Dallas Hotrod Parts?

Bolts? Really.

Mike, I just quoted several cups and plates for a customer of mine and I can assure you two things:

1. The cost of cutting with a plasma compared to laser or water jet is marginal versus the difference in quality.

2. The cost to cnc turn the cups in even small quantities is peanuts. Cost is NO EXCUSE.

Mike, after 6 years of having nothing to do with this and just reading...give it up man. This latest argument is the worst ever and is painful to read. I am truly sorry this didnt work out for you!!

Edited: 10/20/2010 11:27:22 AM by chrisplaysnice

actually yes the grooves help hold the balljoint. balljoints on bagged trucks sometimes bind and will work loose. so I stand by the grooves. smooth bore is not the way to go on a bagged truck.

****also note that on my arms for coilovers, the balljoint cups are smooth inside ****

I do have a lathe and many different tooling bits for it. I generally use cobalt pointed bits for cutting a bore into a balljoint cup. Normally on a coilover arm I will go for a while then change to a flatter bit to smooth out the inside until its within tolerance. On bagged arms I CHOOSE to make the inside as rough as possible. I just cut until its the correct more size and then stop before smoothing. This IN MY, AND OTHERS OPINIONS HELPS HOLD THE BALLJOINT. This is an opinion shared by people who have built suspension parts for more than 20 years.

****

you want me to replace the rod ends send them back ill make new ones and pay shipping both ways as I said. if not then STFU about them. I explained that I dont use that style bolt anymore. I now use studs.

I dont care what you quoted your customer

the difference in the CNC vs waterjet or laser is I have to do those in quantity and this is a small shop that cant afford quantity. I have access to the CNC plasma here at work. no quantity and I can draw and cut parts within minutes of drawing them. I can also get CNC plasma cut parts for a fraction of what id pay for plasma cut somewhere else in quantity. when I can afford to do quantity I will go to laser or waterjet and then the price will go up accordingly.

the cost of turning cups is expensive even on small orders no matter what you say. plus theres the time and logistics. I cut mine myself, thats why i bought a lathe. so your wrong..

its as simple as this, i make affordable arms and everyone that buys them knows what they are made out of.

if they want nicer ones then they need to buy them somewhere else for alot more money.

I stand by my products and they sell pretty well. I just have to keep making them better.

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KustomLife said:

Mike, after 6 years of having nothing to do with this and just reading...give it up man. This latest argument is the worst ever and is painful to read. I am truly sorry this didnt work out for you!!

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you dont know anything about me or my products so your post is just useless and not needed. your not sorry about anything. you just want to jump on.

its working out fine for me. I have many orders and the orders are steady and i have a high percentage of satisfied customers. so Ill just keep doing what Im doing and not listen to people who have an opinion formed from flawed data.

I am moving this whole thread to the Main forum, so more people will get involved because there are more people with issues with this and Mike should be addressing them all.

I want to be clear my stance since im sure somehow allowing him a thread to chat this subject up will be called favortism or some other drama:

1. Mike clearly got to big to fast.
2. Mike could have left the game forever with all the peoples money, so like it or not him "trying" to make it right is a good thing.
3. Mike is taking way to long to make it right, Mike wont agree with me on that, but its the truth.
4. Some "customers" are not even really customers of Mikes and are either making shit up, or repeating a story thats gone through 20 people already and been embelished. Its pointless to bother listening to that crap.
5. Not all of Mikes customers are lying, and Mikes not always lying either.
6. UPS doesn't misplace, not ship, not pick up, not care about as many boxes as Mike has claimed they have. UPS is actually really good at what they do, I use them every single day.

I wanted to get a set of his drop spindles for my Ranger but with all the past problems, current issues I just can't bring myself to do it. Sucks because nobody else has them.

Actually Mike most shops do not require a large run of parts in order for them to cut on a laser or water jet. I get one off stuff cut all the time with a laser and the cost is only marginally more ($5-10 per part). I will also say again cnc turned cups aren't as expensive as you would like people to believe. Shops are selling them all day long online for $20 or less in some cases. If your making 10 sets of s10 lower arms your talking 20 cups which can be had for sub $15 pricing when dealing with a cnc shop. If this cost is too much to bear you are either marking up your stuff super high to create a higher profit margin or just mismanaging your business in such a way that your operating costs are high enough to justify the price.

I bought a nissan engine crossmember from DHP a few months back and it looked great. Install was a snap as well.

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Low_SST said:

Actually Mike most shops do not require a large run of parts in order for them to cut on a laser or water jet. I get one off stuff cut all the time with a laser and the cost is only marginally more ($5-10 per part). I will also say again cnc turned cups aren't as expensive as you would like people to believe. Shops are selling them all day long online for $20 or less in some cases. If your making 10 sets of s10 lower arms your talking 20 cups which can be had for sub $15 pricing when dealing with a cnc shop. If this cost is too much to bear you are either marking up your stuff super high to create a higher profit margin or just mismanaging your business in such a way that your operating costs are high enough to justify the price.

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actually your missing the point. I have a fulltime job and DHP. I dont have time to run back and forth to a shop to get parts made. also they are not cheap. 5 to 10 a part is cheap and nobody does them that cheap. mine need to have differing thicknesses and sometimes a flange. I have several different cups that I use. I prefer to make them myself.

a shop wants me to buy the material up front, then a setup fee then they want a minimum of 10. thats just for one balljoint. I have several different ones I need cups for. Theres no way I can put out funds to buy enough to make all the different cups I need. Its not easier, cheaper or better in any way for me to get someone else to make them. I just have to make sure mine are good.

shops online dont sell the cups I need. mine need to be tall enough for 1.250" tube and have a lip so that only a little sticks up for the balljoint. nobody sell them how I need or want them. plus thats just the one and as i said i have many. for someone to make them how I need they cost too much.

plus why do that when I can buy the DOM and make them myself?

if I ever start making high end tig welded parts with cnc made crossbars and such then I will get a cnc myself or have them done.

right now its not an option. too many things against it in my case.

Edited: 10/20/2010 4:42:25 PM by Low_SST

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chrisplaysnice said:

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Low_SST said:

Actually Mike most shops do not require a large run of parts in order for them to cut on a laser or water jet. I get one off stuff cut all the time with a laser and the cost is only marginally more ($5-10 per part). I will also say again cnc turned cups aren't as expensive as you would like people to believe. Shops are selling them all day long online for $20 or less in some cases. If your making 10 sets of s10 lower arms your talking 20 cups which can be had for sub $15 pricing when dealing with a cnc shop. If this cost is too much to bear you are either marking up your stuff super high to create a higher profit margin or just mismanaging your business in such a way that your operating costs are high enough to justify the price.

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actually your missing the point. I have a fulltime job and DHP. I dont have time to run back and forth to a shop to get parts made. also they are not cheap. 5 to 10 a part is cheap and nobody does them that cheap. mine need to have differing thicknesses and sometimes a flange. I have several different cups that I use. I prefer to make them myself.

a shop wants me to buy the material up front, then a setup fee then they want a minimum of 10. thats just for one balljoint. I have several different ones I need cups for. Theres no way I can put out funds to buy enough to make all the different cups I need. Its not easier, cheaper or better in any way for me to get someone else to make them. I just have to make sure mine are good.

shops online dont sell the cups I need. mine need to be tall enough for 1.250" tube and have a lip so that only a little sticks up for the balljoint. nobody sell them how I need or want them. plus thats just the one and as i said i have many. for someone to make them how I need they cost too much.

plus why do that when I can buy the DOM and make them myself?

if I ever start making high end tig welded parts with cnc made crossbars and such then I will get a cnc myself or have them done.

right now its not an option. too many things against it in my case.

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You are dealing with the wrong companies then. You need to look into small job shops. The I just bid out a job for some cups for 3 different vehicles. No upfront material cost, no setup, and no minimum. I regularly do business like this with ALL of my vendors for both my automotive business and my 9-5 biotech job. I'm not making these prices up. I have several quotes in my email that reflect the costs i've told you. Hell my pricing includes delivery, deburring, and packaging.