Anybody know a company of clowns called Gearhead in Waterloo Iowa?

I ordered a MII rebuild kit 3 months ago from these folks via Ebay. I also ordered a swaybar bushing kit at the same time. Six weeks later I get a box with the rebuild kit and an extra set of strut rod bushings. Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out strut rods and anti-sway bars aren't interchangable and you don't eliminate one and install an extra set of the other. They don't answer emails ever. I've called them at least 20 times and the gal that answers the phone is totally rude. Half the time she just hangs up without a word. She finally just tells me to talk to her supplier and gives me the number. I called them and they say they don't even sell anti-swaybar bushings but the crackheads at Gearhead ordered extra strut rod bushings so they sent them. Its been so long since my order I can't even leave the ass blasting feedback they so deserve. Avoid these clowns and tell your friends to avoid them too.

 

I believe they are also know as "Rod Parts Warehouse". I think they just act like a middle-man on all this stuff. No real storefront or anything. They are a vendor here at Back to the 50's, and always look like the circus coming to town...rental trucks, pop-up tents, and boxes everywhere. They do have some of the best prices on stuff. I guess I may have 2nd thoughts about them if I wasn't able to buy part in had like I can at the event.

 

Good prices but horrible service. They are known as 'Fatrodder' on ebay.

I've had many mishaps with them. If it helps, the manager's name is Jason IF you can get through the girl on the phone to him.

 

That's funny. I called them once and the girl totally hung up on me on purpose. I called right back and the guy answered. He was totally helpful and fixed the issue. Seems like they have way too much going on and not enough people to keep things in order. Keep calling!!

 

I'm pretty sure Gearhead and Rod Parts Wharehouse are NOT the same places. Gearhead is from Waterloo, and RPW is from the Davenport area. I've never dealt with Gearhead, but I do know the RPW guy has been into old cars for decades.

Now, as for just being a middle-man, this is not always bad. One of the HAMB's own most beloved parts-peddlers runs his business pretty much the same as Rod Parts Warehouse, and everybody is happy with him. It's all in the personality of the man, not how many parts he stocks.

 

I think, as of last summer, the rodpart hwarehouse was still in the quad city area. He mey or may not be linked to the Waterloo guy, I know there is a guy that rebuilds blower caes in Waterloo thats not on the level. The rodparts guy is shifty to the end, I bought most of my parts through him when I did my 54 the first time, no store front, all parts in a house in a residential area, stuff everywhere. He has been or for a while banned from NSRA nats vending due to crooked behavior. I live about a hour from him and won't buy a thing from him. Lifes to short to deal with hassles eveytime...buy from Yogis in the midwest, can't beat them for shippng and service.

 

Dam if this the fatrodder on egay i wouldnt buy shit from him. Just look at his feedback and shitty replies like he is the king and everyone else is an asshole.. I think its the other way around. Ok heres a tip I bought some shit for my buddies model a i was working on from rodparts warehouse. they charged his credit card and no parts. I dont give a rats ass who it is if they charged your card and you dont have the item call em tell em your gonna call the credit card company. If they dont kiss your ass from that point on call the credit card company. Its illegal to charge you in advance for sumpin they done have in stock.. Rod parts asked him not to call and he told em we had better see the shit soon.. we did.
Dave
ps: I bought a bunch of stuff from rodparts when i did my 32 coupe 1-800-visa LOL... They always cut the other guys prices and i didnt have a problem but it can and will happen.......

 

I strongly suggest avoiding doing business with the Gearhead folks. Stopped by the place one time, wasn't impressed at all. They are set up in an out-of-business tire shop, but the place was a mess, and almost every box I saw had chinese markings on it.
I suspect they are a re-packager, pushing cheap crap from "our friends" on the other side of the Pacific.

Roger

 

I strongly second buying stuff from Yogi's. I haven't bought a lot, but they have always been helpful and the woman on the phone (Betty? Help me out here it's been a while) is just as nice as you'd expect an Iowan to be. I had to return a fuel gauge sender(my fault) and they exchanged it no problem. I wish they were close to me, but I'll still be a repeat customer.

 

Another one here.....

Repeat after me....

I shoula searched the HAMB first.....I shoula searched the HAMB first.....I shoula searched the HAMB first.....I shoula searched the HAMB first.....I shoula searched the HAMB first.....I shoula searched the HAMB first.....I shoula searched the HAMB first.....I shoula searched the HAMB first.....

5 Weeks ago, I ordered a pair of front springs for a friend of mine in the UK....

Several 25-40 min "on hold" phone calls....tons of emails, and finally an actual reply....

I got them today...Cheap enough, but TERRIBLE customer service....

 

I just bought some pullys from them, their called Fatrodder on ebay. Good prices, but I couldn't get any response to my emails

 

Watch that FatRodder company on eBay and the parts they sell.

The shop i work for installed a MustangII front end kit that a customer ordered from them, and before the car even hit the road the balljoint boots were cracking.

So, we went to try to replace them, and literally a week later, and about 40 or so trips to our shop by our local parts supplier (bless them and their patience with us), and we couldn't match up the boots to ANYTHING. During this time we were also contacting FatRodder for info to see if they could give us an application so that we could order the proper ones that would press into the groove correctly.

The only thing they did to help was transfer us to someone who then proceeded to tell us that they buy the balljoints and boots from "some place in china", and have no idea what they fit. The threading is completely different than anything most would consider "normal". I wound up fabricating another 'seat' for the balljoints, and getting boots that we know would fit, and it works now.

I hope the balljoints themselves don't go bad anytime soon, the thread pitch/depth/sizes are completely different than any of the balljoints we tried to match it up to. When that time comes, we'll probably have to replace the arms with some different arms with standard components.

Solution? Buy from reputible manufacturers (not middlemen with ZERO product knowledge) that hopefully won't make your life a living hell down the road if/when things go wrong... don't buy cheap crap made in China just to save a few bucks.... it'll cost you more down the road!

 

dave thanks for helping me out, cant believe how long the parts have taken to get to dave... however after reading this im kinda worried about the quality of the parts now...

the guy also goes by the name of BIGGJDOGG Auto Accessories - exactly the same shipping address.

as you say dave shoulda checked the hamb!

fleamarket couldnt you have just bought new balljoints which would have had the same thread as the rack and fitted into the bottom spindle mount?

completely agree though give these guys a miss. its hard when your in the UK and you need several different parts and you can find very few suppliers to supply all parts so we can get it all shipped as one parcel - especially when there is still companies out there who say they wont ship outside the USA - thats a whole other thread though!

 

WELLLLLLLL.....Goes to show how we should keep current on H.A.M.B. threads. I WAS going to order a m/c from that BIGGJDOGG outfit. Thanx a million for the great info. Another place to put in the ole memory bank to stay away from. .....Ole Pork

 

I bought some parts from Gearhead mostly because I was wondering about their quality. The parts were the same parts I was buying from a name brand distributor, just 40% cheaper. Maybe it doesn't always happen that way but it did this time. Rodparts Warehouse used to sell reputable parts but I don't know lately.

 

Speaking of e-gay vendors, does anyone know anything about this guy:

http://motors.search.ebay.com/packa...Q5fmadQ5fdogQQsbrftogZ1QQsellerZ1QQsofocusZbs

He seems to have quite a lot of crap for sale, not just the Packard stuff.

 

No, they weren't for the steering... i'm talking about the upper and lower spindle balljoints that thread into the upper and lower control arms. The thread on the balljoints was completely different than any balljoint that we could find at our parts warehouse... and we searched through a TON of them.

 

You guys are scarin' me. I just ordered a header from them. Looks great, good price, took a loittle over a week to get. Longer than I thought it should've taken.

 

Guys, I'm VERY reluctant to chime in here but.........I started Gearhead Enterprises in 1992. We were the first to introduce LED lighting to the street rod market blah, blah, blah. Sold the company to 2 brothers in Iowa in 1997, and haven't had anything to do with them since.

Jay at Rod Parts Warehouse is NOT the same guy. He started S&S Rod Shop back in the 80's, really knows his stuff (if you can talk to him personally) and moves a TON of merchandise. Used to be really dis-organized but somehow got it done.

Even though I haven't had to do with it for 10 years, still saddens me some to hear that some of you are having trouble with the company.

 

I'm thinking this is what the HAMB Alliance is all about, not just discounts and good price's, but people you can trust. I always look here first and haven't had a problem yet, plus it seems to be growing all the time. Gary

 

I agree. But......I needed a polished stainless Jeep header. I guess I got lucky with this dude.

 

hot-rod roadster, dave was buying the stuff for me over in the UK. I asked him to use this vendor because dave parcels things up pretty good and gets them out to us over here. does an excellent job too I may add.

Now going back to your post. Price is important to us guys over here because by the time youve added on shipping and then at this end we get busted for another 27% or so of the total package by the TAX man for import duties so all in all it can work out pretty expensive. so as an example i got a package yesterday i paid $237 for it including postage - on top of that i had to pay the postoffice over here for clearing, import duties etc. the equivelant of ANOTHER $70 - when there can be a 40% difference in the price of parts dont tell me price isnt important.

as for hamb alliance vendors - ive used a few of them now and im sorry to say i found their service pretty poor - little to no communication in that they didnt answer email for days, parts took a long time to get them shipped out even AFTER the money had been taken off my card, im not talking a few days either, it was WEEKS and there were other issues too (no im not going to name the vendor's) If their service was spot on i would use them but it wasnt so i am going to go with the guy who gives me the best price.

maybe its because im a foreigner to these guys and it dont matter if they keep us waiting on parts???

 

well i have had shipping problems with them getting the parts to me but so far the parts ive bought have been good no probs out of them ive been buyin from them for 3 years but i guess i might watch out now thanks

 

Nothings changed about this company, except maybe their ebay name, which is gonefishing69. I have been waiting a month now for a starter that they told me twice has been shipped. I have to drive an hour and a half to a parcel service to pick it up, and have now gone twice to find it still has not been shipped. Phone calls and emails are not returned. I am just hoping that I actually get the part now!

 

i bought a grill insert from them ,asked them how they fit , they said perfect ( guess they forgot to mention use a big hammer) called to complain they told me it was my brookville shell was inferior, i told them it fits the exact same way in 3 of my stockers ,got called a liar and hung up on ...left them bad feedback, got a message heres the return favor , my only bad feedback on ebay is from them assholes DONT BUY FROM THEM!

 

Ijust bought a fuel tank from a place called gearheadworld in Hudson Iowa. Their feedback is 99.2%. It's a Tanks Inc. tank and arrived in 3 days. Are all these companies owned by the same person?

 

funny.. I called and she did the same thing.. then he called back asking why I gave her a hard time.. (for the record I was polite)

i WILL NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM THEM AGAIN

THEY SELL ON EBAY AS FATTRODDER AND AS ********** WATERLOO TIRE?? I THINK

 

My 2cents worth; I ordered a radiator catch can from Fatrodder thru E-bay. I paid for it thru PayPal. I never got the part,I never got an answer to my 5or6 e mails either. I reported it to Pay Pal and they returned my dough,happy ending! It just bewilders me they won't respond to e mails? What a bunch of bastards! N.N.

 

Sounds like someone's bitchy girlfriend or daughter is the secretary at this place - you know, the kind that would get fired if they weren't either related to, or screwing, the boss?

 

I just read this thread. I'm also waiting for a EBAY purchase from them. Crap. Hope this works out. I bid on a scratch and dent air cleaner and got it for 99 cents. I thought the freight was a little high but so far fed-x tracking showes that it shipped and is almost here . Showes to have shipped a day and a half from the bid closing. Guess I'll see tommorrow or the next day.