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Topic: Rockauto 87-88 T-bird grilles DO NOT BUY (Read 1472 times) previous topic - next topic

Rockauto 87-88 T-bird grilles DO NOT BUY

So many months ago I ordered two grilles for my Tbird from Rockauto.

Turns out they dont fit at all, none of them.
The "chrome" is pitted on both of them, they dont fit and they are the wrong proportions by FAR. Its not even close.
I let the pictures speak for themselves.

The box



My oem grille from the car and one of those from Rockauto.

Stock grille fitment, flush and nice

Rockauto piece of  as far in as I could get it.  Both was like this

OEM and china

Lets measure the beak.
Oem

Rockauto. Uhm...? Both was the same

Pitting



Backside of OEM

Rockautos.


shag off both of you


The item on Rockauto

Rockauto 87-88 T-bird grilles DO NOT BUY

Reply #1 –
Being that they are plastic, perhaps that is just how the things have aged in a warehouse?
1988 Thunderbird Sport

Rockauto 87-88 T-bird grilles DO NOT BUY

Reply #2 –
Shouldn't they shrink inwards rather than outwards then?
I dont know but all in all, they are useless...

Rockauto 87-88 T-bird grilles DO NOT BUY

Reply #3 –
Were the Rockauto grilles in Ford boxes???  I'm assuming they were based on the pictures. I notice the mfg date on the one box is 1999, 12 years after the original grille was made and installed at the factory. Also made in Canada, not China.

Very possible these grilles were made by a different mfg and possible the tooling is old.

Don't think you can blame Rockauto for this.

I've had the same experience w/ NOS parts not fitting as the original piece.

No way you can modify it to make it work?
tbirdregistry.com
26480
27373

Rockauto 87-88 T-bird grilles DO NOT BUY

Reply #5 –
I wondered about that....never saw that before on a NOS part.  Perhaps a refund would be due if Rockauto was notified about this?
tbirdregistry.com
26480
27373

Rockauto 87-88 T-bird grilles DO NOT BUY

Reply #6 –
The issue as i understand with the buyer, is he is located in Sweden, and even if they take them back he will be out over $70 in shipping.  Rock Auto needs to do the right thing and either get him parts that fit correctly regardless of how or why they don't fit, or refund him 100% of his money including shipping if they cannot.  I don't know how far he has dove into this with Rock Auto, but i know a lot of people on a number of different forums are looking to see what they do here.








1983 FORD THUNDERBIRD HERITAGE 5.0
2008 SAAB 9-7X AERO 6.0 (LS2) 1 0f 554 Made
2011 FORD FLEX SEL Family Hauler

Rockauto 87-88 T-bird grilles DO NOT BUY

Reply #7 –
Yeah, now that I'm back home and can see the pictures better, I agree that something else is up. No idea about the '99 date.

Warpage like that just can't happen outside of extreme cirspoogestances. After all, they don't distort in weird ways on cars in the summer sun, and it isn't like they are fastened down in any way to prevent warping.
1988 Thunderbird Sport

Rockauto 87-88 T-bird grilles DO NOT BUY

Reply #8 –
The "deviation" was something I never really understood, maybe it is as you say parts that failed quality control.

I myself dont believe in that they have warped, both are the same down to the millimeter. More like the molding they used is wrong.
And 1999 date I did not see either. How long do Ford usually make spare parts for their cars?
 

Rockauto 87-88 T-bird grilles DO NOT BUY

Reply #9 –
They're not warped.  They're production error.  Ford (and most other OEMs) will typically make parts for 8 years, although they'll usually make crash parts much longer.