StangNut

Can you post a copy of the email?

karrnutt

Basically, what I understand is that the grilles are recalled by the president of the company. His salesmen are supposed to contact their clients to accept returns for full refund on the grille only. Pay you own shipping back.A revised product should be available in 6-8 weeks. This is what I have heard indirectly, not from the horse's mouth.

05fordgt

Karrnutt, that is pretty much the gist of the email that I got from KSR. My only quarel is that they want us to return these ASAP, but we won't get our new products for 2 months or so. What would be better is for the company to take a list of people who have the defective grills, and email them the option of keeping them until the newer piece comes out. This way, we won't be without the product. Just my thought though. Has anyone contacted Butch in regards to sending them back for a refund? I know he stated NO RETURNS, but if the manufacturer states to take them back, I am guessing that he must do it?

hawgman

Yea, that is basically what my email said also. It didn't state that they wanted them back ASAP though. Mine said he would have a salesman contact Energizer Racing to refund my money. Don't want to hammer Butch with emails about it so I thought I would give him a couple of days to contact me before I initiate the conversation.

adrenalin

First off let me start by saying the majority of people that have ordered these grilles off of ebay were aware of the fact that the grilles were warped before placing their order. So I am not sure I understand the majority of ranting.

Anyway, I received my grille today so I guess it is my turn to rant

Grille was warped as expected. It was packaged pretty good but UPS as usual damaged the box. Fortunately the grille was not damaged.

Now for the installation. Took about 2 hours to straighten out the warp. I then removed the stock grille and test fit the new one. It fit pretty good but didn't quite line up with the slots in the street scene fascia, which doesn't make sense since the stock grille fits fine. I removed the grille and installed the fog lights. I then disconnected all of the cable clamps for the harnesses. I went to install the grille again and wouldn't you know it, the fogs hit the frame so much that the lower grill clips are off by close to 1/2". Out comes the grinder. I grinded down the metal where the fogs were touching and even grinded a bit of plastic off of the fogs. I have the grille in as far as it can go but it still needs to go back about 1/4" but the fog light on the passenger side is hitting the horn, which I moved as much as I can. It is pretty dark out so I figure for now it is good enough. Unfortunately I know you can see a gap along the bottom of the grille since it isn't pushed in all the way. As for connecting the harnesses to the bulbs, they reach without needing to modify the wires. However, even though they reach, they are really stretched. I am afraid that if I was to keep it this way, after a while the wires might just become damaged at the connectors. I just need about 1/2" of slack for each wire so I will see if I can figure out if that is possible.

So for now the grille is installed and the lights are working. It looks pretty cool but I will have to get pics later. It is pouring outside, man, this is going to be a long week.

In conclusion (oh boy, that sounds like I am back in school), although the grille is made of really good quality there are a few downfalls.
1. Warped
2. Need to grind down the metal crossmember in order for the grille to fit properly.
3. Does not have the same texture as factory so blemishes show up easier, but I guess I shouldn't have expected the surface to be textured.

Overall for the price it is a very good grille. I wouldn't expect to pay as little as we did for something better.

adrenalin

Not really. If a company issues a recall in most cases the resellers do not need to accept the product back and issue a refund. Whenever one of my vendors recalls something the customers need to deal directly with the manufacturer.

hawgman

Do I get a free pass since I was the first to order? Actually I think I have ranted the least. Stuff happens.
What method did you use to straighten it out?
Agreed. For the price we really have no room to gripe.

energizerracingparts

First off I never said I would not taken them back. My ebay listing is as all of listings are as is no returns. that is because of the people out there that do trial and error auto parts(i'm not walmart) and i when i started on ebay Apr-30-00 i would get people who would buy things then months later would try to return for various reason, non of which a product problem or my error. So I started the as is no return policy and its been 6 years &
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I have always done my best to satisfy my customers.

But in cases where I am at fault or the product has problems and the mfg is willing to take back from me I will accept returns with authorization.


My biggest concern was the damaged grilles 1st, warp was not damaged it was in the mfg process. then i was going to address any other problem when the mfg got back to me, i was given instructions today.

HERE IS HOW I WILL HANDLE the returns!!!!!

1 email me include your name address and ebay name
2 wait for my instructions on sending back.
3 when i get your grille back with a copy of your paypal payment i will credit the grille .
4 the mfg is not covering any shipping & i will not hold money for replacements not sure if i'm getting any when they come back in and my opinion is 8-10 weeks. If i do get them I will give best deal possible to those who purchased 1st time.
5 i am very sorry for any problems.
6 returns must be made with in the next week. MFG will not accept these back later when new ones are available.

I also do not know if price will change.


I am not sure if they are accepting modified or installed grilles back I am awaiting that answer.


all shipping damaged grilles should already be on the way back to me or ksr.


Butch Clayton
Energizer Racing & Parts
energizer@netcarrier.com

2006GT

After arguing with myself all weekend, I finally said "WTF, the most I'm out is 130 bucks. Let’s give this a shot."

So I set out to fix and install this beast. I started out with fixing the warp.... Using a heat gun I worked my way from one end to the other. I first used my hands to flatten out the big waves and then I just used clamps and clamped it to the edge of my work bench to fine tune. Took 30 mins tops. No biggie. See pic...

Next I had to fix the broken tabs. I did this by using a soldering iron to do a little plastic welding. Worked like a charm. Since the tabs were not completely broken off. I started by placing the iron in the crack, melting the plastic, straightened it up and then worked my way around the outside. See pics.

After all the fixes, I test fitted. Since I didn’t want to unattached all the retainers to make the fog light wires stretch, I spliced some extensions in place. Soldering iron came in real handy tonight.

After that… I just reinstalled and all is good. Fit looks nice and everything is in there nice and tight with no wiggling at all. See pics..

2006GT

After....

2006GT

PS... I'm diggin the look.

silverGTvert

I had to point it out.

2006GT

Hey guys... Lighten up on Butch. After talking to him last week, he's an up front and honest guy. He's not happy with this situation any more than you. Do you really think he wants to go through this nightmare? He posted several times what to do and how to handle returns. I will do business with him again.

BTW Butch. Thought I'd lighten your load a bit. Obviously I decided to keep mine.

2006GT

I knew someone would catch that.

energizerracingparts

I want to thank all the people who have sent me emails and been understanding.

I also want to thank the guys who kepted and modified there grilles and intalled them. From the pics I've seen they look great. You my friends are a special breed.

I'm not sure how many of you are new mustang guy and how many of you have owned several mustangs.

I'm not defending the grille or promoting(ps if anyones gonna bash anyone how about the guys that are still listing them on ebay) it is what it is the first try at an aftermarket grille that most seems to like.

But those of us that have owned several mustangs have worked through things like this before. I have been working on fox mustangs since 1988 and the things I have modified or reworked to fit are countless i can't remember the last aftermarket part that bolted on with no problem for my 79, and my father and my uncle could match with there stories of 60's mustangs and falcons.



I do have to make a point to say if i don't get back to request right away please bare with me I have alot going on right now.


My wife is about to give birth to our 1st child any day now(already have the 65 mustang pedal car ready, red for girl and blue for boy). And in addition to this business I work a full time job where I travel so usally I am away from the computer during the day.



Butch
Energizer Racing & Parts

hawgman

Completely agree. I am sure he is 20 times ( or however many he sold ) as frustrated as anyone that bought one might be. Especially since all of this was just as much as a surprise to him as it was to any of us because the grills were drop shipped direct from KSR and he never had the opportunity to inspect them. That is exactly why I made the statement above that I was going to wait to hear something from him instead of slamming him with emails. Give the guy a chance to catch up, and catch his breath.

adrenalin

so how many of you guys had to grind down some metal in order to get the grille to fit properly after installing the fog lights?

adrenalin

I used a 1"x36" piece of flat aluminum. Clamped it to the bottom of the grille using 3 12" quick clamps. I then clamped 1 end of the grille to a workbench. Half of the grille was hanging off of the bench. Then I used a torch to heat the lower section of the grille and I used one of the clamp handles as a prybar and was just pushing it away from the back of the grille (basically pushing the warp downwards) while heating it. I would then blast it with cold water after a minute or so. I wasn't worried too much about the plastic turning shiny because it was on the bottom and you would never see it.

Brought the car to work so I could take a look at it from a distance. It looks pretty good. You have to be within a few feet and sqwat down to see that there is a gap along the bottom. I will be working on this again this weekend to fine tune everything.

NOLAGT

This is my first stang but no where near the first time something wasnt 100% perfect and ready to go in. My thoughts are always if it doesnt work find a way to make it work....and if not....move on.

The thing that gets to me so much about all this.....is that UPS messed my grill up and now I cant even try to make it fit like you lucky folks lol. At anyrate I guess I will just mull around untill the new batch comes out or someone else makes one that is close to this.

Butch I feel you....my wife is about to birth my first child as well....so I know all to well what a madhouse can be like....take your time and just keep us updated and all should work it self out.

BTW I was looking at my car yesterday....and I can see my stock grill is even a little warped along the bottom edge. It doesnt sit 100% flat on top of the bumper.

AL1356

Oh yeah...after all the shaping work; splicing extension wires in the harness, I went to install the new grille. The vertical tab and some large round fuse lookin' thing were hitting the horizontal member. I was so determined though that I got my Dremel tool out and cut the metal out just enough. Filed it smooth and painted the exposed metal with some touch up paint I had (from when I installed Redline hood struts).
The grille slid right in no problem.
However, my shaping needs a little more work!
This is my first Mustang ever and it's been great modding it and I am getting enjoying getting my hands dirty. So far so good. I'm 52 years old and feel like a kid when I'm working on the Stang.