The pain of returning a hood to Classic Industries

[Jonlopes]

Originally Posted by sneakyfast

I have been working in manufacturing industrial products for 18 years and all I can say to this is post is hahahaha.....In my job I deal a lot with manufacturers and every single one without exception has tons better quality from Chinese manufacturing than American Unions. it is valid that you will pay double the price for American made but the flip side is you will receive a lot worse quality. Just to clarify I mean manufactured goods and not small business or hand craft. Not trying to start a war but this perception is way out of date.

There are no wars starting just a group of guys sharing their opinions. If you ask 10 people you will probably end up with 11 different opinions.
I am just referring to the fact that the Chinese (or Tiwanese) made repops are made with thinner metal and not to the same standards as the American made units.

This time last year I was restoring a Jeep Jeepster and the repops for them were easily oem quality and made in America. Jeepsters were made from 1967 through 1973 and in all that time they only made about 60,000 of them. In the same years Chevy turned out close to 2 million C/K 10-20 trucks. There is just not enough demand for the Jeepster parts to be made overseas so they are made here in the USA. The parts cost about twice what they cost for the 67-72 Chevys but the quality is there. That is what I am hoping will eventually happen for us. If there is enough demand for a premium product it will eventually be made.

[CUSTOM/10]

I purchased a 69-72 cowl hood from Brothers ( Not sure who the MFG was )
But it had a couple of issues, but my body guy was able to correct them both and made the hood fit great. One issue was the front pass side of the hood was curved in-ward so there was a gap between it and the grille. That we corrected using a big slide hammer with a wide flat hook to pull this area out. That took some effort !!! The other issue was the hood was narrower than the cowl on the top of the hood. So he pie cut the cowl on both sides to bring it in and line it up with the hood. He did a great job on it and I love how it looks !

He was confident he couple work out the isses, and I felt this was easier than shipping it back and taking another role of the dice on another hood.

A good body guy is worth his weight in gold !

[70cst]

Originally Posted by Classic Heartbeat

The goodmark hood and the classic industries hood are manufactured by the same company. It is more about the inconsistencies in their manufacturing process and lack of quality control. WES

This is one reason to sometimes try and find original sheet metal parts when at all possible. Even paying a premium price sometimes is worth it.

Although I am sure some sheet metal parts are as good. I think.

[dme922]

Sneakyfast i am a steel worker and it does sound like your wanting to start a war. My whole point of starting this thread was due to poor customer service.

[Grandpa54]

Originally Posted by dme922

sneakyfast i am a steel worker and it does sound like your wanting to start a war. My whole point of starting this thread was due to poor customer service.

i found the best way to go after bad vendors is let your credit card company do it for you. They will pull out of their account!

[litew8]

Not sure what kind of war he's expecting to 'not' start. I can attest to the fact the chi stuff = horrible quality. Want picture proof evidence? The cust. service is probably a result of the vendor not wanting to deal with them either. LOL

[special-K]

If the overseas quality control is better, then why can't they produce body panels right? And, it's not like this stuff made in China is any cheaper than when it was made here. There's just a super huge profit margin for Mr. Big

[Cooper Restorations]

Sneakyfast, you are more than welcome to provide some proof that import body panels are better quality. I don't think you can. And as for bashing American Unions and American made parts... I think you might have gotten on this forum by mistake.

[Cooper Restorations]

DME... I apologize for straying off of your original post. We can move on.

[dme922]

Thanks guys. I am proud to be Union and Sneakyfast may want to look at who built his truck. Anyhow like i said my main point of this thread was to point out the run around i was getting on my hood. The hood i received would have cost me a lot of extra labor ($) to get it right and if the Goodmark and Tri plus are made by the same company then the Goodmark must have been stamped on a better die or something. As i said in a previous thread Classic Industries did give me a full refund and i now have a Goodmark hood that is a much better fit. On with my build.

[sneakyfast]

Originally Posted by dme922

Sneakyfast i am a steel worker and it does sound like your wanting to start a war. My whole point of starting this thread was due to poor customer service.

Yeah fair point. I retract....sorry to distract from the main point of thread..apologies.

[jeffahart]

Sure, anything the Chinese can steal and copy from us is usually good enough. Our designs, specs, processes you name it they steal it. But here is the problem(besides they don't respect property rights). It's the materials. They will put $hit in our oatmeal... we will eat it. Because the real, and good, oatmeal is priced out of the market. Do a search on Chinese sheet rock. Yea... china... there's a bill coming due for us selling out to them. Think cheap is good... maybe... most times NOT!!!!! I'm not liking this whole China thing. Getting way out of balance!

[jeffahart]

Also, I meant to point out. I bought a Grant steering wheel from NPD. I returned a grant steering wheel and they gave me no trouble. I told them I was going to get another so they paid return shipping also. I'm not sure if paid return shipping is their policy. I became skeptical of all the new steering wheels and have not yet bought another. I liked NPD. It was my first time dealing with them and I liked them. But I was not being deceitful when I told them I was getting another. But I did some looking around on this site and the new re-productions are being reported as flimsy. So I have to have one in hand for inspection before I make a purchase of one. Of course fenders, whole different ball of head ache.