Anyone try (Classic Performance Parts) products?

[BustedTruck]

Just curios. They are having a pretty good sale right now. Has any one tried the cross-drilled/slotted rotors? They look awsome.

www.classicperform.com

[abadsvt]

I just ordered a set of front and rear cross drilled and sloted rotors and new calipers. I should get them next week. I will post some pics of them on my build thread. I can help more next week.

Josh

[gotchevys?]

I hate to say it but I have not had good experiences with CPP. In April of 2005 I order a ton of stuff for my 70 from CPP. I ordered 4 wheel disc brake conversion with emergency brake and a 5 on 5 bolt pattern, new power booster, proportioning valve, master cylinder, 2 1/2" drop spindles, 3 1/2" drop rear coilover kit, adjustable track bar, 4 new performance shocks, redesigned transmission crossmember, Poly bushings for the trailing arms, 1 1/4" front sway bar, and 1 1/8" rear sway bar.
I had about 2 weeks to get all of this installed before the May cruise in Ocean City Maryland. I worked probably 3-5 hours a night and 10-12 hours on the weekends to get it done. I almost didnt make it.
Most of you are probably thinking "Damn this dude is slow" but I'll explain. First of all my rear sway bar was on back order. But they failed to infom me of this until I called them after all of my order showed up minus the rear sway bar.
The second problem I ran into was the spindles. I had the truck hangin on the lift with the spindles bolted on and lookin good, but as soon as I tightened the ball joint nuts the drivers side spindle would not move. The lip that sticks up on the outer side of the flat area that the upper ball joint rests against was hitting the upper control arm! So I removed the spindle and compared it with the passenger side. I found that when they machined the flat area off the missed a swipe. Luckily we have a milling machine in our shop and we had to machine 1/4" off of that outer lip.
With that problem solved we moved on to the brakes. Once they were installed and we attempted to bleed them we ran into problems. We bleed the master cylinder and installed it, but the plunger on the brand new proportioning valve kept sliding to one side or the other and would get stuck. I have bleed countless sets of brakes and as most of you know its not rocket science but I was having no luck. I called their "tech line" to see if they had any suggestions. Fisrt they told me that because I was using a vaccuum pump to bleed them that was the problem and that to get the valve unstuck I sould stomp on the brake pedal to dislodge it. I did this and I worked so I used the 2 man pedal pumping method to attempt to bleed them again. Once again the valve got stuck but this time stomping the pedal would not dislodge it. So I called them yet again. This time the same guy said I was pumping the pedal to hard . He told me that if stomping the pedel doesn't work I'd have to remove the proportioning valve from the truck and blow air into it or hit it on the work bench . So I did this and reinstalled the valve on the truck. On the next attempt the plunger stuck again. . After trying several different methods to bleed the brakes, removing and reinstalling the proporting valve about 5 times, and rebleeding the master cylinder 3 or 4 times I took my brand new proporting valve and threw it on the workbench and installed a rusty old valve off of an S-10 blazer. Now I was getting some where. I believe the E-brake rear calipers are off of a mid 80s caddy. I had no experience with this particular type of caliper and no big surprise the methord of bleeding them was useless. After several calls to CPP, I still was having no luck with the rear calipers. I had fluid to them but the would not stop the rotor with the truck in gear on jack stands. I had friend who worked at the local Fisher Auto Parts and builds racecars on the side. I stopped in Fisher to see if he had any suggestions. There just happened to be this old guy in there who worked as a mechanic at the local Chevrolet dealer in the 80s. He told me a totally different method of adjusting the rear calipers and we had them fixed in no time.
Finally It came time to install the sway bars. When I placed the order the guy at CPP Tried to sell me special brackets for lowered trucks for $20. I tld him that I sholud not need them since I was using drop spindles and that i would not be modifying any of the existing front suspension geometery. He told me I would probably need them and tranfered me to the tech line so that I could ask them. The tech guy insisted I would need them so I gave in against my better judgement and ordered them. It should come as no surprise but I ended up not needing them. The rear bar brackets would not bolt up to the trailing arms so I had to fab brackets onto the trailing arms. I explained this on another thread and added pictures. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/s...17#post1954917 .
Then once again, against my better judgement, I decided to give them another chance and ordered their products for a customers 1966 Impala this past summer. I ordered 4 wheel disc brakes with E-brake and crossdrilled and slotted rotors, 2 1/2" drop spindles, and an 1/18" front sway bar. My dad warned me I was making a mistke by doing so. When this order showed up I didnt have a master cylinder/booster/proportioning valve assembly. When I called CPP the told me that I was on back order, once again it would have been nice to be informed of this upon placing my order. I opened the boxes to paint all of the components before installing them I found that CPP had sent me the wrong rear calipers. They sent non E-brake calipers. So once again I had to call CPP and exchange parts. I ordered the sway bar about 2 weeks after I ordered the brakes. On a 66 Impala the sway bar goes through a set of holes in the frame and it looked to me that It might be a pain to install. When I place the order the guy at CPP I was sure to ask the guy if it was a simple bolt in install and told him my concern. He assured me that the sway bar was designed for the car and that It would slide right into place. So I ordered the bar. After a week and a half went by The sway bar still hadn't showed. By now I should have had CPP on speed dial . Once again I was inform that the part I ordered was on back order. At this point I told the guy at CPP that I was PISSED although I remained polite. He tranfered me to another guy who said he would see if he could pull some strings and would call me back. He called me back an hour or so later and told me It would ship the first of the next week. When the sway bar arrived we were ready and waiting for it. The install SHOULD have been cake. The entire front clip had yet to be reinstalled after returning fromthe paint shop, It was just a frame with the front suspension and a freshly installed 396, nothing else. When I attempted to slide the sway bar throught the frame I wouldn't fit. One end of it was hitting the rotor but looked very close to fitting so I removed the rotor. It still woulnd't fit. One hole was a little more oval shaped than the other so I thought mabye I was sliding It in from the wrong side. So I removed the rotor from the other side and thried to slide it in. Now It was hitting the crank pully. So I had to loosen all fo the brackets and belts to remove the pully. Big suprise, I was now hitting the harmonic balancer. By this time my dad was trying to give me a hand and he had about enough . While he removed the balancer I called CPP. The tech guy said I should slide right in. So when I told him what had to be removed he told me to call the manufacturer which I refused to do because by this point the balcancer was off and sway bar was slid into place, plus it wasn't my job to research their products. I then informed him on all of the problems that I described in this thread. He appoligized to me about all of the problems and said that he would pass it on to his boss and someone would call me about my issues. I have never heard from them.
In conclusion, when you finally beat, bang, cuss, and modify their products the work really good and their customer service leave a lot to be desired.
Have any of you had similar experiences?

[Boise69]

omg. does this /\ hold the record for the most words in a post? wow, that was some reading.

[Fastfun]

I have ordered alot of products from them and you are right, I had a lot of backorders and they should have told me when I place the order. Their products are good but they do need to learn what customer service is all about. I still have everything in boxes just waiting to start my project and I hope that I do not have any problems with the install.

[jimmydean]

I placed a slightly smaller order, but they said everything was in and would go out. When I got all my boxes, the panhard bar was not in the order. I called them and they told me it was on back order.

2 weeks later, I got it, but they never told me when it cam in or when it shipped, it just showed up.

The products I got look great and the price was good. If I would not have been in a hurry, it would have been ok. I wasn't happy with the back order, but the price was still good and the products seem great.

[mkhutch]

I have used a bunch of there stuff and cannot complain with the quality, very nice. A few of the things have been back-ordered though and like everyone else has said, you never know unitl it doesn't show up. As far as the rotors, I would recommend getting the zinc wash or coating to keep the rust down.

[Draggn66]

Got them confused with someplace else. Never dealt with this place.

[rodstored-72]

well i too have ordered from them. i got the rear disk brake kit for my 72 1/2 ton 2wd swb truck. i also ordered the ebrake cables. the kit worked ok though the directions to me were not clear enough, so much that i was able to install the brakes backwards - left on right side & right on left side, believe it or not the brakes worked. if it weren't for "fastfun" board member, i would have never known!!. i also ordered the disk brake prop. valve and i had the exact same problem as described above, it kept locking up on me. after about 5 calls to the tech line the guy, i think his name was jeff or something kinda close to that, got tired of me talking & sent me another new one with a shipping label for the old one. i couldn't get it to bleed as well so i just ended up taking the truck to a mech. who bled the brakes for me (power bleed) although i do remember the tech guy telling me that it would be better for me to go ahead & power bleed the brakes. i too like ther stuff & would (will) probably order from them again although with everything said i would just keep it in mind. for sure their "tech" line does need improvement! i guess i got spoiled by a dealer who is close to me who knows more about these trucks then i think gm does. overall i guess i am satisfied, though not a grin from ear to ear happy (hhaahhaa)

good luck all the same.

rodstored-72

[abadsvt]

Man I wish i would have know all this before i ordered my stuff! Crap! I hope comes before next week. Josh

[jimmydean]

You just gave to call them and stay on top ot it. They will let you know what is where, but I was the one who called to get status and stuff.

[Boog]

Sounds like they sell fair parts but have supply and delivery probs along with clerks who don't have first hand knowledge of the parts they're selling. Whenever possible it pays to order well in advance of the time the part will actually be needed in case of fitment probs,etc.

[BustedTruck]

Wow Thanks for the info. I will definately be asking if anything is on back order and forget about the proprtioning valve. Thanks