HAHAHAHHAH this is hilarious. This thread has ------ pretty good and going across two wheel sites now.

Does the kid have some kind of special hussler jedi powers or something? Who in the hell believes "my grandfather is old school and will pay for it when the work is done" from a 20 year old ricer kid? Here's a tip, with all the extra attention, donations, and business you are going to get with this internet 15 minutes of fame, fire your current manager that approved this interaction and hire someone who knows how to run a business. From the way this story sounds, the business wasn't doing so hot before Mr. Douchebag came along so take this opportunity that you have to make your operation into a sound one.

Originally Posted by flyspyder55 View Post
if anyone wishes to help, doesnt want to donate... i ve got some parts for sale....

20"xd rockstars 2500 (5 wheels and super swamper tires)
1jz swap with,60-1 ball bearing 2600
550 sidefeeds 225
18x10,18x9 superadvans 2000

93 mercury sable 1500

Over the course of three days I have been following this thread. It's just crazy how it keeps growing, you can never truly catch up. By the time I hit submit on this post it will probably have grown another two pages at least
I have read ALL the posts...although I'm sure I missed a chunk of the ones that were cleaned up by the mods/admin. I dont know how some of you got through it in a two-three hours...you either have mad forum reading skills or skimmed past posts. I shouldve done the same, but was dumb and read everything. From this I think I am qualified enough to offer some fair comments.

1. Joe Dono is just ridiculous. I don't know how no one has truly beaten him down as he had claimed in his story. It's almost ironic that the thing that deserves to happen to him was fabricated in a lie by him.

2. I pity the true victims here, and hate to see it trickle down to their families, but I believe this could have been avoided. It's unfortunate how this happened. I try to put myself in their situation and I think I might have done the exact same thing. I can imagine myself getting greedy with a huge score from some ricer kid with a grandpa willing to spoil him. Lesson learned.

3. I am pretty offended by the business' name. I dont know if it's an acronym for something, The answer to this has been posted by the thread starter and will end here. chi town brat S Mod

4. I would hope that these "donations" are being recorded by the J.A.P. Works folks and plan to return them to those that donated should they be awarded $ resulting in a net amount after all this litigation. If they decline or cannot be contacted, then that money could go towards a charity you all decide upon.

5. I'm a bit confused how one car can "save" this business. Especially when you claim two families have bills to pay in addition to the business expenses. I dont see how a $16K lien can save the day. Yes I understand you put a lot of time and money into this car, but a normal business would be able to move past this and continue to generate revenue, especially with all the publicity you have been receiving. I thought I read something about one of the owners only being able to work from home or a garage or something. Did I misinterpret his post? Or is the shop temporarily closed?

6. I'd assume you'd also try to sue for other damages, but clearly if the car was going to get repo'd this family really has no money to pay you. Youre fighting a lost cause, and I think it may be tough to get a good attorney to help you when it seems there really is no pay off for their work. You'd have to find someone who wants it for the publicity, or is charitable...speaking of which why has no one contacted legal aid? As far as I know, every state has a legal aid society or something similar.

7. Why is everyone talking on here like Joe Dono is going to prison? Someone stated he is no longer on probation, and if he did commit a criminal offense wouldn't he have been arrested by now? I mean he had a police officer accompany him to the shop in his feeble attempt to reclaim the car. I'm sure the police think he's a complete tool, but they apparenty don't think he's a criminal.

8. The best thing here is showing how the community rallies together to help someone in need, regardless of how it got to that point. I think it's great, and you really need to take advantage of the attention this is getting. The ideas coming out like the contest/bbq are great as well. I hope everything works out in the end and I will continue to pop in here for updates.

9. I don't know why I took the time to post this. As I'm sure most folks will skip long posts as mine, asking for cliff notes. Plus many just jump to the last page for the recent posts, and this will get bumped back three pages because of people like DC5 who really post a lot of irrelevant crap and clutter this thread. Yes, we know you are a close friend and are somewhat involved, but I think we could all do without youre attention whoring. Thank you.

10. I think it is pretty pathetic the amount that has been raised so far considering all those that have posted. I have my own reasons for not donating as stated in #3, but man people saying they are strapped for cash and cant even donate a measly dollar? Weak. All you locals should consider getting work done by them too, either now or in the immediate future.

Good luck J.A.P. Works, and please consider a name change or clarifying the acronym.

First off all the "Donations" are being kept track of. I have both the Paypal record and a separate record.

Second, originally the name was J.A.P. Works. Which stood for the three original founding members, Justin, Aaron, Paul. It made sense because we were primarily working on JDM (JAPanese Domestic Market) vehicles. I've never once heard anyone say anything about it being racist BEFORE this thread. It isn't meant to be anything other than a name. If you're offended, please try to not be so narrow-minded.

Also, this car was not meant to "SAVE" the business. Many times a single car can put a shop in the limelight and have them set for years to come. Although this is not the type of car I would have chosen, this car could have put our name out there bigger than ever before. Regardless of the base/auto hatred cast upon it, the work speaks for itself and in the show world there are no points added or subtracted for being either base model or autotragic.

Tell me, the first time you see a GTR are you going to laugh because it isn't a V-Spec and it is an automatic?


We are not going to be working out of a garage from home, that is where we are moving most of our stuff because we are in danger of losing our shop space. We were actually in the midst of moving to a slightly larger space with more frontage and an additional overhead door. That contract was supposed to be signed around the 18th of this month allowing us time to move in. The unit we were wanting to move into is actually right next door to us so the move would not have been a major issue and we would have had plenty of time to do so after finishing this Celica. Now we do not have the money to sign the lease because we took that money that was set aside and invested it into getting the Celica done.

Our dilemma is that we still have to be out of our current building in the next few days, but now have no where to move into. Yes we cut this close, we thought it was a fairly safe gamble, and now we must pay the price for throwing those dice.

What Branden has said is that he can do basic work like welding and exhaust work from his house if people so desire. NOT that we will be attempting to run a shop from there.

So JAP Works may be closed down for a few weeks, but we will come back, and be stronger than ever!

Originally Posted by pdisme View Post
No media outlet picked it up because most of the general public could give a ---- about some kid getting $16k of ricer mods on his mom's Celica done by a dumb shop who thought the $400 in cash for a paint job from a 16 year old was proof that he, or his grand dad I mean, had another $15,600 in his back pocket. If it was an 80 year old trying to get an automated diaper changer installed on his electric wheel chair and Medicare wouldn't pay the bill after the work was done by some underprivileged kids on welfare, that's a little different, otherwise, not seeing it happening.

Thanks for reading! No one said there was a $400 deposit. It was actually $1200 plus a computer supposed to be valued at $800 on an initial job quoted at $4100.

just wanted to say big thanks to everyones effort, not just the money. the time spent trying to get this story out. this is a big hit for us in many ways. this shop was mine and Aarons dream. to finally be able to make a living out of what we like to do for fun. This issue has my dream crashing down. For those that really want to help but have no money, perhaps you could help ------ the word of parts ive got for sale. lots of toyota parts, the rockstars off the support truck, etc.

as far as this car making the shop. its not just the 16k dollar bill, its the attention that a car done 100% in house draws. Aaron and i have 3 cars between the 3 of us that were to be assembled to make a profit for the shop. ive got a full restoration in progress on my 70k mile 90 supra targa, a v6 turbo mr2 to be built, and aaron has an 06 gto basically just in need of paint and a tailight. finished, were talking about 50k dollars worth of cars here, and a combined total of maybee 5-6000 dollars needed spent. this is why this car has put such a hurt on us. weve not had the time, or the money to work on these cars because of this celica.




you guys have seen the pictures. this car was well done. weve got 4.5 months of solid work in this thing. Joe was even cut breaks on many of the things in the car. he was only prices 3500 dollars on the subwoofer enclosure. i dont know if anyones in the custom audio scene, but thats a steal. 400 for the carbon roof, another steal. ---- he wasnt even charged for the amp racks or the nitrous bottle mount in the rear seat.

Again and again i cant say it enough, thank you all for the suport your giving us. the thanks comes not just from myself and aaron, but from my fiance heather, my soon to be stepson gavin and our son atreyu.


and the computer was and i quote "to be in addition to the bill, for not taking a deposite" and the only downpayment was 600 dollars, the other 560 dollars was for payment of the megan gauges bought for the car, not even including the aem wideband in the car.



worse of all this kid was even greedier, he had asked me to buy some volk's for the car, that would get added to the bill. i finally told him i flat out didnt have the money to put anything else on the car.


as far as the haters go. i dont understand why your so resistant to having people help someone. i understand your point, it was a gamble we took on the car. but why try to stop people from helping?