertisement dollars in any of the major Pontiac publications (save for Smoke Signals).

I'm sure he'll tell you it's everyone elses fault (and not his) as to why he is the Pariah of the Pontiac community. That's the M.O. of a narcissistic megalomaniac.

[cdrookie]

i'm not sure why it took so long to get my heads done Brian. maybe you're right? i told him no hurry though, so part of it is my fault. it's been almost 4 years since i got the heads and my car still isn't on the road, but it does run. therefore the wait didn't bother me. it's a shame others have had bad experiences. i'm not trying to defend bruce, just posting my experience so that consumers can hear good and bad and judge for themselves whether they want him to do any work for them or not.

[Glenn]

Two years to get anything from a engine builder is ridiculous, but I think Bruce, as many others respond first to the squeaky wheel. CDrookie didn't seem to be in a hurry so I would imagine Bruce went around him to more pressing customers. It took nine months for a guy that I know to get his E-heads from Butler. He didn't need them right away so he didn't press the issue.

Somebody must be using R&R since he has a long backlog.

[Jim Hand]

Cdrookie,
I am not surprised you were quick to remove your stupid and uncalled for statement “his infamous jim hand timing retort” when you realized that the truth would be posted! And exactly as I promised if you tried to mislead or lie about it, here is the truth.

I wrote an article about my street/strip wagon for the Dec, 1993 issue of High Performance Pontiac. I listed the timing specs for my car but did not discuss how to set or find correct timing.

In the Feb, 1996 issue of HPP, a reader Robert Davis asked how I obtained the specific ignition curves I had mentioned in the 1993 story. For whatever reason, the Editor Richard Lentinello gave that question to Flopper, rather then to me, to answer in the Q&A section.. He never answered the question but did advertise himself as an expert. I included his first few words, then the last section as copied below. The first two photos sort of run together. But the key is his statement beginning with "Forget that old-"

I use the technique of finding best total timing exactly as all new computer controlled engines do – advance timing until detonation/ping is detected. Then retard the timing slightly. The new engines do this continuously because max torque is developed just at the detonation point, and that is where maximum efficiency is obtained.

When I saw the garbage Flop posted about the procedure that is now used by every computer controlled engine being built, I contacted the Editor and discussed the whole situation. He agreed to try to correct the misleading info posted by Flop.

I will enclose the original question, and Flopper’s final statement. The rest of his comments are self-serving garbage and not worth the space to post.

Will then post the retraction by the HPP Editor Richard Lentinello in the April, 96 issue.

Cdrookie, I suggest that if you are going to try to dirty me, you better have more compelling stuff then this! And I doubt this incident got Flop booted from HPP – there were plenty of other reasons to do so!

Jim Hand

[Brian Baker]

I find Bruce's statement "the people living that far back in the woods are still milling the tops off of their pistons to drop compression" extremely comical for 2 reasons:

1.) Considering the work he himself went through milling those Oldsmobile pistons to fit and balance in one of his customers Pontiac engines.

http://home.earthlink.net/~rvandegrift/fulper.htm

2.) Surely he must have employed a similar method of determining the optimum total timing setting for his Super Stocker (either on a dyno looking for max power, or at the track looking for max MPH).

Was Bruce wrong? Absolutely...trouble is the THEN editor of HPP didn't have the balls to simply print the facts as presented to him by Jim and leave it at that...he had to kiss Bruce's a$$ by proclaiming "he's not neccessarily wrong, he just does things differently".

cdrookie...you've had your heads for 4 years but the car isn't ready yet? Sounds like a plumber I know from Westerly, RI (except that your car is running and his heads are probably still under his bed).

[INJUNTOM]

Originally Posted by cdrookie

my experiences with RRE have all been positive.

wow..this is much shorter than what i read last night. of course mostly all good except where you said it took 3-4 years to get a set of heads that you bought and sent him. a couple months extra is disapointing, but 3-4 years is totally unacceptable regardless of the reasons or whether you are in a hurry.

it would be hard to imagine him being 3-4 years behind schedule, and not realizing it - he should not have taken in your job if he couldn't follow through...that is just bad business practice, and part of why he's in the shape he's in.

i'm sure there's plenty of good experiences to go with the bad at his business, and even some flaming that wasn't deserved, but he has brought much of this on himself with just the bad mouthing, and unreliability.

i talked to him once, and when he started flaming Pete McCarthy within the first few sentances of talking to him, he lost all credibility to me.

[INJUNTOM]

BTW, someone mentioned that he is still backed up on jobs - i'm sure more than 2/3 of the pontiac people out there don't get on the internet :D

[cdrookie]

brian, i've had the car for years, bought it in a junkyard, been working on it on and off for years, when funds allowed. the car is presently 250 miles from me in a garage our family rents, i work on it when time allows. i've hauled it around during moves including moving from GA to PA. been sick of it on many occasions, wanted rid of it on many occasions. not unlike many people in this hobby.

INJUNTOM, took 2.5 years to get the heads, had them for almost 4 years. figured i'd delete my previous post cause it ruffled some feathers. but i think i'm gonna now ruffle some feathers...


JIM HAND, WHATS YOUR PROBLEM????? how did i try to discredit you?????? i said "the infamous jim hand timing retort" retort meaning reply to what you had previously written. where did i say you was wrong, incorrect, stupid, or anything else offensive??????? where did i say bruce was correct????? i just said i talked with him about what he said, THAT"S IT! it seems, TO ME, that you just was looking for a reason to get on here and start bashing RRE. saw your name and started in without ever once thinking about the context that it was written in. i said something positive about fulper and it had your name in it so you just automatically assumed i was bashing you? i USE to have alot of respect for what you accomplished and looked forward to reading any articles you penned, but now i see you in a different light. what a disappointment...

[Brian Baker]

Originally Posted by cdrookie

...i said something positive about fulper and it had your name in it so you just automatically assumed i was bashing you? i USE to have alot of respect for what you accomplished and looked forward to reading any articles you penned, but now i see you in a different light. what a disappointment...

When one writes some positive statements about person "A", and in those statements includes the name of person "B", along with the word "infamous" when relating to person "B", it leaves the reader the impression of negative connotations directed at person "B" (whether intentional or not).

Furthermore, anyone that says they have respect for Jim Hand and his accomplishments in one breath, while simultanesously praising Fulper and their apparent positive experiences with him in another, is certifiably full of $'hit. And you can take that to the bank.

[cdrookie]

sorry you feel that way. to me( a person new to these forums) it would seem like some of you are acting just like how fulper is portrayed in this thread...

[Brian Baker]

Originally Posted by cdrookie

sorry you feel that way. to me( a person new to these forums) it would seem like some of you are acting just like how fulper is portrayed in this thread...

Really? You don't know Fulper at all then.

[dragrcr]

INJUNTOM I agree with you. I am sorry to have done business with Bruce. I remember as soon as I went to his shop the first thing he said was you made the rite choice. Then all he could do was bad mouth and bash McCARTHY,BUTLER, everyone else involved with pontiac. He then tells me I should throw my PETE McCARTHY book in the trash that when his book gets published everyone will see a real book. This guy tuely brings every thing he get threw at him on his self. He now attack and bashes ANDY MITCHELLE only because he is jealouse of ANDY'S success with his own shop. It is true he tells people who question him about stuff seen on the boards or heard from someone at a race event that every body is telling lies about him. If every thing said about BRUCE was lies he would be sueing alot of people and businesses. He is FULL OF *****.I would not take something from BRUCE FLOPPER if it was free.

[rzrektd]

Posted by Baker [ http://home.earthlink.net/~rvandegrift/fulper.htm ]

Wholly cow! I read that story before thinking how much of a douche that guy was. Now I find out he is the one in the topic of discussion just floors me. It floors me even more that he insulted Hand buy calling him a back woods whatever. This guy is pathetic.

[cdrookie]

Originally Posted by Brian Baker

Really? You don't know Fulper at all then.

no i don't, wouldn't know him if i saw him. never claimed to. all i can do is give my experience with RRE based on the phone calls, emails, and parts/service. it's obvious he's not the most popular person, and i'm not saying he's a saint, but from MY experience, i can't say a bad word about him. everyone is entitled to their own opinions.