BUYER/SELLER BEWARE: Username "Mattglas"

[Josh]

He (Mattglas) put up a wanted ad asking for pedals in November. I offered my pedals which he originally turned down but reconsidered a day or so later. The thread is here:
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?15962-Manual-Pedal-Box

I sent them out early December for $300 + his automatic pedals in exchange. I paid for shipping. I had not heard from him so I sent a PM a month ago. He replied he had still not done the installation yet but he was planning on it soon.

Yesterday I received a PM from him asking me to phone a number, with no other explanation. I did and no one picked up.

This morning I got a call from a gentleman identifying himself as Matt's father, telling me it is his car and he does not want to swap. I was accused of taking advantage of him and spamming him through phone and texts. I had sent a follow up PM only. He said he will be keeping the pedals if i do not send back $300 PLUS the return shipping which is very expensive as it is from the US to Canada. I would end up losing money on the deal.
I tried to reason with him but he was very upset, kept saying I was taking advantage of his son.

I just phoned back around noon and told Matt's father I would offered him his money back ($300) if he shipped me back the pedals. he said He will only send them back if i give the money back PLUS pay for the return shipping. I tried to explain my side of the story and he promptly hung up on me.

I would discourage doing any exchange with either Matt or his father. I am now left with a car with no pedals at this moment.

[Michael]

Tell him to pound sand. He sounds like he needs what you have a lot more than you need what he has.

This is the result of dealing with white trash.

[Nicholas R]

Tell him to pound sand. He sounds like he needs what you have a lot more than you need what he has.

This is the result of dealing with white trash.

I don't think that's the case. If I'm reading this correctly, Josh currently has no pedals in his car because this guy agreed to send his automatic set back to Josh as part of the deal. Now "Mattglas" is sitting on both the automatic and the 5-speed set of pedals, and Josh has none. Josh looses the value of the automatic pedal box, and can't drive his car since it has no pedals. "Mattglas" on the other hand is sitting on everything he needs and more at Josh's expense.

This is about as classless as you can get. Do the right thing Mattglas; this community is small and people don't forget.

[dn010]

Interesting to me that Mattglas posts that he bought a car, refers to it as his car and now suddenly it's his father's? While it might be a different situation, I once had an issue where I sold and shipped an intake manifold to someone I trusted to pay later but never did (I know, shame on me). I contacted the person who still hadn't paid, who then promised they'd ship it back but never ended up doing so. I used their shipping address to contact the local police department just to see what options, if any, that I had. They made a visit and suddenly this was resolved. This was early 2000s and these days they might laugh, but it might be worth a shot. Sucks that you have to deal with this, I hope Mattglas makes it right.

[Soundkillr]

This is a great way for mattglas to be banned. I'm hoping he chimes in here and makes this right before he is done....

[Ron]

Agreed.

Gotta give it to Josh for offering a refund...

[Michael]

What's the vin to this asswipes car?

[Jonathan]

This is a great way for mattglas to be banned. I'm hoping he chimes in here and makes this right before he is done....

I'll default to siding with Josh just because I know him personally and I don't know mattglas... BUT... if all things are fair, we haven't heard what mattglas' side of the story is and I think he should be able to tell it. Before passing judgement anyway. Not saying anything Josh said isn't likely accurate, but for all we know here, it could be the father that's made the mess and mattglas is unknowingly caught in the middle.

[DaraSue]

I'll default to siding with Josh just because I know him personally and I don't know mattglas... BUT... if all things are fair, we haven't heard what mattglas' side of the story is and I think he should be able to tell it. Before passing judgement anyway. Not saying anything Josh said isn't likely accurate, but for all we know here, it could be the father that's made the mess and mattglas is unknowingly caught in the middle.

There's a situation on another forum where a member's mom was listed on the title as co-owner and now the mom is trying to sell the car out from under her so it's not outside the realm of possibility. Either way, hope Josh gets what he's owed.

[Soundkillr]

I'll default to siding with Josh just because I know him personally and I don't know mattglas... BUT... if all things are fair, we haven't heard what mattglas' side of the story is and I think he should be able to tell it. Before passing judgement anyway. Not saying anything Josh said isn't likely accurate, but for all we know here, it could be the father that's made the mess and mattglas is unknowingly caught in the middle.

Yeah I agree, and that's why the thread is open and he hasn't been banned yet. Hope he chimes in and works to make this right. We try hard to keep the forums safe and friendly.

[Dangermouse]

What's the vin to this asswipes car?

02729 according to his post sig.

[Ron]

I'll default to siding with Josh just because I know him personally and I don't know mattglas... BUT... if all things are fair, we haven't heard what mattglas' side of the story is and I think he should be able to tell it. Before passing judgement anyway. Not saying anything Josh said isn't likely accurate, but for all we know here, it could be the father that's made the mess and mattglas is unknowingly caught in the middle.

+2

[Josh]

All I can do is tell my side of the story. I feel I have documented things well and not left any details out. But of course everyone is bias to their own perspective intentional or not.

[Nicholas R]

If Mattglas is indeed sitting on 2 pedal boxes while Josh is sitting on zero, I think it's going to be pretty tough for Mattglas to make a compelling argument that he is not in the wrong here. Do the right thing Mattglas.

[Andrew]

If Mattglas is indeed sitting on 2 pedal boxes while Josh is sitting on zero, I think it's going to be pretty tough for Mattglas to make a compelling argument that he is not in the wrong here. Do the right thing Mattglas.

+1 One of the best things about the DeLorean community is that it truly is a community in every sense of the word. People have long memories and will remember a bad apple. I have bought and sold Delorean parts and bought an entire Delorean via the community. In fact 5052 has a set of taillight boards from Josh S! Thankfully, I've always had good experiences buying and selling in the community.

Good reputations take time to develop. While bad reputations take much longer to resolve, doing the right thing can certainly expedite the process! Do the right thing Mattglas.

[Riley88]

jesus the balls of this mattglas guy. Ill keep my eyes open for pedals for you until then dude

[Michael]

All I can do is tell my side of the story. I feel I have documented things well and not left any details out. But of course everyone is bias to their own perspective intentional or not.

I'm prone to take your word over his no matter what his story is. IMO you have quite a bit of respect that has been earned. That goes a long way.

[Dangermouse]

You may want to get in touch with videobob. He just bought that $7k car to use as a static display, so he probably won’t need the pedals.

Just a thought.

[Michael]

You may want to get in touch with videobob. He just bought that $7k car to use as a static display, so he probably won’t need the pedals.

Just a thought.

Someone sold a D for 7k??

[opethmike]

Go check out that barn find thread in the open discussion forum.

[dn010]

Any updates?

[Josh]

Any updates?

Nothing at all. Derrin R sent me another set of pedals so I have something to work with now.

[Mattglas]

So I don’t really browse the forum much and I just came across this post while at work this morning. Before I get into why this situation happened, I just want to let everyone know that after sharing the link to this thread with my dad he’s realized that he made a mistake. He let me do the pedal box swap and I'm going to ship the automatic box to Josh. I genuinely feel really bad about this whole situation and want to apologize to Josh for letting him get screwed around. If I was able to he would have had these pedals by now. Anyways, here's why this whole situation happened:


In late 2017, I decided that I wanted to go ahead and start saving up money for an automatic to manual transmission swap due to being unsatisfied with the automatic transmission. I made a post about wanting a manual pedal box which Josh replied to. After some conversation, we settled on $300 USD + he gets my automatic box. He wants the automatic box because he wants to modify it to have a clutch pedal or something along those lines. He also doesn't want to ship to the states because it would cost him too much. Luckily, I have family in Canada and visit them every Christmas. So I just told him to ship them to my grandparent's house in Ontario. He shipped the pedals and told me to get the pedals back to him by spring, which I said no problem.

I was in Canada from December 20th to January 20th, on the 21st I got home to the States and back to my Delorean. I was going to do the swap right away when I got back home because I still had a few days vacation left from my full-time job, but the weather was 30 degrees Fahrenheit most days and it was snowing on and off. Also, my family's garage was full of renovation supplies because my dad is renovation our guest house, so I wasn't able to work in there. Because of that, I decided to wait a few weeks till the weather got better. On Feb 1, Josh sends me a forum message asking where his pedals are. I didn’t see it for a few days because I don’t really browse the forums on a regular basis. When I did, I told him that I hadn’t done it yet due to the weather, but since the weather was starting to get warmer I’d do it as soon as I had a day off. The following is where things start to go south. Also, for some context, it should be known that I’m currently 18 and my dad bought me my barn find Delorean when I was around 16. Due to those things, he says that he owns me and everything that I own until after college. So that's why he claims that the Delorean is his and why he has total control over what I do.[/INDENT]

My day off comes and I get to work tearing my car apart. I have the steering column out and all the wires out of the way. I'm working on getting the dash out when my dad gets home. He asks what I’m doing and I tell him thinking he’d just say “cool” and leave, that wasn't the case. I won’t go into to much detail, but basically, he starts yelling at me for quite a bit, takes Josh’s pedals from me, and tell me that I’m incapable of making good decisions and to “Put your fucking car back together”. Apparently, he got so upset because he claims that not doing the entire swap at once will devalue the car. Which doesn't really make sense because I’m never selling this car and the fact that he would be ok with it if I did the whole swap at once. Anyways, I let him know about the deal I made with Josh and he responds with “He can go fuck himself”. Though, after he calms down from his fit, he tells me to give him Josh’s number and that he’ll sort it out. I message Josh my dad's number and eventually, they have a conversation together.

I’m not really sure of everything that happens in this conversation, but the gist is that my dad went in going to ask for a refund for the manual pedals and came out of it totally convinced that Josh is trying to scam me out of my money. His reasoning is that Josh wanting to put a clutch pedal on an automatic box when he already has a working manual box is, in his words, “Really stupid and obviously fake” and he claimed that Josh was giving him the runaround. He also ends up distrusting Josh more when I mention that I spent $300 USD on the pedals while Josh said it was $300 CAD. (Which I’m not calling Josh out for at all, my dad probably misheard or something.) (This conversation between my dad and I was over text, so I’ll post some screenshots of it below for proof.) Due to my dad’s mistrust, he refuses to let me give Josh any more money (Including shipping fees) and is why my dad was rude and standoffish to him in their second conversation.

I know even less about the second conversation because my dad didn’t tell me about it. I actually learned about it and the fact that my dad hang up on Josh from the post that started this thread. Basically, what I know is that my dad told Josh to give us a refund and pay the $40 shipping fee or he’s not getting his manual pedals back. Josh said he wouldn't pay shipping and my dad promptly hung up on him. He told me that until Josh pays us he’s not getting his pedals back and that was it.

That's where the story ends until today when I saw this thread. After my dad read through the thread he realized that he was actually screwing over a legitimate person and probably felt embarrassed. He gave me back Josh’s pedals when I got home from work and I finished taking them out like 30 mins ago. I will definitely ship them either tomorrow or Friday. (With me paying to ship.) Again, I want to apologize for all of this and the disturbance it brought. I would never want to purposely screw people or upset anyone. I was just a really big misunderstanding, kinda.

Also, if this was too long to read a summary is that my dad power tripped too hard/tried to screw both Josh and me over. After seeing strangers call his son white trash and threaten to exile him from the car community he belongs to, he changes his mind and lets his son fix the situation.

Here are the screenshots of the text conversation:
556585565755659

Heres a picture of the pedal box I just removed:
55660

[Mattglas]

Nothing at all. Derrin R sent me another set of pedals so I have something to work with now.

Oh, I should have read further into this thread. Honestly, I stopped after the first page because I was too embarrassed.

Although, I can fix this by sending you mine and paying for whatever it costs to send back to Derrin or I can send Derrin my box so he didn't lose anything.

[Michael]

Cool, all that's left is for your dad to call and apologize for being a dick.

[Rich_NYS]

Credit to Matt for stepping up (with details,) apologizing, and making things right.....I respect that.

[DaraSue]

Man, Mattglas's dad and DeLoreanGirl's mom (http://dmctoday.com/showthread.php?2574-Stolen-DeLorean-buyers-beware!) would make a great couple. :rolleyes1: Threads like these are a sad illustration of why it's a good idea to wait until you're beholden to no one to buy your dream car. Hope both of these people can get their toxic parents out of a position of authority in their lives ASAP.

[Michael]

Yeah all I got was here, it's your car. Then it's not. Does anyone know the definition of "give"?

However at least the person in question (mattglass) is trying to make things right regardless of what his dad did so I'm sorry for the message I left....please forward it to your father for me.

[NJP548]

Cool, all that's left is for your dad to call and apologize for being a dick.

+1

The DeLorean community is VERY small. Don't want to burn bridges, especially over what appears to be a big misunderstanding.

-Nick

[dodint]

Credit to Matt for stepping up (with details,) apologizing, and making things right.....I respect that.

:thumbup2:

[Josh]

Thanks for replying to the thread Matt.

Just to cover a few things:
-I always deal in USD when I am on this forum, as I am dealing with people from the US mostly. But I could see the confusion with me being Canadian.
-I'm glad your dad and you got things sorted out, I do not appreciate how he treated me but I'm not losing any sleep over it either.
-I have received the pedals from Derrin already, and would prefer not to drag him into this further.

I paid Derrin $50 USD (Pedals) + $60.95 USD (Shipping) which turned out to be $110.95 USD Total

If you refund me this money I would call this issue resolved.

You could potentially ship your pedals to Derrin and he pay you back $50, but with the shipping cost it may not be worth it, and they were just sitting on a shelf so he probably does not need them. I will tell him to take a look at this thread and chime in just in case.

https://i.imgur.com/bGhXFiX.png

[dmruschell]

Thanks for replying to the thread Matt.

Just to cover a few things:
-I always deal in USD when I am on this forum, as I am dealing with people from the US mostly. But I could see the confusion with me being Canadian.
-I'm glad your dad and you got things sorted out, I do not appreciate how he treated me but I'm not losing any sleep over it either.
-I have received the pedals from Derrin already, and would prefer not to drag him into this further.

I paid Derrin $50 USD (Pedals) + $60.95 USD (Shipping) which turned out to be $110.95 USD Total

If you refund me this money I would call this issue resolved.

You could potentially ship your pedals to Derrin and he pay you back $50, but with the shipping cost it may not be worth it, and they were just sitting on a shelf so he probably does not need them. I will tell him to take a look at this thread and chime in just in case.

https://i.imgur.com/bGhXFiX.png

Josh is right; my pedals were left over from my auto-to-manual swap and sitting on a shelf. My wife's DeLorean is still an auto, but pedal boxes don't really ever go bad, so I don't foresee ever needing one.

So, since I don't need it, and any involvement from me would likely just complicate the situation (and incur unnecessary shipping costs that would be more than the stated value of the pedals), I'll let you guys come to a resolution on your own. The only reason I kept my auto pedal box is in the rare event that someone needed it. Someone will probably need the one in question, even if it sits on a shelf for years until that happens (or sooner if Josh makes a fabrication mistake on mine, lol).

Side note: I hope Matt can get out from under his (seemingly) controlling dad soon, and that hopefully this changes his dad's attitude a bit. EDIT: I just saw/read the screenshots. Wow.

[Nicholas R]

I have one last thing to add. It's not something Josh will mention because he's a humble guy, but it's insulting that your dad would think he's a scammer because he thought modifying an automatic box as stupid bs and obviously a scam. Josh is an extremely talented fabricator and engineer. His reasoning for using an automatic box was that someone without his talents could benefit from the more valuable manual box (like yourself) while he could then modify the less valuable automatic box, and therefore leave 2 owners with the cars they wanted. Anyone else would have just modified the manual box without considering trying to help another owner.

Have your dad take a look at the car Josh has created. His work more than speaks for itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7f9eZCQc4M&
Here's another:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9bqgO_py0


On a side note, do you have any other parts to convert the car to manual or just the pedals? Do you know how many parts are involved? Obviously you need a manual transmission to start. Here's a pretty comprehensive list:

(Credit to DMCMW Dave for list)

*Manual pedal box
clutch master cylinder
reservoir and hose
Clutch slave cylinder
braided hydraulic line
solid hydraulic line
*shifter mechanism
*shifter ball handle
noise isolator
shift boot
Bell crank
*linkage including two bars and crossgate
*linkage on the transmission
modified frame (lower/reshaped mount plate, extra hole in the back)
manual transmission
clutch assembly (pressure plate and disc)
flywheel
throwout bearing,
pilot bearing
*transmission mounts

* = part not readily available

You also have to modify the frame of the car, either by welding or bolting in a new shifter plate. You also have to do a small bit of cutting and drilling.

I guess I'm a little confused. If you have all these parts, your dad had to know what you were up to right? If you don't have all the parts, were you planning to swap the pedals before you got any of the other parts? I suppose you could still drive an automatic car with a manual pedal box; might be a little odd but it should work. Just curious; when I did my conversion, the pedals were the last thing I did. Here's some past threads on the subject that may help you on your way.

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?5684-Installing-new-pedal-pads
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?15210-Manual-Swap&highlight=conversion
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?14973-Conversion-from-an-Automatic-to-Manual&highlight=manual+conversion
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?6649-Automatic-to-manual-conversion&highlight=manual+conversion
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?3178-manual-pedal-box-and-other-bits-for-auto-to-manual-conversion&highlight=manual+conversion
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?3183-Auto-to-Manual-conversion&highlight=manual+conversion

[Mark D]

Credit to Matt for stepping up (with details,) apologizing, and making things right.....I respect that.


+1

Reading those text messages from Matt's dad was especially telling of how this all went down. If anything it sounded like Matt was being the adult in this situation and his dad was the one acting like the kid.

I hope both Josh and Matt can figure something out, especially now since the situation is even more complicated with Josh having bought a second auto pedal box because his was in limbo.

Matt, hopefully your dad apologizes to you and learns a lesson from this mess. He should be the one paying for shipping costs to make up for his colossal f-up.

[Jonathan]

I'll default to siding with Josh just because I know him personally and I don't know mattglas... BUT... if all things are fair, we haven't heard what mattglas' side of the story is and I think he should be able to tell it. Before passing judgement anyway. Not saying anything Josh said isn't likely accurate, but for all we know here, it could be the father that's made the mess and mattglas is unknowingly caught in the middle.

55672

Glad to hear you guys are figuring things out.

[Mattglas]

Thanks for replying to the thread Matt.

Just to cover a few things:
-I always deal in USD when I am on this forum, as I am dealing with people from the US mostly. But I could see the confusion with me being Canadian.
-I'm glad your dad and you got things sorted out, I do not appreciate how he treated me but I'm not losing any sleep over it either.
-I have received the pedals from Derrin already, and would prefer not to drag him into this further.

I paid Derrin $50 USD (Pedals) + $60.95 USD (Shipping) which turned out to be $110.95 USD Total

If you refund me this money I would call this issue resolved.

You could potentially ship your pedals to Derrin and he pay you back $50, but with the shipping cost it may not be worth it, and they were just sitting on a shelf so he probably does not need them. I will tell him to take a look at this thread and chime in just in case.

https://i.imgur.com/bGhXFiX.png

I just sent you the $111 over PayPal

[Michael]

I just sent you the $111 over PayPal

You righted a wrong, and it takes a man to do that.

I was wrong about you.

"It takes a big man to admit he was wrong...and today I am that big man"

[Mattglas]

I have one last thing to add. It's not something Josh will mention because he's a humble guy, but it's insulting that your dad would think he's a scammer because he thought modifying an automatic box as stupid bs and obviously a scam. Josh is an extremely talented fabricator and engineer. His reasoning for using an automatic box was that someone without his talents could benefit from the more valuable manual box (like yourself) while he could then modify the less valuable automatic box, and therefore leave 2 owners with the cars they wanted. Anyone else would have just modified the manual box without considering trying to help another owner.

Have your dad take a look at the car Josh has created. His work more than speaks for itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7f9eZCQc4M&
Here's another:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9bqgO_py0


On a side note, do you have any other parts to convert the car to manual or just the pedals? Do you know how many parts are involved? Obviously you need a manual transmission to start. Here's a pretty comprehensive list:

(Credit to DMCMW Dave for list)

*Manual pedal box
clutch master cylinder
reservoir and hose
Clutch slave cylinder
braided hydraulic line
solid hydraulic line
*shifter mechanism
*shifter ball handle
noise isolator
shift boot
Bell crank
*linkage including two bars and crossgate
*linkage on the transmission
modified frame (lower/reshaped mount plate, extra hole in the back)
manual transmission
clutch assembly (pressure plate and disc)
flywheel
throwout bearing,
pilot bearing
*transmission mounts

* = part not readily available

You also have to modify the frame of the car, either by welding or bolting in a new shifter plate. You also have to do a small bit of cutting and drilling.

I guess I'm a little confused. If you have all these parts, your dad had to know what you were up to right? If you don't have all the parts, were you planning to swap the pedals before you got any of the other parts? I suppose you could still drive an automatic car with a manual pedal box; might be a little odd but it should work. Just curious; when I did my conversion, the pedals were the last thing I did. Here's some past threads on the subject that may help you on your way.

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?5684-Installing-new-pedal-pads
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?15210-Manual-Swap&highlight=conversion
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?14973-Conversion-from-an-Automatic-to-Manual&highlight=manual+conversion
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?6649-Automatic-to-manual-conversion&highlight=manual+conversion
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?3178-manual-pedal-box-and-other-bits-for-auto-to-manual-conversion&highlight=manual+conversion
http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?3183-Auto-to-Manual-conversion&highlight=manual+conversion

Thanks for the list of threads! I think I have some of those bookmarked already and I definitely know I have the write up you did bookmarked. Your whole website was a great read. I know the swap isn't exactly the easiest thing to do, but I took engineering/shop class in high school for 3 years so I'm used to the whole cutting/welding/CNC process.
I am using the manual box to drive the automatic transmission right now, though I did remove the clutch pedal to make things less confusing for people checking out the car. I thought it would be better to start collecting all the hard to find parts first just in case they got harder to find in the future.

[Mattglas]

You righted a wrong, and it takes a man to do that.

I was wrong about you.

"It takes a big man to admit he was wrong...and today I am that big man"

Thank you for that, I just don't believe in screwing people over.

[Josh]

Thanks for sending the money Matt.

I could have done without being harassed on the phone and having to source another set of pedals but that seems to be beyond your control.
Best of luck with your 5 speed swap!

[Soundkillr]

I applaud you guys, and thank you for getting this solved! Helps keep the community honest and safe....