| 5/17/04
I was finally ready to buy some wheels so I called
Boyd
Coddington awhile ago and after going over all the details, I went
ahead and purchased some. I had to pay half now and the other half when
they were finished. The next day I got to thinking about how large my
rear brakes were and called them back to ask if they would fit over them
or not. Now my rear
brakes are 11" diameter which meant that the calipers are going to
stick out farther than I wanted to and I wanted to run 15" wheels on the
front and back. The front brakes were only 10" diameter which was no
problem but the back were a different story. Remember awhile back when I
had to buy some 16" rear steel wheels to fit over the rear brakes?
Well the problem didn't go away. Boyd told me that they wouldn't fit so
I put them on hold for now but didn't cancel the order.
I then called
Billet
Specialties and asked them if they had any wheels that would clear
my large brakes and they said they might have some that would fit. What you see
below is the back of a rear wheel that Billet Specialties
sent me for trial fitting before I spent my money on anything. I told Billet Specialties the amount of backspace that I
wanted and they sent me a wheel with the center un-welded. This way I
could try the wheel for fit and then send it back and only pay for
shipping when all was said and done. As you can tell, the wheel fit which was the good news. The
inside of the wheel cleared the caliper, but not by much....but it did clear.
The bad news was that I didn't figure the backspace correctly (missed it
by the thickness of wheel where the tire meets the bead of the wheel
which is 3/8" thick) which meant that the center of the wheel would
have to be moved inward a little more. This meant that it would probably rub the calipers if
I had them made to the right backspace.
I called Boyd
Coddington back after getting off the phone with Billet Specialties and
asked them if I could try a test wheel of there's and they
said they would send one out as well (with the same conditions as Billet
Specialties, pay for the wheel now, then send it back and only pay for
shipping). I had waited for over four weeks
for Boyd to send there test wheel out and in that time, Billet
Specialties had put together a test wheel, sent it to me, I tried the
wheel for fit, kept it for four days and then sent it back to them. I
called Billet Specialties a week later to confirm that they received the
wheel back so my credit card would be reimbursed. Now Billet Specialties
is located in Illinois and I'm in Ca. while Boyd Coddington is also in
Ca. only 70
miles from my house and In this time, Boyd hadn't sent
there wheel so I called them up and they said it would be shipped that
day....what the hell!!! Two days
later I finally received there test wheel (after putting a fire under
them) so I tried there wheel that
night and sent it back the very next day. About three days later, I called
Boyd to confirm that they had received there wheel and they said yes.
While I was on the phone they
wanted to know if I was ready to buy some wheels and I
told them to go jump-in-a-lake. I can't believe how a company like this
could stay in business because there service sucks big time.
I called Billet Specialties back and placed my
order with them and should be receiving my wheels soon. I don't recommend
buying anything from Boyd Coddington unless you have a LOT of time on
your hands. Besides, I think Billet Specialties makes a much better
product with much better support.
Two weeks went by and I received another box from
Boyd Coddington. It was a front "test wheel", but I never wanted a test
wheel for the front so I refused the box and UPS shipped it back. How do
I know that it was a front wheel? On the invoice for the rear test
wheel, it had two items listed: one 15 X 12 and one 15 X 6 but only the
15 X 12 was in the box....go figure. Four
days later, Boyd called me and asked me what was going on with the wheel
that I had refused. I explained the situation to them and they said
"Oh....okay". Just another reason not to
go with Boyd Coddington as they don't have a clue what's going on. I
called Boyd back a few days later to make sure I didn't get billed for
there last mistake and they said it would be taken care of next week. I
guess I'll have to see when my next credit card statement arrives. A
month later when my CC statement was sent to me, I didn't see any
credits from anyone which meant that I needed to call Boyd and ask them
why! After telling the personnel person my problem, they said they would
have to call me back after looking into it. They called me back 30
minutes later and said they would send a check to me in a few days.
Three days later, the check arrived. Now this took two and a half months
for them to send this money to me and if I had never called them, I'm
sure I wouldn't have seen it at all. The only thing I know is that Boyd
Coddington SUCKS big time and I wouldn't recommend them to
anyone.....ever!! I just call them as I see'm!!!
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