Any Recent Experiences With Carmate ?

[Wacky Dee]

looking to get a Nismo style rear bar and impul style side skirts for my R34 GTT ... and carmate's the only place that has these, plus they're not too far away from me.

But I've read a few not-so-good things about them in the past so I'm a bit weary .. I'm not exactly the patient or tolerant type either, so I'd rather not goto them if I'm guaranteed bad service, idiocy, bad fittment etc

Anyone had any recent experiences with them ??

This is the rear bar: http://carmate.com/product_details.php?pro...&p_id=10208

Side skirts: http://carmate.com/product_details.php?pro...&p_id=10225

Edited December 5, 2008 by Delta Force

[.:: GimpS-R34 ::.]

don't carmate offer fitment if you go to their shop? just get them to fit the products before you buy.. and i think its a bit of hit & miss with fiberglass.. however i had a pleasant experience with them

[Wacky Dee]

yeah i'd most likely have them paint and fit the bar and skirts too, so I guess that's an extra safety net ie. they can't claim it's not their fault if the paint or fittment isn't perfect.

What did you get from them ?

[.:: GimpS-R34 ::.]

i got a bonnet but it was for a vt.. fitment was good.. so i had no complaints

[GTR-N1]

I felt comfortable there; even if the boss Steve could be a little bit 'reserved'. Most of his staff were friendly.

Fitment is highly recommended, as one piece (front lip) was perfect but another (side skirt) was not.

[gtrkiet]

carmate is abit over priced imo..

[Wacky Dee]

$1400 for rear bar and skirts, painted and fitted is a pretty decent price I reckon as original items would cost atleast $3k PLUS paint/fittment fees.

[Wacky Dee]

I felt comfortable there; even if the boss Steve could be a little bit 'reserved'. Most of his staff were friendly.

Fitment is highly recommended, as one piece (front lip) was perfect but another (side skirt) was not.

Hey Terry, did they fix the side skirt without stuffing you around ? What was wrong with it ?

[GTR-N1]

Hiya Den,

Steve let me take the side-skirt out to the car (ie car-park) and line it up. It (a JUN one) was such a misfit that a panelbeater would have needed to twist it and add more F/G front and rear to make it look seamless. Steve came out and tried to help, but he could see my disappointment. He acknowledged that the painter/panelbeater would need to do quite a bit of moulding.

The only thing right about it was the length and the solidness. It would have weighed twice as much as the Nismo ones though.

I can't say anything about other styles of side-skirts, but my front lip was just as good a fit as OEM = no gaps

Cheers,

Tez

[Dal34]

$1400 for rear bar and skirts, painted and fitted is a pretty decent price I reckon as original items would cost atleast $3k PLUS paint/fittment fees.

And you get what you pay for when you buy genuine, my genuine cwest kit fits better than factory, no gaps or modifications to fit either.

[snappy_]

There's a guy on sau who works for them say that they are the dodgiest place out.

[Wacky Dee]

yeah who? I went down there with a mate and had a chat with one of the guys, seemed very friendly and reassuring. For $100 they'll trial fit the bar and skirts (I get $50 of that back if I go ahead) and modify them as needed ..atleast that's what he said.

[J'z-R33]

My brother ordered a silver carbon bonnet, he also said it would be a 2-3 weeks wait, then another 2 weeks then another.. 4 months later it arrived. At the same time we ordered a Group A kit for the VT commodore, the fitment was below average, nothing lined up and the panel beater said it was the worst kit he'd ever seen. Took him an extra 3 hours to fit the kit. IMHO pay a bit extra and get a kit from DMD. There kits are top quality.

Cheers,

J

[.:: GimpS-R34 ::.]

LOL $100.00 trial fit? if they want your business and if they are confident with their work they'd do a trial fit for nothing.. i mean i know some ppl that go "test" a car ina car yard for a spin in that car/for fun.. but who goes to trial kits for fun...

understandably if a buyer wanted to see 2+ body kits cause they can't decide.. but if they are willing to buy on good fitment then no charge should be placed..

agree on DMD 100%.. i bought my Do-Luck front bar and vented front fenders and they the best fitment i've seen

[nuffsaid]

I have heaps of negative things to say, you'd be surprised

I shall PM you Denis

[Wacky Dee]

The reason for the 'trial fit' he said was basically because they haven't fitted the Nismo style rear bar themselves before so it's necessary ... I can understand an extra $50 charge if they're gonna spend an hour or 2 taking my bar off, putting theirs on, measuring everything and then reversing the process .. The side skirts they said shouldn't be an issue, they've fitted plenty without a problem

If some other more reputable shop sold the Nismo rear bar I'd consider it but I don't think i've ever seen it anywhere else for an R34 and these are pretty sweet and rare bars. Same with the impul side skirts..DMS are in QLD aren't they? I'm in sydney so it'd need to be shipped and I'd have no way to inspect the goods prior to shipping to check the quality and condition, plus FB can get damaged in transit quite easily

I wisj JSAI had more options for R34's as I'm getting the Ztune front from him and he's a great bloke and in Sydney ..having said that, the Ztune was meant to be finished atleast 5-6 months ago

Thanks for the comments guys. I might just get the side skirts from Carmate .. and get the ztune rear pods from JSAI only

[dori34]

im going to be getting a R34 GTR front lip & impul side skirst from them after xmas, ill let you know how fitment goes.

[Wacky Dee]

Just went today for a trial fit and the side skirts needed some modifications plus there WILL be a small gap in one or 2 non-obvious spots but it'll probably be close to perfect once painted and glued on (I was told the small gap would be filled with black glue anyways)

The rear bar on the other hand was a perfect fit - no modifications required, it just lined up perfectly the first time which was a huge surprise. Should have it painted and fitted by around xmass time, will update when it's done.

So far it's been a pleasant experience.

Now if only the Ztune frontbar that JSAI was making, would get finished already ... the car's gonna look weird with side skirts and rear bar and only the factory front which sits pretty high up.

Edited December 10, 2008 by Delta Force

[GTR-N1]

'Tis nice to hear of a good outcome for an enthusiast.

Tez

[Wacky Dee]

wow just when I'm trying to do up my car some idiot smashes in my rear ... half blind old bloke, smashes into a van behind me and the van smaeshes into me. The lid isn't lining up to the rear bar/lights correctly anymore and the towtruck smashrepairer/vulture on the scene said the metal underbody probably got pushed in and estimated $3k damage, even though there's no visible damage other than a 1cm gap between boot lid and rear bar. Now I can't even get the new bar fitted until this mess is sorted out.

Thank god for insurance .. but f**k I hate doing this, almost same thing happened just 2 years, mid december also, ago and it took more than 6 weeks to have my car the way it was before the accident and for no reason than someone else being a shit driver.

Edited December 11, 2008 by Delta Force