i knew nothing would happen , a lot of people talk and very few get things done .

 

Their 5 inch spoiler is warped and doesnt fit right either...

 

Yes, I read that thread. However, that was a cmoplaint about the spoiler, not Hawks service. That guy complained before he ever bothered contacting Hawks.

 

Point taken. Although it irks me that this warp on their spoiler is apparently a flaw from the mold, not an isolated incident.

Oh well, doesnt matter to me since I dont like the angle of their 6 inch spoiler, it should be barely steeper than the hatch glass, if that, IMO...

 

sorry to hear that Shannon seemed to have been rippen off... there are always people out there willing to take advantage of good persons that try to help our hobby... it's sad, but a good thing then it seems that I brought this up, now I know where Hawke stands toward us... thanks for the reply LT1guy

 

well duhhhh!!!!!!

hell you should have figured he was trying to take advantage of everyone when he came out with a
exhaust system that costs over 1000 bucks, or how about a 900 rear brake conversion,

 

WOW I guess i will try to make a response to this thread without starting a "WAR" here.
As far as the notch goes, the agreement between redraif and LT1GUYand myself that was made was they purchased a hatch ( off EBAY)and shipped it to me at there cost and I aggreed to make a mold and produce the hatches for resale as many of you guys wanted. When I recieved the part redraif and LT1 GUY came up to my shop and we half way fitted the hatch on a salvage car and it looked good (OUR first mistake) my fiberglass shop got the hatch and started on a mold which was very cost nd intensive, once we FINALLY got the mold done we did our test fitting on the first part, upon that we had a ton of fitment problems which after a couple more parts finally thought we had it beat, once we mounted one permantly to the car and drove it down the road it had a HUGE air leak on the pass side where it had a huge bow in the part on the pass side,and ounce we checked the original to which we were given it had the bow as well. After going over my options with my fiberglass dept. I then called LT1 GUY and expalined the situation and explained that we were kinda of in the situation deep and all the time and money we had spent on the original mold was pretty much wasted and we could modify the PART WE HAD MADE and try to fix all the imperfections of the one he had brought me and make a new mold of of the part we modified and try to finish this project up. I also expalined that we may not be able to do the two FREE notches as originally discussed as at this point we had lost a ton of money and were about to invest more into ANOTHER mold and I would at least get him two pieces at cost of MATERIAL ONLY and he said to do what we had to do because he and redraif wanted two notches for two of the four project cars they had so we agreed and proceeded with the new mold.
Several months later I talked with LT1GUY agian on the phone and we again discussed the price of the materail cost on the two notches and he seemed frustrated and said he would see when he could get up a pick his original up ( which we still have ) and we would discuss then on the other two notches and now this is the next I have heard on this matter and it is amazing how it seems like people REFUSE to have a mature conversation on a matter and instead " bash on the boards" and some people seem to jump on the band wagon and help.
As far as our 5in spoilers they are ALL HAND MADE on the rear of a camaro in the fiberglass shop and are all three pieces that only go with the them selves as they are hand made. and to INFERNALVORTEX I can send you a ton of emails where people have sent THANK YOU EMAILS with pics of there cars on the 5 in spoiler that love them, do me a favor look at all the third gen cars you see and see how many of the hatches sit in the same place dont forget it is easy to point a finger when you are not in the middle of the solution just wanted you to know I have at least 50-75 very happily satisfied customers on the 5 in spoiler.
To BADGTA my company is not about ripping people off , have you ever priced other stainless systems on the market ??? oh wait there are not any for the 82-92 cars with the quality this system has in stainless, Have you looked to see acaually what you get for 1000.00. I did not say this system is for everyone it is for someone who wants a QUALITY system that will fit ( have you ever had 82-92 hooker long tubes on your car how did they fit?? and is serious about there exhaust system on there car look at how much a BORLA catback alone is, you get my point ( once you think about it).
To all of our customers thank you for your busienss and support and I will leave you all with one thing to think about. Alot of people on this board want custom things built or made, now think what you are reading and seeing here and you will have the anwser why it is so hard to get things for this generation car built because of the way SOME people respond and deal with the slightest hick up. Any one in any parts or manufacturing busienss understands what I am saying. My company has ALWAYS Supported this board and members and try to ALWAYS have what ever you may need in stock at a competitive price with the service you deserve. To JOE , WOW MAN, you really suprised me on who I thought you were sorry if you ever thought I was ripping you or Shannon off you know me better than that or at least I thought you did,you have my # if you need to call to discuss and I meant no harm or negativity to any of my statements above thanks for everyones time.
SINCERELY,
Bruce Hawkins
HAWKS THIRD GENERATION

 

If anyone wants to respond to Bruce this is not the place to do it, so I am reclosing the thread.

 

Well it seems I’m always late to the party. All I can say is wow!

Well I know I have not been on in a while. I entered into the arduous task of building a house some time ago, then I met someone (not Joe) and we got married last August. We finally were able to start moving in this March. So time has flown by and not much has been done car wise.

During the move, I mentioned to Joe about the Gathering and maybe he should ask Bruce again about the notches. It had been some time and maybe we could open the discussion about them again. Worst case, maybe we could arrange to get the original notch from him if he was bringing a trailer down. (My dually was stolen and I got it back engineless, so I had no vehicle to get the notch or tow a trailer with)

I know it was mine and Bruce’s deal, but I met Bruce thru Joe and they have known each other for many years and done tons of business together. I figured that made Joe on a better level with Bruce to discuss the situation. Well I never heard anything from Joe about it. Then he made some comment about posting here in the thread, but as I was moving I had no computer access. Well as you can see some time went by and I only put 2 and 2 together when I talked to Bruce about 2-3 weeks ago. He mentioned the thread and did I know what Joe had said. I told him I had not seen the thread, and knew nothing about what had been posted, but agreed to go look as soon as I got the internet up where I could use it. Well by the time I got here the thread was closed and I saw the firestorm.

I'm very upset with the way this whole thing went down! I would like to publicly straighten the situation out. As you all know from my conduct on these boards, I don't believe in airing dirty laundry or pointing fingers in a public situation. What Joe said is not my feeling at all on the situation. Yes, I think there were still things to be worked out before the whole situation was laid to rest, but I don’t think I was screwed over by Bruce.

Lt1guy totally blindsided Bruce and I. He never spoke to Bruce directly, as I had asked. Worse yet he never even gave me a chance to talk to Bruce. He did not ask if posting is what I thought should be done. Just told me after the fact, knowing I had no way to even go look at the post. Honestly, if he did not want to talk about it with Bruce, well he should have said so and should have given me the chance. I was more then willing. But for Joe to come on here w/o any chance for anyone to talk about any of it was very disrespectful to Both Bruce and I. It’s not like he called and Bruce shot him down. The call was never made. That is not how you conduct business. It was not mature and I don’t appreciate being put in a position like this.
I don't appreciate anyone else pointing fingers on my supposed behalf and dragging my name into it. Casting me and someone I trust and want to do continued business with in this sort of light. Ultimately, this whole situation was MY money, MY notch, MY deal with Bruce, and this should have been handled in a private manner, by ME.

As far as Bruce and his business, I had and still have full confidence in Bruce. I totally believe that he and I would and will be able to work this whole thing out. I think this casts Bruce in a negative light, and I don't agree with that. He is a very honorable, standup guy. I would do business with him in a second. He has done nothing but help me out in the past and take great care of me as a customer. I have always raved about him and nothing has changed. He still has my business and trust!

Well let me throw some back story in that was left out, or may be pages back… I think it is relevant as people need to see there was no wrong doing on Bruce’s part.

Yes I found a near stock repro notch on Ebay… I wanted the notches to be available for all of us that wanted one and could not get an original. I talked to Bruce and he agreed in his big hearted way to try to repro the notches for all the guys out there that wanted one. To top it off, I had to talk another bidder out of bidding against me, since I was going to do this so they could be reproduced. The deal was that I get the notch off ebay and pay for it to go to Bruce’s. He would use it as a mold and I would get it back in the condition it came to him in.

Well all went as you have read in Bruce’s post. We got the notch and fit it on a salvage car. We got it to close… and as it was stated… the part seemed to fit fine. All lines seemed straight and even when it was closed. So we all figured it was good and went on with the process. Though the parts car was not in adequate condition to neither do a road test nor even fully latch the hatch down for any true testing.

Well as the project progresses, there were many delays. The notch had to be carefully duplicated. As I understand it, the notch had to have its top half separated from its bottom half and 2 molds made. These 2 halves get put together to make the final part. Fiberglass can be tricky, as the thickness of each half has to be just right, one side can throw the fitment of the whole piece off. So it was very labor intensive and time consuming.

Now going in, I had been warned by multiple glass guys, including Bruce’s, that when you make a mold or cast a part in a mold, there is a heat element involved. With enough heat from the molding process, my original could potentially be ruined. Over time the heat will often warp the original mold and there by produce bad parts. But it was a risk I was willing to take. With our deal, I would for sure have a useable one and the other I would get to the gentleman who backed out of the bidding against me.

Finally we heard from Bruce when the first notch came out of the molds made from mine. There were massive fitment issues. And then once it was fit right, there was the bow. How the bow got there could be debated, but as neither Bruce nor I caught it BEFORE the mold was made, the discussion never occurred.

Yes I was disappointed. My $400.00+ investment in a notch for my 82 was gone. The original was probably not useable. Then when Bruce said he lost so much that he could not even give me the 2 notches that we agreed on. I was crushed. He offered us ones at materials cost only. Well, with my money being tight and the money I sunk in the original notch gone, I did not have the $ to buy one, even discounted.

So what I planned to do was wait it out. Maybe the sales would take off and in time I could work out a better deal with Bruce. So the discussion was tabled. I was still hurt that I was left basically with nothing, but I was confident that Bruce and I would work it out amicably. He is one of the nicest guys I know and a great guy to do business with.

 

Agreed. I 'just' purchased a Ram Air I hood from Bruce, and am now anticipating it's arrival. Although I dealt with Bruce many times in the past, this particular time I was dealing with Tim. Superior customer service, he was very eager to help me in any way that he could.....

 

Raif - Thanks for clearing stuff up for us. I am going to reclose this thread now.