Many restorers and rodders are in the market for rubber products from weatherstrip to motor mounts and front end bushings,etc. sadly many of these are coming from offshore and the quality is pure garbage.Recently I suggested Steele Rubber and now not all of their products are USA made like they say here: Bottom line! Ask before you buy who made them and the country of origin from any vendor.The bad news is a lot of these parts have no alternative for better quality.
The fresh air ducts offered by Dennis Carpenter for 52-54 Fords surly has a short life span,,mine lasted about a year before they started deteriorating. HRP
Next time we see the Dennis Carpenter truck/booth at a swap meet, we all need to let them know what's happening.
I just went thru Steele's list and the cost to replace all the pieces I need, so far, is a little over $800.00. I then went through C&G lists and Dennis Carpenter both are over $200.00 cheaper. I ask C&G to check if their rubber products are USA or China. They checked and said they were USA. I asked him who the mfg was and he told me Dennis Carpenter. I then called DC and questioned them about the mfg of their rubber products. I asked them if Steele was the mfg. I was told they were the mfg and they supplied steele with their products for the 54 ford. It seems if a supplier is getting their products from a US distributor, they consider them US made. I would not mind paying Steele's price if I could be sure of the quality. It starting to bug me a bit
I spent a few minutes with a sales rep at Steele Rubber and was told Dennis Carpenter does supply their 54 weatherstripping parts. He did tell me DC has a big manufacturing plant just down the road from them and does manufacture their own parts. So I've made up my mind to purchase my weatherstripping from DC, hope I have good luck. Ralph
I had a problem with Steele's reproductions for a 51 Cadillac I was working on about 20 years ago. They made some molded pieces that were too hard and caused problems when closing the doors. Others didn't match the original cross sections. I found a similar car in a specialty wrecking yard that still had some very decent weather stripping even though the exterior of the car was very rough. I ended up carefully stripping off. what I needed with a 3M product that melted the old glue without damaging the delicate rubber. The yard sold me the pieces as if they were selling them as patterns and I got them for next to nothing. I would go that route anytime rather than dealing with some of the inferior **** that's made these days by some places.
Just a heads up. I bought some parts from DC for a ford truck I was working on. I thought I was buying USA made parts. Well when they came in it had a big ole made in china lable on it. I call to voice my opinion on the china **** I got and the guy said they were just trying to keep the cost down. This was a rubber grommet for the fuel filler neck.
Bottom line I guess anymore these companies are a total **** shoot,just roll the dice and hope the gamble pays off.Most of the stuff I bought came from here: http://www.cl***icautopartsonlinecatalog.com/skin/entrymap/Cl***icAuto.html?RelId=5.3.6.6 Window fuzzies,vent rubbers,suspension snubbers worked out fine and fit well.The Dennis Carpenter air vent rubbers turned in to mush in six months which came from them,some guys have made these from old motorcycle tubes which are about 3 times thicker.
Don't think the problem is only ours relating to Fords. I was talking to a Chev parts supplier here in Oz and they are having the same problems. Their parts are mfd everywhere and they were really cheesed off with what p***es as engine mounts these days. They continually fracture before the rubber breaks. Apparently the steel is much softer and thinner than original. Seems their mounts are made in India.
FWIW, 3 years ago I was at DC shop in the Charlotte area just up from the race track. After talking with folks in the front showroom, I got a behind the scenes tour from a fella that worked there... friendly fellow and he too me around the warehouse/museum where all of the cars are on the bottom floor and the bicycles and Cushman's are on the second floor (quite a few nice toys in display cases too). Anyway, the employee left me alone to walk around on my own for an hour or so. I was THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WAREHOUSE. After 30 minutes or so I heard voices in a room behind the large open space where the cars were all parked. The door to this back room was opened so I simply walked inside. To my surprise, there sat Dennis Carpenter himself, one of his sons, and a well-dress business lady. They were all hunched over a desk looking at schematics of reproduction parts and DISCUSSING THE OVERSEAS MANUFACTURE of said parts. I did not think much about it because it surprised me at first that this type of meeting was going back there, and for the simple fact that I introduced myself and spoke with Dennis for a few minutes as he was friendly enough to give me a few minutes of time. Also I had never experienced any issues with the parts he had made. For over 20 YEARS some of those rubber parts are still going strong TODAY. But! If indeed they have begun to manufacturer so many rubber parts overseas then the parts most probably will NOT be driver quality... just showroom only (if that lol).
Several companies that were selling offshore products have gotten the message to demand better quality,one that comes to mind is Pro-Comp their heads used to get a bad rap but recent versions have much improved.Since most of these aftermarket companies probably employ bean counters that only report profits and pay zero attention to web sites where customers do the most *****ing about quality they will continue selling us junk.If you buy a product that turns out to be junk PLEASE contact that company directly so our voices will be heard.
Dennis Carpenter Reproductions,Customer Service Rep is Ronald Harkey I guess we could forward pictures of failed junk to him.
It's funny that the name ProComp comes up here. A couple of years I wired a street rod for a friend and he had a brand new ProComp distributor. When the car was finished it wouldn't fire when trying to start - traced it back to the reluctor - the coil wound around the shaft was open circuit. Tried to get it replaced and all the local suppliers no longer sold them due to reliability issues. One retailer anecdotally said that out of six distributors you might get one that worked out of the box but for how long. Fitted a standard points distributor and it fired straight up. Eventually fitted an MSD ready to run electronic distributor. No problems since. The engine was a 350 Chev so they obviously cater to the mainstream. From that time if I see the name ProComp I look the other way. May look nice but no quality.
When I put the 302 in my 56, I bought a cheap distributer in to get it going. The module went out and I was told I could get one at pro comp. I went in and said I needed a module for a cheap Chinese distributer I had, turned out it was one of theirs.
The upside to these HEI's is they use standard Chevy HEI parts internally,the ones sold here:http://www.skipwhiteperformance.com/listview.aspx?Product=A&Sub=B seem to hold up and carry a good warranty,mine is four years old.Some guys on other forums have used Delco parts from the Pic-N-Pull for backup on the other brands.
Well guys I have called several suppliers of weather seals and some gave me a straight answer about where there product is made (china) others would not call me back. So I had no choice but to order the door and trunk seals from Mac's. I hope to have them installed in the next couple of weeks and will post on look, feel and fitment. I'm keeping my fingers crossed hoping they will work for many of years. BTW these people that work at some of these companies could not believe that I would call and ask for this information, it was like I was hurting their feelings.
It seems to be the "new" world we live in.It's easier to hide the truth than it is to tell it Seems some folks tell so many lies they can't keep track of them,and justify those lies with the excuse that they don't want to offend or hurt feelings.
That's funny everybody I talked to was nice and helpful (C&G, Steele, Macs, Dennis Carpenter). I've received my weatherstripping from DC and couldn't be more pleased. The quality seems right up there and states made in USA right on the rubber. DC sure isn't cheap but they aren't the highest either. The roof rails were a flat 100.00 more from Steele and made by DC, go figure. I sure hated to miss Mac's 15% sale, but the only positive comments were about DC products. Sometimes it's hard to filter through the negatives, mainly because people that are satisfied make very few comments compared to the negative. I've found talking to sales reps if your honest and courteous most will be the same as you. Well that's my comment for the day. Ralph
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