AAR "Quality" Fiberglass, REALLY?

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swisswill

swisswill

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I sure as heck don't think so. My brother-in-law received an AAR deck lid for me today and I am far less than impressed with AAR. Here are pics of what I got. The carton was undamaged so either this thing was not packed well, or quality control at AAR "Quality" needs a lot of help. Unfortunately he couldn't get a hold of me when he received it or I would have told him to send it back. I'm stuck with it now and will probably have to pay at least the cost of the deck lid to get it fixed, just guessing but I do know "quality" fiberglass costs $$$. I sent the pictures to AAR but I'm sure they won't own up since it was received. I've had pretty good experiences buying parts from 6,000+ miles away to date, so I guess I was bound to have a bad experience sooner or later. If AAR has anything worth saying I'll be sure to post it.

Maybe this is par for the course and my expectations are too high, but I doubt that. Sure am glad I didn't buy a hood from them....

Here are the pics my brother in law took.
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I'd say that is par for the course. I ordered my Fiberglass front end from UP22 for my Hemi Dart and got about the same thing, maybe a little worse. Needless to say my body guy spent many many hours making the fiberglass fit and look good.
 
Sorry to here of your issues, I got a hood scoop and front and back bumpers, had no problems with any of it, of course it didnt have to go as far as your parts did, hope you can get some customer service from them, keep us informed of how this turns out.
 
If that is par for the course, I need to find a new course to play. After seeing products put out by vendors on other sites, maybe my expectations were too high. Still, my opinion is, this part sucks. Your experience 412 is the reason I went with AAR. They have a great reputation for quality products. I got the short end of the quality stick today, I think.
 
I think you will find that you can't set your expectations too high with any of these fiberglass companies. Always expect to do some work to the fiberglass parts they send you. In my opinion, they are a decent "roughed" out panels, but that's about it. I own a small body shop and I have bought fiberglass parts from several suppliers. Some of these suppliers are selling fiberglass parts which are super thin, and look pretty bad. Always seems to be the same story. Plan to have to do some work on any of the pieces I have seen out there. As far as the damage on your part, hopefully they will help you out. I wouldn't count on much since it was received and accepted at the time. You might get lucky though. Let us know.
 
Fibreglass does not fair well when shipped unless it is waaaay overpacked. How well was it packages? Any sort of heavy foam protection around the corners?
 
Might want to test fit it on a car, including bolting it on the hinges. I got a glass hood from US Body Source (?) that while it fit on the car, minus the hinges, the frame was off so getting oiton the car was a royal nightmare, had to bend and shim the hinges. It also is proud on the one corner and short accross the front. Oh yeah, and the scoop area was cracked.
 
Sorry about your hood,but that certainly isn't the norm from AAR !!I've purchased one for a '93 Dodge Ram,'69 Dart 6pak hood and a 2005 Ram SRT10 with Viper Louvers molded in, and never had a problem with them !!
 
Call him back and return it, always let somebody make it right before you throw stones...... I have one of his hoods and it needed scuffed and painted thats it.
 
I have to say AAR quality is not the greatest. I got a bolt on hood off of them. The Hood had two low spots on each side of the hood toward the cowl side. They were 4"x 6" low spots. There not very good at sending or delivery there products. Ordered a hood in May, said I would have it in three weeks, then they said they would deliver it to Carlisle Nationals in July. My son went to pick up the hood, AAR said he had no room for it. I went down and ask to buy the same hood, was told by AAR he sold them out that day. Do trust them or not? Received my hood second week of Aug.
 
i got a t/a hood from them and i was very happy with it my only issue was my wait like 6 months but wow fits just like my stock one did and my hood was packed perfect so who knows
 
The hood my best friend ordered was perfect... and it was shipped to seattle
 
I would be making a stink/turd over that! Ive never dealt with AAR, but that looks like it was bootfu**ed off of the airplane!
 
AAR has the pics and the email from my brother-in-law. They aren't obligated to do anything because it was received, I know how that works. I didn't expect it to fit perfect, be ready for paint or anything like that. I know fiberglass well enough that it would need work, I didn't plan to have to fill holes though. It's just too bad, they have lost any future business from me. I'll follow-up with them later today and see what/if they have anything to say.

About the packaging, I'm not sure what was there. I need to double check with my brother-in-law but I do know I paid $45 extra for "boxing" so unless something wretched happens during shipping, it shouldn't look like this.
 
inkjunkie said:
Might want to test fit it on a car, including bolting it on the hinges. I got a glass hood from US Body Source (?) that while it fit on the car, minus the hinges, the frame was off so getting oiton the car was a royal nightmare, had to bend and shim the hinges. It also is proud on the one corner and short accross the front. Oh yeah, and the scoop area was cracked.
Click to expand...

Th race weight hood I got from US Body was crap. Trimmed too small in the rear and the gelcoat was missing a big spot at the front bottom of the scoop.
 
Looks more like shipping damage than the part put in box with damage. JMO. My AAR hood came in just fine. The corners of the hood were packed in that expanding foam crud that took an act of Congress to get off, but when all was said and done, it was just fine.
For the corners to be chipped, split, cracked and the flat areas to be scuffed, it looks, like I said, like the shipper wasn't being nice to the part. It had to be mishandled (bounced around and/or beaten up on the journey. Did you unpack it in front of the delivery guy so they could see it when it arrived? That's probably where your claim should be made; with them. They (the shipper) are supposed to have insurance for such things.
 
That's fine if it's shipping damage. Two problems with that, (1) there was no sign of damage to the box indicating no 'foul play' on behalf of the shipper and (2) I paid $45 extra for special packaging that didn't do it's job. Based on the scuff, it's clear the deck lid was sliding around in the box. If it was adequately packed in the box, this conversation would not be happening. A claim has been filed with the shipper and AAR's reply is that it didn't leave our shop like that, get an estimate for the repair and submit it to the shipper. Not addressing the fee for packaging that failed. In the end, it's really not that big a deal, just disappointing. For me, quality is service, product, packaging, everything. For a product like this, shipping is a big factor so packaging needs to be perfect. Obviously wasn't the case here since the box is undamaged but the deck lid is.
 
I believe MtNemoMopar(Bill)had a few issues with his 69 Dart AAR 6 pac hood.After making the call,they helped him out.Sorry to hear about the packaging and damage.:wack:

I can,t understand why they wouldn,t have packing foam on the 4 corners or on top and bottom of the hood?It looks like the hood was just put in a box with no protection?
 
I alway open boxes before I sign for that specific reason. The bubbles are one thing but the logistics company should be responsible for those damages(before it was signed for). I would still call them and ask if they(AAR) can file a claim for damages. Maybe, maybe not but its worth a call.
I had a R/T hood for my Ram and it fit perfect and all I did was scuff and applied 2 coats of filler primer. Sanded with 800 and shot the basecoat.

I noticed someone complaining about up22.com. Ya get what ya pay for. They are probably one of the cheapest fiberglass vendors I know of and their quality shows!

Jus Sayn'
 
If the box upon arrival was intact, it does generate more questions than answers. I work with an international air freight company (who's quite large). They get stuff in all the time that they have to repack as some gorilla either mishandled it or the shipper didn't do the best they could have and the contents are all over the place when it gets to the dock. I suppose it is possible, thought unlikely, that the shipper could have repacked it trying to bury responsibility. But due to its unique size... probably unlikely. If they asked AAR for another box, AAR should be aware of it, but that too means AAR needs to step up because now they are accountable instead of the freight Co..
 
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