Thunder Ranch factory visit

A friend and I stopped At Thunder Ranch today for an unannounced visit. Tom gave us a personal site visit of whole facility.

We love Tom and Jeannnie. I almost punched a guy at a car show who said something mean about Tom. Probably a good thing I didn't, it would have embarassed Tom.

Jeannie would have cheered me on, but Tom would have been mortified - LOL!

angela

I told Jeannie that she should get Tom to write about his experiences in the kit car industry. He certainly has seen the good, the bad and the ugly. I'd sure to like to hear his whole story.

Paul- That showed class. You sir, are the man.

Paul - you are a gentleman and a scholar!

Nicely put Paul.....

I was serious. Paul could have said a lot of things he chose not to. Mom always said, "if you can't say anything nice...."

I guess the old saying is applied here in ...read between the lines.

I spent a little time with Paul the other night, working on some little things he needed a couple extra hands on. He and his car have come some distance together. He's truly become an owner-operator-driver-mechanic, and it did me some good just helping him.
Kind of nice to see someone take that kind of pride in a Speedster. He does nice work, too. Very neat, very clean and pretty darned thorough about it.

I was echoing your sentiment Stan....

I have to say too, Paul, and his car, have come a long way together. See you all soon, two months from today is time to leave for Carlisle!

Beware!!!!

Anyone thinking of doing business with the Ranch might want to do a little research before laying down hard earned money....
A quick check with public court records will most likely change your mind and you may deside to go else where.

Just a heads up.....

DOH!!

I just have to chime in on this one despite the online love-fest for Thunder Ranch. DUH experience we had with them was as unprofessional as we have had with anyone we can recall. Buyer beware!

To be fair to the SAS guys, Brian, can you explain some of your experience...

Here is my posting from 07/14/2009:

At this point, our Thunder Ranch Speedster seems to be an overall solid design and build.

Aside from taking ALL timetable promises and having to multiply by 3 or more, the blatant lack of reply to our telephone calls, emails, faxes and letters is frustrating and seems to be an utterly STUPID way to run a business in an economy that isn't favoring discretionary "toy" spending.

At 500 miles, T/R adjusts the lifters and are suppose to fix any items that were missed on the original build or developed over the first 500 miles. We brought the car to T/R with about a dozen minor items on our repair list and picked it up 4 weeks later (yes, it was promised to be done in 1 week). Some of the items were fixed, some were not fixed right, some were worse and some were ignored.

Over the past month, there has been no reply to any of our attempts to have the open items resolved. It is as if Thunder Ranch was sucked into some kind of El Cajon

I received a couple of parts from Kirk at Vintage today. Got here in 3-4 days, well packed, just as ordered and no bill inside the box!

And that was not an oversight. He doesn't make his money giving things away but sometimes he works this way--this was a small item. My personal experience with Vintage has been stellar in every respect and believe me, when it comes to insisting on things being done right--i'm the worst!

You must have hit kirk on a bad day.

Three peas in a pod; Kirk, Henry and Carey, as far as all I read here.
And as far as my personal experience. Do business with folks who respect your business and you'll have the results you are paying for.

No hit on Tom--I just have had no dealings with him like others.

Gerd, you bring the popcorn. Vinny, you bring the beer.

Hoss, you know me better than that...I'll bring the Single-Malt...

If you guys only knew what we had to go through or what we have lost. It's only an amount of time. I think Tom has dug his last hole. Keep your eyes open for a clearing house sale in El Cajon soon...... Maybe some of his customers can get back some of the parts that have gone missing off of their cars.....

As any of you who have been around in SoCal for a while know, this has been going on for decades and, amazingly, Thunder Ranch (and a few other builders) keeps bouncing back. The warnings go back before the Curt Scott days and yet they're still around. Some people have a good relationship (I guess Angela and Steve are in that camp) and some don't (like Paul Rich).

This pattern is not restricted to the West Coast, either. When I sent Pearl out for paint I understood that it would take "a few weeks" to finish it. This shop had a great reputation for finishing and painting fiberglass cars, especially Street Rods, and was only 20 minutes away. 18 MONTHS later I finally got her back. Granted, the shop did an outstanding job of blocking and painting her, but 18 months????? It's a good thing I was swamped at work and didn't have the time to worry about it.

So....Before buying from anyone, do your homework.

Caveat Emptor.

Noticed on TR website that he(Tom) is still searching for a working partner!!?????

A quick note on Vintage. One of the minor items T/R did not fix on the 500 mile check-up was the right side "Speedster" emblem. It was broken in half and was mounted at an obvious angle.

I do not do bodywork, but was able to plug and paint the misaligned holes and drill new ones that were not crooked. I called and emailed T/R asking for a new emblem with no response.

So, I drove up to Vintage and bought a couple of them and was on my way in a few minutes. They were pleasant and very helpful . . . a good experience.

Brian:

Funny how that works out, isn't it?

Treat your customers like human beings and everyone wins!

Customer service is job one, the word of mouth return far exceeds the minimal outlay of funds.

Speaking of peas in a pod.

well said , Angela !