I hate hearing people on teh interwebz bash Ballistic. I have literally been ordering through them for years and have never once had an issue with the commonly reported problems- slow shipping, incorrect orders, poor customer service and back orders. I ordered this stuff on Friday afternoon and it came in the following Thursday. It doesnt get much better than that from AZ to SC. Prices are better than Dans or Blue Torch also.

This all boils down to one chief dingaling on Pirate having to wait one extra day or getting one little bracket wrong and running with the bash. Things happen. You'd be surprised how often Building Supplys run out of 2x4s or 16d nails. Multimillion dollar plants run out of metal necessary for day to day repairs. Again, things happen. Its very unfortunate that a few people bashing (regardless of the level of truth behind any of it) can almost cause a business to close their doors, not to mention a very tainted reputation on the interwebz - Id be willing to bet most of the bashers have never spent one cent with them anyway.

 

Unfortunately for me, I have only ordered from Ballistic one time in my life and it was a bad experience for me. I ordered the most simple of items that I had a gut feeling I should have just made myself anyway. I ordered two GM 1 ton TRE insert sleeves from those guys, they were $12 a piece. I placed the order online and everything was fine. I waited 6 or 7 days because I knew they were coming from AZ. After a week I called them and got a young girl on the phone and inquired about my order, she could not find it at first, put me on hold for 10 minutes then some other guy gets on the line and asks me what I am holding for. I re-explain the situation, he puts me on hold and then comes back and says my order did not go through, (even though I had a confirmation email for the order, just no shipping confirmation) So he re-submits the order and all is suppose to be good. I get another confirmation email about the order and nothing about the shipping, I wait another 5 or 6 days and by this time I am angry because I can just make them myself. I called again and get another guy on the phone, I explained the whole deal and he was very concerned with it, I could hear it in his voice, he said he had no idea what the problem was, and I should have had those parts just a few days after the order was placed. I guess he was a manager or something. He puts me on hold and comes back on in 2 minutes, he says "I have both of them in my hand and we have dozens of them on the shelf, someone dropped the ball." I told him that someone dropped the ball twice!!! He apologized and sent them to me 2 day.

Anyway, it took me 15 days to get two TRE sleeves that I could have made myself. I am not saying I will not order from them again because I probably will, only becaue the last guy I talked to made it right. But I do think they have some lazy people who answer the phone.

Side note, the last TRE sleeve I needed I made myself on the lathe at work.........

 

Mo' progress...

took the rather bent front passenger side fender off.


bought a new fender


I guess I didnt take a pic of it bolted on.


Seat bracket cut down 1 3/4" to lower it and painted black.


Floor board wire wheeled.


Floor with some spray on bedliner deal and the seats bolted in





Traction bars tomorrow

 

bling blang!

Frame brackets - 3x3x1/4" angle and 1/4" tabs from Ballistic - 5/8 hole


bolt that shat up! - 3- 1/2x1 1/2" grade 8 bolts per side


Cut 2x.250 DOM to make bushings out of poly chebby leaf spring bushings.




Traction bars - 1.5" x 11ga square tube x 66" total length.








Bolted up with 1- 5/8x4 grade 8 bolt on the frame end and 2- 9/16x4 grade 8 bolts on the axle end


Bolted up the fender after shooting a little red paint on the back side and around the edges. Hes painting the truck red after Im done.


New dash pad deal

 

Unacceptable.......













Red is not a good color for any pickup. Lol.

 

Haha. It wont matter when its covered in mud

 

agreed dave. i hated the color on my f350. lucky for me it oxidized and turned pink....

 

Guess if it's always covered its good to go.












Also, on another note, got a little box in the mail with some goodies in it today.
Thanks!

 

Enjoy






On another note where do you guys buy your mig wire? I need another 33lb spool of .035" solid core

 

local welding supply, used to be called boc gas, think it's rockwell industrial gas now. grin and bare the price. you usually run out at an inopportune time where cost savings isn't an option.

 

Lowes. Cheapest place around that I have found.

 

All the local Home Depot and Lowes around here only carry the 5 and 10lb spools. If you want the big 33lb, you need to find a local welding supply or get an account at a Grainger.

 

Is there American welding and gas around there?

 

theres a National welding and gas local here.... bout 25 mins or so from me... they carry every thing... but my little wire welder only holds a 5# roll

 

My little wire holds a 10 lb roll. Heavy welding I do with a 220 stick...