meir racing?
- Thread starter THX 138
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mdjay
Premium Sponsor
It's like putting a shelby nose on your car. You also need the long nose hood, and the lower valance. Not including the fit and prep.
Pakrat
Founding Member
Ronstang said:
Wow, really? I just bought the shelby rear decklid and end caps from them for my 69' and I couldn't believe how good the fit seemed just out of the box. It needs some tweaking sure but I expected that with any glass. Did I just get lucky? I will say their service bites, took 14 weeks to get a part promised in 4 weeks or less but I was quite happy with it. Of course I have practically zero experience with glass compared to you of course but I was not unhappy in the least.
Pakrat said:Wow, really? I just bought the shelby rear decklid and end caps from them for my 69' and I couldn't believe how good the fit seemed just out of the box. It needs some tweaking sure but I expected that with any glass. Did I just get lucky? I will say their service bites, took 14 weeks to get a part promised in 4 weeks or less but I was quite happy with it. Of course I have practically zero experience with glass compared to you of course but I was not unhappy in the least.
You are lucky. There service has always sucked as you have found out yourself and their products from my experience are junk because they are NOT consistent. You got lucky, or maybe these are some newer pieces and the technology to make them has improved. Everything I have ever worked with from Maier for a 65-68 Mustang was nothing but a headache and not worth my time to alter to make acceptable. But that is my experience.
Pakrat
Founding Member
Ronstang said:
Man, I wish I knew that back in June but glad as heck that I am one of the few lucky ones then.
RGS0907
New Member
Ronstang said:
I've been hearing for several years now that their glass is pretty good. So who makes good quality glass these days? Where can I get an original style hood for my GT500?
RGS0907 said:
Maybe they have improved lately and I don't know about it. I have a Shelby trunk and quarter extensions for a 67 coupe form Maier that fits so HORRENDOUSLY that I is not going to be used. It simply cannot be salvaged. The contour to the body lines of the trunk opening is so far off the I see no way of getting to fit without dropping it down and building up the corners over 1/4". I wont even get started on the endcaps....lets just say they don't fit or match the trunk at all. I gave up. I told my friend he just lost a bunch of money because I wasn't messing with it. I told him not to buy it in the first place.
mdjay
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mdjay said:
That is special but I am not wasting my time on companies that consistently deliver crap. My experiences with Maier fiberglass go back 25 years and none of them have been good. The newer companies are either using a newer technology or better molds because their pieces require only minor fit and finish work. Spending days of frustration trying to get an acceptable fit on a part I paid $500 for is UNACCEPTABLE. I now only buy fiberglass parts when I am ready to fit them immediately and if they do not fit good enough for minor work to solve the issues I simply take them back....another reason I only buy fiberglass locally now. I have been stung TOO many times on high priced junk.
68FBJJZ109
Member
I purchased some Maier Racing fiberglass last Feb. The Shelby Ducktail, fits fine and allines well. The 67 Shelby Style hood also is also nice. But by far the Cobra Automotive R Valance for 67-68 stangs is great, if your car is straight it fits no problem. There 66 R valance is Guaranteed to fit on straight vehicles. So Maier might have improved some, I dont have quite the problems other seems to have. Though it could improve seeing some manufactures are guarenting there fiberglass to work with little prep.
68FBJJZ109
Member
zookeeper
Founding Member
In my opinion, that's one of the biggest myths out there. I bought a POS Maier nose and hood for my car, and had to cut the nose into 5 seperate pieces to get anywhere close to bolting on the car. The hood sagged in the middle as do ALL Maier hoods. Don't believe me? Ask anyone with a Maier hood (or look in the Mustangs Plus catalog) to post a head-on pic of their car with a Maier hood. Anyway, I tried blocking the hood up in the center, putting 40lbs of weight per side (that's 80lbs total!) and using my propane heater to try to "contour" that POS. I left the heat on for three full days and nites, and left the weight on for another week afterwards with no movement at all, none, nada, zero. I was forced to cut the skin loose from the bracing, put the right shape in it myself, then re-glass the whole mess together. Not only was the shape totally wrong, but the hood was over 9/16" too narrow. Do the azzholes at Maier not own a tape measure? Oh, I can already hear someone saying how messed up my car was before I got it, but trust me it was a 91K miles, one owner car I purchased from a 93 year old lady. It was garaged nearly it's whole life, and had never had even a ding in it, let alone enough damage to cause it to be too narrow. There was a guy on here several months ago who was praising Maier and claimed to personally know some of the guys that worked there. He told me he would show them my post of my problems with their stuff and he was sure they would make it right. After all, mine was probably a fluke that somehow missed the strict quality control check at Maier. Never heard from him again. My guess is all their stuff is junk, it even says so in the Mustangs Plus catalog, for crissake!mdjay said:
I just accept most of it will need work, so I buy cheap$. I just bought some pieces from Rebel Mustang on E***Y they are great and about 1/3rd the price of Maier. I'm doing Eleanor lower valance (with no center lights and small running lights moved outboard to normal Mustang spot) and side skirts and modding grill to add through grille lights and 2005 Running horse.
zookeeper
Founding Member
I've talked to one of the guys at Rebel Mustang before, he seemed like a great guy and I believe they may put out a decent product. A guy I work with thought he wanted a Shelby clone (as do lots of people, until they start pricing fastbacks), and wanted to know what I would charge to do the body and paint on it. Since I didn't want any part of another nightmare like mine, I called Rebel Mustang, who advertises that their parts fit better than anyone. I asked the guy I spoke with if it would be alright to contact some of their past customers. Without hesitation, he produced 10 names of builders from various parts of the country, one of whom had purchased 4 complete sets of their stuff. He also emailed me about 20 pics of their stuff bolted to a car, unmodified and in bare gel coat. The pics were very close-up and hid nothing. What I saw was a great fit on each part, even though their hood sagged in the middle, just like the Maier hoods, but at least it was the right width! I can tell you this much: not one of my 'glass parts, with the exception of the roof scoops (Mustangs Unlimited) even came close to fitting right out of the box. The Branda stuff was every bit as bad as the Maier stuff. To see how bad some of the crap being hawked at outrageous prices is, start watching for Shelby clones on www.ebay.com and look at the gaps and finish. I worked my butt off to ensure my parts fit at least as well as any original Shelby on the planet, and I can honestly say they do. But I'd sure like to see the guys from Maier and Branda tell me with a straight face that they sell anything resembling quality fiberglass.
I think Rebel Mustang's low price secret is there is only one guy. Steve (??) I think and I am guessing at the size of his firm. It doesn't matter. The stuff is nice, affordable and shipped quickly. He shipped it Greyhound to save me even more $. He's a good guy to top it off. I'd be on his reference list.
zookeeper
Founding Member
Probably the same guy I spoke with. BTW, Maier doesn't just make Mustang stuff. I used to race quads and bikes years ago and Maier makes plastic for them as well, and yes, it's every bit as bad as their car stuff. You'd thing I'd have learned, wouldn't you? To save money, I picked my parts up at Mustangs Plus in Stockton on the way home from a vacation. I thought the parts looked great and happily laid out nearly $1000 for the hood and nose. Then I got home and was horrified at the poor fit. Look at the side of a '67-'68 fender some time. It goes (more or less) straight down where the headlight bucket mounts, then slants back about 15 degrees right at the bumper. Not the Maier nose! The edge is dead straight, as is the mounting lip, which leaves about a 2" or so gap at the bottom, if you can even get it to bolt up to both fenders at once (I couldn't).I know I seem like a raving psycho over fiberglass but I'm sick of people simply accepting poor quality, saying that all fiberglass is like that. I've built enough street rods to know it's not. Street rod parts from Downs, Outlaw, Gibbons and Wescott at least fits, and I've seen Oulaw bodies go for over a year in gel coat and it's so nice it looks like paint! Not perfect paint, but not like some of the gel-coat I've seen on Mustang parts. Ever see those $400 hoods that lots of younger guys put on their imports these days? They bolt right on, which is good, since most kids can't afford to get them painted. Why does a $400 hood fit a Honda, yet my $500+ hood needed weeks of work to even close?
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