Racing Beat knockoff header

I've learned something from my foray into the bottom-of-the-barrel cheap parts: There are two levels of shitty.

Level One: Low price, good build quality, but materials that aren't the most durable perhaps because of lower quality.
Level Zero: Lowest price, terrible build quality, horrendous materials.

My recent reviews of Raceland's header put them squarely into Level One. Their header is well built, looks good out of the box and is well supported. They also have a real company/brand name to uphold, as evidenced by their stickers and catalog included in the order. Their downfall is that their steel isn't pure/robust enough to stand up to the harshest commutes through aggressively salted Chicago interstates. I'm confident that someone living in, say Florida, would be perfectly happy with their product.

This one, on the other hand, is simply not worth a purchase. I don't mean to single out SpeedyRacer--an eBay seller--as there are multiple people peddling this shoddy product. It's the only header that imitates the Racing Beat with a 4-1 design (all the others imitate the 4-2-1 or Tri-Y design of the Jackson Racing); since the Racing Beat is reportedly the best off-the-shelf header out there, it's truly unfortunate that the only imitation is so incredibly awful.

See for yourself in the slideshow. The welds are so awful, I'm surprised I didn't find welding rod sticking out of them. I wonder if they're even airtight. I saw one car with this header at SCCA Solo Nationals (STS class), and wasn't surprised to find it was rusting just like my Raceland unit--though that particular car certainly didn't see the heavy winter commuting duty that mine did.

The final straw--and this really killed me, because I was nearing the end of my engine swap at the time, filled with exhaustion, frustration at already too many broken surprises, and anxious to hit the road--was that it just didn't fit. It hit the flat horizontal part of the body below the brake and clutch master cylinders. I was so goddamn angry when I couldn't get the piece of cockblasting assnugget* to fit that I literally bounced it off the fucking concrete floor and across the garage.

Since I've seen this header fit on other cars and it's gotten some positive eBay responses, I can conclusively say their quality control department and the jig they use to build this header are both not very consistent. And, judging by the fact that a magnet will stick to certain parts of it--most notably the bends, as demonstrated in the slideshow--they clearly use ultra-low quality stainless steel too.

By "they," of course, I mean whoever makes this piece of garbage, not Speedyracer or any other eBay vendor--though they are responsible for selling a shit product. Much to that vendor's credit, they did take a return on the header even though it was past the 30-day return period. So thank you, Speedyracer, for not totally screwing me.

There you have it, friends: real buying advice. Don't buy the absolute cheapest garbage. Pay a little extra instead. I'd buy the Raceland header again. You couldn't pay me to use this one--which is just as well, since it seems to no longer be available on eBay.

*I'm a classy guy.

Replacement header goes in painlessly

(click here to see these photos in a gallery)

Replacing the header went well. I'm thoroughly satisfied with Raceland's customer service, and I'm hoping the rusty one was just a slip-up in quality control.

Previous post related to this:
Initial impression and installation guide.
First signs of possible issues.
When it actually broke.
Raceland's response.

Warranty honored on Raceland header

I found out last night from their website that they offer a 2 year warranty on materials and workmanship of their products. That was somewhat reassuring, but I was a still skeptical about a relative newcomer to the US market and a company that seems to have a lot of presence on eBay. My skepticism has been assuaged a bit.

I received an e-mail response this morning from Raceland USA. The person (who did not give a name) said they've never seen that kind of problem before, assumed it was defective, and would gladly send me a replacement. This rep said that s/he'd talk to their tech department, and would send me a return shipping label if they wanted to study the rusty one.

I've received a tracking number. Having to redo the work is no fun, but it's nice to know they respond quickly to problems and honor their warranty. I will continue to document this experience.

Update, 1/6/10: The replacement arrived. They did include a return shipping label for the failed header, so I'll be sending that back as soon as it's out. Quality of the welds and materials on the replacement looks about as good as the original. Here's to hoping that the actual alloy used is a more proper mix so it doesn't rust.

Raceland header rusts and breaks

 

Update at bottom.
On my commute home tonight, my car backfired badly twice on consecutive upshifts. Immediately after the second blast, my car was ear-bleedingly loud. I knew something bad had happened to my header; it had been looking and sounding iffy for a couple weeks. When I got home, I jacked the car up and saw this.

After a trip to Farm & Fleet for a patch kit and a set of jack stands that I would later return, I came home and applied the patch. It worked for about 5 minutes, and quickly became nearly as loud as it was before. I blame my poor patch job and not buying enough patch material. But it's quiet enough to get me to my parents' garage without making me deaf.

I'm going to send the picture above to Raceland and ask for a replacement. T-304 stainless steel shouldn't rust, especially not like this, and not after barely more than a year. For now, I'm driving Amanda's car to work the rest of the week (the university is closed, so she's off work) and I'll apply a more permanent repair.

My original post about the install is here:
http://sentimentalmechanic.blogspot.com/2009/11/var-gajshost-https-document.html

Update: The 2-year warranty was honored, and I'm impressed with their customer service.

http://sentimentalmechanic.blogspot.com/2010/12/warranty-honored-on-raceland-header.html

Windblocker with Hard Dog roll bar

A few months ago I bought a Raceland "Windblokker" brand windblocker. The name's kind of silly, but it fits and it works. It's also stupid cheap.

But as I mentioned before, it did have one small problem: while it's made to tilt down, it's blocked from tilting by the rear supports of my Hard Dog Hard Bar Sport roll bar. With the convertible top up, it rendered the parcel shelf all but useless.

A few nights ago I got bored and decided to see if I could remedy the situation. I took a trip to Farm & Fleet and picked up a shelf repair bracket, a couple bolts and nuts, and 4 washers. The solution is so simple it almost assembles itself. It's nice to be able to use the shelf again.

Raceland Windblokker (windblocker)

Windblocker

I bought a cheap windblocker from Raceland at the same time as the header. Their brand name for it is Windblokker. Whatever.
I bought their "V Style" windblocker because it's $10 cheaper than the standard model. One of the features of this windblocker is that it tilts down flat, and I thought the V-style, which comes in a bit at an angle on the sides, just might give me enough clearance to get past the rear braces on my Hard Dog Hard Bar Sport roll bar.

Unfortunately, it won't tilt down far. The rear roll bar braces still get in the way, so I do lose that functionality. Other than the tilt though, it fits just fine. It's not really a big deal. It's so stupidly easy to install anyway, I could just remove it if I need to. Click the picture above to see pictures and read details on the thing.

The windblocker does its job well. I can drive with the top down when it's 40 degrees out. It's significantly quieter in the car, and I don't get blasts of air shooting into my right ear. When Amanda called me on my cell phone, she had to ask if I was driving, because it was unusually quiet. I'd call that high praise. If I had to do it again though, I would probably have splurged on the more expensive model. It would probably look better, and work better.

Update: I've rigged up a bracket to give it enough clearance for full functionality with the roll bar.