Bottorf Fabrication
- Thread starter MATT223081
- Start date
:rofl:nateb006 said:
there went all of your business from this site!
And please, spare us the "less than 2% of my business comes from forums" speech. I'll give you a little customer service lesson, free of charge. The customer is always right.
A few people on here know my story with Nate, and I've kept my mouth shut for the most part. Whatever the business issues, delivery times, etc, I won't post it here, Other than Nate did give me a great price on a set of bumpers and sliders. $425 for a full brush guard bumper and a skid plate is unheard of, And I guess I now understand why. I guess I was expecting RTE quality at less than half the price. I'll now just comment on the quality of the fabrication. When I received my bumper from him, there were a few issues. First the light tabs on the top bar, wouldn't allow my hood to open. Plus, they're not even on the same plane. It appears he just holds them in the general area, and tacks them.
I needed a large crowbar, a 4ft 2x4 and a sledgehammer to get the bumper on there. I though maybe my frame was tweaked, but I realized it was a fabrication problem when I took the bumper off to cut and grind the light tabs. The plate he uses as the mount were not welded up evenly or square.
There was about a 5/8in gap between the bumper, and the grill, He said it's because my 2004 is different than pre-03's, even though he knew I had an 04. I wound up painting the grill support black, because the bluish bar was showing. In his defense, he did offer to take it back, and build me a new one. But after waiting 4 months, and driving with no bumper for 4 months, I figured a bumper in hand, is worth two in the bush. I could work with what I had. The bolt holes to mount the bumper to the frame were off. The bolt holes to mount the skid plate to the same spots were off also. They didn't even match up with the holes in his bumper.
The shackle mounts were only drilled to 3/4". Before receiving the bumper, I asked him what size shackles to buy for it. He told me 3/4". After receiving the bumper, I informed him that a 3/4" shackle has a pin of 7/8", and that a typical 5/8 shackle only has a WWL of 6500lbs, he told me that I bought the wrong shackle. He had a set of special "true 3/4" shackles made, that have a 3/4in pin. He said he was going to send me a set of them, along with a fabbed up light bar, as I could not use the included light tabs to mount a set. I eventually just ordered a set of 5-ton WLL alloy 5/8"shackles, as I was heading out to Rausch Creek.
Pictured below is the light bar i received. I don't think I even need comment on the fabrication skills.
The sliders are already rusty 3 months later, and did not come with the hardware as even specified in the instructions he sent. He did offer to send me a refund for what I spent on the hardware. I didn't get back to him on it.
I needed a large crowbar, a 4ft 2x4 and a sledgehammer to get the bumper on there. I though maybe my frame was tweaked, but I realized it was a fabrication problem when I took the bumper off to cut and grind the light tabs. The plate he uses as the mount were not welded up evenly or square.
There was about a 5/8in gap between the bumper, and the grill, He said it's because my 2004 is different than pre-03's, even though he knew I had an 04. I wound up painting the grill support black, because the bluish bar was showing. In his defense, he did offer to take it back, and build me a new one. But after waiting 4 months, and driving with no bumper for 4 months, I figured a bumper in hand, is worth two in the bush. I could work with what I had. The bolt holes to mount the bumper to the frame were off. The bolt holes to mount the skid plate to the same spots were off also. They didn't even match up with the holes in his bumper.
The shackle mounts were only drilled to 3/4". Before receiving the bumper, I asked him what size shackles to buy for it. He told me 3/4". After receiving the bumper, I informed him that a 3/4" shackle has a pin of 7/8", and that a typical 5/8 shackle only has a WWL of 6500lbs, he told me that I bought the wrong shackle. He had a set of special "true 3/4" shackles made, that have a 3/4in pin. He said he was going to send me a set of them, along with a fabbed up light bar, as I could not use the included light tabs to mount a set. I eventually just ordered a set of 5-ton WLL alloy 5/8"shackles, as I was heading out to Rausch Creek.
Pictured below is the light bar i received. I don't think I even need comment on the fabrication skills.
The sliders are already rusty 3 months later, and did not come with the hardware as even specified in the instructions he sent. He did offer to send me a refund for what I spent on the hardware. I didn't get back to him on it.
Durt D1ver said:
Meh, you would have never seen it anyways.
Sorry for all of that trouble. The light tabs not allowing the hood to open - that's unreal. I would have pushed for a full refund, including return shipping, saved another few months, and gone RTE.
The one bumper I received from Bottorf 4 months after the order, I think would probably fit a disco, to bad I own a range rover and didn't want to cut my fenders so far up that the marker lights wouldn't have a lower mounting points. It impacted the body about 3/4 of a inch before the holes lined up. He was supposed to build me another front bumper but, after 4 more months I still had no bumpers. Thats when I started pushing for the offered refund. That took an additional 30+ days to finally get.
I do not have a dog in this fight...
But those rear links are an accident waiting to happen.
There's a potential of thread stripping because of short bolting
But those rear links are an accident waiting to happen.
There's a potential of thread stripping because of short bolting
Ok so it was just made completely wrong, I'm guessing lol?
In the end it worked out as I really like the bumper I ended up with up front and I'm sure I'll be happy with what Brad makes for me.
In the end it worked out as I really like the bumper I ended up with up front and I'm sure I'll be happy with what Brad makes for me.
ptschram
Well-known member
DennyDoler said:
About a month ago, I pulled a Range Rover ARB from a DI, that curiously enough, I had mounted to the truck for the owner.
It didn't require any trimming to fit to the DI.
I had a ARB D1 bumper I was going to use before I deployed and I would have had to do a bit of trimming. I had to trim a bit for the scorpion racing bumper as well.
