Don't buy from Al Knoch until you read this

[Droptop]

What a nightmare. I guess we can all learn from your mistake. I think
I'll buy my new carpet from someone more reputable.

[Rider1958]

Fred Roth says:
>Buyer Beware!!!!
>of dealing with Al Knoch Interiors
>Attention Corvette Restorers: I cant guarantee you that you will have the
>same
>experiences as I have had unless you own a 53 to 55 Corvette but Ill bet you
>that if you have any problems with this guys products, you’re in for big
>trouble if you try to get any satisfaction from him, especially if it
>involves
>any money or effort on his part. READ ON:

<snip>

Thanks for the info, I and my father are going to order some interior parts,
guess we won't be considering this guy's outfit.
Ron

[MCS72 ROTH]

Buyer Beware!!!!
of dealing with Al Knoch Interiors
Attention Corvette Restorers: I cant guarantee you that you will have the same
experiences as I have had unless you own a 53 to 55 Corvette but Ill bet you
that if you have any problems with this guys products, you’re in for big
trouble if you try to get any satisfaction from him, especially if it involves
any money or effort on his part. READ ON:

JULY 1995: Started ordering everything needed for a complete upholstery job on
1955 Harvest Gold car including seat covers, seat foam, all new seat springs,
door panels, windshield bag, dash cover , convt, top and pads, door and kick
panels. His catalog advertised Every item we offer is made by our employees in
our own factory. He admitted this year to me that he had lied and that the
53-55 stuff was old surplus he picked up from All True when it went belly up
some years ago.

Nov - DEC 1995: We tried to install the seat covers. I have personally
installed at least 20 sets of custom made covers, mainly for Mustangs, as well
as a dozen or so complete custom upholstery jobs for less popular cars, but I
was unable to make these look even passable. Took the seats to a professional
in Newbury Park, CA. 180 bucks later he gave up and said they just werent sewn
correctly.

JANUARY 1996: Talked to Knoch. He ran off at the mouth telling me that I just
didnt know what I was doing, that if the seats were back in his warehouse he
could install them with no problem, because there was nothing wrong with his
product. I offered to ship the seats back to have this miracle performed. I
have the UPS invoice dated 1/30/96 when the seats were shipped back to Texas at
my expense.

Feb 1996 - Feb 1997: I am surmising that when the seats arrived they were
looked at by Dale Robertson, at which time Dale decided that they needed to be
remade. PROBLEM - Since they had been made some time ago, there was NO MATERIAL
AVIALABLE to remake them. Since yellow was not popular, it would not be
financially prudent to remake the material. INSTEAD OF CALLING ME AND FESSING,
UP THEY TOOK MY SEATS,AND DOOR PANELS AND THREW THEM ON A SHELF FOR OVER ONE
GOD DAMN YEAR!!!!! My phone calls werent answered, my faxes and letters werent
answered. I WAS TOTALLY IGNORED. In fact the only way I finally got them back
was a Vette guy who toured my Museum in Jan 96, and saw the totally restored
car less seats asked me in Jan 1997 to put the car in a commercial. I told him
the story and he turned out to be a dealer who called Knoch. About the same
time I told Jack Reeves owner of 5362 Corvette Place who graciously talked to
Dale Robertson, Knochs employee. Had these two middle men for Knochs products
not intervened, I feel I would have never ever gotten my stuff back. The
arrogance of Al Knoch, in my opinion, is unsurpassed. I have the invoice to
prove when this was sent back to me.

MARCH 1997 TO JUNE 1997: Took the seats and Convt,. top to Richard Sagona, one
of the top antique upholsters in So. Cal who does a lot of Jay Lenos stuff. He
had to alter the foam, and redo the covers to even make them fit in the car.
They still look mediocre and pull the whole restoration job down in appearance.
As I had been warned by others, the top didnt come close to fitting. Richard
called Knoch and told him. Knoch said that the top was probably 10 years old
and had probably shrunk in the box!! He told Mr. Sagona that he would send him
another. In reply Richard told him to forget another top, that he preferred to
make the top from scratch. To this Knoch replied that when Sagona made the top,
would he send him the measurements so he could make his tops fit!!!!!! Sagona
laughed.

July 1997: In total, my bills to fix the upholstery as best as I could totaled
1737.50 plus, of course, the initial $1450 I paid to purchase them. My car was
kept out of the show circuit for 2 years, which of course meant deterioration,
and the upholstery looks like something you would buy from J.C Whitney rather
than the almost $3200 I have invested, not to mention the 200 or so hours we
have invested. Had Harvest Gold material been available I would throw the whole
mess in the trash! Besides bad seats, The dash cover is not cut on a bias as
original to save material. (that is why you 56-7 guys have so much trouble
installing it) The door panel board wasnt cut right, Stitching was crooked and
the job of gluing the material to the panels was pathetic with tons of glue
bumps all over the flat parts of the panels.

August 1997: I sent Al a letter with a copy of the letter written by Sagona and
offered to settle for $2500. He called back, and as I suspected, told me to go
jump. Not only that, but he said that if I told others of what had happened to
me, he would sue me for extortion. He went on to tell me that he had talked to
others who said I was impossible to satisfy. If you call someone who gets angry
because you keep his merchandise for over a year hard to please, Ill eat my
hat. (Ask him to show any records of phone calls to me during that time if he
tries to use the BS that they were trying to solve the problem!) Our phone
conversation deteriorated until Mr. Knoch did the unbelievable. Out of the
blue he asked me if I was a German! I said yes, so what? He said, well Im a
Jew!!! I dont know what the hell that had to do with anything except to imply I
must be a Nazi or something. Give me a break. I hung up on him!!
If any of you have had any like experiences with this guy, and I have heard he
has a lot of trouble with all his tops, please let me know. Ill add your
complaint to this letter. All I can say to you, Mr Knoch, is go ahead and sue
me. You know that every word of this is true and you will lose BIG TIME.

Frederick J Roth • • E-Mail MCS7...@aol.com
snowfoot

[Doug Barnes]

Well, I've had fairly good luck with their stuff (carpets, interior
trim, console, etc). Why would you send your seats? I would have tried
to find another manufacturer first. Sounds like that color would have
been a pain to match no matter who you got it from. Maybe the
upholstery guy you found knew someone or could have saved what you had
originally. I think the LAST thing I would have done is sent the
seats. I still don't understand what motive he had to hold your seat
hostage (did Elvis sit in them?).

[Matt]

I have had no trouble with them. I have installed their carpet in my 1970 Vette. A lot
of the problem lies with the availability of the color that you needed. I feel that is
where you problem lies.

[bconn]

I couldnt get anyone here in Chicago to do my 61 jewel Blue seats and
finally sent the to Al Knoch can't say anything bad about my experiences
and I get compliments all the time.

[holland...@gmail.com]

I have a '57 Vette that I've owned since '73. Over the years, I've bought seats, headliner, and other interior parts from Al. I've always been happy with his products.

MCS72 ROTH sounds like the guy I ran into at Al's in Carlisle in the 90s who wanted the full price of an interior set he'd bought 10 years earlier from Al that was not the 'exact' color. I would think that after 10 years the colors may not have been as 'exact' as they were when new, especially after having sat in his closet for 10 years. I even tried to work a deal with the guy because I don't have a 'concourse car' and would have possibly preferred the darker color. But the guy was interested in only getting all of the money back he'd spent 10 years previous to that which seemed unreasonable to me.

IMO, guys like him are what is wrong with the Corvette 'hobby' today. A lot of them are so anal it's ridiculous. They make fun of guys' cars that aren't exactly correct with every bolt and nut being original. I rarely even go to the Corvette Carlisle Show anymore because of these guys. 'Just sayin ... '

[PDDeen]

I bought and installed a full carpet set for my 63 split window in 1996. The carpet was black when it was installed but within 2 months in Texas heat and sun it turned to brown. When I contacted Al K. he said it was impossible and would not do anything to correct the problem. I sent photos to him and got no reply. I ended up using spray dye to get them back black and matching the rest of the interior (which was NOT bought from him). I warned off anyone who I heard was considering his products.

[amp...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, May 4, 2014 at 8:45:14 AM UTC-4, PDDeen wrote:
> I bought and installed a full carpet set for my 63 split window in 1996. The carpet was black when it was installed but within 2 months in Texas heat and sun it turned to brown. When I contacted Al K. he said it was impossible and would not do anything to correct the problem. I sent photos to him and got no reply. I ended up using spray dye to get them back black and matching the rest of the interior (which was NOT bought from him). I warned off anyone who I heard was considering his products.

This is another problem that AL Knoch Interiors knows about but refuses to do nothing! C-1 Tops. I spent the $60 and bought the DVD from Al knoch along with a black convertible top for my 59. I have installed many conv tops in the past. The top went on ok and seemed to fit ok. The big problem is that it will not go down and fit into the well and sit low enough for the cover to close properly! You have to slam the cover as hard as you can for it to latch, the cover then bends up at the ends and sits about 2" up on each side! I asked many corvette owners if they have seen this problem. I got a reply from the technical dept at solid axle club telling me that Al knoch tops are made out of a correct looking material but it is too thick and will not fold down properly. AK Interiors knows about the problem but wont do anything. Next AL KNOCH PROBLEM, I bought a pr of 59 seat bases from MJ Rohner. They were Al Knoch parts that she used to sell. I had been collecting parts since 2002 for this car so I bought these bases about 10 years ago. I spent about $1000 on the bases, foam, burlap kits, correct springs, covers (all AK parts). I assembled them and they came out good but when I tried fitting them on the seat frames they seemed to NOT fit properly, they would not go down all the way or back far enough into the frames! After trying to bend the metal on the bottom baskets I realized they were made incorrectly and the seats needed to be completely disassembled and fixed before they would fit! After doing some research I found out the Al Knoch company knew the vendor they were using in Texas who made these lower seat bases made them wrong, so what did Al do?? Instead of reworking them to fit properly and selling quality parts, he decided to sell them "AS IS" giving the customers who put him where he is today a big screwing! Lastly, Restoring this C-1 I have purchased all the DVD's that Al knoch sells, they are on his website for $40 each for the carpet, dash pad and seat videos and $60 for the top DVD, $180 total. I just saw all these same DVD's on Ebay that he is selling for 30 each, $120 total! Thanks for screwing me again AL!

[rayl...@gmail.com]

Thank you. I bought door panels from Corvette America and the aren't near a close fit. I didn't identify this problem to the company as I didnt try to install until 6 months after purchase. Therefore I put that blame on myself. Maybe Corvette America could have resolved this. I eat my mistakes. I thought AL Knock would me a answer to my problem., Ive learned differently. Gonna freaking dye my old stuff. Throwing the new ones in the trash...sad me.

[nonub...@gmail.com]

Corvette America interiors are a perfect fit! I have a Top Flight account with them and they helped me throughout my entire build!