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So if I have a white logo, honeycomb and predrilled, it should be comin up on the next batch? I get more anxious as it gets closer to shipping time because I know these things are gonna look sick!
So if I have a white logo, honeycomb and predrilled, it should be comin up on the next batch? I get more anxious as it gets closer to shipping time because I know these things are gonna look sick!
Yep. All white logos are on the next batch along with silver and black and gold.
Just received my door sills from Gauge Alpha. My observations:
Overall, a really nice product that adds some bling to the FD. A nice replacement for the OEM aluminum door sills or for the plastic ones the car comes with. Overall quality 9/10: The quality of the carbon is good. Not extremely thick, but thick enough. I got the honeycomb pattern with red lettering and it looks nice. As previously described, the red lettering is under the clear coating, so that is a plus for durability. I do see some differences in my driver and passenger side sills though. The driver side is clear coated really well, but the passenger side has what appears to be a bit too much clear on it, causing the red RX7 logo to seem a bit wavy when viewed in sunlight. And the driver side has a polishing blemish on it, on the side facing the inner of the car. Note I am being picky here and neither issue is even close to a deal breaker for me, just thought I'd pass this along to Garage Alpha.
While I ordered mine with pre-drilled holes, apparently the manufacturer messed up and didn't do this. So, Garage Alpha sent me an FD Hot Wheels car as a way of saying "sorry." Very nice touch and I appreciate it. The sills do come with two-way tape on the back of them, so this might work for you to secure them to the car. Instead of this, I tried some industrial velcro as I take my driver side sill on and off fairly regularly. This, though, doesn't work for me as the end facing the back of the car kept popping up (the velcro didn't hold). While the sills look okay like this - with the one end slightly up - I am too **** to let this go, so I will drill some holes in the sills to screw them in. As I had the aluminum sills installed on my car, I have the holes already made into the car body. I'd swear these are stock but it's been so long since I added the aluminum sills to my car I can't be sure about that.
Overall impressions: Very nice product, thanks Garage Alpha!
Some pics for you:
Previous aluminum sills on car. I had these painted black and the letters done in silver with a clear coat. (Yes, I need to clean the car) You can see scuff marks in the clear:
The screws holding the current sills down:
And the screw insets in the door floors:
The Garage Alpha carbon door sills with Hot Wheels FD:
Note the wavy red RX7 clear coating on the passenger door sill. They way I have taken the pic shows the "wavy" at its worst:
Two-way tape provided with the sills. Doesn't work for me nor did the industrial velcro I tried. This could be because I have replaced my carpeting with a thicker pile than the stock FD:
Thank you SO much for the quick and honest review.
My sincere apologies about the pre-drill. It was supposed to happen, but then didn't. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise for some people.
As for the review itself - thank you for the constructive criticism. With any new product to market, we want to hear back from customers on the good, the bad and everything in between so we can learn and improve. All info will be run up the chain. We take offense to nothing and will do our best to "make right" anything we can for current and future customers.
I hope you like the Hot Wheels. It's a small token of appreciation and if I recall, you recently plasti-dipped your car yellow - so I hope it's a good match.
To everyone else waiting... 25 of you have door sills on the way (or delivered) already. This include MOST of the plain/no logo and red logos. The next 13 are en route to me (about a week ETA), which includes the remainder of red and white logos. The rest will be following. Basically, these are produced in batches of 13-15. This first delivery was two batches. Instead of waiting for two MORE batches to be ready, we had the next batch launched and one more will follow it (most of those are black/gold/silver).
I know it's tough to wait... but you know what they say about good things...
^ Thanks for the compliments and the nice product. I very much appreciate you listening to the feedback. Many a vendor would get pissed so thank you. As for the Hot Wheels, that is really cool - much thanks. It's on my work bench, keeping watch over the FD. Regarding the yellow Plastic-Dip, I think you mean Dale Clark. Looks really nice on his car. Mine is still black. A gratuitous shot:
^ Thanks for the compliments and the nice product. I very much appreciate you listening to the feedback. Many a vendor would get pissed so thank you. As for the Hot Wheels, that is really cool - much thanks. It's on my work bench, keeping watch over the FD. Regarding the yellow Plastic-Dip, I think you mean Dale Clark. Looks really nice on his car. Mine is still black. A gratuitous shot:
Yeah. I confused you with Dale. I guess it it could have been worse.
I'll say this - a 9/10 from you is a pretty darn high compliment. I know how much work you have put into your project and how many things you redid two, three or four times.
Thanks again for the support.
Last edited by garage alpha; 11-07-18 at 09:13 AM.
I ordered 2 sets and received both of them today. They were well packaged, protected and arrived in good condition. I have not test fit them yet, but initial impressions are very good!
Ugh, yes. Yes, I would. As much as I hate to get into "Internet Drama"... but here's the situation.
We placed an order with Tai / CornCarbon (Tai /CC from here on out) in October for 50+ sets of door sills. The reason we placed this order was because some people were worried about Tai / CC being associated with some *other* carbon manufactures from DR that were ripping people off. We knew Tai / CC weren't the same people from DR and he seemed to have a quality product, so we took the risk and thought it would be beneficial for everyone. Tai / CC gets to sell larger quantities, people can buy from the US instead of Taiwan, people save money in shipping, Garage Alpha has a cool unique product to offer - it really seemed like a win-win.
Ok. So the agreement was, Garage Alpha becomes a "dealer" for Tai / CC in the USA and Canada - Tai / CC takes care of the rest of the world. We placed an order for 50+ door sills, we mailed off a bunch of other stuff for Tai / CC to produce for us as exclusive products, and everything seemed to be going well.
At first, things seemed ok. Tai said before he could produce our 50 parts, he needed to fill some of his orders. Ok. No problem. Then, when he started working on our order, it was quicker for him to work on similar/same weave/colors. Ok. No problem. It was going to be a while for Tai / CC to fulfill the entire order, so instead of making people wait for EVERY door sill to be done before he shipped, we decided to spend the extra money and have the door sills ship in smaller batches (10-20 at a time).
This brings us to November. We have fulfilled all orders except 11 or so. Most of those were silver, which Tai / CC waited until last to finish. So everything is paid for and Tai finishes up last batch and ships them on November 30th. Since December 1st, there has been no movement on the tracking number. Just "Origin Post is Preparing Shipment" which basically means a label has been generated, but nothing dropped off to ship.
This concerned me, so I reached out to Tai December 9th saying "Something is wrong with this shipment". Also at that time, I tried to decide what our "Plan B" will be if worse comes to worse. It's agreed that if the package is indeed lost he will make and send replacements. If the original package is found / delivered - we will purchase those as inventory.
Another few days go by and I reach out to Tai / CC on Dec 12th "Maybe it's a good idea to start making replacement door sills. Specifically the silver ones."
I reach out this past Tuesday Dec 18th, and ask "Are the replacement door sills ready to ship?". He says the complete order isn't ready, but he's working on it. I tell him to ship what he has and I will cover the additional shipping, I just didn't want customers to wait anymore. At this point, he decides he doesn't want to resend the replacements without being paid for them. I told him this isn't what we agreed to. But he doesn't like this.
So read that again. Tai / CC has been paid for at this point 50 sets of door sills (the last 11 out of an order of 50 are in question). The tracking number on those 11 door sills show zero movement. He's agreed to ship replacements. But then decides he needs to be paid for the replacements, which are lost. OH, and Tai / CC didn't insure that first package. Apparently he doesn't insure any packages. Doh. Oh, and if anyone wants to verify the tracking info - feel free to PM and I'll supply it.
Now, miraculously there are a bunch of door sills ready to ship to customers and the relationship with Ti / CC and Garage Alpha is ended. Seems fishy.
On top of it... those parts we sent to have reproduced as exclusive products? "RX-7" license plates. Carbon brake ducts. Carbon intercooler ducts.
Tai has decided those are now HIS products and will sell them direct to the public instead of through Garage Alpha as an exclusive, because, well... that's what he's decided.
Listen, I get it. It's drama. I'm in no situation to actually DO anything about it other then tell my side of the story. People are going to buy what they need for their cars and it doesn't really matter where they get it or how the seller procured it.
Anyone with an outstanding order for Door Sills from Garage Alpha is getting a refund. There is no "blood on our hands" and I feel *HORRIBLE* that I made some of you guys wait so long for just a refund. It really isn't fair... But man, doing business with Tai / CC is an ordeal. Let's leave it at that.
Well that sucks! I will buy the sills directly from him (since i am pretty sure those was his idea) but not anything else.
Any chance you will be able to source a new supplier for the rest of the items?
Would be hard to beat the low price of "china made" but i think as the car gets more collectible, people can afford more
11-05-18, 04:46 PM
Initial review
