Technical UPDATED AGAIN! Bondo on New Brookville Body?

WOW!
That's some serious mud on there. Just not acceptable to me. Don't know about Dale or Rick, have you talked to Kenny? The buck stops there. They're good people, hope that this works out in your favor.

 

I got that...

 

The early years look like **** I would just fix what's there and move on

 

It sounds as though Dale and Rick were surprised by what you reported??? 8 years is really too long to expect a straight across swap for a newly tooled body though maybe they'll accept the fact that even at 2007 standards, the bondo is excessive (especially on the top and bottom body bead build ups). Maybe they'll do what Luckythirteen suggested and take it back on trade plus the price difference for a 2015 body. You should take the trade because this doees'nt compare to the quality of the rest of your build.
It is a quality of workmanship issue as much as as what they could technically produce. It's not like you bought a cast dropped axle in 07 and now you expect a trade because the Axle company now has forged axles.

BV will have to consider setting a precedent here and now that you've called them out publicly, they're in a tough situation. You may have gotten a better settlement privately, because if you report back that they took the 07 body back as a trade in, every guy with an early primer body (or a driver with cracked out paint in the corners) will want to be compensated. I think you should have gone to them first, then come here with pics if they told you to pound sand.

 

I want to be real clear here. I'm realistic. I understand the situation. I'm not demanding anything from Brookville. I'm also not slandering Brookville. I was just really surprised to find this much mud on a Brookville-***embled steel body, so I wanna know what Brookville says about that, and I'm gonna share what I find out with anyone here who might be interested. I think back at my options at the time of purchase. I could buy the panels and ***emble the cab myself, or I could pay a premium to have Brookville ***emble it for me. The surprise here is that the premium Bookville ***embly looks like this... that's all.

Outcome-wise, I'm prepared to accept whatever they offer... or to move forward desite the mud if they tell me to go pound sand, since Dale at Brookville made it clear that it would be foolish to try to metalwork that seam to eliminate the bondo.

For those that asked, the inside of the corner doesn't show much... there's a 1" overlapping seam that looks to be smooth and straight. It is supposed to fully welded on the outside, but I'm not removing that mud to confirm it and you cannot determine that from the inside.

 

Not at all. Dale and Rick have both been clear that back then the panels fit poorly, so they addressed the issue with lots of bondo. Dale even volunteered that it would dumb of me to remove that bondo and try to metalwork that corner seam... it's apparently that bad. They eventually replaced their tooling so that the panels fit together properly without needing all that bondo.

Also... again... I'm not 'strategizing' the best way to get something from Brookville here. I went public first because I was asking the question, "Does this look right to you guys?". When most of the responses suggested that folks were, like me, surprised to see that much mud, I contacted Brookville for their take... and I'll share with you guys what they say.

 

Up front and honest, i like that. Good luck.

 

Blake you are on the right thought process.
i would be surprised to see the filler on the body too.
i would put up the question, here and to them also.
i would grind it all out and make it better.
if they do nothing for you, i would understand.
if they did ANYTHING, for you i would understand.
filler in that area [as stated] wouldn't give you trouble [8 years with no problems] but i don't like layers of filler/primer/filler. bad body work even if it wasn't too thick.
good luck with how ever this turnout.
the project looks awesome, nice job so far.

 

"Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across" - Sun Tzu

 

Thanks, fellas. No progress today. I sent Dale the pics last night. By late afternoon I still hadn't heard anything, so I called them. Dale said he never got the email. I says 'I can resend real quick'... sent it again, real quick... within 5 mins of our chat, I called back... phone greeting says they were closed for the day.

Try again tomorrow.

 

asked and answered.................

 

Like Larry says we are patiently waiting

 

This is a bit interesting, because it's no longer really about some filler in one body. It's about a public relations exercise by a well respected company on a very public (and inconvenient) forum. That last response you got suggests that the well respected company should very quickly get some advice on how to deal with this. Could've been swift and relatively cheap (and even positive). Looks like it might be slower and a little more expensive.

I hope it works out for you Blake.

Cheers, Pete

 

You might not here anything until Monday, as they will be set up in Louisville at the Street Rod Nationals. I can just see it now, all weekend people tapping their knuckles on the bodies looking for bondo.

 

YEP! Dale responded to my email this morning to confirm that he recieved the pics and to say the boss was, indeed, at The Nats. Dale committed to talk to him about the situation and call me next week.

 

I asked for Kenny at the Columbus Good Guys show and was told he doesn't attend the shows any longer...
and I should use someone else for a contact person.

 

Other than a direct lie as if they had told you there was no filler in the body when you purchased it, I don't get even questioning this. They put out the best body they were capable of producing for the amount of money they decided to ask for it and you decided to buy what they had after whatever time and questions you decided to put into researching your decision. It seems as if you are upset with their product when you bought under ***umptions and not researched fact . The other alternative would have been to build a body yourself to your own expectations. You don't like the filler in it now so you surely knew you wouldn't have liked it then so the time to have asked questions was back when you bought it. Whether they have improved their skills and product over the years or not makes no difference. That was the best they had when you purchased yours. Many seem to think that a manufacturers products should meet their expectations and not have anything to do with what the manufacturer was trying to sell. Manufacturers are not mind readers. There are no perfect products on the planet and I believe most manufacturers are trying to put out the best products they can afford to produce. I realize there are crooks but most are just good people trying to do the best they can. As I said in the beginning , if they didn't lie about the way their product was made then they sold you what they felt was the best they had to offer and after your part of deciding ,you said I`ll take it. Simple fact.

 

So, your point is that someone who does their research beforehand and makes an informed decision to buy a specific product should not complain about the quality of the product unless it was misrepresented by the seller... right?

 

I'd be upset too if I paid high dollar for that body and got it slathered in bondo. That's not quality work. I don't feel like Blake would've paid that much money for a body that was supposed to be some of the best quality out there if he knew there was that much bondo on the thing. The whole corner is sculpted out of it for crying out loud. Shoot with that much bondo, he's going to hit a bump and the whole back half of the car's going to fall off! I'd want some answers as to why it's like this as well. I don't think Blake is questioning it to be a ***** and get something for free, I think he has a legitimate point.

 

That's the way I see it. You had your chance before the sale to decide whether you accepted or not what they offer if it was not intentionally misrepresented. When you studied and asked questions about the product they were selling and they told you to the best of their knowledge what they were selling to you, I believe you have accepted their product as it is . If they after the sale found out that others were selling a similar product for more money do you believe they should be able to ask you for more money after the sale or should they have had the responsibility to do their research prior ? This goes both ways. An honest deal is an honest deal.

 

I never said Blake is a *****. I am merely giving my opinion as to what I feel is right. As I told him. If he was concerned about how much filler was in the body or how it was applied ,he had the chance to ask before making a deal with the seller who obviously thought it was acceptable and the best he could do at the time. Not everyone agrees as to how much filler is acceptable and you can read on many body filler can instructions that what was done on this body is acceptable for their product.

 

I know you never said he was, I'm just trying to say that I don't think he's out there to get something for free. I deal with people all the time at the shop that I work at that are like that. All they want is something for free. To me, this seems like a legitimate question.

We can all have our own opinions. I value your's as much as everyone else's. I'm just interested to see what happens to get the whole mess cleared up.

 

I ,like you wish him the best. I would like to see everyone have the hot rod of their dreams.

 

Some questions shouldn't have to be asked before buying a product that is of "high quality" IMHO and I think it is a reasonable question Blake has asked of Brookville, now it is up to Brookville to decide how they want to handle it. Blake has stated he isn't trying to get anything for free and will accept whatever they decide to do and go on, nothing wrong on his part.

 

And I think this is where Kan Kustom and to be honest myself, think there is nothing to clear up. This was the product that Brookville sold in 2007. I don't know if Blake asked at the time about their manufacturing process or just ***umed there would be no filler in the body. If he asked and was not told then he would have a legitimate beef. If he didn't then he bought what they were selling.

Having said that I think Blake, to his credit, seems pretty clear that he was just trying to find out if this was the norm for Brookville at the time and did not ask them to do anything for him. They seem to have encouraged him to send pictures etc in so they can review the situation which is also commendable. I think it would be great if Brookville helped him out but I don't think they are under any obligation to do so unless they specifically told him when he bought the body that there was no filler in it.

 

I've been pretty clear... I'm not demanding anything from Brookville, and my expectations are realistic about how this will end up. We're just gonna ride it to the end and find out... together.

However... let's recap how this thing started. I was obviously surprised to find this much bondo on my 'Real Steel™' Brookville-***embled body, so I posed the question to you guys... the experts - 'Does this seem right to you?'. While some confirmed that they found the same thing and dealt with it, many others (most?) have made it clear that they had no idea Brookville put this much bondo into these bodies and that they would have been fairly angry if they had paid that much money to find that quality of work under that coat of primer. So... emboldened by the experts, I posed the question directly to the nice guys at Brookville - 'Is my RPU cab typical of the quality of work coming out of Brookville in 2007, or are you disappointed by what my pics show?'. The end to this story will be dependent upon how they answer that question.

KAN KUSTOM - I agree with your point... if the seller did not misrepresent the product, the buyer should not complain too loudly. The question in this case, though, is whether a reasonable person would be expected to ask about bondo hidden under that primer if the seller didn't disclose it voluntarily.

 

let's go back to week after it was delivered. blake finds the filler, what then? brookville could take it back and refund his dough. swop it out? repair it or pay to have it fixed? or........?
now jump this many years later............any of these options seam reasonable?
the layers of primer and paint would bother me.

 

I dont know everyones experience but this would not have surprised me to find this. These are hand made bodies built with laymens budgets not O.E.M. dollars and I have bought new Dodge Challengers in 1970 and a new Lincoln Continental in 1975 and when I worked on them years later I found body filler at seams and other places from the factory. The O.E.M`s used to work over their bodies with lead and then went to fillers on new cars. To a builder a five to ten thousand dollar body is expensive and high end but if you were on the guys end building these things you would realize they are built more out of p***ion than profit. I personally am very picky and can make a body myself from raw sheet metal but would have bought that body rather than build the whole thing and would have just proceeded to finish it off to my liking.

 

The only thing they could have done was refund his money because they didn't have the capability to do the others or I am sure they wouldn't have been leaving Brookville like that in the first place. And 8 years later, no, refunding his money does not seem reasonable because there are hundreds of other guys who bought the same thing and dealt with it. It was what they sold.