Well worth the wait
Brian, I actually don't think it is.
You're right. The parts look great. But if I had a crystal ball that would have suggested what it would have been like to get this done I'd never have started the process. In fact I'll not contain it any longer; here's the diatribe:
Dale (HDJamsTX) posted his parts for sale. I paid him promptly. He shipped promptly. Dale is the ONLY vendor in this entire process who has simply done what he promised, did it well, and did it right the first time and in even close to the time frame he promised.
EVERY OTHER VENDOR has been an accident waiting for a place to a happen, an encyclopedia of excuses for delay or a role model for the hubris implied in the attitude of apparently not believing that their own feces are without odor.
Start with Sumax. Before the parts got to me from Dale I'd contacted them about color samples. Must pick colors for them to begin their work. They are, by nearly universal report, the best. The best in North America for doing this work. The industry leader. The people that really know how to do it.
That may be. And the final product may be beautiful. But they were careless, arrogant, arbitrary and untenably slow in the process. First request for color chips was met with a promise of a half dozen chips to look at. A week later two show up. Nothing quite matches.
Call to ask about the "others." Send them right out I'm promised. In the mean time parts are prepared to send to them to save the wait. A week passes. Nothing. Another call. Another week. Etc etc etc. Finally five weeks in have color chips in hand.
Pick a color. They like the color and are impressed that my tastes match their (whoop-dee-fukking-doo). Color is chosen, parts are in their hands, "ten days or so" to get the work done I am promised.
In the mean time I had (of course) thoroughly inspected the parts I'd received from Dale. They told me they'd received and inspected the parts as they came to them from me. Time passes. At 11 business days in they let me know they're just cutting started. They call the next day, they had blasted the parts to strip the silver power coat and done other prep work. Another call later that day; oops, their is a problem.
So now, 2 weeks in to a ten day job they are calling to tell me they have just noticed damage on a cylinder. This is a cylinder they've already been working on. Already washed and cleaned several times. Already inspected on receipt once here and once there. Now they tell me the cylinder is "badly" cracked in it's extension that slides down inside the cases. Sure enough, when I get it here later it's been dropped and struck from the inside of the cylinder, cracking the bore. No way that possibly happened in UPS. No way it happened before as it was a bad and obvious bit of damage. No way they could have missed it while washing and blasting the parts.
So they busted a cylinder. They wouldn't admit to it. They tried to blame every other possible contingency. But there was nothing to be done about it; especially since they'd already bead blasted the original finish off all the parts (that was convenient of them to let me know at that point, by the way).
So I find a cylinder at a Harley shop that, according to them, is about 50 miles from them. They won't even consider going to pick it up. So it's shipped over, more time is lost, but finally everything is done there. From first attempt to get color chips to parts leaving their shop was two months and one extra cylinder. No compensation and barely a thank you.
The parts go to Diamond Heads for the diamond cutting. On the phone these people are great to speak with. I find out a peculiarity after the fact (from a site member here) that their "standard cut" doesn't cut "everything." A couple of small areas nearly impossible to see are left off. They do offer a service to cut it all. It's called their "show cut." Only problem you have to know to ask for it. They don't mention it on their web site and they don't tell you about it when you're speaking with them.
I should be ok though. The only extra thing the "show cut" does that I really would want is the "Screamin Eagle 103" script on the heads to be cut. But I had specifically asked them about that script. They added it to the work order. It should be good to do. And Diamond Heads was quick too. They received the stuff one day and had it ready to go to Zippers just a couple days later. They were on the ball and performed promptly.
Then to Zippers. Initial conversations there were with Tony, who was fired from Zippers before parts actually arrived at the company. During my conversations with him I'd been told to expect "two to three weeks" for everything to get done and that the Thundermax (including closed loop) parts should be ready by that time also. My work order is picked up by Kitzmiller himself for the remainder of the handling.
That, of course, is now nearly two months ago also. Parts have finally arrived to me sans the Thundermax. I've been told the T-max stuff would be in to ship and complete the order back before we all left for Maggie Valley. Been told they'd be here "soon" or "in a few days" twice since. There are still no parts. I'm not holding my breath. Whenever......
And when the parts get here from Zippers I open the boxes to inspect them this evening. The "Screamin' Eagle 103" script on the cylinder heads isn't cut. Diamond Heads dropped the ball too.
So now still have to see what jeopardy is attached to all the completed machine work by asking them to potentially complete the diamond cutting work that they specifically promised me would be done the first time through. Then ship the heads band and forth to a vendor one more time.
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Topic: Color & Diamond Cut: And So It Begins (Read 35998 times)