Replica Firehawk hood
08-29-2008, 08:33 PM
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Replica Firehawk hood http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Trans...spagenameZWDVW
I was browsing ebay and found this hood. Ive never seen a replica firehawk hood befor. Besides the fast that it needs cut to be functional I wonder how the fit is.
I was browsing ebay and found this hood. Ive never seen a replica firehawk hood befor. Besides the fast that it needs cut to be functional I wonder how the fit is.
08-29-2008, 09:15 PM
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On a Firehawk the front bumper is cut to make it fit right. It looks like on this hood they tried to make it fit without having to cut the bumper...so I dont think it would flow as well as a real Firehawk bumper and hood. But its also about 1/4 the cost....
08-29-2008, 10:05 PM
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Yeah I know, I wonder what it looks like on the car. The price is awsome, When I FIRST looked at the picture I thought somone was replicating the super hawk hood then I noticed it looked more like the raptor but MUCH cheaper. The price is enticing but I bet it fits like ****.
09-01-2008, 01:06 AM
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Yeah I know, I wonder what it looks like on the car. The price is awsome, When I FIRST looked at the picture I thought somone was replicating the super hawk hood then I noticed it looked more like the raptor but MUCH cheaper. The price is enticing but I bet it fits like ****.
I have plenty of faith in VFN's quality and customer service. They're real good people out there, not scam artists like this guy. First off I'm guessing that these are all cheap chopped-glass hoods, being as how the cost of materials has doubled over the past few months, there's absolutely NO way this guy is hand-laying them (as VFN and I build our parts) and offering them at those cheap prices. So... you'll end up with a very heavy, resin-rich part that's been cheaply made with inferior materials compared to what VFN uses.
If you don't know what this would mean to you as potential customers, a cheap part like this is most likely made from a chopped mold as well, which is likely to be out of shape, no matter how straight and true my superhawk or VFN's sunoco hoods were when he got his hands on them. The reason being that it was only a matter of 3-4 days from the time I shipped him that hood until the time he had his first auction on ebay for it with pictures of his knock-off. When you build a mold that quickly with a choppergun, and pile the material on in that kind of timeframe, the mold will warp because it's too much resin curing at the same time getting very very hot... it's unavoidable... as opposed to laying up the mold in many different stages to cure it gradually and avoid the high temperatures that will warp the production mold. As far as the part goes... if the mold is out of shape, the part made from it never stood a chance to fit in the first place, but being that it would likely be built with the same cheap materials and short-cut methods resulting in the typical "bodyshop nightmares" I'm guessing they'll be (being as how he seems to have a bad habit of taking short-cuts, like buying other peoples designs to copy as opposed to him actually designing anything himself).... and keep in mind that when the bodyshop gets frustrated with a crappy part, it's the customer that will be shelling out hundreds of extra dollars... so I'm gonna bet that you'll have lest money invested paying the extra bucks upfront for the VFN brand hood.
If I sound a little bitter, it's probably because I am
... I was way behind schedule here at my shop due to some materials being backordered, leaving me without all I needed to keep up with my production. All of my customers were very patient and understanding about the delays, which I am very thankful for.... except for this guy. For every customer I was running late with, I did what I could to help make up for the delays and to thank them for their patience with me. I paid for all their freight charges (which we all know isn't cheap these days), and offered them all their choice of some additional parts free of charge. This guy got the same deal, free shipping and additional parts offered for free. He proceeded to leave me a voicemail calling me "dishonest" and a "scam-artist" 
... I am neither, and any of my customers can vouch for that. There have been plenty of bumps in the road over the past few months that had gotten me behind schedule, but that's the extent of it and I have been working to do whatever I could to make sure my customers came away from the deal happy, no matter what. In the same voicemail he actually threatened to report me to the Better Business Bureau, as well as slander me on the f-body forums. Well, sure enough, I got the letter from the BBB. Am I the only one that's absolutely AMAZED by this?!?!?... He ordered a hood from me with the intentions of stealing my own design that I built to offer cheap knock-offs on ebay... and I'M the "dishonest scam-artist" that HE reports to the BBB?!?!??!.... I seriously hope that he follows through with slandering me on the boards, and hopefully this post (which is 100% factual and I'd swear to in a court of law) will encourage him to come here and challenge anything I've said. 
... Sorry for my classic long-windedness folks, but I wasn't about to bite my tongue when it comes to a piece of work like this. Now back to your regularly scheduled thread 
Last edited by Roger@U.S.Exotics; 09-01-2008 at 01:12 AM.
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09-01-2008, 01:29 AM
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For starters... I bought and owned a hood sold to me personally from roger... and whatever he says I would believe him because he was nothing but professional and extreamly nice the whole sale...
09-01-2008, 09:41 PM
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Wow, that is a pretty obvious thing he did. Buy a hood only to rip it off and sell it.
Im betting that you might have some legal actions to take against him Roger. Who knows though.
Im betting that you might have some legal actions to take against him Roger. Who knows though.
09-02-2008, 11:11 AM
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Do not buy anything from that seller...they are very well known in the mustang community for the worst fitting hoods as well as neeing many hours of filling and prep before paint. They constantly change their ebay id when they get too many negatives but its always the same seller out of OH. Check back on that seller id in a month or two and it will either be gone or have a ton of negatives for terrible hoods.
09-02-2008, 06:35 PM
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09-03-2008, 10:52 AM
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Thanks Roger.
Sorry to see that they've stolen your design too.
We've known about the knock-off of our hood for a while now too. We have even brought this to the seller's attention, which was returned with extremely profane emails, which from what I've read on different forums is the norm for how these guys handle their customers, let alone the companies the designs are stolen from.
Unfortunately we are not the only companies, I've read that they offer a Cervini design, complete with Cervini's patient numbers made into their molds!!!
All I can say is PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS HOOD from this company. It is a cheap imitation and will not hold up for either street or strip use. These hoods are made from lesser materials and have been known to fly off the car....If you dig in to many of the web forums, you will find pages of complaints from people who have purchased these products!
Such as this one:
http://forums.corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=273968
If you go onto page 8 of this thread, you will see that even the BBB is taking them to court:from BBB.com
Government Actions
On April 1, 2005 the Ohio Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Eric Holt & Angela Maly, doing business as Cobra Auto Designs and Cincinnati Composites. The Attorney General alleges that the companies have violated the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act by misrepresenting the automotive parts that they sell, failing to honor express or implied warranties, failing to deliver ordered items in a timely manner, failing to provide requested refunds, and charging restocking fees for cancelled orders without prior notice. The lawsuit seeks to prohibit the firms from engaging in these practices, reimbursement for consumers who have filed complaints, and civil penalties.
For more information concerning this action, please contact the Ohio Attorney General's office toll free in Ohio at 1-800-282-0515 or visit them online at www.ag.state.oh.us.
This is a company that has had many name changes over the last few years...cincy composites, hoods for less, etc.....they are the same 2 people selling the same bad products hoping to move on to unsuspecting customers and make a buck.
Dealing with many members here who have purchased either our or Roger's products, I know that you guys put a lot of pride, time, money into your cars and want an outstanding product that will not only look great on the car, but also hold up and last....you can clearly see that these hoods are not properly made and will not have the finished appearance that you're hoping for to complete the look of your car.
I have yet to hear or read from a happy customer who has been able to return their product for a refund or a new product. These customers are instead greeted with reps who talk crap over the phone, hang up on them, or bad mouth them on forums!!
If I sound bitter writing this too...the same as Roger, we are as well. We (both VFN and Roger @ US Exotics) work very hard (time, money) on the designs we make and we put a lot of pride into our work. For two morons to buy a hood, tape it off and make molds from it, shows that they are thieves just waiting to cash in on other people's hard work, and it's B.S.
Sorry to see that they've stolen your design too.
We've known about the knock-off of our hood for a while now too. We have even brought this to the seller's attention, which was returned with extremely profane emails, which from what I've read on different forums is the norm for how these guys handle their customers, let alone the companies the designs are stolen from.
Unfortunately we are not the only companies, I've read that they offer a Cervini design, complete with Cervini's patient numbers made into their molds!!!
All I can say is PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS HOOD from this company. It is a cheap imitation and will not hold up for either street or strip use. These hoods are made from lesser materials and have been known to fly off the car....If you dig in to many of the web forums, you will find pages of complaints from people who have purchased these products!
Such as this one:
http://forums.corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=273968
If you go onto page 8 of this thread, you will see that even the BBB is taking them to court:from BBB.com
Government Actions
On April 1, 2005 the Ohio Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Eric Holt & Angela Maly, doing business as Cobra Auto Designs and Cincinnati Composites. The Attorney General alleges that the companies have violated the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act by misrepresenting the automotive parts that they sell, failing to honor express or implied warranties, failing to deliver ordered items in a timely manner, failing to provide requested refunds, and charging restocking fees for cancelled orders without prior notice. The lawsuit seeks to prohibit the firms from engaging in these practices, reimbursement for consumers who have filed complaints, and civil penalties.
For more information concerning this action, please contact the Ohio Attorney General's office toll free in Ohio at 1-800-282-0515 or visit them online at www.ag.state.oh.us.
This is a company that has had many name changes over the last few years...cincy composites, hoods for less, etc.....they are the same 2 people selling the same bad products hoping to move on to unsuspecting customers and make a buck.
Dealing with many members here who have purchased either our or Roger's products, I know that you guys put a lot of pride, time, money into your cars and want an outstanding product that will not only look great on the car, but also hold up and last....you can clearly see that these hoods are not properly made and will not have the finished appearance that you're hoping for to complete the look of your car.
I have yet to hear or read from a happy customer who has been able to return their product for a refund or a new product. These customers are instead greeted with reps who talk crap over the phone, hang up on them, or bad mouth them on forums!!
If I sound bitter writing this too...the same as Roger, we are as well. We (both VFN and Roger @ US Exotics) work very hard (time, money) on the designs we make and we put a lot of pride into our work. For two morons to buy a hood, tape it off and make molds from it, shows that they are thieves just waiting to cash in on other people's hard work, and it's B.S.
Last edited by vfntech; 09-03-2008 at 11:09 AM.