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Not sure where to post this

Fast68back

Fast68back

Guest
But I'll post it here, just cuz.....

I cant post this in the vendor evaluation board as its more about the manufacturer than the vendor/supplier.

Here is my story. Begining of Dec I called Old Air products in Fort Worth, since they are basically local to me. I talked with their tech and stated I was looking for a bolt in radiator for my '68 Mustang. We discussed several options and I ask him if they stock them. The tech tells me they "should" have it. I seen them all the time at local shows, cruises etc so I figure they would have it. On 12/3 I drive over on my lunch break, bout 30 miles each way to find they do not have it in stock and they have to order it direct from Griffin. ~bd Damn, Sluggo is coming this weekend so now I cant get the car goin. Monday (12/8) comes and goes, still no radiator. Monday night while paying bills on-line I notice they charged me for the radiator. I send an e-mail Old Air asking for tracking information (they said they would let me know when it shipped) and mail me an invoice. Tuesday morning I go out to get my mail and there is an invoice, I also notice there is a box by my front door, :wtf? I looked it up and UPS delivered it at 830PM, never rang the bell or anything.

Tuesday night, I get home and try to install the radiator. First I try to mount up the dual fan setup that old air sold me and its to small for the radiator, :wtf?

2_12_12_08_6_50_04_4.JPG


Then I go try the radiator in the car, :wtf?

2_12_12_08_6_50_04_0.JPG


So, here is the e-mail exchange over the past few days between me and Old Air (who I do not hold at fault) My e-mail is BOLD, it makes it difficult to read since were are both named Rick..


Rick,
We have a problem, this radiator is not correct. It is WAY to big. The sheetmeatl on the front of my car is original and this radiator sits above the radiator support by several inches.

The packing slip and the box and the radiator all have the same P/N 7-568BC-CXX, however, dimensional, the radiator does not match, they say 15.50 X 24.00, I measure 23.75 W and 22.5 H (bottom of tank to top of tank), just the core, with out the tanks measures just under 17.5". The electric fans I bought from Old Air have about 2.5 inch gap when I set it on the radiator. The only thing I noticed that was odd about the Griffin packaging was the P/N label on the radiator is covering another label.

I am attaching a few photos. I apologize in advance as they are somewhat dark. I will be calling you first thing in the morning so that we can get the correct radiator delivered to my house before the weekend.

Rick,
Looks like we have a boxed wrong radiator, probably for a Galaxy 500 being a BA instead of a BC. Bet that is what the underside tag says. Griffin did not have one on the shelf but he advised was building one this a.m. I will know more about the time frame after lunch and will keep you posted. Again I apologize for the problem. I will extend an extra 5% on the AC unit we earlier discussed to try to help with your project and to compensate for you trouble and delay on getting the new install. Car sure does look clean from the pictures you sent as I would like to see more with better light.

Thanks
Rick


Thanks Rick, please keep me posted.
Plenty of pictures here:

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/541371/4

The incorrect radiator will be picked up tomorrow. The new radiator will be shipped next day as soon as it is ready. They are trying for a today shipment. Will stay in touch.


Rick,
Any update? I left the bad radiator by my front door where UPS dropped it off.

Not yet, but I will advise when I hear from him.

Thanks, If you could let me know before they go home for the weekend.

Rick,
Radiator is ready to go as of now. They can ship it next day air but it will be Monday before you get it.

Thanks
Rick

They do not have Sat delivery?


Rick, the Sat. delivery was well over $200, twice as much as the next day, and Griffin was not willing to take on that extra cost. I know you wanted for this weekend, and it was not your or Old Air’s fault, but they went a lot further with the 2 day build and paying over $100 for next day, than I original thought would happen. They were very close in getting it done to be able to ship today. Again I am sorry for the misboxed radiator.



Finally had a chance last night, (forwarded it home) to look at your build site. WOW, very impressive work and not to mention the whole picture description from the very start. Plenty there to be proud of!! When you get ready for the A/C, be sure to see me and I will help you all I can to try to make up for Griffin’s deal. We have some really neat special vents & etc for your car. (we used them in the Eleanor reproduction).

Thanks
Rick



Rick,I do appreciate all yours and Old Airs efforts. As you have seen from the website, I have put a lot of work, time and expense into building my car and you can hopefully understand how upsetting it is to have to wait even another 72 hours to be able to start and run my project.

For Griffin to say they do not want to spend the money for Sat delivery is very disheartening, it was not my mistake, or you mistake, but theirs. Hopefully they understand how tightly knit the Mustang community is and that my story will be told and retold on the various Mustang websites, Stangfix.com and Vintage Mustang Forum to name a few.

While I appreciate their efforts in trying to get the correct product shipped out, they need to understand that they wasted no time at all in having the wrong radiator picked up and returned to them, which leaves me sitting here, without a radiator and without the money that I paid for a radiator.

If you would, please provide me a tracking number when it does ship.

Rick

Was I wrong to be so pissed off? Did I handle it wrong?
 
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Shit happens, and I think anyone expecting a vendor to go over and beyond an excellent response to a mis-shipment of a part to spend another $200 for weekend delivery is unwarranted. Sorry, but that's my opinion. When restoring these vehicles, you just can't rely upon a set schedule and expect everything to fall into place for you.
 
I would be pissed that they made a mistake like that. I would be pissed that they could not make it right, right now. I would be pissed that it took extra time because they would not spend the extra for Sat, delivery.

Then I would have a cold one while I cooled down and realized I did all I could to get what I could and wait for the new part. Plus I would be thankful that in the end, it all came out good and would put a good word out about the company.
 
I think you handled it well. Yes, it's irritating that it was misboxed, but it does happen, and there's not much you can do about it in the meantime except drink a beer.

I think expecting the company to fork $200 for shipping is a little extreme. Shipping it next day at no cost to you is already above and beyond what I'd expect from any major manufacturer. The vendor especially has dealt with the situation as well as I could expect anyone to, going as far as to discount your a/c setup to help compensate for your inconvenience.
 
Sounds similar to the experience I had when I bought my radiator from an Ebay vendor. I sent the money order, waited two weeks and got nothing. Contacted the seller, he told me "we had it in stock when you won the auction, but we it sold before the auction ended." In other words they never had it in stock and wait until they sell it on Ebay before ordering it from the manufacturer. I wonder what kind on negative feedback I would have gotten if I had told them; Sorry, I had the money when I bid for this part, but I spent it before the auction ended. This is another reason why Ebay sucks. I can understand someone making an error, we all do. But to try to cover it up by lying is unacceptable. Tell them next time I will order my stuff from NPD, Summit, Jegs, etc.
 
I got home this evening and had the correct radiator sitting on my doorstep and an e-mail from Rick at Old Air following up on the delivery. Now, if it werent 20 degrees outside (it was 77 on Sunday) I would have installed it...
 
We have some really neat special vents & etc for your car. (we used them in the Eleanor reproduction).
Click to expand...

We bought the Old Air AC kit for my sons car. It was eventually resold at a considerable loss in favor of the Classic Air kit. The "really neat special vents" are cheap ABS plastic housings that screw onto the underside of your metal dash.... where the dash meets the kick panels. It's a very "cheesy" look in my opinion. Also, at the time we purchased the Old Air kit, you had to use the factory heater control panel to operate the AC. The kit could not be used on a factory AC car, only on a factory non-AC car. I don't know if Old Air has rectified this situation yet.

The Classic Air kit is also designed to convert a factory non-AC car to AC by using the heater control panel, but they sell an auxillary kit that enables you use factory AC controls to operate the system.
 
The Classic Air kit is strikingly similar to the Old Air Products kit. A lot of the pieces appear to be cast from the same mold/sourced from the same manufacturer.

The MAJOR difference is that the Classic Air kit can be supplemented with an auxillary kit ($130 extra bucks) that allows the use of the factory AC controls.

The Old Air Products AC kit retains use of the factory heater control panel and selecting "AC" from this panel ends up being somewhere between "defrost" and "heat" on the panels slide lever.

Installation of either kit was very straightforward with excellent supplied directions. The AC blows ICE COLD. The only difficult part of the installation was getting the correct compressor mount. Ford used a bunch of different mounts and the one that came with the kit wouldn't work with our 351W based motor. I had both the Classic Air kit and the Old Air Products kit unboxed at the same time and both kits supplied the exact same mount. After a little trial and error, Classic Air supplied the correct mount that we needed.

The Monte Carlo bar had to be modified (bent) to provide clearance for the AC compressor. I saw the photo of your installed MC bar and I don't think the AC compressor will fit underneath the bar....
 
Sooooo, Since my car is not a factory AC car, do I need to try and locate an AC control unit and use the classic kit??
 
Sooooo, Since my car is not a factory AC car, do I need to try and locate an AC control unit and use the classic kit??
Click to expand...

The Classic Air kit, like the Old Air Products kit is designed to bring AC to a non-AC car by using the factory heater control panel and installing a couple cheesy eyeball diffuser vents on the underside of the dash panel.

With the Classic Air kit, you can order the auxillary kit enabling you to use the kit on a factory AC car with factory AC controls. Yes, you'd have to procure the factory AC pieces, but IMO it looks MUCH nicer. Both Classic and Old Air kits provide the same center vent piece (located above the radio) so you won't need this piece. What you'll need is the factory AC control panel which has an integrated air vent/diffuser built into the lower portion of it and also the passenger side trim piece (installs along the outboard side of the glove box) that also incorporates the vent/diffuser. Both of these panels are now in reproduction, but neither are cheap. Behind each of these panels is a 90* plastic elbow that connects the diffuser to the factory (or kit supplied) air ducting. I'm not sure if these elbows are in reproduction.

When building my sons '68 the factory AC pieces mentioned above were not in reproduction and we paid dearly for them. Over $500 for both pieces IIRC.

It's all a matter of budget and personal preference. Either way will give you AC, but spending more money will make the system look as if it were factory installed.
 
Here is a link showing the factory AC control panel. It's for a Cougar, but I'm 99% positive they are identical. Note that the chrome is pitted. Try finding some w/o pitting..... Fortunately these pieces are now in reproduction. Notice in the photo the 90* elbow.... I'm not sure if these are being reproduced or not. The same eBay seller is also selling the RH side piece you'd need and also an OE center vent. Finding pieces that aren't pitted is where it gets expensive.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/67-68-COUGAR-LEFT-AC-HEATER-CONTROL-VENT_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286Q2em20Q2el1116QQitemZ310108240292QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
 
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