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Quality Body panel suppliers

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 9:16 pm
by Kelly T
HI Guys

I am in need of a seat back or center section for a 1925 Roadster. I am looking for feed back on places to buy the panel from. I purchased some hood sills from a popular supplier and they were pretty much unusable .....they were so crudely made! I don't want to have the same thing happen with a big body panel! What are others experience with quality body panels? Who has good quality stuff?

Thanks In advance!
Kelly T

Re: Quality Body panel suppliers

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:13 pm
by Mark Gregush
I don't think there are a lot of choices. Lang's and Snyder's list body panels. Both may get from the same supplier and would expect that they would need rework to your satisfaction. When there is no original to work with, you have to work with what you can get.

Re: Quality Body panel suppliers

Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:40 pm
by Steve Jelf
I believe your choices are Rootlieb and Howells. As far as I know they are the whole ball game, and panels the parts dealers sell come from them. If anybody knows otherwise I hope they will let us know. My only dealing with either was buying a new splash apron from Rootlieb. The order was delivered promptly and it was fine. From complaints I read online, the only way to get a delivery from Howells before you die is to buy through eBay. I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea.

Re: Quality Body panel suppliers

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 12:34 am
by Rollinford
Personal experience. Howells through Ebay still a big NO from me.

Re: Quality Body panel suppliers

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 8:39 am
by John kuehn
Whatever supplier you buy from don’t expect the panel to exactly fit what you have. You usually have to do a little tweaking here and there.
This is sort of the same thing when you buy a wood body kit. It won’t just drop in and match exactly.
You have to tweet the panels or wood pieces to get them to fit.

Re: Quality Body panel suppliers

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 9:34 am
by jab35
The venders cannot ship parts to us if their suppliers aren't providing parts to them. I think some vendors have removed some items from their catalogs because suppliers don't provide the stock. I was pleasantly surprised with the service and sheet metal parts availability from the e-bay sources. At least the sheet metal for the '26 coupe was available and shipped to my door in just a couple of days, ymmv. jb

Re: Quality Body panel suppliers

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 10:22 am
by Mark Gregush
The new sheet metal on eBay that I have seen is from Howell's. If it is on eBay they must have in stock to list. I would guess that when ordering from them, if not in current stock, that may run batches where there are enough orders. I would think it takes a lot of work to setup just to make one panel when you look at the year range they supply sheet metal for, I think it is up to the 40's.

Re: Quality Body panel suppliers

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 10:44 am
by Kelly T
Thanks Guys!

Kelly T

Re: Quality Body panel suppliers

Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2020 2:30 pm
by John kuehn
Have to say Mark is right about Howells making the sheet metal parts. And yes I know they are slow and hard to work with. Pretty sure they don’t make up 50 or so panels for a certan T at one time. They probably know what moves the fastest and that they make a good number of them.

Re: Quality Body panel suppliers

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2020 1:04 pm
by Dan McEachern
Did you contact Mark at Model T haven for an original panel?

Re: Quality Body panel suppliers

Posted: Mon Oct 12, 2020 10:54 pm
by Burger in Spokane
When you say "quality", does that mean HIGH quality, poor quality, other ? The word
"quality" has no meaning without a qualifier.