Mike,
Thank you for the kind words on the quality of the materials we use. We do our best to select the best materials we can for strength and long life.
Let me be the first to say I am sorry if there is ANYTHING wrong with your car or any of the parts you received from us. I certainly appreciate your willingness to share your observations with everyone. I think the only way anyone can make a fair choice is to find out about everyone's experiences and how they were treated. I feel by and large most people in this industry are treated fairly by the manufacturers and we certainly hope all of our customers are happy with us.
Due to the great separation of miles and the little pond between us, I think I may have lost something in the translation of your post. I am constantly striving to make our cars better and if there is any problem I want to fix it. Unfortunately, sometimes the first you hear of a problem is from a customer. We don't want our customers to have to undergo any of the dreaded "beta" testing.
Would you be so kind to explain a few things to me I did not understand so I can do my best to correct them.
Powder coating: Appropriate phone calls have been made to Poland. I expect there won't be any further problems. Running a company remote-control on the other side of the planet has it's challenges.
Upright castings: What sort of machining problems did you have and how did you solve them? Currently, we don't use any castings for our uprights. We use forgings. The front is a steel forging and the rear is an aluminum forging. If you have a casting, it may not have come from us. Was your problem with the front or the rear uprights?
Generally speaking, the suspension on the car is rather difficult to put together. Over the years we have sold many suspensions and suspension parts to hundreds of customers. Unfortunately, some customers don't know the proper techniques or have the proper tools to assemble the parts together and we have had "defective" parts returned only to find on closer inspection the parts were actually destroyed by the customer. We replaced them nevertheless. We even had "defective" parts returned to us by a well known restorer which had been inadvertently (I am sure) destroyed by a heavy-handed mechanic.
Please understand I am in no way intimating you are not the qualified mechanic I am sure you are. Most who post on this site are true enthusiasts with gasoline running in the veins and wrenches in their hands. I state the above as more of an overview of the complicated process of putting the car together correctly.
Nevertheless, I do not offer any excuses. If you received parts which were not satisfactory, we will replace them--no questions asked. You may go through Gerry Hawkridge, or you are welcome to call us or drop us a line direct. My e-mail is
davidkirkham@attbi.com
Shop number is 801.377.8224
Rear hub pins not sized correctly: I am not sure what a rear hub pin is. Would you be so kind as to explain so I can fully understand the problem and find a remedy.
Front hub swivel joints: I believe you are talking about the upper and lower ball joints. The original car had a cup and ball arrangement--which was prone to breakage. The upper race was a very thin piece of metal and the wear characteristics were terrible. Many ball-pins actually pulled through the upper race. I think it was sort of an engineering mistake to retain the same ball joint from the 289 car and then to use it in the 427 car. As you are aware, the 289 is a leaf-spring car and the forces on the lower ball joint push the ball into the lower cup where there is no chance for catastrophic failure. As the 427 is a coil spring car with the coil-over spring pushing against the lower control arm, the forces are exactly reversed--wanting to pull the ball joint through the cut in the upper race where there is no support. Several balls pulled through the upper race on original 427 cars.
The captured bearing replacement in our car has been tested and used for more than 10 years now on hundreds of original and our own cars. We ran a static test on the pull-out strength of our ball pin and bearing arrangement--17,000 lbs.! We have had people accidentally run them dry and all they did was clank around on the destroyed ball--but none of them have ever pulled through. We are willing to sacrifice a minute amount of play for safety. Nevertheless, we are always interested in better ways of doing things. If you have any suggestions on how we can improve the car (or the bearings) we are most willing to listen.
Plating on rear hubs: What kind of fit problems did you have? How can we help you to fix the problems? All of our hubs are black-oxide coated for the very reason you mention—fit problems. Black oxide does not alter the dimensions of the part--which is why we use it. Because there is no dimensional change in the parts, we are able to plate the entire hub, shaft and all, to give it protection against corrosion.
Now, we are not perfect and neither are our parts—but we really try our best to get them that way. Just last week one of our machinists was very proud of the fact he was able to hold the flatness of one of our brake rotors to 0.001” over 11.25 inches! Even today, our lathe operator was holding the tolerance of +/- 0.0002” on our front spindles. He was hand-sanding the parts to ensure every one was perfect. Perhaps you got a bad part that slipped through or I was dreaming about hot-lapping at Willow Springs when I should have been looking at the micrometer as your part passed by.
I see you are about to put the engine in the car. Are there any parts we make I could send you to help make your car more correct or to help finish off the engine? I would be happy to send them to you free of charge to help make up for the headaches you have had.
Oil remote brackets, fuel logs, cold-air boxes,
oil puke tanks, air cleaners? What can I help with? I am so sorry you have some bum parts and you have to paint your chassis—bummer deal. How can I help you feel better?
Thank you very much for the kind words on the body. I spent many years of my life making that the best I could. I hope we get better making them every day. As the body is finished, I will now turn more of my attention to the machined parts…
David
