$500K Engine Swap Fraud Lands Resto Shop Owner With 60 Years Behind Bars

Engine swaps are some of the costliest and most complicated processes one can do in a classic car build. For the uninitiated, the idea is simple: take a classic car and swap out the old engine, usually for a newer, more reliable (or more powerful) one. Of course, not all engine swaps abide by this rule, but most restomods with swapped engines typically sport LS or modern Hemi V8s, among many other options. The sky's the limit, as long as you have either the skill to perform the work yourself or the budget to hire someone else to do it for you.

The latter — hiring someone else to swap an engine — typically goes smoothly enough. You pay a specialized mechanic to do the work, give them the car and the crate engine, and let them do their job. Unfortunately for some would-be restomod owners, one mechanic allegedly turned this process into the perfect source of free revenue through massive amounts of theft and reselling.

Enter Richard Finley, a Texas mechanic who ran a shop called Classic American Street Rods and was supposedly one such specialist qualified and willing to do engine swaps on classic cars. According to a statement released by the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, Finley was sentenced to 60 years and ordered to pay nearly half a million dollars in restitution for stealing classic cars and parts worth an estimated $2 million.  Let's take a look at this complex, multi-year-long investigation, what happened, and what's being done.

Imagine the situation: You're looking to use a classic car as a daily driver, but it has a tired, unreliable engine. So you send it out to a mechanic for a new engine, but hear nothing for months. Whenever you ask for information, the mechanic feeds you vague statements that say nothing in particular — waiting on parts, work's in progress, and so on. Meanwhile, the mechanic in question is mining your precious (and valuable) car for parts they can sell. Sadly, such was the fate of at least 72 classic car owners between 2018 and 2023.

According to a press release from the Galveston County District Attorney's Office, a week-long jury trial commenced on December 15, 2025, in which prosecutors called 28 victims to testify. These individuals stated that mechanic Richard Finley would demand large sums of money upfront but seemingly delay working on their cars, with owners not receiving updates for months or even years. By the time they got their car back (if they ever did), some found irreplaceable parts missing. What's more, among the victims who hired Finley, not a single one of their cars actually received the requested engine swap.

On January 6, 2026, Judge Jeth Jones of the 122nd Judicial District Court found Richard Finley guilty of felony theft greater than $300,000. Many of the parts stolen from victims' cars were unfortunately sold off to unsuspecting buyers and are effectively lost in the wind. But luckily, the cars themselves found their way back to their rightful owners. The original warrants were executed in June 2023, during which police raided two locations in San Leon and Texas City and recovered 24 classic cars.

Speaking to ABC News, one of Finley's victims said he paid the mechanic $10,000 to perform an engine swap on his 1972 Chevelle. Finley, however, moved the car between locations and stripped it of vital components, including the engine, transmission, and air-conditioning parts. It took the owner six months before he finally saw his (partially dismantled) car again in a storage locker at the Texas City location.

For him and many others, their precious vehicles were thankfully returned, albeit in sad states. And for the rest of us, this serves as a cautionary tale. This isn't the first time a shop has been accused of dishonest practices, and laws exist to protect individuals from cases like these. Florida's Motor Vehicle Repair Act, for example, entitles clients to certain rights, such as a written estimate, no unauthorized work, and the return of all replaced parts on request. Even so, overcharging at the auto shop remains a reality for many people and something to watch out for.