HRpartsNstuff >> UPDATE <<

[HRpartsNstuff]

Got some info & details on us that I would like to pass along. I heard thru the grapevine that people are starting to wonder what's happened to us since it has been hard for many to reach us. Just want to state the facts before rumors start flying around

We are STILL IN BUSINESS, and going stronger than ever & growing rapidly! I am getting things in place so that I actually have parts available this year at the Nat's, and can keep up in-between now & then. Getting materials and outside services on ALL of our products has been a hassle this year and is taking extra time & effort to do the simple stuff that should go smooth. Since we added our new Anti-Roll/Swaybar setup, we started getting orders for complete packages (uppers, lowers, swaybar, mounts, etc) instead of just a single item. We have quickly outgrown our capabilities (several times in last 18 months), and had to make moves in many directions to keep up with the new demand. The TR's are G-body's, and the GS's are A-body's, which encompass MANY different vehicles, so we are not just catering to the Buick community any more. Buicks will always have a sweet spot in my heart & will NEVER be dropped or forgotten like some other manufacturers have done over the years.

A lot of people don't realize that we actually MAKE most of the parts we offer, and not just a vendor/retail outlet. I have been swamped with all facets of running the manufacturing side of HRparts, that I have let the retail side of it slide way more than I ever wanted or expected to. I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE for not having time to return the MANY calls we have received and keep receiving. As of now, my close friend & one of the few people helping me out, Dave England, will be answering the phone for us. He works a normal job that we can't take him away from (yet), so he is doing this at the same time. He drives a lot from job to job and has some hours off between jobs, so help on the phone works out kinda good with him. If you still get our voicemail, it could be that he is doing his regular job and can't answer it at that time, or he is on the line & got another on call waiting, and you are the 3rd or 4th caller at that time (it's happened!) It works out best to call back at another time that day because the phone service we use has free incoming calls. We are over 1200 minutes already and can't keep up.

For those that might not have received our updated info, we MOVED last fall to a new location (both personal & part of the business), and can't seem to get moved in all the way. Please note info in signature. We are up & running and have been for a while now, but never seems to get setup the way I want it. I have also relied on our family machine shop to do a lot of the CNC machining, and I used the facility in off hours & days to do my stuff. Well, they have also been swamped for the last 6 + months, and getting in there & having open machine time available to me has been getting to be more and more of a problem each week. Last week we just purchased several machines (similar to ones I have been using at our family shop), so that I can get setup here to do more. That will speed up the time from material coming in to finished products going out. The goal is to eventually have it ALL in house and have full & easy access to anything we need. Just can't make it happen overnight with everything else going on. I had also aggravated an old back injury (on top of my broken neck issues) lately, putting me further behind. I am getting part-time helpers in place so that I am not as reliant on my own health to keep production going.

PLEASE visit our website for info and details too, adding more & more all the time. E-mail works well too, because I can check that at weird times of the day or late at night, and respond to you when I don't have everything to deal with during normal business hours. We also are revamping the website and adding in a shopping cart system. It is partially integrated now, and customers can use the new or old way to place orders. We also look to have a page where customers can type in their order number and get REAL TIME details of the status or shipping info. There may be general updates there as well, for parts that are on back order & how long before they are expected to be ready to ship again.

As for product/order/shipping updates, here is what is currently going on:

We have shipped ALL orders that were placed last year, and catching up on this years. As of 04-10-04, we are out of stock on just about everything, but everything is in production at all times. There are components for all products in all stages of production at any given time, not like we are starting from scratch on anything. We have a batch of 40 sets of motor mounts going, 34 sets of control arms (half batch of 68 sets), and 122 swaybars, along with the other stuff like bushings, box kits, bushing tools, etc. Mounts will be shipping again around 04-16, control arms around 04-23, and swaybars around Norwalk show (04-29) or very soon after. The new T/A Alum block motor mounts are in the works too, and hope to have ready by end of the month as well. The 455 mounts WILL get done this year, one way or another, but probably later this summer. Got more new ideas in the works too, but won't get into that now.

Sorry for the length, just wanted to cover all the areas that people are concerned & curious with. THANKS to ALL for your patience & understanding as we grow & move & try to keep up! So far, everyone has told us it's WELL worth the wait

PS- On the website, our events and links section has been updated for 2004. The "What's New" section will be updated soon too, it's got a HUGE amount of things missing. Going to add videos to our site this year & try to get a couple stock-type suspension G-body cars, with our complete suspension package, into the 7's on a 10.5 tire!!! Going to be a FUN YEAR!

 

[Reaper]

thats kick a$$ paul! its always nice to hear that companies are going. coming from a whole sale point of veiw i get many letters and calls a day from my retailers saying they are closing the doors, cutting back etc.

Congrats!!!!

 

[re-evaluating]

Thanks for your patience

Thank you all for your patience and please accept our apologies for not being available by phone over the last several weeks.

As of last week I have taken over the incoming phone call for Paul and in the last week have been successful in answering between 80% and 90% of the calls. In the last WEEK alone I have logged over 1100 minutes taking your calls. I apologize for not being able to return calls but I am doing everything in my power to take your calls the first time around .. We still have bugs to work out in the exchange of information but we are working diligently to improve the situation. Paul is working hard on producing the parts and making them available. Motor mounts delivery is 1 to 2 weeks, control arms are 2 to 3 weeks, sway/anti roll bars are 3 to 4 weeks out.. These are rough estimates on delivery time but should be fairly accurate.

We are taking orders or reservations to be picked up at the Nat's. We should have stock with us there but to insure that you will get what you want please order/reserve yours now for pick up there.

We will also be implementing a new shipping policy beginning now we will only be shipping 3 days a week likely, Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays to speed up production. (this is subject to change if a better system is figured out)

If you are just trying to check status on an existing order the best way is to email Paul at HRpartsNstuff@aol.com he will respond with in a day or so.. if you can't get through by phone and would like to email me with questions or problems I will TRY and respond daily at dave@hrpartsnstuff.com ..

I will do my best to provide quality service to every caller but I am sure somewhere someone will slip through the cracks, for that I apologize in advance your patience is appreciated.

If you have called in the last week I would like to hear your feedback. If it is positive please feel free to post it here if it is negative I would prefer you address it through email so I can correct the problem and improve the service for you and the next customer. But your honest input is always appreciated.

Thank you all very much sorry for the length.

 

[rkkt788]

Paul,

Business is about setting proper expectations, check your email!

 

[HRpartsNstuff]

You have mail

I will not dispute customer service, availability, and projected shipping dates have been WAY less than normal or acceptable in the last few months. Relatively speaking, we are still a small business with growing pains, and are still unorganized & not up to speed from our move yet. Weeks are zipping by like minutes used to. All I can sincerely say is SORRY! I wish I could contact everyone and update them as things change around here, but it's almost impossible. Doing that constantly would take away from time available to put stuff together, and keep putting orders further behind. We DO realize it's important & necessary, but it's all new to us. We have never really had to deal with any order going past a week old before. Most manufacturers have a small group of distributors & vendors to update when issues like this arise, we have all that + thousands of customers + more looking to place an order that need to know. Just haven't found an effective and efficient way to do that. Eventually we will have a ORDER STATUS page where customers can enter in their order # and get real-time updates. But that & a bunch of other things are waiting to get on the site. Since we came out with the swaybar, it has been complete pandemonium around here. Hurting my back a few weeks ago didn't help either. Making a post in the biggest forum that would alert the most people of our situation was an attempt to cover as many as I could as quick as I could. It went to several boards, figured everyone knows someone on these boards & would get the message.

As for trying to contact me, I did a search for your e-mail address to see how I missed you. Usually I answer e-mail within 24 hrs, and even within 72hrs when at the shows. The only e-mail I had previous to this one today (from krsgnx@ptd.net) was clear back to 07-30-2003 (I save them ALL) about a set of valve covers in Black powdercoat. I don't have your name on any messages I had here that I haven't returned yet, and Dave didn't remember anything recently. PLEASE don't mistake my words, I am NOT saying you are a liar or making it up, just that for whatever reason, e-mails didn't get here and phone message either fell thru the cracks or misplaced or?? I do use AOL, and I keep hearing of issues with them and plan to change this year. I would give them a 98% thumbs up for e-mail (using cable modem), but that still leaves 2% to chance As for PM's, I turned off that feature years ago, it was constantly interrupting me at critical times of the day when I couldn't take time to respond + I couldn't type fast back then. Then I would feel guilty about not being able to help people or answer questions when they needed it. I REALLY miss geting on TB.com every night to see if I could help answer or suggest something to someone that would help them.

One of the best "fix's" that has been suggested to me by other business/vendor/manufacturers, is to totally DROP the retail end of it. That means, we wouldn't be available AT ALL for phone calls, tech help, e-mails, and possibly at the events as well. All orders would have to go thru other vendors, and all we would do is make the parts. We REALLY can't afford to do that right now, and don't want to lose contact with the Buick community like that, and don't want to keep our knowledge and resources away from people that would really benefit from it. We are doing OTHER things to fix these issues, and have LOTS of every product in process, so this won't happen again, even as we grow more in the future.

Hopefully, no one takes offense to this (especially rkkt788) because it was NOT intended to do that. We got buried, made a move at the worst possible time, had steel & supplier issues, had to change suppliers & process on the main part of MM's, winter set in, got personally injured, had cash flow crisis related to getting LOTS more of everything going at same time, lost availability of time on machines at the shop, sand blaster virtually falls apart & need replaced, etc, etc, etc, and doing our very best to get stuff made, assy, and shipped ASAP for all. Hopefully by the Nat's we are back to shipping within 48hrs again, sure would free up some time & stress associated with being behind.

Again, our SINCERE APOLOGY for all involved for any & all inconveniences this may have caused, and BIG THANKS for everyone's patience & understanding. All we can do is fix it the best way we can & know how to, and hopefully be a constructive asset to the Buick & racing community for many years to come! Sorry for the length, but it should give everyone an idea of how much you guys & gals mean to us!

PS- Thanks to Dave for helping out & trying to explain where things are at right now. Most or all old motor mount orders should be shipped out by end of next week, some this Fri, then Mon, & Wed. Then it's off to Norwalk for the Buick show. We DON'T hand out parts at the shows before old orders get shipped, we just take orders & ship asap in the same sequence we receive orders in. We try to keep it fair
9:30 PM & back to work for a few more hours before I can't see straight

 

[toofastforyou]

Bar adjustment questions...(rattling)

Paul, I bought one of your sway bars from Eric Shertz at Dynotech in Manville, N.J. and had him install it on my GN for me. The fit and finish is great!...However, I have a few questions: Is it normal that when I'm driving the car that the bar causes a rattle at every road imperfection?...I have the feeling that the two front links that attach the bar to the frame are set too loose...Is that possible?...Should I start playing with the adjustments?...I don't know how these adjustments should be set...tight or loose?...Will the adjustment have an effect on how the car will leave the line on a hard launch?...
I'm not saying I don't like the bar... just that I want to get rid of that very annoying rattle...
Thank you!

Claude

 

[HRpartsNstuff]

There should be NO rattle at all. One of our "selling points" is that it is dead quiet. The other "weld-in" styles out there ARE noisy, and not much they can do about it. Our design makes it so there is no metal to metal contact that need clearances, so nothing should rattle or bang around back there.

Being that the swaybar is still relatively new (compared to our other products), our vendors have not installed too many of them. I'm sure Dynotech did a great job (as would any of our vendors), but there are probably a few little things to watch out for that all may not know of yet. Part is our fault because we don't have exact "torque" settings in the instructions, and one person's "tight" is not like another person's. I will have to double check instructions to see if maybe I can clarify anything. We also need to make a condensed form, most "skilled" people see how easy it is to install & don't take time to read the 3 pages of detailed instructions we provide. I can understand, I would probably do the same thing I am thinking of doing a new 1st page with highlights of the install process & a few key things to look for.

Here are some possible things that would make it rattle or bang over road imperfections:

Bolts that attach the rod ends to the upper crossmember bracket and/or the swaybar. These 1/2" bolts need to be TIGHT, so that the inner ball of the rod-end is solidly clamped to the bar/bracket. My guess is the upper crossmember ends, as you have to do that one with 2 open end wrenches. The "ears" on the upper crossmember bracket are bent open slightly to make install easier. If you don't really crank the bolt tight, the sides will never pull in far enough to pinch the inner ball of the rod end between the ears. So if there is still clearance there, it will rattle. The ears having to pull together give a false sense of being tight it seems. Not being able to fit a socket in there & have a set torque setting doesn't help either.

If that doesn't do it, just double check all nuts/bolts to make sure they are tight & things are secure. The lower axle bracket bolts are the only one critical to NOT OVER-TORQUE, or the bolt will just start to stretch (as any bolt would do if over-torqued). If you don't have the instructions from it, they are torqued to a max of 32 ft-lbs.

Please pass along your "fix" to Dynotech just so they catch it on the next ones. If you stll have issues, shoot me an e-mail directly and we will do what it takes to get it figured out.