where's Les now?-Classic Datsun really a business?

[madkaw]

Les,

It's funny that I pulled up this thread and was reading your response and my phone pings with an e-mail from you.

So I am gathering that you agree with me that the shape is a bit off on that flare? I am definetly willing to listen to my tires rub a bit longer for a good flare.

I'm glad you are busy and glad to see a Z business staying around.

[CDM]

Yea I felt bad for a couple of minutes but the car was a good deal and the parts were better than the car and the car was a 1968 to boot. We actually took 2 510s from back there but these were not cars that anyone knew about anyway so we recently sent 2 very nice 510 race cars to new york for the LaBrun brothers to drive at the Glen this year and they were cars that really should be back there. One was a Bob Sharp look alike we made 5-6years ago and the other was the Rob Dyson original race car that Ken Mattice owned and restored and Dyson is from NY. So all's fair in racing again.

Les

[justinyee]

I've read a few good things about Les / Classic Datsun, and unfortunately also didn't get a response (for seat covers / seat foam) after two weeks. So I bought them from the classifieds. After reading this thread, it's great to read so many positive things people have to say about him and his operation. I'll still keep him in mind for other parts in the future.

[Montezuma]

A chin spoiler is needed before the end of the month. I am going with Rich to MSA.

[zwhore]

im headed down to les today. hes has been busy working on a new site, and im pretty sure he said something about expanding or moving.

anyway, hes great. im picking up the last blue headliner left over from nissans resto project. and a can of paint.

give him a call. email is for younger hip folks. he likes to talk.

[Montezuma]

Damn he is holding out on me. I would have bought the blue headliner. I have been collecting blue parts.

[madkaw]

I know les would rather talk, but the few times I have got Les on the phone you could tell he just wanted to get me off the phone- and I'm a " get a to the point guy".

The e-mail is the best use of a busy man's time to answer questions like- did you get the item I returned.

I'm am glad to have such a great asset to the Z community, but as a business I think email would be his friend.

When your sending someone your hard earned money for a product, a simple one liner email makes your customer feel at ease. Not everyone knows Les or is Les's buddy, so we rely on the business transaction to rate our relationship with that vendor.

[jmortensen]

Maybe he types 5 wpm. I've run into that with other auto related businesses, particularly when owned by older men.

[madkaw]

My e-mail string with Les-note the dates, and still no satisfaction; I went with Classic Datsun to try an avoid such issues that I thought might occur with MSA, I guess I guessed wrong. This is NOT personal, this should be BUSINESS.

June 21,2012

Steve

Yes I know that I returned the flare to the shop nearly 3 months back immediately after getting it back from you it has been my goal to re-do the flare my way with a different shop but so far I have been way too busy to do so. That leaves the shop I now use who is the same shop that make the flares for motorsport auto. he is alway involved in some kind of project that is a big deal to keep him in business and he has beenb thrashing on the newest one of those for Honda which is true and not just a lame excuse. he has promised that he has a guy fixing the flare today and will also fix the mold. he is apparently delivering the Honda racing project today and has promised again so if this happens I should know sometime next week and if not resolved Then we can figure out what to do. Sorry

Les

Les Cannaday

Classic Datsun Motorsports

345 Olive Ave

Vista, CA 92083

(760)940-6365

(866)288-8340 fax

--- On Thu, 6/21/12, stephen finnerty <s_finnerty1018@comcast.net> wrote:

From: stephen finnerty <s_finnerty1018@comcast.net>

Subject: FW: ZG flare

To: "Les @ Classic Datsun" <z432@pacbell.net>

Date: Thursday, June 21, 2012, 9:23 AM

Les,

I looked thru my e-mails and you have had the bad flare for 3 months. I need a decision here,

Steve

From: stephen finnerty [mailto:s_finnerty1018@comcast.net]

Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 7:32 AM

To: 'Les @ Classic Datsun'

Subject: RE: ZG flare

Les,

I really need a determination from you on this issue. Sorry if you think I’m not being patient, but this has gone on for months and I need to do something about my tire rubbing issue. I would like to move on and find another source unless you can resolve this issue this week.

Thanks

Steve

From: Les @ Classic Datsun [mailto:z432@pacbell.net]

Sent: Friday, May 04, 2012 10:33 PM

To: stephen finnerty

Subject: RE: ZG flare

Steve

They promised to get on it right away and I have suspended selling them until I resolve this issue. They told me that it was in the queue to be repaired and remolded but I called the other day and they are trying to get something finished over the weekend. We can only hope to see the results next week to see what happens.

Les

Les Cannaday

Classic Datsun Motorsports

345 Olive Ave

Vista, CA 92083

(760)940-6365

(866)288-8340 fax

--- On Fri, 5/4/12, stephen finnerty <s_finnerty1018@comcast.net> wrote:

From: stephen finnerty <s_finnerty1018@comcast.net>

Subject: RE: ZG flare

To: "'Les @ Classic Datsun'" <z432@pacbell.net>

Date: Friday, May 4, 2012, 9:14 AM

Les,

It’s been about a month and was just curious if you ever came up with some flares for the driver’s front?

Steve Finnerty

317-979-9929

From: Les @ Classic Datsun [mailto:z432@pacbell.net]

Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2012 4:45 PM

To: stephen finnerty

Subject: Re: ZG flare

Steve

Got the flare and got to compare it to about 6-7 others at the fiberglass shop on Thur. last week. Had to leave at 5am the next morning for the track and their is very poor service up there so I did not e-mail the results yet. ALL the flares going back to my original molds have the same exact shape as the one sent to you and all the ones MSA sells have it as well so my guy decided to fix the flare and use it to repair the mold and is making us a new mold and a new part for you. As soon as I know more you will too and sorry for the bad communications. We are trying to do too much right now!!! Just called him and no news yet.

Les

Les Cannaday

Classic Datsun Motorsports

345 Olive Ave

Vista, CA 92083

(760)940-6365

(866)288-8340 fax

--- On Sat, 3/17/12, stephen finnerty <s_finnerty1018@comcast.net> wrote:

From: stephen finnerty <s_finnerty1018@comcast.net>

Subject: ZG flare

To: info@classicdatsun.com

Date: Saturday, March 17, 2012, 7:12 PM

Les,

I fed-exed the bad flare to you. It is the driver’s front side. Tracking # 045782815054616.

Please let me know when you get it.

Thanks

Steve

[zwhore]

Wow. I feel your pain. I bought a blue headliner from him, only to have it be total junk. Left messages, emailed, had people he hangs out with tell him. Nothing from him to date.

The headliner backing was only glued around the edge, so it fell right away. Second try, the vinyl was about 1/3 glued so it fell after sitting for 3 days. There was no 3rd try. Why install junk?

I have never, in 21 years of z'ing, had a problem with MSA that wasnt able to solved with a single phone call. And thats 21 years and near 200 z's. All it took with Les is one time.

And so sinks the ship.

[Montezuma]

I got nothing but the best service, parts and prices from Les so I am not sure what the problem is. Don't get me wrong I like the guys at MSA but Les usually gets me the parts at the same price or less. I am very happy to have a guy like in the business. He has a lot on his plate, one and 1/2 man shop and still takes time to tend to my orders. I got nothing negative to say about him.

[CDM]

Guys I will try to address this the best I can I have answered Steve to the best of my ability including my offer to refund his money but I don't think that would answer his dilema. From the e-mails you can tell that I am at the mercy of a shop run by a complete #@%$&* waste of time normally mine as I had noted a few weeks back in my description of trying to do the door panels project. I am normally on the road up to LA LA land at least 1 full day a week dropping off or picking products that shops refuse to ship. I have personally checked the status of the flare in question at least 3 times with stories about why it was not being addressed and I am as fed up as Steve in trying to resolve the issue. I have stated that I am trying to redo what I can afford as I can afford to make new molds for better quality and fit of our parts as I never know unless someone tells me so I always appreciate hearing back from someone with an issue so things can be improved. So I am going to tell you how all this comes about so you know the inside story and c an then better make your decisions in the future. The Japanese flares may have been in the US before but if they they were I don't think they had been available for a period of time. Many years ago I met an older japanese gentleman at the MSA show when I had my RHD fairladyZ and he offered to get me the ZG flares for my car from Japan and so I paid him to get them and when I got them I was able to get molds made after some of my friends decided they wanted some of them. The original quality was no where near perfect but was acceptable knowing that most fiberglass item need some degree of finishing. Several years later I started getting calls from some of the hired help at MSA who told me they planned to buy my flares and make their own copies and sell them. I felt this was kind of a @#$%&^ way to deal with me so I talked to the owner Greg with whom I am have a good business relationship with and he said they would not do that but instead they would purchase them through me. Well that was all good for several years and we helped each other out until the shop making the products started down the road of putting us off for weeks on end delaying delivery for me and MSA. Now remember during this time I had been creating Z car hoods and rear Japanese spoilers and the first carbon fiber hoods etc and at this time MSA was having their parts made somewhere else and they Hired a young guy who 1 day ventured into the shop I use to purchase a snowboard and he saw all the parts we made. He was able to go back and let MSA know and soon many of their older and not so good molds got moved to this shop and many of their parts got fixed and repaired so the quality was much better but know you have to realize I am going up to the shop for a while every 2 weeks and I start seeing dozens and dozens of parts being popped out for MSA and our stuff started to suffer at the mercy of the deeper pockets. Also please understand in this business if you own the molds or provide the parts to create the mold normally the product is yours and not sold to anyone else for example I do not walk into the shop and ask for any of the product MSA sells but of course the situation is not mutual in many cases my stuff was sold to anyone who walks in the door. So to get back to the recent issues with the flares we have had 2 complaints in all the years of selling them and one issue was that one flare seems to have splayed out and looked longer than the other front flare and it was just an issue of needing to be pinched in before mounting to make it span the same distance between bottom edges and in that case I went to the shop and pulled out my molds and all of the MSA molds including 1 set of molds no longer used so we could try to see a difference so since that problem we have had 1 flare coming from another mold so that it at least more closely matches the others. When Steves flare arrived I took it up and laid it out again with every mold in the shop and every mold had the same small area where the flare appears to be concave instead of convex and he saw the problem and promised to fix it and then he gave reason after reason why it was not done and today even before I saw this e-mail I had already called due to Steves E-mail from yesterday and he basically told me that it was not important and he would get to it whenever he felt like it and that he sells 12 sets a week to MSA and no one ever complains about them. So needless to say until I redo them myself on my own car with my own new shop and to my version of fit and quality I will no longer sell them at all and I will refund Steves money and I don't even want the flares back since I won't be able to get a refund for them since this shop is always broke. I have been slowly moving all my fiberglass production to a more local shop where I own the product and I am in charge of the quality and they are only 10 mins from my shop and eventually all my fiberglass will be consolidated to one location for the reasons listed above. I wish I could share the stories about alot of the product out there from the perspective of someone trying to make a quality product and how much I have done to make these things available and how everyone else benefits from my work and really how few complaints we do get but how 2-3 complaints completely overshadow the hundreds of people with no problems and this includes 3 headliners that have come unglued and how they were replaced and it sounds like there was little or no improvement even with our suggestions and complaints hoping to improve the product short of me showing up and holding guys glue gun and showing him how much glue is needed or has the factory had to replace the glue that works with some crappy none working glue the tree huggers love that does not even work for a short time I have very limited control over their production line or the quality of their products used to make our finished products. Believe me they really hate to hear from me as I usually lay into them for changing what works into something that I have to explain on a more regular basis. Am I buried with projects and work yes and yet I still try to follow up with every thing we can and since we created the interior parts with this big company for the Z car program these parts have alway been close to me for the quality issues because I started all this in 1996 and offered up everything we needed to do all this. So sorry for any problems and we have seeming addressed them to the end and the result is not acceptable to me so I will no longer offer these parts for sale until I can verify they are correct and fixed. Thank you

Les