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I am looking to build a Thunder Ranch. For those who have assembled the kit themselves: How accurate was the assembly manual? How good was the customer service? Was the shipment complete? Also, if there is anyone in the south-central Kentucky or northern Tennessee area that has one that I could look at I would be grateful. Thanks.
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I am looking to build a Thunder Ranch. For those who have assembled the kit themselves: How accurate was the assembly manual? How good was the customer service? Was the shipment complete? Also, if there is anyone in the south-central Kentucky or northern Tennessee area that has one that I could look at I would be grateful. Thanks.
There was no assembly manual for our kit. We did get a manual but it was for the four cylinder car (different engine, transmission, suspension, brakes etc). The only thing we used the manual for was the wiring for the guages. For the four cylinder car, the manual would have been pretty useful. I also think he did an update that is MUCH improved over the one from 5 years ago.

The kit arrived with all parts as agreed. We did have to ship the spindles back but they were replaced with the correct ones. There were assorted fitment issues as our car was the six, not the four cylinder. Those issues included the firewall and the headers. We (meaning Steve) fabbed parts to correct those shortages.

A real good person to talk to about the 4 cylinder kit is Aaron Aslanian on spyderclub.com He has a nice well sorted Thunder Ranch that he built.

The question you really need to ask is "Would you buy another kit from Thunder Ranch?" And the answer is YES!!!!!

angela
Hi Mark,
I am in the process of building a Thunder Ranch kit right now and while I have had a few issues with the kit I am overall pretty pleased with it. There is a manual that comes with it but it is lacking in detail in a few areas but it does help. My kit shipped short a few minor parts but I followed up with T/R and they were shipped shortly after the kit arrived. If you would like to check mine out go to http://mikestrporsche550build.blogspot.com/ it kind of details how I am going about assembling my kit.
I have a TR 550 and are in the process of my build. Don't know if you have bought yours but here is my opinion. If I knew then what I know now I would order the wide body. From what I can gather the wide body has had the moulds reworked so that the body is straight, it also allows for readily available tire sizes. I had to source tires from Coker (165HR15) which are difficult to find. I am having ny fenders broken and reworked to correct the body. Also if you buy the package I recommend going with the exhaust from CB rather than TR. The TR exhaust has the collector passing immediatly below the engine reducing ground clearance making it necessary to choose between bottoming out or raising the car.

Make sure you have a written contract before you plunk down any money. There should be a strict meeting of the minds on your build, specifying exactly what you want in suspension, drive train, body, paint, engine and any options, plus dates of expected finish, and penalties if the car isn't finished by the date promised. Also, try to get a warranty and have it checked by an attorney who knows what he is doing. If you don't have it in writing, it will be a "he-said-she-said" situation should you get into litigation at a later date. I won't tell you the problems (involving thousands of dollars) I had with TR. Vintage Spyders also has had a long-lasting reputation of customers paying for orders, then not getting those paid-for items shipped unless they screamed their heads off. After having been a supporter of VS, I almost got screwed and had to threaten court action before I got what I was promised.

 

If I had to buy a Spyder over again, I would look to Fibersteel or the company run by Carey Hines. Some companies rob Peter to pay Paul (i.e., they take your deposit, then use that money to build a car previously ordered by someone else). Some of these so-called companies are operating on thin margins, and if they go bankrupt or if the owner gets sick and dies, your deposit might not be retrievable. So....as it has been often said, "Caveat Emptor." The biggest problem I ran into was that the owners of the two companies I had dealt with had no clue as to how to run a business or communicate on a business-like level with customers.

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