Has anyone had this kind of trouble with a factory hood?I know I just got lucky, but am VERY happy with the Vipair hood so far.
You could not have said it any better. You are lucky! The hood I purchased from Steve was an absoloute horrible fit. At first site the body shop was thrilled with the initial apperearance. After a trial fit as you did before paint they were not so happy and neither was I. The hood was warped the driver side front lined up with the bumper but the passenger side was very high the gaps from the front of the fenders to the rear went from tight to almost a half inch gap. There wasnt enough adjustment on the fenders from the factory to even make it come close. The body shop cut and welded new adjutment bolts in so that they were able to move the fenders enough to make it look decent. The under side of the hood contacted the engine, they raised the hood latcha s far as it would go and that didnt help. So they sanded down the X (if you will) on the underside of the hood to where there was no more material left to sand. Then had to make it concave with fiberglass so the hood would not come in contact with the engine. Needless to say this involved numerous hours of labor and much extra cost to me. After all of this I can say the hood look nice and I get complements on it often. Kudos to the body shop for making this hood work.
Oh believe me I went round and round with Steve and have many emails along with pictures from the body shop to prove how much work was neeed to get this hood to fit.
I asked for money, he offered parts that I really had no use for. There is no warranty with the hood. After a few months of back and forth with Steve he tells me if I want money I will have to wait a month or two while he sells off some items. I waited and waited and never heard from him. So actually a few weeks ago I emailed him to ask what he planned on doing and I got no response. By the way I had this hood installed a year ago almost to the day, and to date Steve has not made good on reimbursement for the added cost to me because of a bad mold. If he was willing to offer me adjustable suspensions, wings, front facias and such that he sells for several hunderds of dollars and some at over a thousand, how could he not send me a check for 500 bucks. Totally dissappointed with his customer service. I can only hope for the perspective buyers of this product the mold is better as well as the customer service.
HI GONABITE,
Please send me your last email again, I can't seem to locate it. also send me some details on your paypal account of you have one and we will get this cleared up. The slow economy has hurt all of us this year and funds are tight but we will offset some of your out of pocket on what the body shop has told you they needed to do (PS. The fender bolts are not welded to anything) and this is the first I have heard of the hood being warped.
I had 2 06 coupes that I put my hoods on to and in looking at the inner fender liners on each, each coupe fender (same sides) was shimmed differently both in height and in side to side. The factory files the holes and moves the fenders to fit for the hood gap, one of my coupes the hood fit perfect, the other I moved the fenders in about an 1/8th on each side. the Gen 3 and Gen 4 Vipers are way more precisely built than the Gen 2 vipers were but there is still a lot of latitude in their construction and unfortunately most body shops will take advantage of their customers to some extent. Even my own, on my wife's VCA coupe panted and installed one of my hoods and then claimed it would cost me about 2 to 4 hours labour to make it line up on one side where the gap was wider yet (the gap was too thin on the other side), I asked him for a ratchet wrench to loosen and move the hinge over a smidge, he then said he would do it and it wouldn't cost a thing.
That hood cost me around $800 to have painted and striped, I have had solid color hoods cost as low as $300 to paint, it just depends.
Like I stated earlier send me your last email again and we will get this worked out.
Thanks
Steve
Great talking to you on the phone today Steve and I look forward to putting the new hood on!
Damn that carbon hood is still the one I want though Thats the same way I was going to paint it too treesnake.
Andy Wheeler
My hood from Steve fit great! All I had to do was move the fenders in just a tad on each side, just like he said. I also had to move the hood latch up, but it does clear the intake. His shipping was fast and he was easy to deal with over the phone. Thanks Steve! Did you ever hear back about the shipping refund?
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The hood is not closed in this pic.
That hood looks better than the factory hood IMO. The carbon poking through is a nice touch. TreeSnake's is going to look even more insane with that on.
Looks Good...
Can't wait to to install mine...
HI GONABITE,
Please send me your last email again, I can't seem to locate it. also send me some details on your paypal account of you have one and we will get this cleared up. The slow economy has hurt all of us this year and funds are tight but we will offset some of your out of pocket on what the body shop has told you they needed to do (PS. The fender bolts are not welded to anything) and this is the first I have heard of the hood being warped.
I had 2 06 coupes that I put my hoods on to and in looking at the inner fender liners on each, each coupe fender (same sides) was shimmed differently both in height and in side to side. The factory files the holes and moves the fenders to fit for the hood gap, one of my coupes the hood fit perfect, the other I moved the fenders in about an 1/8th on each side. the Gen 3 and Gen 4 Vipers are way more precisely built than the Gen 2 vipers were but there is still a lot of latitude in their construction and unfortunately most body shops will take advantage of their customers to some extent. Even my own, on my wife's VCA coupe panted and installed one of my hoods and then claimed it would cost me about 2 to 4 hours labour to make it line up on one side where the gap was wider yet (the gap was too thin on the other side), I asked him for a ratchet wrench to loosen and move the hinge over a smidge, he then said he would do it and it wouldn't cost a thing.
That hood cost me around $800 to have painted and striped, I have had solid color hoods cost as low as $300 to paint, it just depends.
Like I stated earlier send me your last email again and we will get this worked out.
Thanks
Steve
Do Not Buy From Member "gts-r 001" - Viper Alley - Dodge Viper Forum
Why should Vipair be allowed to advertise here if he is going to continue to rip people off and not make good on customer complaints, refunds or products promised to ship after payment is made? I think the moderators need to get involved here and have him pay up or be banned. Unfortunately i am not the only one having problems with Steve and his products.
Gonabite/Mike,
Your check went out today,
The issue I have is this
These pictures were taken before your body shop did any work on March 4th, 09
These pictures are from you after your body shop supposedly spent 16 hours fitting the hood to the fenders
The thing that is really dumbfounding to me is the price you paid for the paint job, you mention that these guys advertise in Dupont registry and such and I would expect a body shop that does so to more "higher priced" than ones that do not do so, so I find it incredibly incredible that they only charged $528.77 to paint a viper hood and stripe it, including paint materials and labour, when most people pay at least $1K and a lot of times $1500.00 for a striped paint job on a Viper hood, yet they charged you only $528.77 and they charged $1100+ to fit the hood, and from what I see in the pics it looks like you should have sent the hood to pattymelt for his 10 minute fitment job instead of using these guys as it looks like it fit the same before and after.
Like I said earlier I sent you a check for you trouble in having them do a few hours of work shaving a half inch off the X brace.
DO you think these guys can paint other VCA member hoods for $528.77, including stripes, labor and paint and material et all?
If so you should post their contact details for all the members here to use them, that is a heck of a deal, I paid almost double that for each of my 08 hood paint jobs!