Top Hat Problems

[mo_jo]

Anyone having the kind of problems from top hat that I'm having? Shitty service broken parts and slow turn around times... getting too hard to find a decent shop around here.

[v-empire]

killswitch seems to be pretty busy. they are over in ATL....
they seem to be knocking cars out pretty consisntently....? hit them up.

it also depends on the type of work need to get done.


i like to work on power mods and motor builds.
hope it all works out for you.

[hellfire]

Thanks Dave!

Yeah, if your looking, give us a call. Your free to stop by and check us out. :)

Tyler

[240sxautox]

You obviously haven't read my build thread mo jo. My car was supposed to be done in 2 weeks and it took them about 9. The car still isn't tuned properly after they installed my e-manage ultimate.

Oh and yeah- check out killswitch Tylers a good guy

[v-empire]

they must be super busy...

i have been stupid busy with work and customer cars.... we ve done about 10? motor/power builds since Nopi Nationals in November... damn. on the 31st, all the cars will be knocked out including Marcos' coupe.

in fact, we just finished a 310 whp s14 rhd car that was droped off 4 days ago. car has been all over the place...they always end up here, damn it.
car had low comp., pulled motor out, tore it apart, rebuilt, back in. dyno tuned, customer picking up tonight.

luckly, i had all the parts at the shop. some times, it takes awhile for parts to come in. and you have to take that into consideration for these shops.... so remember that.

i remember when tiger racing wasnt all caught up with work and customers cars, then and when shit hit the fan, they were all scrambling.
now with new management, we have been smooth, fast and busy... sometimes shit just happens and they need a break. mostly.


best thing to do is talk to them and ask for honesty, but be understanding, i m sure they ll be reasonable.

[240sxautox]

They usually are reasonable, I was understanding during the entire process- I know it's a lot of things to do. What made mine bad was the motor was already installed properly in the car, they just had to wire and wire in the e-manage and do the intercooler piping. About 2 weeks worth of work with tuning, but it took them 9. I like mike and all the other guys as people they're great guys, but I'd take my car somewhere else... such as my own garage now. I just hate wires lol

[v-empire]

we love wires! hah!

[JDM Steve]

I do my own stuff. It may take longer then some shops but its done right the first time.

[Z-Bryan]

ya ive always kinda known tophat was sketchy

TheBigT has had his car gone more then 40 days for an RB swap

Say what you will
But Ill stay away from tophat

[240sxautox]

mine was there for 9 weeks... over 2 months.

for rb wiring, I did the full motorswap myself, and the e-manage wiring and intercooler piping

[Z-Bryan]

Thats ridiculous for just wiring!!

[PSINXS]

Anyone having the kind of problems from top hat that I'm having? Shitty service broken parts and slow turn around times... getting too hard to find a decent shop around here.

i do business with them and i have the same issue, but for good reason. Mike lost his lead Tech recently so he is having a tough time by himself. He is trying his best. My car isnt done either but I am waiting on fucking pistons.

[Z U L8R]

well that explains that.

i've never had a problem with top hat. Mike and Denise have helped me out a lot. they've always been a pretty reliable source for me when i need parts for my rb25. i am a happy customer. i've seen 2 cars done by them, one was a white rb20 280z that looked pretty cool, and emmerson's red s13 hatch that was very nicely done.

hopefully you can be a little more patient with him considering he's there by himself.
Take care =]
Dave

[PSINXS]

i was working there for emmerson's build. awesome car.

only other guy i ever see there is anthony that answers the phones.

And Weezer may still work there though.

[AlmostFast]

i just got my car back and apparently they have a lapse of memory on what was discussed and when i got my car back i was missing a shifter cover and my hood hinges. I guess I expected too much or something but I wont be going back there again. oh and forgot. i left my r32 seat in the car in case they needed to move it around once they "got it running" and when i came ot look at it my car was in the middle of the shop and the techs were sitting in it, while dirty. kinda irritating.

[hellfire]

Yep, Anthony is who we always have contact with when we deal with Tophat. He is the one with the broken leg right?

Tyler

[shawn shawn]

I love the guys at top hat. They have what it takes to make a bad ass motor/car and all but they have been working on my brother in laws 2jz swap into a supra for over a year now....



take that for what its worth.




when its time for my swap if I don't do it myself I will probably go the tiger racing or killswitch route. ;)

[BlackMage]

Things like this is why I learned to work on my own crap. Now only if I could get my hands on a dyno and learn to tune on it.

[Black Hills]

Well this is David, i built several motors for Tophat a couple of years ago when we were partners in the track and all. They are very SLOW!!! They are very overwhelmed with work as well. So most of the time they trying to catch up. They did just lose Scott but now they have some other guy in there that supposed to know what he is doing. They are good guys but i BUILD MY OWN CARS!!!

[Marcos]

I think as a customer we all want things done fast and right. I know we like to spill our guts about our cars and expect the shop you chose to listen to all of it and at the same time do 15 others just like you, but when it comes down to it each situation is a case by case.

Ive delt with Tophat for a longtime now. I was sponsered by them for over a 1hr. They always were ladi back and treated me good. There a few times in the beginning that were rough on me, but before that I was a customer. Tophat has lost a few good men in the past year and I know Mike is going through a tough time keeping his quote.

All shops will have a peaks and falls. At the end of the day is about Turn around time a quality. This is why it is very important to ask several detailed questions when chosing a shop to take care of your loved one.

Right now my car is at Tiger and since Ive know Sammy he has always kept his word with me. The car was started before my expected date and now there saying it will done on the 31st. I wasnt expecting that at all. I was expecting it back by 2nd week of Jan. Which is what I asked him to have it done by.

I think at the end of the day we want our cars running right and in most cases youll have to put in alittle DIY to make it perfect..Especially when us nissan owners always want things done right,fast, and cheap... My 2 cents..

Sexy pants see you tomorrow....

[PaintballerA91]

Killswitch does very good work and they do it very quickly.
Not to mention that even there prices are great.
Thanks again Tyler for the work you did on my car.
It looks great and runs great other than the engine leaking.
But thats not yalls fault.

[hellfire]

^^ Thanks! Oh, and PM me. What ended up happening with Tophat?

Tyler

[cbeuglas]

I bought my sr from Tophat and did the install my self. I like Mike a lot, nut he has lost Scott, Stephen, and Timmy. That was the best group there for what I can see, but I dont know much about the new crew. I still talk to scott and timmy quite often, and stephen's woman is my wifes sister. Stephen was the tuning and wiring guy for tophat, but i would still trust mike to do me right. P.S. Marcos hows my old apexi safc doing.

[mo_jo]

well... I kind of got stuck with them. they were the only place toget my engine from. the engine turned out to be a dud and needed a top end rebuild so I ley mike fulfill his waranty. I tokk them the engine and it took close to four months to get it back. I put it in over the weekend and found a few things broken and one part missing completely. I am a powersports tech and I'm complletely capable of doing the work myself... but its really hard to find time.

[flip]

we love wires! hah!

Wires are fun...

[PSINXS]

I love the guys at top hat. They have what it takes to make a bad ass motor/car and all but they have been working on my brother in laws 2jz swap into a supra for over a year now....



take that for what its worth.




when its time for my swap if I don't do it myself I will probably go the tiger racing or killswitch route. ;)
i test fitted the 2jz for that car when I worked there. went back and seen it recently and it is coming along fantastic. exhaust looks good on it. please post pics of it.

[BruceAlmighty]

frankly, i dont trust any shops to do work for anyone anymore. ive heard horror stories about every shop in the Atlanta metro area.

not trying to step on any toes here, just my $0.02......

[shawn shawn]

i test fitted the 2jz for that car when I worked there. went back and seen it recently and it is coming along fantastic. exhaust looks good on it. please post pics of it.

I will when he finally gets it...

[EmminoDaGreaT]

There is always going to be someone that has a bad experience at any/all shop. You try to please everyone all the time, but in some cases thats not possible especially when you start getting really busy. Do always remember there are two sides to every story.

Anyways if you need your emange tuned we can do it @ MSPi.

[BruceAlmighty]

^

true.

however, ive found that with most shops they continually overbook themselves to try to make more money, rather than to tell their customers that they cant do it at that time. i understand that money plays a role in everything, but its selfish and in the end it only causes one thing:

loss of customers/spread of bad word...

[tophatperformance]

You are dead on. If anyone thinks we shop owners sit around and say let's keep this guy's car another week just for the fun of it your nuts. We try to keep customers happy but its soo much harder than you think. Finished cars with customers who can't pay, bounced checks,builds that change mid stream, cars come in with one thing and it ends up worse than customers thought, defective parts,backordered parts and in my case not wanting to send out a sub par product. The list could go on and on. 75% of it out of the shops hands. Anyone on this site who built there on car and says they had no problems is a lier. A shop like TopHat builds 5-8 at a time so think about how many problems we deal with on a day to day basis. I am by no means making excuses but just saying there is alittle more going on than bolting a car togeather. I'd much rather just throw some parts togeather and get your money but it ain't that cut and dry.
I read a few complaints on this thread and to those customers I apologise. I think a few details were left out on a few but I will not go into that. I hope we can do better in 2008.

[white_s14]

go for killswitch good people there

[napoleon]

In my own experience, i find it humerous when people complain about lengths of time it takes a shop for "only a simple XXX job". I see both sides of the story because I have done work for tons of people AND had shops do the work. Do your research and do it yourself, or dont complain about the time and or quality of someone elses work. If you did your research, then you have nothing to worry about. If it takes a long time, chances are it was worth it.

[flip]

You are dead on. If anyone thinks we shop owners sit around and say let's keep this guy's car another week just for the fun of it your nuts. We try to keep customers happy but its soo much harder than you think. Finished cars with customers who can't pay, bounced checks,builds that change mid stream, cars come in with one thing and it ends up worse than customers thought, defective parts,backordered parts and in my case not wanting to send out a sub par product. The list could go on and on. 75% of it out of the shops hands. Anyone on this site who built there on car and says they had no problems is a lier. A shop like TopHat builds 5-8 at a time so think about how many problems we deal with on a day to day basis. I am by no means making excuses but just saying there is alittle more going on than bolting a car togeather. I'd much rather just throw some parts togeather and get your money but it ain't that cut and dry.
I read a few complaints on this thread and to those customers I apologise. I think a few details were left out on a few but I will not go into that. I hope we can do better in 2008.

Thanks for joining up to discuss this with your customer. There's always two sides to every story.

I think most of these break downs are due to communication. Good communication is key in any business relationship.

[Casey]

In my own experience, i find it humerous when people complain about lengths of time it takes a shop for "only a simple XXX job". I see both sides of the story because I have done work for tons of people AND had shops do the work. Do your research and do it yourself, or dont complain about the time and or quality of someone elses work. If you did your research, then you have nothing to worry about. If it takes a long time, chances are it was worth it.

+reps for personalization


Thanks for joining up to discuss this with your customer. There's always two sides to every story.

I think most of these break downs are due to communication. Good communication is key in any business relationship.

definatly

every shop has issues and like, if a shop runs into a problem. they have to wait to contact the owner of the car before doing anything further, then get approval, then the customer has to know the price difference / if there is any ect ect there is time to analyze the problem, get to know the car, motorsetup, tune ect ect ect. turn around time might be long but it is done by a shop. this is what you should expect.
i honestly wouldnt want a shop to take my car, bolt crap on it, and turn it back to me without checking things, taking their time, looking over everything before giving it back to me. and yeah there def is two sides to a story. yeah it sucks that it took so and so months to do such and such and yea you could do it "faster"
but tophat does good work, ive seen some of their swaps and they are definatly well done.

anyways, like flip said. cool you joined =D

[Howard]

If you go to the Nissan dealer for an Alternator problem he can tell you that it will take 3.5 hours to replace it, and baring any Parts availability problems, when it will be done.
They have done it many times, it is routine and has no unknown factors to be dealt with.

If you tell them to install a Toyota Alternator in your Nissan they would have to engineer a solution:Mounting adapters, wire harness etc.. It could be done but there is no way to tell how long it would take or how much it would cost.

Custom builds are like the second example.

Most guys go to a shop with an Idea of what they want it to be like but don't convey the total Idea to the shop.
You should make a contract before you start outlining EXACTLY what you want, How it should look, How much it should cost and when it should be done. Also, set realistic goals on time and money. Remember... Custom work takes time!

If you do all of the above you will know if you are getting what you ordered, how much it will cost and if it is on time.

NOTE: Tophat did an SR 20 for me 2 years ago. It was done on time and correctly. I am still happy with the build.
My son in laws Supra has been there a LONG while. It was a tough custom build during tough times at Tophat ( Moved from one building to another, Personnel changes and such).
We are promised it will be done soon

I guess there batting .500 with me.

[stupidbikerboy]

Not the first (or second) unhappy customer I've seen from TopHat. I build my own personally, but TopHat wouldn't be on my list if I needed anything from a shop. Never dealt with the shop, but have dealt with one of thier mechanics. He's a complete idiot. Wouldn't let him near my lawnmower.

Killswitch have a dyno?

[hellfire]

We don't yet unfortunetly. We are shopping for one right now. Pricey. ;) Hopefully we will have one in the next 6 months.

Tyler

[cbryant514]

I've had several jobs performed at TopHat - full Z32 F&R brakes & MC, suspension work, a pre-HPDE inspection, etc. Most of the time everything went as planned. The one time it did not Mike and I worked to find a solution and Mike made it right. I am happy with the work performed on my car, and I am very picky - just ask Mike & Scott(formerly of TopHat.)

Mike is having a tough time right now and is trying to make the best of it. If you have an issue, work to resolve it as soon as you are aware - don't let it fester and then blow up. No one wins in that situation.

Chris

[JTA021]

i test fitted the 2jz for that car when I worked there. went back and seen it recently and it is coming along fantastic. exhaust looks good on it. please post pics of it.

i did that exhaust.. completely from scratch, please post pics!

mike, about time you freaking get on here! hows it going? when am i doin those manifolds?

[rubhamusan]

Hmmm what to say. If know one knows me i'm scott. I was at thp for about 3 years. i now have the supra in my hands and am trying to finish up the car and get it going. Now that I am free lancing it's hard to eat and finish a car that i'm not making money on. But it's almost there. I hope to have it running by saturday or sunday. Builds do change around people change anything changes over time. I do know that i am slow but I have to be satisfied with a build before it goes.


Anyways just a few words from me.


Ps..Whats up brandon,chris,chris,howard,shawn,marcos,blake, and anyone else I know. oh and JT!

[shawn shawn]

Sup Scott! We know your work is amazing. ;) The amount that you know about these cars is insane!

Whats new man?

[rubhamusan]

Trying to post whore up to 15 post so I can sell some parts in the for sale.

And building toyota engines muhuhahahahaha.

And I miss all my 240 freinds so i hunted them down and all trails lead to here. Man my spelling bad. Good thing I'm a gear head and not a pencil pusher. I would get fired quick.

[shawn shawn]

I told my dad to tell you about this place. You shouldn't have any trouble selling your parts here cause you got the fly stuff!

You going to be getting rims?

[rubhamusan]

for me or fore sale. I got some 18" volk gtc's coming. I may keepem or sell them not sure yet.

[shawn shawn]

I meant for sale. Not right now but down the road. You still going to be importing stuff right?

[rubhamusan]

Yup hpefully should be going over there and load up one in febuary maybe march. we will see what happens.

13 posts 2 more.

[shawn shawn]

Sweet! Let me know what you get. ;)

[rubhamusan]

Will do. And sorry for getting off topic. Thats 14!

[shawn shawn]

shave and a haircut....

.


.



.

[JTA021]

i told you to get your ass on here a long time ago scott. lol
whats up man

oh yeh, get some pics of teh supra!

[rubhamusan]

Will do asap.

[JTA021]

saweeet

[cbryant514]

Ps..Whats up brandon,chris,chris,howard,shawn,marcos,blake, and anyone else I know. oh and JT!


Hey Scott,

Welsome aboard! Email me your contact info so I can swing by!

Chris

[Marcos]

whats up scotty... Good to see you on here bro...

[240sxautox]

what's up Scott, good to hear that you're doing alright man. Thanks for the time put into my car.

[TheBigT]

i just had a really really good experiance with tophat. i also talked to mike about ur situation and now i know the whole story....sorry u think it was bad....

[240sxautox]

Don't comment on my situation with tophat. You've heard his half and possibly heard part of my situation. There are two sides to every story and this one doesn't need to be discussed any further. I decided against a lawsuit for the bad wiring (caught fire) of the relay and the lack of tuning because I don't have the time for that.

[PSINXS]

Will do asap.

oh shit mr rubbber hammer!!!!! where are you? how you been? I will call you today from my new number. You need to come hang out with me in my new place.