Watch out for Nick Acton!!

[NewYorkGuy]

good read.

the lesson here, especially when big $$ is exchanged, is "find someone close to you."

Face to face meetings, not emails or phone calls.

So many bad experiences about customers dealing with vendors from another state or country.

[1985 CCX]

Well since we are all sharing..........

My experience with Nick and his company has been nothing short of perfect. I have had a Contemporary and now a scratch built 289 car. I have purchased multiple parts both custom and some that I engineered to fit on my previous car and Nick fabricated. I do admit that I am an easy customer as when given a task or a part I understand that these are hand built cars and some massaging my be necessary. On that note he has always been fare with the return of materials that didn't work for me as I made modifications that deviated from stock.

If I had a custom part made after my engineering he has always been attentive to making sure fitment worked. Even going as far as asking the installation process so he can pass along to other customers. This helps the cause...

I understand that some of his customers that he has dealt with wanted their ordered fulfilled ASAP and actually requested discounts as they would rectify the things that did not fall into Acton Custom standards in the first place rather than wait for things to be corrected prior to shipment. This was to his downfall as it came back to bite.

There are always two sides to the story and Nick always answers my calls, emails and or smoke signals.
As a matter of fact I am going to do some more work with Acton Custom in the coming weeks. Without reluctance or worry that things will not work because I know they will.

Would I purchase a chassis from Acton, absolutely
Would I have Acton make me a car, yes
Would I have Acton supply custom parts, of course and I plan too

[ScratchBuilder]

"I understand that some of his customers that he has dealt with wanted their ordered fulfilled ASAP and actually requested discounts as they would rectify the things that did not fall into Acton Custom standards in the first place rather than wait for things to be corrected prior to shipment. This was to his downfall as it came back to bite."

Jeff, if thats what Nick told you, you were lied to as well. Nick informed me prior to shipment the body did not fit and it was due to the cobra restorers prints being wrong. He offered to fix it or give me the discount of 1500. I said fix it and I asked when he could do so and he refused to commit to a date because he was busy with CSX3035. I told him if he couldn't fix it in the next 5 weeks that I would take the discount and get my car. Since he would not commit to that, I accepted the discount based on him telling me the issue was with the prints. Turns out the issue with the body not fitting along with all the other issues with the frame were due to the blueprints not being followed and workmanship. . . . And when I say fix, I mean the body alignment only, he assured me multiple times everything else was right on the car including the suspension and the same as the other Cobras in his shop. . . All the cover up mods shown in the previous pics were done more than a year ago so there was no ASAP deadline.
And how does that explain the bent and bowed control arms, twisted shock tower, etc?

The reason I went with Nick is from his reputation on THIS forum and looking for the kind of experience described by other forum members, instead I got junk and I'm trying to salvage what I can. From my perspective, the replacement ladder frame would be at my door by now or if he really wanted to step up the salvaged CSX4772.

SB

[krausewich]

joyridin' - Yes. It's just you.

"Do what you want, but if you kept complaining while I was honestly trying to fix the mistake I made, you might be waiting a little longer before you got the replacement as the more you complain, the further down the list you go."

It's that kind of logic that's gotten this country into the $h!t show it is.

Though I'm not a fan of Computerworks' attempt to temper this thread immediately, I do appreciate that he did say ask other CC members to refrain from posting here until Scratch and Nick hashed things out right? This is their stage.

My apologies for the intrusion fellas.

[Bernica]

I have been in the construction business my whole life. One thing I have always preached to my folks is that whatever next job we are going to build, it is a prototype. Hasn't been done before.

Any project of scale in any business will have rough spots. In the end, the goal is to have everyone satisfied. Not always an easy task.

I can't agree more about actual "face time" instead of typing away. I have flown all over this country and the world just to do that and it works.

[ScratchBuilder]

Berni,

With all due respect, you are jumping to conclusions that there wasn't face time. Here's your's truly sitting in CSX3035 in Nick's shop while looking at the build progress on my chassis.
I asked about things that I thought odd like the dash spacers and Nick told me that's how 4000 series cars are.
When I was there and saw that his upper control arms didn't fit, I had to leave shortly after to catch a plane.
Later I got a bill and a picture showing the front suspension together and was told the fitment issue was due to welding distortion of the control arm.
Hardly the case, a custom wide arm had been made and the mounting tabs were bent to fit it. There's so much bind that if you can move the control arm the bolts turn.

I trusted him this is my first cobra and I've never seen a 4000 series car only original 3000s, if I didn't why would i pay him to build my car??



SB

PS I'm even wearing an Acton Custom t shirt

[Bernica]

Back to my "prototype" analogy. You could line up 100 Cobras and I don't believe one would be the same, 3000's or 4000's. Although they did somewhat try to make 4000's more standardized, I know they are not all the same. Trust me on dat. I have one.

[ScratchBuilder]

Berni,

You may not believe it, but my new control arms will fit a Kirkham, a CSX4000, a CSX3000, but not the Acton frame. Every Cobra is different, I get it they are hand made, but the key pieces like suspension pick-up points and control arms were and are built with fixtures and so far from several cars including the originals they are pretty darn close. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I didn't get to pick the cars I looked at and the new control arms will also work with the CR prints.
And Again Nick committed to and I paid for an authentic replica of a Cobra 3000 series frame and suspension, not an Acton saturday night special. . .

SB

[redmt]

I don't want to just jump on the band wagon or kick Nick when he's down but I have had a terrible experience with him. I also am not trying to hi-jack the thread but more to fortify SB's claim that Nick's work is sub standard and inaccurate. I also have pix of shoddy parts that don't even come close to fitting and horrible welds. I also have hundreds if not possibly thousands of dollars in parts that were NEVER SHIPPED. When receiving parts from him, the shipping was highly inflated. Not only were the shipping charges out of line, when I had to ship that very same part back to him, I had to pay the shipping again. Then he'd send another crap misfit part, I had to pay the shipping yet again. I had also ordered a set of gauges from him. They were not as described by him. When I called him on it his reply to that was that they came from Summit and I should deal with them. I have a set of his air duct flapper valves. The flappers are made of hack cut inner tubes. The welds if you want to call them that look more like he tried to beat the rod on. As I said before, he was great to work with when he was drop shipping parts from other vendors. When he started with the "Acton Custom" parts, the fiasco began.

[joyridin']

Originally Posted by krausewich

joyridin' - Yes. It's just you.

"Do what you want, but if you kept complaining while I was honestly trying to fix the mistake I made, you might be waiting a little longer before you got the replacement as the more you complain, the further down the list you go."

It's that kind of logic that's gotten this country into the $h!t show it is.

Though I'm not a fan of Computerworks' attempt to temper this thread immediately, I do appreciate that he did say ask other CC members to refrain from posting here until Scratch and Nick hashed things out right? This is their stage.

My apologies for the intrusion fellas.

Yes..you need to stay out of it as I have done since my post.

From the explanations prior to my post, I came to the conclusion Nick was working on a fix. Maybe I misinterpreted the situation, which was explained later in the thread.

For whatever reason, people make mistakes. The question is: Are they willing to do good and fix those mistakes? If Nick said he would fix them and scratch kept continuously *****ing while he was trying his hardest to rectify the situation, then screw him. If scratch has waited 3 months and heard nothing, then it is Nick's fault and scratch has every right to continue on.

From his reply to my post, it sounds like he has been relatively patient and gotten little results. Therefore, I kept my mouth shut and let him continue to complain as scratch has every right to do so. Since we have heard nothing from Nick and he has posted on this forum, we can only assume scratch is correct.

[computerworks]

I appreciate all the contributions so far... Consumer Watch threads are never easy.

Since this project is still in the resolution stages... we need to take a step back until some middle ground is found.

I fully understand the reason why some will come with a defense to counter the charges...and others will come with their tales, and pile on. It is human nature.

...but it won't help getting closer to a resolution. That will only happen between Mickmate and ScratchBuilder.

Let's keep the side tracks and yea's-and-nay's to a minimum... and let these two guys work it out... and report the results.

Thanks

ron
ClubCobra Moderator

[redmt]

Ron,
My intent was not that of a pile on as you call it but the opportunity to air my grievances with Acton as well. It was also my hope that that he would stand up and take responsibility for his actions which basically come down to the theft of my money. His lack of response and his actions speak louder than anything he could say. If by some chance he should refund to me the money for parts he was paid for and never produced, I will make sure that the other forum members are informed of that.
John

[racco]

we are all human and mistakes can be made by the best of them.

there is three sides to every story, and I have had the best experience with Nick. I have my own restoration and service shop and my standands are well over 100%.

The parts I bought from Nick were fantastic, his ccx pedal box is a dream and priced fair. That pedal box even improved my braking, his street dash was near perfect. The original cars are far from pefect

My ccx is as good as a ccx can humanly be, thanks to the help of Nick

I hope that all parties can have a sit down and work it out

[ScratchBuilder]

I cant see any evidence that Nick has done anything to make this right, another week gone by and NOTHING!

SB

[Bernica]

Words like "fraud" and/or "bad faith" or even such implications only make the lawyers go nuts. I am with Ron and let these two settle it. For Christ sake, pick a bar somewhere and slug it out!

[ScratchBuilder]

Berni,

So assault makes it better?

I don't think Ron was suggesting assault but that Nick man up and explain his side.


Nick needs to admit he screwed up, and send me a Cobra not get into a bar fight!

Or just a Cobra. Bar fights are free not $50K

[redmt]

I'm sure you must have noticed that so far it has been a one sided complaint with the other side being silent. This was his method of dealing with problems from the start.
I have talked to a lawyer about this before. The lawyer's take was that the amount that he stole from me wasn't enough to be worth the trouble and certainly not worth the cost. He did suggest that I contact the Post Master Generals office as it could be considered mail fraud. He demanded a full payment check up front, sent by mail.They said that for the amount, it would take years to get it into court if they even investigated it at all. Acton probably knows all this and that could be why he's silent on it all. He knows that nobody is going to spend the money to pursue it and that in time it will all go away and he will be able to dupe a whole new batch of unsuspecting customers.
You can take whatever side you wish. It makes no matter to the guys he has taken. I said it before, he was peaches and cream until there was a compliant then it was one excuse after another and finally the silent treatment. If you had a deal go smoothly with him then that's great. There's others that the deal went bad with. All that are chipping in their .02 worth to make him look like some sort of hero does nothing to mitigate the fact that he has taken hundreds and thousands of dollars from others.

Parking lot 'discussion' ? I'm all in for that one. Again for me, he isn't worth the sweat.

[ScratchBuilder]

It seems to me that at the very least Nick can get kicked off this forum! Moderators? He's using this site as a tool to get business and when things go south hides. Isn't that fraud or theft? I'm not an attorney so not making charges, just asking a question if an attorney happens to read this thread.

[redmt]

Originally Posted by ScratchBuilder

It seems to me that at the very least Nick can get kicked off this forum! Moderators? He's using this site as a tool to get business and when things go south hides.

My guess would be that he has done nothing to the forum and I think he's a paid advertiser. He hasn't started any arguments. In fact as it is now it's only a couple guys *****ing about dealing with a supplier with unproven facts. Until he opens his mouth it's one guys word against dead silence.

[computerworks]

Originally Posted by redmt

Ron,
My intent was not that of a pile on as you call it but the opportunity to air my grievances with Acton as well. ... If by some chance he should refund to me the money for parts he was paid for and never produced, I will make sure that the other forum members are informed of that.
John

Understand... and a fair point.