Folks Of Interest Fatman Fabrications

It's sad when you walk into your favorite parts store and the guy behind the counter still has his "Mc Donald's" work shirt on from the day before..................................

 

That is so wrong! I spoke with Tim yesterday. He is doing everything in his power to get people their products if they've been paid for and their money back if there is no product. An attorney is handling the process so there won't be any argument over whether someone got what they paid for or not. When this is over, he probably won't have a dime. It all began when his wife got breast cancer. Tim is trying to do everyone right and a few renegades, who didn't wait for him to respond, are now spreading vicious lies. Sad how keyboard warriors accuse first without getting the facts. I am going down there next week with a buddy of mine to pick up his chassis.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It was his 1st. post ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

Figures. I checked FB and couldn't find the group. Maybe they shut it down.

 

So I placed an order at the beginning of November. Everything seemed fine on the phone. No red flags were present. Actually they were really helpful on measurements that I actually messed up. I don't hold any grudges against Tim. I just want my money back so I can move on with my project. Can't seem to get anyone on the phone and emails aren't any better. However I sum it up to possibly being because of the holiday so I will follow up after. I have filed a dispute with my bank so I'm hopeful that I will get my refund. They have updated their website of what is going on.

 

He is working to get you your money back. He will sell everything he has to raise the cash. His attorney will be sending you a letter and a form to fill out entering your claime, as i understand it. It will take a little while but he wants to get through it as badly as you. Sorry it has to end this way. Sometimes bad things happen to good people.

 

I am sorry to see Fatman is no longer in business. I used his front end suspension on my ongoing Anglia project and was duly impressed with the needed tech support, the quality, the excellent****embly instructions that came with the kit. It even had a list of the consumable parts numbers and alternates, if available.

 

Seems like Tim is trying to do the right thing and make good on his commitments. A lot of times with this type of scenario the owner just closes the doors and walks away, leaving purchasers SOL. It would be nice if John Pasemann over at Scarebird and he work out something as the Fatman uprights required disc brakes and it would be such a good fit.

 

There is truth to the stories about not getting what you paid for, I very good friend of mine ordered custom control arms through them a while back. He is the type of guy who does his research. There was lots of good feedback on line so he went ahead and placed his order and paid. I understand that in that line of work, you need paid before a product is made, but they said it would be six to eight weeks before they were ready. Eight months and a few phone calls later they finally showed up. Not a good way to do business. Some of us saw this coming down the pipes....

 

Yep, a real shame. I live an hour away and was planning an after Christmas visit to have my steering knuckles (1.5 in raised) repaired or replaced as both spindles continually unscrew from the knuckle. The original torque and a set screw design just ain't getting it on these fabricated knuckles. I suppose I'll just have to take it down now, retorque and then weld them in from the backside. I suppose while they are out I'll measure and see what aftermarket control arm bushings can fit or be turned to a fit and try to figure out what factory or other brand tie rod end can be used.....the list goes on..........Note for the future will be to either rebuild original suspension or use all factory suspension components. Way too many quality small businesses are folding. Sure makes it difficult to keep the every day drivers driving every day.

 

“The original torque and a set screw design just ain't getting it on these fabricated knuckles” With. Out seeing a picture or fully understanding the issue you might try: Screw the spindle into the knuckle and tighten to the proper torque. With a drill smaller than the set screw size drill into the spindle through the tapped thread to form a divot. Then shape set screw to the divot or drill point shape add some Locktite to the threads and screw set screw. I pretty much do that to to any part that requires a set screw. Your mileage may vary.

 

Yeah. I think that divots gonna need to be a hole! No worries. Welding will work fine too if needed to retain the spindle.

 

Man that’s a shame to hear.

I worked at Fatmans from 06 to 08 and for the last half of that Tim was my manager. Tims a good man. If there’s any shady stuff going on I can****ure you it’s either a misunderstanding or Tim wasn’t involved.

as a side note the sad part is the whole accounting issue happened to Brent as well back in 04/05

Fatmans barely survived a book keeper that robbed the company blind.

either way, I hate to see this happen. Most of the guys that work there had been there a long time and were heavily committed ntm as I said before, Tim is a good man. And of course it’s a huge loss to anyone wanting to properly lower a car with uprights.

 

...this is sad news indeed...

 

This is sad news to hear. I have a Fatmans Kit on my 63 Nova. Best improvement I have made to the car. Kit was high quality, and technical
support when needed was top notch. Hope Tim gets this squared away.

 

I did my due diligence and did plenty of research before pulling the trigger. I was going with the front stub for my old pontiac. This was the best choice I could find for my car. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little upset that I can't install this stub on my car. I also am a very understanding person. However they still allowed me to put money down and ceased production a few weeks later. To me they had to of known this was coming. Now I have to wait for the refund before I can proceed on finding what I want. It's very frustrating.

 

You don't know you are being ripped off for weeks. If you are being swindled by your bookkeeper it's no different than being robbed. You are fine today and you come in tomorrow and realize it's all gone. Then you realize your only choice is to close shop and. figure out if there is anyway to get out of it.

 

Experience says that there are a few issues that may be involved there.
1. they just get more orders than they can handle/
2. They don't hire new skilled help and the list of reasons why is long.
3. They put the order (s) of their "top vendors ahead of the guy who ordered direct off the net As you are buying one and the top vendor just placed an order for 50.
4. The shop that they farmed out the work on some critical parts didn't get them done on time. Or they just decided that they didn't want to do their 200 piece runs every three months anymore when they were getting contracts for 10000 piece runs using the same machines.
5. Company business funds not handled correctly. That is a bit of a long list.
A. Bookkeeper embezzled funds by creating fictitious accounts and billing.
B. Owner used the company checking account as his personal account rather than paying himself a salary and then let his wife have access to that account. A friend of mine did just after I flat told him "hell no, you have to pay yourself a salary and have a separate private checking account. His hot little wife was spending 1000 a month on clothes and writing checks on the company account in the early 70's.
C. You or the bookkeeper are just flat as not managing the money or keeping track of costs of doing business. One of the things a good bookkeepers does is ask why certain bills are a hell of a lot higher than they were previously. Why did the electric bill or Natural gas bill jump 30 percent from this time in previous years? Why are we getting orders for certain material that is double what we did in past years but our production of the pieces that requires that material is only 5 percent over previous years? I know of a case where the shop gofer had a scam going on where every time he was sent to the steel yard to pick up material he had a few pieces added to the load and then dropped them at a buddie's shop where he got paid about half of invoice in cash and then hauled the ordered load back to the shop, inventoried it as per the invoice and put it on the racks. He got busted when he added something specific that his buddy wanted to the load but it was not a size that the shop ever used. That time I think the book keeper asked the boss what he had ordered this ______ for as they had never seen that item ordered before and outside of exact count their orders were almost always the exact same material.
D . a couple of book keepers for one of the larger orchard owners in this area got busted last fall for creating Fictitious workers at one of the outlying orchards and writing pay checks for them and then pulling the checks out of the stack after they ran the checks for the pay period. Both some how ended being off work at the same time and a manager printed out the pay checks and the manager of the ranch/orchard where the fake workers were alleged to be pulled those checks out of his stack and flat stated that those individuals didn't work for him.
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Well I can’t speak to this last instance but I can tell you the first time it happened Brent seemed to be very hands off with the billing side of things as he’d had an accounts payable person that had been with him for a while.

one day she’s gone and vendors are calling wanting to know where their money is.

that wasn’t the bad part.

the bad part was not only was she not paying the vendors she also wasn’t paying the taxes and that created fees and penalties.

I will say Brent worked his**** off to dig the company out of that hole. Unfortunately about the time he got out 2008 hit. So it was another hardship ahead.

but he made it through that too.

 

Not getting too involved with this because it really isn't that hard for a business to have serious struggles these days. A company where the owner is doing his best to save a company is pretty rare these days. That effort tells you a lot about the person.

All that said, the last comment about the company's finical battle stated "he worked his**** off digging the company out of that hole. Unfortunately, about that time 2008 hit."

For the record, 2008 hit every business, including mine. As far as a company is concerned, 2008 is ancient history. It may have been a good reason a company failed in 2010, but is a pretty poor excuse for a failure in 2024.

I can see the events of 2020 & 2021 killing a business in 2024. Business expenses have skyrocketed since 2022.

If Fatman (and many other businesses) can survive, maybe 2025 will bring some relief.

 

Brent was running Fatman in 2008 and the business was in good shape when he retired, as far as I know. Tim took over a few years ago. His wife got breast cancer and he trusted others to run the business with little financial oversight. Just to be clear.

 

I truly hope Fatman's survives long into the future. I bought dropped uprights and steering arms eons ago, and long after they offered to add a reinforcement that was needed on the steering arms at no charge, I called, expecting to have to buy arms after so much time had passed. And I was OK with that, since it was my fault for not doing it years earlier. But they did it with no questions asked, years after the fact. As a business owner myself, I understood that they stepped up when they didn't have to. I know that was when Brent owned the company, but I'd still call them first in the future , especially after my experience with them..
We need to support these companies whenever we can.

 

As a former shop owner who went through the same thing during the great recession of 2007-2008, I know what Tim is going through. Ever increasing cost of operations and materials and the never-ending vicious circle of raising prices to cover cost and at the same time loosing customer base because of rising cost. Throw in a medical crisis like Tims or a finical situation like me that's no fault of your own and things go downhill real fast. Earlier this fall I bought a 22ft stick of 16-gauge inch and a quarter square tubing and it cost me 75.00 dollars not including the 20-mile round trip to get it. Now imagine his steel bill. And keep in mind he bought the business about the time that dam pandemic hit. I ended up selling my shop and most of my car collection to walk away from a business I put 20 years of my life into. Thankfully I was able to save my home and most of my tools and a few of my cars. Hopefully Tim can do the same. Like it or not there is no future for this hobby or the business that helped build it to what it was. Best of luck to Tim and all the others that are in the same boat, Larry

 

Did they also sell 32 coupe fiberglass bodies and their design frame and running gear?

 

Why can't they?

The dominant IP regime really doesn't serve specialist companies like this any more. The industry desperately needs to figure out a different business model.

 

They need the money a sale would bring.
I hope that the lists of consumables and alternatives will survive.

 

Even a smaller business such as this spends a substantial part of their budget on R&D for the products they carry, in addition to the machinery and jigs it takes to manufacture them. One would hope that Tim recoups some of that expense for that intellectual property.

 

And why is it the crooked accountants never go to prison over this or have to pay fines to the business? It happens everywhere and you never hear of the criminal bookkeepers getting in trouble. Fatman means hot rods. This*****s. I always wondered what happened to Scarebird. I see you can get the kits for some company called Tom's but now I just did a web search and it looks like Scarebird is back in business.

 

Did you read the thread?

my comment was for historical context of the fact that this had happened before with a different owner.

and yes I’m aware it hit everyone, I don’t think that was ever questioned.

I was noting that the company almost died and as soon as he started seeing light 08 happened.

Again to be clear this recent issue is a different owner just a similar situation

 

I have most certainly read the entire post.

Your historical context did in fact happen, but is completely unrelated to the current owner, or the current situation within the company. Bringing up irreverent information completely side tracks the current topic, especially when much more current events may, or may not have contributed to the companies current position.

With you bringing up events from 15 years ago that happened under a different owner of the business has already invited more posts taking the current subject down a rabbit hole it doesn't need to go down.

I wish Tim the best of luck as he chases his desire to make things right from events he may have had no control over. That alone says a lot about the guy's integrity. The Fatman company has been a stable for quality parts and service for many years, I do indeed hope the business can survive for many years to come.

But, lets try to keep this thread on topic with the current owner and the current situation.