Beware Of Desert Fab Motorsports

[homecourt2001]

Email me at homecourt2001@yahoo.com if you want a link to the pic's.
Todd McCullen is the owner of Desert Fab Motorsports, 4961 S Pinal Rd, Apache Junction AZ and in my option a yahoo! Contracted him to build a turn key buggy for me on 9/16/06 and was to be complete by 10/31/06. Which is a bit unreal for one man operation, but he stated that was what he could do. I supplied him with the Hendrix frame, CRD diffs, & Atlas. Well I finally pickup on end of November 2007 (14 months). The buggy was like still in mock up, nothing tested, no much checked. The list of stupidity is about 2 pages long. I am still working on buggy in my spar time with fixing and also doing upgrades and having a quality shop fix the things that are beyond my knowledge, Precision Auto in Kingman.
A list of some poor work he did:
standard rubber hose (marked not for fuel) pressure side for EFI fuel system-HAZARDOUS
front wheel studs too short 1.5 turn on lug nuts-HAZARDOUS
blind bolts rear diff top link mount hand tight, also a lot of loose bolts everywhere.
remount & extend upper links and relocate lower link bars for diff travel
ram mounted wrong & binding up ends
steering shaft bearing defective
steering locked up, pump installed wrong
add frame cross bar at rear shocks to support frame twist-Todd had cut out
leak at trans/transfer-no gasket
correct size trans cooler & mounted correctly-with no plastic ties
adjust transmission shifter no park
cut down transfer shifter cover plate – just poor workmanship
brakes would not stop buggy, replace master cyl. with correct fluid size
relocate & replace brake & gas paddles forward, driver seat back-my personal setting for my height, but Todd is my height
no break lights as requested
install radiator overflow tank
relocate rear seat & seatbelts did not fit in space
move gas tank back for rear seat to fit, install vent back flow value on tank
refab hood frame to withstand rollover
refab transfer case bottom cross member at correct height
relocate fuel & break lines away from heat
leaking gas pump, relocate by tank
steel tabs & cables loops for break & fuel lines & wires (remove wire ties)
replace custom headers (very poor workmanship-holes and welds)
install muffler hangers as none provided
solder all wire connectors & splices everywhere with no solder
clean up sharp edges on all aluminum panels
replace all cheap zeus fastener-will not hold offroad
replace .035 drivers & passenger floor panels with .125” aluminum add real tabs to support adult
replace all .125 skid plates with .250” aluminum
air cleaner not tight
fit & trim yellow side panels to fit & add three tabs each side
mount rear winch switch to L-bracket, not Velcro as provided
relocate & replace rear winch mount at better angle

So the front wheels would have fallen off, but I would have most likely burn up first, as I rolled down the mountain side.

[howyadoin]

Wrong forum for starters. Some of those issues do sound pretty valid, have you tried to work with him directly, I would assume so. I know they spend some time on the AZVJC board, so you might want to talk to them there. Holy shiate, 1.5 months for a turn key buggy, there was obviously a substantial misunderstanding there! Anyway, best of luck.

[ohmscj]

If I read that right...I was thinking the same thing. 1 1/2 months seems like a
fawking short time to get everything perfect. Do you have pics?

[Arizona_Jeep]

Same here, 1.5 months? Shit. It took me two years on a simple CJ7 build. Get some pics up! And sorry to hear that you got screwed over.

[Hackle]

I think you missed some of the dates. He contracted the job in 2006 and did not pick it up until November 2007. That is 14 months by my count.

[ohmscj]

Yep...just caught that.

pics?

[howyadoin]

Originally Posted by Hackle

I think you missed some of the dates. He contracted the job in 2006 and did not pick it up until November 2007. That is 14 months by my count.

He said was to be completed in 1.5 months originally! 1.5 years is obviously more realistic.

[The MULE]

Heres a sample of some "kick-ass" Desert Fab work!

[Arizona_Jeep]

Damn, nice seat brackets.

[The MULE]

Originally Posted by Arizona_Jeep

Damn, nice seat brackets.

That shit looks like it was welded with a coat hanger and a battery. At least they painted it up to cover the welds.

[silversuper]

wow that is bullshit, sorry to hear.

you didnt pay him did you?

[homecourt2001]

oh yes I did, about $27429.12. Did not see the BS until I got it back to kingman.

[homecourt2001]

No, never contacted him as of yet. So much BS wrong with his workmanship. I figured it would go nowhere, but jsut piss me off more. He either does not care about his workmanship or is just that stupid.

[homecourt2001]

Wrong forum for starters, where should I have done it?

[howyadoin]

There's a bad seller/disputes forum here on the board, but I can actually see why you posted here since it is a local issue. Sucks, and doesn't seem to be an isolated incident, so best of luck and thanks for the heads-up.

[T-Bag]

That sucks about your buggy and would like to see some pics of the work in question.

As for the pics of the seat mount fab work, it is acceptable for a beginner with a Harbor Freight welder to do in his garage on a Saturday but for a shop to turn out that kind of poor workmanship is appalling.

[homecourt2001]

Well get some and post next week.

[FatBob309]

Wow....

[Gen. Nonsense]

Originally Posted by FatBob309

Wow....

Indeed.

[lancetkenyon]

And to think, I was about to contact them to backhalf my Jeep into a Juggy too, and do my stretch, and build a set of D60s, and............................

[jeepcrazie]

Looks almost exactly like every other desert fab rig I have ever seen. That is the type of work they do. Lesson: Do your homework before you lay down the cash to a builder people. Had you looked at any of the other rigs they built, you would have seen that stuff.

Sorry bout your situation, it's a bummer.

[JackHammer]

Originally Posted by lancetkenyon

And to think, I was about to contact them to backhalf my Jeep into a Juggy too, and do my stretch, and build a set of D60s, and............................

A little more tub damage and you might as well call it a juggy.
Stick with Joesus.
I was gonna have DF do my steering.

[Pac8541]

For the record, those are my seat brackets and my pics above. Todd contacted me the next day to say that he saw the pics and realized he hadn't finished the welds. He asked me to stop back in so he could weld them completely.

There are some things Todd is dealing with within the shop that have had him a little distracted over the last week and I do not consider those welds as being indicative of a poor quality of his work. It was an oversight and its not something I will use against him or his shop in future needs. My experience with DF has been entirely different than the subject of this thread and I'm sorry to hear yours was so bad. I trust him and Dave up there and will continue to use them as my local shop.

And yes, I broke the link to those pics. If you want to post pics of DF's "trash" work, use your own.

[Gen. Nonsense]

Originally Posted by Pac8541

Todd contacted me the next day to say that he saw the pics and realized he hadn't finished the welds. He asked me to stop back in so he could weld them completely.

[lancetkenyon]

Originally Posted by Pac8541

For the record, those are my seat brackets and my pics above. Todd contacted me the next day to say that he saw the pics and realized he hadn't finished the welds. He asked me to stop back in so he could weld them completely.

There are some things Todd is dealing with within the shop that have had him a little distracted over the last week and I do not consider those welds as being indicative of a poor quality of his work. It was an oversight and its not something I will use against him or his shop in future needs. My experience with DF has been entirely different than the subject of this thread and I'm sorry to hear yours was so bad. I trust him and Dave up there and will continue to use them as my local shop.

And yes, I broke the link to those pics. If you want to post pics of DF's "trash" work, use your own.

Honestly, it should not have taken them seeing the pics to realize they screwed up, they should have caught it in the first place. I have never met Dave or Todd personally, but they have always gotten back to me in a timely manner when I asked for a quote, just never contracted them to do any actual work. This is not the first time I have heard, and seen incidents like this, sorry.