[JimMueller]

Ahh, I miss the good ol' days of these conversations on FRRAX...starting at post 38

https://ls1tech.com/forums/suspension-brake...ng-springs.html

This post has been edited by JimMueller: Feb 15 2018, 12:33 AM

[trackbird]

Ahh, I miss the good ol' days of these conversations on FRRAX...starting at post 38

https://ls1tech.com/forums/suspension-brake...ng-springs.html

I don't miss those days. That was earlier in the history of this board. I actually used to wind up on the phone with the various participants in some of the "spats" to convince everybody to play nice. I don't miss those days at all, though we had good tech and guys who were rabid about it.

Scanning through that trainwreck (and without bringing the fight to this board...I'm not in the mood)....I don't understand why people expect Sam to give them the Forgestar fitment information that he has worked up. I believe he is running offsets that he has worked out to fit the cars as easily as possible. Knowledge is power. If Forgestar wants to spec wheels for them, that's ok. If Sam uses something different and it fits better, that info is his to use to sell wheels. If someone else wants to buy one of the gauges that bolts to the car and a tire and start working out their own fitments, that's ok too.


There's a story about a guy who calls an engineering firm for help with a piece of equipment (it goes roughly like this). The engineer shows up and looks at the system. When he's done, he puts a large X on one piece of the equipment and says "That's your problem right there, replace that" and hands them a bill for $50,000.

The equipment owner is really angry about how he could charge $50,000 to place a chalk X.

The engineer explains "$1.00 is for the chalk X, $49,999 is for knowing where to put it".


Sam is in a tough business that's dominated by a couple very large mail order firms (I used to work in the tech department at Jegs, trust me, I know all about it) and a lot of small ones. It's extremely difficult to compete with Amazon, Jegs, etc. His competitive advantage is his knowledge. He may not beat Jegs or Summit on price, but he can answer questions that they probably can't. Sometimes I just mail order stuff. Sometimes I call Sam. If I know what I need, I often order it (but I often check Sam's prices to see if he's close, if so I'll try to buy it there...what's $5 in the grand scheme of what I have in this project?). If I have questions, I often call Sam and if I do...I buy it from him. I don't even price shop in most cases.

The RAM hydraulics, Fidanza flywheel and Centerforce clutch in my project came from Sam. I called Sam and said "I've never had hydraulic issues with any of my F-bodies (even though they are notorious for having such issues, it's never happened to me before), what do you recommend for hydraulics and what's the recent status of the Fidanza/Centerforce combo?". Sam gave me a brief rundown on what he's tried/sold/learned from customer feedback lately and I gave him my visa card number. Parts showed up in a couple days.

Shocks for my truck, I called Sam and asked for pricing. He left a message for me with the price. I called the shop and said "Send me Bilstiens, here's my visa". Poof, new shocks showed up.

Guys want help, but they are so cheap that they take that info and order elsewhere to save $7.00 on freight. I used to spend 20 minutes here and there helping guys with the tech behind things they wanted to order. I had a guy wanting to build a desert pre-runner with a big block. I'd spend 20-30 minutes on the phone with him (until the boss would see my call time and yell at me). Ultimately I spent 2 to 3 hours on the phone running down all the information he needed for his big block and explaining the tech. The boss asked "is he going to order?". I said "Yes, he's going to order". After about the 3rd hour on the phone, he ordered all the parts for a big block, pistons, rods, cam, lifters, aluminum heads, etc. I handed my boss a copy of the order and said "He ordered, just like I said he would" (and it was multiple thousands of dollars). As one of 100 guys on the phones, I had the luxury of time...at least to a degree (and I got paid if I sold stuff or not that day). Sam doesn't. And if my guy had called me up and said "I just ordered all the parts we discussed from Summit", my boss would have been a little irritated with me for spending the time. Imagine how Sam would feel after 3 hours on the phone (that would be 3 hours that didn't make him money selling other parts, packing orders, doing paperwork, etc).

Sam is direct. Sam can be a little gruff (for lack of a better term) at times. Sam and I have bumped heads on things on occasion. I also consider Sam a friend and I do what I can to help his business and buy from him when I can. None of this is personal. If I post something and he says I'm wrong/that won't work. I might try it anyway and I'll admit if it fails (like shortening my rear Koni DA's for my original 2002 Camaro....that thread is on this board somewhere). If you've ever met Sam in person, you'll know that what most people take as Sam arguing and telling them what to do...is just Sam. He's not fighting with you, he's just "Sam". I don't say that to insult Sam. I say that to explain that he sounds the same way when you're not talking tech, but you would have to talk to him at an event or something to understand that (if that makes sense?).

Why hasn't Sam posted on here since 2011? But is still actively logging in?

There are a lot of people who log in and keep up on things without posting. Sam also sold me some of the parts for the convertible project, he could be following that (but I'm certainly not of the opinion that I'm so important that he's watching my builds either...I just mean it could be "anything"). He could be following anything, keeping up on feedback on the Strano/UMI coil overs or any of 100 other things. This site sees a lot more web traffic than it does posts. It seems we've become a bit of an archive for 4th gen (and to a lesser extent, 3rd gen) information.