Monday, December 28, 2009

Dec 28th....pissed.....and secret squirrel stuff....

Ok, now is time for a real rant.....I guess you can only have so many days where things go your way in a row....yesterday was a "trudge" slower progress on something that should have taken half as long but....



It might sound like something out of a Russian Spy movie where the Political Officer says "He is reliable" Well in our case we only deal with "Reliable" sources, Comp Cams today proved in our minds they are far from it.



If someone delivers as promised, for the price promised at the quality thats promised, or even if there is a screw up and they make it right in our timeframe, or they have a proper solution to something unforseen and are willing to make it happen the way it should we call that "Reliable" when I nail someone down on a "Promise" that they can do something, I expect that result, my father sat here while I ordered the cam and heard me extract just that a "Promise" it would be done by X. They failed....hence they are no longer reliable in our book. I have friends I would consider unreliable, they are still my friends, thats just their nature....with people its easy to overlook and you just dont depend on them but still enjoy their company and knowledge, with a vendor.....thats it game over. Youd think Comp would have learned that lesson from Crane.



On Dec 14th I ordered a Cam from Comp, I wasnt real keen on ordering from them but here is how it went...



Ordered on the 14th, didnt get the "confirmation" email till the 15th on the 14th I was told they had 1 core in stock and they would use it for my cam , it would take 5 "grind days" so with the Holiday I called them to check on the status today.



The answer ? In the time it took them to dick around with the order papers they sold the core to another customer, that called AFTER I did and gave them all the info INCLUDING my payment.



No phone call, no sorry youre out of luck, today was "Oh yeah well be getting the cores on the 29th....of JANUARY !" They didnt even offer an apology, just nothing but cover their ass excuses.....Sammy the "tech" at Comp F'd it up big time..... I about had a seizure. But I had no choice but to search for options, in the end I now know WHO they get their cores from on these cams, and I can order them direct, in addition I found 2 other sources. The not only lost this order they lost any and all future business from us, that may only be 5k or so a year but its gone to them....forever...I will never buy another item from Comp. Given an opportunity I will tell any prospective customers "Cavet Emptor" buyer beware....they have proven themselves unreliable in my book.



As well I dont have to deal with them giving someone else my cam specs as they were nice enough to do for me with other customers on the 6.1 DP cams "Lets see here is something X ordered".....Oh and if you ordered a cam from them with the lobes 13024 intake, and 2504 exhaust, its not going to be legal in a teardown, that was the cam ordered by a couple other DP owners, and the lift at 0 lash is 587 and 586 so unless you "trim it" it ..... good luck with tech.....they tried to get me to go with that as they had done it for a couple others....no thanks...but what I did order was legal and the f'd me on it.



Soooooo....I found what I call "the good answer" someone who had billet cores , hardened and gundrilled in stock...the best you can buy....expensive as all hell....but the "good stuff" not an "assembled" cam or cast core. So in the end , after 4 hours on the phone, I got the duration and overlap I really wanted that Comp kept talking me out of to find out why....they cant do it with their cores....HA. And our cam guy was all over the overlap and duration saying it was the right way to go ! But I wanted at least what I called a Phase 1 cam in the motor by testing by the 15th, and well.....now Ill have the cam I planned for Phase II instead....the wallet hurts but my confidence is high.



The rest today ? Carpet work....I hate carpet , and paint......ugh...



We did a "differential flamability test" on the new carpet that wasnt intended for automotive use. It consisted of me holding a piece of carpet outside the front door in case it went poof and trying to light it with a lighter.....it didnt go up in flames...good sign, I dont like fire, and have been known to use ....errrrr.....questionable materials for their application.....while smoking near it today I thought, I wonder if Im looking at an accident waiting to happen...after all you can light steel wool, and the finer the more flamable....even after extended burning with a bic it didnt go poof and didnt burn which is good since I wasnt looking forward to soaking it in Boric acid to "flameproof" it...what it DID however do was melt a little, and after it should have been cool I touched it with my index finger to have it do what you expect, stick melted plastic to it while I jumped around and screamed, my dads first comment, RUN IT UNDER WATER, was followed by him laughing saying "I so whish I had a picture of you doing that "dance"" What a dumbass I can be at times.....still hurts



Other than other than the cam (and this is one of those "untested" secrets for the moment), there was a lot of "Secret Squirrel" action, at one point after doing something the old man looked at me and said "Yeah Secret Stuff !" Yep....sometimes its secret because we dont want to point someone in a direction we havent tested....and then there are the real secrets....these were the real kind. A lot of those things went on today and hence no pictures for the next couple of days of our shop or car......maybe the carpet when I get that in, how exciting can carpet be ?



But I got to go play makeup doll head thingy with my daughter tonight....and I dyed her hair with the doll head hair dye....and its still fused to my hand....pink, orange and yellow stripes in her blonde hair....her mom loved it.....yeah not so much...but we all had a blast....thats what happens when you buy your daughter "A disaster waiting to happen" toy....mom makes you play with it with her.....and in the end...shell never ask me to do it again....my 6 year old boy wanted it too but we didnt have blue...only sparkles and I told him hes a future NHR mechanic and I would have to get him a uniform for this summer, he asked if he could have a "policemans uniform" at which point I casually informed him, "No a race mechanics uniform, what do you think we are ? New Hemi Racing and Village People Rejects ?" He didnt get it.....oh well...

No comments:

Post a Comment