Spoke with Indy Mustang and parts will not be delivered this week. Need to wait for a phone call on when they will be delivered. Made plane reservations for Nate and I to fly from Baltimore into Providence. Reserved a 15' truck in Providence to pick up the kit in Massachusetts.
April 7, 2001
Spent most of the afternoon putting together the body buck. Didn't run into much problems thanks to the diagrams and photos that Scott Brookes posted on his web site. I ended up stopping work at around 4 pm since I had to get the house ready for a BBQ that I was having that evening.
April 8, 2001
After getting back from church I completed the cross members and attached the wheels. My neighbor James helped me turn the plywood monster upright. I nailed the shelf to the 2X4s that I attached to the plywood to help make it sturdier. Overall I was very pleased with the results.
April 9, 2001
Contacted Indy Mustang again to find out the status on my parts. They are looking for one more missing piece and then they will contact me when they send it. I hope that they get it sent soon since I'll be picking up my kit on May 5th. I would like to have some time to prepare the parts before the kit arrives instead of cleaning parts while looking at my new kit!
April 15, 2001
Didn't do much project stuff this weekend since I'm still awaiting for my parts to arrive. My order of POR 15 arrived on Friday so I'll be ready to paint my parts and frame when they arrive. I was thoroughly impressed with their sales staff and quick service. I can't wait to try out this stuff on the parts (when they arrive!)
I did get to take a tour on my friend's ship that is docked at Norfolk. We also decided to take a tour on one of the nuclear subs. I have a much greater appreciation and respect for how the Navy and Marines live while aboard a ship or sub. There is absolutely no space wasted on a sub! To check out the photos, click here.
April 19, 2001
ARGGGH. The donor parts saga still continues. Spoke again with Indy Mustang last night and I told them to send me my donor pallet with or without the one missing part that is on order. They can mail me the other part later. I can't afford to wait any longer for one part that I won't need for a couple of months when I can get 98% of the parts now. I want to spend time cleaning parts now, not when my kit is here. I should (fingers and toes crossed!) get the parts around Monday or Tuesday of next week. I'm not holding my breath! This will give me at least 1 weekend to prep parts prior to picking up the kit.
The bright side of this is that I have two papers to write for school that I need to finish up. At least I'll be able to concentrate solely on these two projects.
April 23, 2001
As expected, Indy Mustang did NOT come through. Spoke with Jim again and he said that the parts were not shipped on Friday as he had originally told me on Friday. He said that they would be sent out tonight. Whatever. If my parts are not on a truck to me tomorrow then I am going to find another vendor. As the FFR manual says, "Salvage yards are not the model of customer service". I am thoroughly convinced of this. Due to my experiences with this company, I cannot recommend anyone doing business with Indy Mustang.
April 24, 2001
I contacted the shipping company that Indy Mustang uses and found out that they did not ship the parts last night again. I spoke with Jim and told him that if the parts were not shipped tonight then I will cancel my order. Period.
In anticipation of this shipment being botched again for the 3rd time, I looked into other companies for donor parts. Two companies that were recommended from the Cobra forum were All Mustang (800) 454-8387 and Cypress (800) 573-7278. I had originally looked at these two companies but wanted to find someplace closer to me so that I wouldn't get killed with shipping. I regret not paying a little more for shipping and going with either one of them from the start. They were very helpful and appeared to be professionally run organizations.
If I do go with either of these two companies then I will experience a 3-4 week wait for my parts. I've accepted the fact that I probably won't get to work on my donor parts prior to picking up my kit. At least I know I'll get my parts. The saga continues........
April 25, 2001
Got a call from Jim at Indy Mustang to let me know that the parts were shipped last night. I even got a tracking number. Still not out of the woods yet.
April 27, 2001
Called to check on the status of the shipment and found out that the parts were picked up not when Jim said they were. In fact they gave me a different tracking number. Not only were my parts delayed, I was lied to. The good news was that my parts were arriving on Tuesday, May 1st. I also found out that they didn't ship all of my parts. There are two more boxes coming in later on.
Spoke with Indy Mustang and parts will not be delivered this week. Need to wait for a phone call on when they will be delivered. Made plane reservations for Nate and I to fly from Baltimore into Providence. Reserved a 15' truck in Providence to pick up the kit in Massachusetts. 