Druidiron

SO as some of you know I was recently deployed to Afghanistan. During that time my wife decided she would surprise me and order the Extreme Dimensions body kit for me (similar to FiveAxis) and get it installed just in time for me to get back. This would have been a wonderful surprise, except the person she trusted to do the work; that had multiple good references, did a TERRIBLE JOB.

I am currently waiting on an email from extreme dimensions with the install instructions because the "professional installer," says he followed the directions to the letter. Now, if he is telling the truth than: I MUST INSIST THAT NO ONE BUY THIS KIT! Why? Because if what he says is true, the kit calls for WOOD SCREWS to be used in multiple VISABLE areas of the car!!!!

Regardless if the E.D. kit really tells you to use wood screws or not, it is pretty obvious that this kit does need some significant modification to get it to go on right. The FiveAxis kit only requires paint. It seems that the FiveAxis kit is more expensive, but if you get it off TRDSparks.com you get free shipping. Extreme Dimensions does not offer free shipping and it cost $165 to send it. If you do the math, that makes the E.D. kit only about $87 LESS than the FiveAxis, but the E.D. kit requires about $200 more in labor to properly install. The guy who did my “install,” did not do the required work to put it on right. It is rubbing, it is not formed up or lined up properly, and it is held on with WOOD SCREWS!!! Anyone with any body work experience can tell it was done poorly, from 200 feet away. Sadly my wife has never done any body work and did not know.

There is a lesson I have learned here. That is to make sure that your wife/husband or significant other knows 1000% that she/he is not allowed to make major modifications to your car as a surprise. No matter how good a surprise they think it will be.

Honestly had the installer done a good job, my home coming from deployment would have been great. Instead I had to hold back vomit and tears after seeing the damage done to my ride, and have been home for 4 days and absolutely refuse to drive my car. If I take my car to get appraised right now, I can guarantee it will be worth $2000-$3000 less than when I left.

I am waiting to hear form E.D. with the install instructions, and then I am going to video document taking the kit off and see how much damage is done underneath. This way I have a leg to stand on to sue the ever living ____ out of the installer.

Here are links to the two kits: http://extremedimensions.com/2011-20...x-X-5-Kit.html

http://www.trdsparks.com/displaypart...&parts_id=3969

I am not putting any pictures up of the car because seriously, it is THAT BAD. Let me put it this way, I ordered springs and a few other things that I was super excited to put on when I got back. I have not even opened the boxes because well, what’s the point? I have not even opened the doors to the car, or looked for my keys for that matter. It makes my literally sick to my stomach to walk outside and see the car.

CementTC

Come on you have to post up some pics so we can see... I feel bad for your wife trying to do something awesome and it back fired.

TeeCizzle

There's your #1 mistake...Buying a Fiberglass kit.

Fiberglass kits are horrible pieces of POS.

schwartz329

Where was it bought from ?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

GQQSE13

TeeCizzle speaks the truth! eurthane(sp) is the only way to go to have good fitment

Mikey_Boy

yeah the main problem is not that your spouse ordered extreme dimensions kit to save on the more expenisve five axis, but rather your spouse ordered fiberglass to on the the more expensive urethane. Any brand fiberglass kit you should expect serious modification to install. There's a reason they're always cheaper then poly-urethane. you get what you pay for. Five Axis kits are very well made, and a monkey can install them. perfect fit everytime

EDDIEA123

iTrader: (5)

Sux to hear man but if you could post some pix of the work done and then the body shop that did it so that we can look out for who not to go to....Hope things work out in the future for you

yellowxhoodie

iTrader: (16)

1.) Extreme Dimensions kits are garbage. Only takes a couple minutes on google to figure that out. (granted, your wife is prob not a car person so she prob didnt know any better)
2.) Cheaper gets require way more work to fit properly, often times you have to heat them up to re-shape them and trim off significant amounts. These companies have little to no quality control which is reflected in their price
3.) Any reputable body shop wouldnt use wood screws, regardless of what the instructions say. They should know better.

ProjectTC2

iTrader: (1)

THIS ^^^ A 12 year old knows not to use wood screws to put on a lip kit!!

highvoltage1

iTrader: (11)

Wood screws?

Legen wait for it!













Dary!



In all seriousness! Thanks for your service OP! Sorry bought your ride.

Rob2012TC

Yep, I made the mistake of ordering a "quality" urethane kit one time as well as a VFN low rise cowl hood for my 95 Z28. The kit was warped, had to be heated multiple times, prep work was a bear, then the corvette shop had to use a urethane "caulk" to fill in the gaps to the body, it was terrible quality, but fortunately the shop I used got it looking near perfect, they charged me though! I would have been better off just getting the RS ground effect factory kit in the end. Same with the VFN hood... They basically had to re glass some of it and seriously prep it to get it right... Frustrating when you pay good money and get poor quality.

Trying to go after these low end shops after they have your money can be a royal PITA. ED will stay it's the installer and the shop will say it's a crappy kit and they did the best they could Hope everything works out, take it off get the body shop to fill any holes properly then put on a five axis kit and you be fine. Hopefully the shop will do the 5 axis cheap or free and ED will refund you.

Druidiron

Yellowxhoodie is exactly right. My wife is NOT a car person and did not know the difference. All she knew was she could "save" $100. She understands now that with car parts you get exactly what you pay for.

ED is definitely not going to refund me. They make it very clear that any modification and it is your kit for life. It has paint and multiple holes now.

The main points of my post were to steer people clear of ED/fiberglass kits, and make damn sure family members of yours did not think it was ok to surprise you with significant changes to your rides.

ED’s install instructions are VERY BROAD, but the good news is the instructions do say “remove hardware, reinstall hardware in the same location.” Nowhere does it say: throw a wood screw where ever the hell you feel like it. Tomorrow I will start the pain staking process of taking the parts off with full video and picture documentation, and I will put some pics on here of the craziness.
I don’t know the name of the shop off the top of my head. I do know the guy is trying to use the “part time” defense. If you except money to do work, it does not matter if you are part time or full time. I guess he thinks it is ok to do terrible work and thousands of dollars in damage to peoples cars as long as he does not make a living off doing it?

GQQSE13

yea throwing in a wood screw still has me trying ot figure out wtf the shop was thinking

Druidiron

BACK FROM THE DEAD!

I have not been on here much at all since I posted this in September. I looked into suing the guy who installed the ED kit and was advised by an attorney since my wife authorized the modifications, that I would have to sue her first...So that did not happen. It was not long after that I sucked it up and tried to make the kit look the best I could. When doing this, I realized I should not be (as) mad at the installer. There literally is NO way to make this fiberglass kit look good, without a gallon of bondo per panel. It is not molded to fit properly, period.

I am sorry it took so long to put pics up guys, I really am. Understand though that my love for the car went from high to ZERO. Nothing about it excited me, it was even a choir to me to do simple oil changes. I bought a barely running 1997 BMW 328i and put all my energy into it for a good while:

BUT THEN: I got a message on here from Troy at FiveAxis. He made a deal with me that I could not refuse! Thanks to the FiveAxis guys, and the good people at 3dCarbon I now officially love my car again. I have about 50 pics to upload, but I promise that EVERYONE will understand why the ED kit is a terrible idea, and why the FiveAxis is the way to go once you see photo proof

Druidiron

I am gonna try and stay in order here, but there is a ton of pics so forgive me if I go back and forth.

This first section will be with the ED installed:




Passenger side with ED kit


Drivers side ED kit

Doesn't look so bad right? Well, these are pics and if you are a true car guy, in person it would be painfully obvious that something is not right...


Here is where it gets bad. You can see all the ripples in the front lip. In this pic the car was not clean so it is not as bad as when it is shinny. Who intentionally keeps their car dirty for months so people don't see how terrible the body kit is? Buy a ED kit and it will be you! Trust me, it was me...


This one shows little defects. Notice how at the grill, the front lip on the driver side is curved where it meets the grill, but not only squared but also not making contact on the passenger side...


Hopefully you guys will be able to see the notes I already made on the pic.


Notice the lip overlaps the fog light bezel. It does it on the drivers side too. This is how it was MOLDED, not installed. There is no way for this not to happen, well unless you take hours of your free time to shave/sand/grind the lip to fit properly.


Sweet gap for no reason bro. Again, there is no reason this should happen if the kit was made to actually fit the car. And take note of the paint damage, it gets worse.


Ouch. This is because the front lip does not sit well, but also there is very little holding it on. the ED kit comes with nothing but the 5 unpainted pieces. The directions are really simple too: Remove old hardware, fit Extreme Dimensions item to vehical and re install hardware. How do you re install something that was not there to begin with? You don't and ED makes the instructions so vague on purpose to cover their butts from angry customers. The lip was installed with 1 screw at each wheel wheel, and 2 under the bumper near the center.



Clearly that is a ton of gap below the door, but look behind the door and you will see almost no gap at all. What does that tell us? That the ED kit does not fit!! I don't think bondo could fix this mess up...


Check out those perfectly matching body lines. The Quality Assurance people at ED need new glasses.


Here is what it looks like with the door open.


More to come.

Druidiron

More of the ED kit installed:


I know what you are thinking. Is that a screw in the bumper holding that piece on? Why yes, yes it is. Why? Because the installer was terrible and had no idea what he was doing? Well, kind of but mostly because it is what HAD to be done to get those rear pieces to stay on. They do not fit the car properly so 3M double sided tape will not be useful as it is not thick enough to touch both the car and the ED rear bumper pieces. Again, bondo and hours of work these could look perfect but how much is your free time worth to you?


See what I mean now? The white inside that gap is a type of double sided tape. See how it is doing nothing because the gap is just too wide?


Not only do these pieces not hug the bumper like they should, but the shape of the piece also does not flow with the car, as you can see.


Alright that's all I am going to post of the Extreme Dimensions kit on the car. I have a feeling some people are thinking that it is "not so bad, and he is just being picky." The next round of pics will show you the actual damage that was done by this kit being installed.

SkillFreeJake

Wow, that's bad. I know for a fact that almost none of the ED/Duraflex/etc. body parts fit even remotely well for any car. I've seen people get the Concept G lip spoiler for their tC2's and the 3 pieces to it are all angled completely different. Hopefully one day someone will figure out a way to sue them for all their worth and maybe then they'd attempt at performing quality control.

I really hate that this had to happen to a fellow tC owner, but at the same time I am very glad FiveAxis is helping you out.

And, really? Wood screws? What is this, 1921?

Druidiron

Here comes the really bad:


This is why you save $87 buy going with the ED kit over the FiveAxis. Too bad it will cost alot more than 87 bucks to get my bumper resprayed, and this is just the very first ic of this section. It looks just as bad, if not worse on the passenger side, same area.


Drivers side front bumper at wheel well. As you can see the kit was rubbing there too, and these are DEEP. Like no more paint at all deep. Looks the same on the passenger side except not as deep, but even more surface scratching.


Passenger side fog light without the kit. The backside of the ED kit is rough, textured fiberglass. That is how you get separate scratches like you see here. You will see pics of the ED kit rear end soon.


Like I said, more surface scratches on the passenger side wheel well. ( I could not find this pic at first)


This is the rear wheel well of the drivers side skirt. You can see the installer had to make his own holes to "secure" the ED kit skirt. The large hole closer to the door is for a white plastic rail that would had seated the factory side skirt. With the ED kit, you can't use that rail because of how the ED kit is made. Basically, you have about 24 inches or more where the ED side skirt is held on by nothing. Not a big deal sitting still, but at 80 MPH it is something to worry about...I really consider myself lucky that I never lost a piece at highway speeds in 8 months.


Side view of same area. That screw rash was completely the installers fault!


Passenger side rear wheel well side skirt. Again, the installer had to make his own holes, and several due to not being able to use the factory rail. If the ED kit was actually made to fit right he would not of had to do this. Had he not, I would bet money that the side skirts would have broken at highway speeds.


Uhg.


The aftermath of screws in the rear bumper. Passenger side looks the same, but without the rub rash above the hole.


Ok that is it for the damage pics because I think you get the idea. What you don't see in the pictures is the 3 hours or so I spent fixing rusty screw holes and paint damage before I could install the FiveAxis kit. If you don't see why the ED kit is a bad idea yet I don't know what else to do to convince you. Sure, if you don't let people get within 10 feet of your car, they may not know the difference, but most people on here want to show off their rides, not hide them.

Druidiron

Alright, time for some light at the end of the tunnel. Like I said, I have had zero motivation to work on the tC since my wife got the ED kit installed for me, and you can now understand from looking at all the damage why I did not just take it off. I could have taken it off but all the rashing, scratches, and gouges would have stuck out worse than the sloppy ED kit did. Getting that private message from Troy at FiveAxis was the best thing that could have happened to me in this situation. Selling the car was not on the table, but remember the springs I said I had in the first post? Yeah, still sitting in my tool room...

When I wrote my original post, 8 months ago, I did it solely to warn fellow tC2 owners not to fall for the trap my wife did. I was not expecting anything from it, nor was I asking. I just did not want anyone else to feel as terrible as I did. I was honestly PHYSICALLY sick when I looked at the car for the first week. I had not even thought about the post since I made it in September, until I got the PM from Troy. Apparently Extreme Dimensions ripped off another FiveAD kit, but for the FRS this time. Someone at Five was looking for ED horror stories online, and I guess mine stuck out! Anyway, they made me a pretty good deal and asked nothing in return. I think it is pretty dang cool when the owner of a globally recognized company goes out of his way to contact someone who was a victim of a rival company who ripped off the original product. They did not have to do that; it was not their fault another company ripped off there product and sold it to my unknowing wife. Hell, I would have been about just as excited if he would have stopped at sending me a tee shirt!

Here is a few comparison pics of the ED Vs. the FiveAxis parts.


Rear pieces side by side. I don't think I need to tell you which is which...


backside of a rear ED piece. The website for ED will have you believe its made of some crazy space age material. I am no expert, but that looks like fiberglass to me...


Rear of a FiveAxis piece. Every piece is individually stamped like that and says where it goes/par number ect ect.



Only the side skirts of the ED kit where labeled, and as you can see most of it is covered by over spray, done by ED...


The fit and finish of the FiveAxis kit is second to none. Remember the white rail used to secure the side skirts, I said had to be removed to fit the ED kit? The FiveAxis kit needs that rail. The Five kit fits like stock, without looking stock. The body gaps match, the original hardware is used, and it fits so much more secure. The ED kit had 6 screws holding on each side skirt, and that was because the installer added extras. The FiveAxis has 12 places to secure EACH side skirt, and that is not including the 3 spots the rail holds it too. TO me, the $87 more you pay for the FiveAxis is worth it for security alone. Wouldn't you pay $87 to avoid an accident? But you get so much more than that. Each piece is sturdier, better quality, and much better fit.

I do not have any pics of the FiveAxis kit installed yet because it has been raining all day here. I was actually missing some stock fasteners that I needed to install the FiveAxis kit and Troy priority shipped them to me as soon as he found out cause the car was not drive able. I got the kit Monday, but just finished the last of it today. Again, I have to point out how a globally recognized company goes out of its way for people. It took me 4 emails, 2 phone calls and 3 days to get install instructions emailed to me by ED back in September...
Don't even get me started on the paint. FiveAxis painted the kit and I was a little worried by paint was faded, but it is a great match color wise, but I am a little afraid the paint is TOO good... Honestly the paint work on the Five kit is far better than the scion stock paint. It is like glass, with little to no orange peel. The paint guy at FiveAxis is amazing really; there is no one around here that I know of that would have/could have done that good of a job. I can not thank FiveAxis and 3dCarbon enough.

5zero4

Yep. I'm glad you got it sorted out man. Just waiting for 5AXis to release something for the 2012 xb.