abrush

I should have steered clear when I heard some warnings but took my chances on RPI Designs and can officially say I will never, ever recommend that company or any of their parts!! In December I ordered both a painted coolant tank reservoir cover and a brake reservoir cover in torch red to match my Shelby. After placing my order online I never did receive an order confirmation. I began to wonder if they received my order so I inquired by e-mail and was told that they had. Several weeks passed and I finally received a box from them. Upon opening the box I pull out the brake reservoir cover that looks good and then proceed to pull out the coolant reservoir cover and it is painted black not red! I called them up to see what happened and they claimed I ordered a black cover. Well I had no order confirmation sheet so it was my word against theirs. I didn't argue as mistakes happen and asked them what I could do to get the right color cover. They told me to send it back and they would send me a red one. I happily obliged and in about another week I received a red cover.

At this point in time I had been working on acquiring several painted parts including a radiator cover from Bangastang that I had planned to have my airbrush artist paint some flames on. As those know who have ordered from Bangastang in the past the delivery times are very slow. Therefore I didn't actually acquire all the ordered parts I had placed orders for until February as that was when I finally received the radiator cover.

After I had received the cover I proceeded to take all the parts to my painter to have them flamed. Now keep in mind this guy has a custom shop, has been in the business for years and has a great reputation for the quality of work he does. He finally has time to start the paintwork on my parts in March when I soon received a very dissapointing call from him. He proceeds to tell me upon removing the painters tape on the coolant reservoir cover that the paint on the cover pulled right off!! Now this was the red paint applied by RPI designs, not the airbrushed paint he applied! He then told me that the piece was painted so poorly that he could flake the paint off simply by blowing compressed air from his air compressor on it. At this time I am quite angry and called up RPI designs right away. They proceed to tell me that they have never had problems in the past with their paint and that they would repaint the piece for their cost if I sent it back. I argued that I should not have to pay anything as they failed to prep the piece therefore the paint never had a good adhesion. They wouldn't budge so I ended up paying my painter, who I trust, to strip the piece and repaint. Once the piece was stripped my painter called back up and told me that they had painted over a cheap carbon fiber sticker as it was evident when all the paint was removed. I could not believe this!! Luckily my painter was able to reshoot the piece, flame and finally return to me. After all these headaches I figured at least they were over or so I thought. I go to install this piece and find out that it was molded so poorly that my radiator cap won't tighten down enough because of the raised lip on the cover which in return lets pressure escape the cap and cause the fluid to boil out! After all the money I dumped into this one pos piece I am about ready to yank my hair out! Sorry for the rant but I had to let some steam out somewhere.

BigDinTexas

Sorry to hear your experience... I do appreciate you taking to time to post your headaches... Maybe it will prevent others from doing the same if this is their committment to customer service and inferior parts fitment.

Don

09cs

Damn I'm sorry to hear that! Thanks for the heads up about them! I definitely will NOT be doing business with them! On another note, did the radiator cover turn out alright at least?

abrush

Yes, thankfully the radiator cover came out beautiful. Here is a picture I took after I installed the parts. The lighting isn't real good as the flames are a very vibrant silver metallic to match the silver stripes on my car. The coolant tank cover is on here but just with the cap screwed on about 1 turn as I can't screw it down any tighter because of the lip on the cover. I haven't decided whether to just toss the thing out or try to trim the lip. The problem is if I trim the lip you will see the black plastic from the reservoir showing through.

abrush

Forgot to mention that I did try the stock radiator cap just to verify it wasn't the billet cap I was using and I couldn't even get that one started to screw on so this piece is just molded terrible.

luvmygt

Sorry to hear this, I was just looking to buy some parts from them. Now I won't even think of it

09cs

Wow that looks AMAZING! that's a tough choice about trimming it or not.

awsomeaussies206

That's what irritates me the most. When you spend money on something and all you get is crap. Thanks for the head ups... I'll be sure not to buy anything from them.

Roy_R

Can't beat my hellish experience...had a part shipped from them, only to receive it in the wrong color...after sending it back, I received it cracked in the box. Then the fun started, instead of replacing it, they repaired it...non-stop fun!!!

MarkMan

Looks nice! How long did it take to get the radiator cover from Bangastang, if you recall?