Heat shield options?

[e30bri]

has anyone used the e30 "sport"box (from the is). I made mine work when i got the miller maf for my m20 by using a silicone hose adapter. Would this be a decent idea? Or is it too restrictive?

[JGood]

Well done, their jaws probably smacked the floor upon reading that email. That's about the most shit talking you can do while still being totally professional.

Sorry it didn't work out for you, but thank you for sharing your experience with the rest of us, so we can learn from it as well.

[C-T]

I didn't want to rag on them when you said you were buying from them, but I never liked that company. Back in the Roadfly days, there was a discussion regarding the uselessness of intake setups on stock m20's. A representative of Signature Motoring (I think Robert?) tried to tell me he was going to have me sued for defamation of K&N's product or some shit like that. That's all it took for me to decide I was never going to deal with them.

I am surprised that they have been around that long. Given their complete void of professionalism and support I cannot fathom how they have stayed in business beyond a few weeks. I paid for the shield on November 3, and it wasn't until November 9 that I was next contacted by Dewi, their "engineer," who said he'd be handling the shield. He then waited another two days to send me the pictures marked up for the measurements he required.

I was frustrated then, given that it took them 8 days to make some markings on the photo I sent them and get it back to me, but I should have known then it was indicative of a supremely sub-par business acumen.

it depends. mine is a pain in the ass, and I don't have time to screw around with it. being able to buy something would be nice.

Yes. This. I had high hopes when I provided the requested measurements that they were the real deal despite my gut telling me that it was destined for failure. Fact is, I am no good at fabricating even a simple item like a heat shield, and prefer to leave it to people who at least pretend to know what they are doing. Sadly, Signature Motoring failed to even do that.

This was Signature Motoring's response to my email detailing my concerns that it was now two weeks past their promised ship date, and that I was now extremely concerned:

I was informed of your inquiries from Dewi earlier and I believe he responded to you. Your order included a custom intake-hole heat shield that was not available from general stock, so time-to-ship will vary substantially. However, your order was completed and you can look forward to receive it shortly.

Enough was enough. I have no interest in doing business with Signature Motoring out of principle at this point, so my response was pretty clear:

Peter,

I received the below email on December 20:

Reply from Dewi@signaturemotoring.com
to Me
date Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 5:23 PM
subject Re: Your E30 heat shield order.

Hello,

Just to update you, we will be shipping your heat shield out on Monday with the custom intake hole.

Please explain to me how "time to ship" varies substantially when I was told the shield would ship on November 23. It is now December 7th, two weeks after the promised ship date, two weeks without any contact or email from Signature Motoring explaining why I have received nothing for my money except unprofessional silence.

Like I told you when I started this fiasco, I am a staff member at Bimmerforums.com and I have an entire forum of swapped E30 owners watching my experience with great interest. They are aware of how I have been treated by Signature Motoring, and like me they are supremely disappointed - They just aren't out $145.00 but that's OK, because soon I will not be either.

Due to the failed promised ship date and unanswered emails, I have filed a dispute with PayPal to start the process of having my money returned to me. I will be furnishing them with the email from Signature Motoring with the promised ship date of Monday, Nov. 23, and since I paid by credit card I will be contesting the charge as fraudulent. Unless by some miracle you can convince me that Signature Motoring is somehow more trustworthy than you have proven so far, I will be refusing shipment of any packages from Signature because I cannot take the chance that it will be filled with wood shavings to weigh it down in order to get my signature on file that I signed for something.

I have no confidence in Signature Motoring, and will not patronize a vendor that displays such a black hole of customer service. You have done nothing to gain my trust, indeed your every act from taking my money, to unacceptable response times to emails, to the final lack of communication two weeks past your promised "ship date" reeks of fraud and low-brow Internet scamming. If you truly are a real business, for your own sake I hope you do something about your utter void of professionalism if you honestly hope to stay in business.

While I can almost write the tripe that you will doubtless concoct for me in response, I'm sorry, I am not interested in any more empty promises from Signature Motoring.

CMT

It is of particular note that their "customer service representative" has not seen fit to reply, not even to apologize for the joke that is their "service," and certainly not to attempt to try and salvage the relationship. Why would he? After all, I am sure that damage control is as beyond their scope as true customer service. They have also failed to respond to the PayPal dispute that I opened a few days ago, which I suppose is a good thing because when it escalates to a full claim it will allow me to get my money back without having to contact my CC company for a charge back.

At this point I just want my money back so I can forget that worthless companies like Signature Motoring exist.

[sharky]

1/8 or a 1/4 is fine, go the extra step and get a bit of heat and sound deadining and put it on there too, better than anything you can buy resonably

[e30bri]

buy some abs off ebay, use carbords as templtes, cut with a dremel or whatever. cost 420 and a bit of your time. I have extra weather striping if you need some

What thickness abs did you use?

[sharky]

being able to buy alot of things for our cars would be nice but since we have 20+ yr old german cars with engine swaps sometimes we have to improvise and make it the way we want. I didnt make my own as I am planning on going SC soon so its a waste but working with ABS is fairly easy.

[nando]

it depends. mine is a pain in the ass, and I don't have time to screw around with it. being able to buy something would be nice.

[kamotors]

buy some abs off ebay, use carbords as templtes, cut with a dremel or whatever. cost 420 and a bit of your time. I have extra weather striping if you need some

+1 making a nice custom shield only takes about a 1/2 hour.

[JGood]

I didn't want to rag on them when you said you were buying from them, but I never liked that company. Back in the Roadfly days, there was a discussion regarding the uselessness of intake setups on stock m20's. A representative of Signature Motoring (I think Robert?) tried to tell me he was going to have me sued for defamation of K&N's product or some shit like that. That's all it took for me to decide I was never going to deal with them.

[sharky]

buy some abs off ebay, use carbords as templtes, cut with a dremel or whatever. cost 420 and a bit of your time. I have extra weather striping if you need some

[mscott]

sucks, i wanted one too.

[FredK]

Dang.

[C-T]

I sent one last email today, and received no response from Signature Motoring. I have waited long enough for them to display even a modicum of professionalism, so the first steps toward recovering my money have been taken.

I have filed a dispute with PayPal, since I used their service to pay by credit card. Perhaps this will provoke a response. Very sad that it has come to this.

I really needed that heat shield, I wish these guys had turned out to be the real thing. :(

[C-T]

I really wish that I had something positive to report.

A few weeks ago, after some email interaction that included delivering the necessary measurements as requested for my "custom" shield, I was told that it would ship on Monday, Nov. 23. I was excited to see the shield that I had paid for back on Nov. 3, and that I had thought was only held up by Signature Motoring's need to try and get the piece fitted correctly.

It was right before Thanksgiving, so I thanked them for their professionalism, attended to the Holiday and proceeded never to receive the shield. I have been really busy at work, and the subject of the shield slipped my mind until late this week when I started firing off emails to my contacts inquiring into the status of the shield, asking for a tracking number on the shipment, and doing some general light grousing wondering WTF is going on.

Sadly, Signature Motoring has not seen fit to respond to my emails. However, before I turn up the heat, I am going to give them until early next week to respond with an explanation of either why the shield did not ship, or some sort of tracking information that will tell me where it is. I'm not ready to sound the alarm just yet, but at this point there has easily been enough warning signs for me to be concerned.

I will definitely let everyone know how this develops. I am hoping for a professional response from Signature, but will report back regardless of what happens.

[xwill112x]

lol, i made a heat sheild out of the kick plate behind the back seat :)