SEIBON's poor quality and worse service

[kanundrum]

Hmmmm was about to order several seibon parts. Not sure now. One if them yes was a hood.

[Minovsky]

Originally Posted by chadstyle

I built the first widebody 2010 camaro and took it to SEMA that year...it was the only widebody at the show. (The following year Topo Designs had 5-6 widebody camaros there) I had LSD begging me to put their door hinges on it but the owner of the car and I protested it to the end. Seibon called me every single day offering me anything I wanted to run just their hood and trunk. It was a black camaro so I asked them if I could paint the majority of the hood and trunk and just leave two small "windows" of carbon showing through. They gave me free Hankook tires for installing their parts so I tried them out. I spent more messing with the hood and trunk alignment and fitment than I did stretching the factory sheet metal 9" to fit 26"x13" wheels in the rear while still tucking rim. They never aligned perfect no matter what I did with the adjacent panels, there were uneven gaps as well as high spots and low spots galore. On top of the fitment the resin on the parts was so fresh that a week after painting them they shrunk even further and the weave started to show through the paint!! Worst of all the factory hood WITH the latch AND liner on it was still lighter than the Seibon hood. The factory trunk was lighter as well. I called my contact there and screamed and yelled and told him even though the parts were "free" they had costed me thousands in labor and days of time and in the end were junk. He told me it was because they were "new to market" but would get better in quality. I showed up three days before SEMA at their California headquarters with every other Seibon SEMA car going in their booth. I walked around quietly and looked at the 12-15 other cars there and solely at the fit and finish of their products on these cars. EVERY SINGLE CAR WAS AS BAD OR WORSE!! I burned rubber back to the shop, swapped back to the factory parts, and showed the car.

I have been building cars at a professional level for 16 years...I know my shit when it comes to cars. If you guys are car guys and watch car shows then I'm sure you have seen my work on many occasions. I'm not "trolling" (such a stupid term) but simply warning consumers not to waste their hard earned $$ and time on Seibon.

Some people have said in this thread "if I spent hundreds of dollars on a CF part it better fit perfect"...that's almost as concerning as Seibon. Real CF that's done properly and "dry" will save weight and fit perfect but "hundreds of dollars" is more like THOUSANDS of dollars for these parts. People spending $400-600 on hoods and trunks from Seibon are getting what they paid for...junk!

I'll post a link to another thread that a guy was obviously sponsored by Seibon got upset when asked about fitment by another user I replied and said "look at all the gaps around the hood" and he got upset with me and blamed it on other issues. In the end of the day he was dead wrong and couldn't argue with straight facts.

We're all here for one common reason..we LOVE our cars!! We're "car guys (and some girls too)" and want to make our cars the best possible and share amongst each other. Part of this should include being honest about parts used and experiences with companies. I've told my story with Seibon, please tell yours...people deserve to know the truth!!

Hey just wondering if you have knowledge of Zeta performance CF Lip spoiler Since it is around the same price i was looking at seibon and zeta... BUt after looking at all these posts im not getting seibon.. but would like to know if zeta has any bad records too~~!

[chadstyle]

Originally Posted by Honeydew

Hey just wondering if you have knowledge of Zeta performance CF Lip spoiler Since it is around the same price i was looking at seibon and zeta... BUt after looking at all these posts im not getting seibon.. but would like to know if zeta has any bad records too~~!

I have to be honest as I have no experience with Zeta Performance. I was looking at the APR lip kit, which I think is the nicest looking/best quality for the money, but at the last minute I decided to go with the HT Autos lip kit. Here is my reasoning... I have already lowered my car 1.4" all the way around. So far, I haven't had any scraping issues with the front lip but I've read about tons of people with FR-S/BRZ having front lips and scraping often. CF weighs about the same as the HT Auto part, maybe even a little more but that's not my reasoning. If it scrapes, CF will crack and get beat up over time and the only thing you can do once its cracked is 1. Replace it with a new part or 2. Fiberglass it from the backside to reinforce the break point and then bodywork and paint the front side. At that point you will have to choose a color but CF isn't an option. I know that the front lip will receive more abuse than any other part on the car so I think in the long run that black plastic will hold up better and look better too. Check out a few of the available plastic lips before making your final decision.

If you choose to go with the Zeta Performance CF lip then be sure to google the parts to see if other users have had fitment or quality issues on different vehicles if you can't find feedback on the FR-S/BRZ. As the title of this thread states, the biggest problem with Seibon is the customer service. I know some people who don't care that the part is a little heavier than OEM or that the gaps are uneven...they just want the CF look. If you're one of those people then I'm sure you will be happy with almost any CF part. If you're a stickler for details and fitment, do your homework before purchasing and have a local shop with experience fitting CF parts just incase there needs to be some grinding/sanding/aligning of parts.

I hope this helps. I'm sorry that I don't have first hand experience with the Zeta brand. If you do purchase it, please post pics and let everyone here know the results. As I've said before, we all share a bond here and its these cars that we love. I'm not here to "bash" any company or parts...I'm here to share my experiences and help others with their cars where I can as well as learn from others that have already modded parts and can tell you the real deal.

[BoostinIX]

Had 2 hoods from Seibon, S14 and S15, both fit exactly as they should have/were expected to.

I'd wager with the mad rush to have all these parts out for SEMA, some corners got cut.

/shrug. Not trying to say yours didn't have issues. Every company does. HKS turbos go back more often than anyone lets on lol. Just sharing my experience.

[Kuzuri]

I had bad luck with Seibon with the DV Style hood. The shape was off so I had to adjust the fenders to fit the hood. AND, it dips down too far in the front where it meets the bumper. I will post pics tonight when I'm back.

I know that Ben (I don't know his name on the forum) also has the same hood as me with the same issues...

[kanundrum]

Ugh

[RAYSSPL]

Someone needs to send this thread over seibon. I've had Seibon CF parts for my MR2 Spyder and they fit near flawlessly and I have no complaints. Sad to see that some other folks are having a crappy product, however.

[chadstyle]

Originally Posted by RAYSSPL

Someone needs to send this thread over seibon. I've had Seibon CF parts for my MR2 Spyder and they fit near flawlessly and I have no complaints. Sad to see that some other folks are having a crappy product, however.

Ray, that's the biggest problem! Total hit or miss on fitment for each vehicle. Their customer service is total BS so I seriously doubt they would care about this thread. Google "Seibon Problems" and see how many hits you get... It's a shame too because I actually really like the styling/design of Seibon parts. Their fitment is just bad... When I worked for West Coast Customs, we had so many issues with their parts (provided at no charge, mind you), that we decided that they were a brand we couldn't use on any of our builds ever again. Too many problems and too much time involved. Sad because their west coast headquarters is only 20-30 minutes from WCC. You know that their "dry carbon" is actually the same exact part as their standard carbon but without the clear coat...and they charge double the price for "dry carbon"...

We did some serious kits like the Veilside full kit for the RX7 (real popular after fast and furious came out) and those kits are big bucks and require serious mods to install...at the end of the day we were always able to get massive kits like these to line up perfect but the Seibon parts never would. It really is a bummer...

[Kuzuri]

First pic, you can see the gap on the drivers side is slightly larger than the passenger side


and here you can see that gap again, but also, look at fitment around the headlight. The hood sits lower than the fender AND the bumper...


and I dont have any photos of how it fit before i slipped some washers in the fenders and installed the latches... but it was bad. the hood was still lower than the fender and the bumper in the front, but on the sides on the arches it was raised about a quarter of an inch... I emailed seibon about it and basically they said its too bad because Iinstalled it instead of having a body shop do it. It really pissed me off. Its the product, not me.

[#87]

Buy a junk yard OEM hood
cut it to your preferred vent configuration
CF vinyl wrap it
???
profit

[OrbitalEllipses]

Oh wow DAT GAP! and not the good kind of DAT GAP!

[kanundrum]

Had my kaminari hood on my scion tC and I had to adjust it several times before it fit 100% or as close to as that as possible. Yours doesn't look too bad just looks like it could use a lot of adjusting from a 2 man team

[Jason952]

An update;

As promised, Jeremy at ft86speedfactory got his wing in, confirmed the fit and swapped me as promised. I haven't fit the new one yet, but he and his company are first rate!

I am thinking about some extra clear coat prior to the final install.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[chadstyle]

That's good news!! Test fit it first and once you get it fitting right you can sand the spoiler with 800 wet with a foam block and then lay on some really good clear coat. That'll keep it looking good for much longer.