Folks Of Interest Which company to choose

Are all the different restoration catalogs parts made by the same companies? For instance, NCA and Chevs of the 40s have pretty much the same catalog but most of the prices are drastically different on the same items. Does one company sell better parts than the other or should I just go with the cheaper priced part from either catalog?

 

I've used parts from Chevs of the 40s, I&I and The Filling Station. Filling station seemed to have better quality. Contrary to belief, there are more than one supplier/manufacturer for many of the parts. Sent many parts back to Chevs, but everything from Filling station was good.

 

I forgot all about Filling Station.

 

Filling station x2

 

I always ask about satisfaction and return poloicy before ordering from anyone. Also shipping costs enter in. Cross Country is going to add to cost from a shop a couple state's away. Quality parts are worth the extra $$$$. Usually a Google search will turn up any complaints people have. I take them to hart if there are a lot of repeats of same issues. Home Work is priceless. Chev's of the 40's are in my back yard. I spend a fair amount of $$$ there. For some of same items I've gone elsewhere. Personally I like dealing with them. I know it's different when you can stand at there counter and handle the parts.
The Wizzard

 

I have always tried to adhere to the old adage below.

"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten". HRP

 

Chevs of the 40s suck. I used them twice, once to buy a spotlight and to make a long story short, they didn't send me the right one (they claimed they did but even Stevie Wonder could tell it wasn't the right one). Second time, I ordered some starter bushings for 10 dollars and they charged me 13 dollars for shipping.
Check out the Car and Truck Shop of Orange,CA

 

What are you looking for? I have bought from all of them, been pleased so far. Have also bought some chrome and taillights on ebay. Company name is taz? Very happy there and good quality.

 

There are about 75 things I need but just for a couple examples...the parking light housings from nca are $240 and from chevs they're $205. A set of grille teeth from nca is $350 and from chevs is $306. It goes the other way too with nca having some less expensive parts than chevs.

 

I have had success with all suppliers mentioned previously in this thread. I shop them all and usually choose on price as well as the ability to provide all I need. I have even purchased from ebay seller taz and had success. I think they all want to earn your satisfaction

 

basically I see who has had troubles with whom here and look for complaints online at other sites , price dictates alot of things . but lately shipping is often help determine were I buy from too . I try to combine order now to get the best savings .

 

But what I'm wondering is...do all these places have the same quality parts? The prices I listed above are pretty different between two companies. Are the chevs parts of the same quality, just much less expensive or are they worse?

 

thats kind of what this place is for .. a review of parts

I doubt there is a big demand for several manufactuers to make chrome bumper guards for older cars and stuff for a special/specific group of people as its a low profit/ high outlay and low demand business . I won't go into details on how business works but sometimes your paying more because your helping paying off loans/purchases on other parts or paying for the higher taxes they pay because they have a bigger warehouse and staff .

 

Nice to see you on here lot of good info.

 

There's no difference, IMHO, when it comes to reproduction parts. You can't beat the quality of OEM parts.

 

I would definitely prefer nos parts but eBay searches NEVER turn up what I need.

 

Don't buy from Car & Truck Shop in Orange, CA. I bought front fender trim for my 54 from them they didn't fit, they lacked about 1/4 inch from laying flat on the car at the front. I called and they asked me to send them pictures of the new trim with pictures of the old trim, I did and they said they could see how the new trim was made different, they said the trim they had in stock was like what I already had so it would do no good to exchange them. And since they never had any complaints before they would not refund any money. Sorry for the rant. But maybe it can save someone else some frustration and money.

 

Car and truck shop seems kinda sketchy to me anyway so I'll stick to the main few

 

The swap meets are good places to find Original parts and they don't have to be NOS. They can be restored. Keep in mind that those parts stores are suppliers, not manufactures, which means 10 suppliers and 1 manufacture. Good luck on your car.

 

and that's exactly what I was thinking so I'm just going for the cheaper of the companies depending on the part

 

I dont like to order anything reproduced unless I can put my hands on it before. chevs of the 40 is in my back door. when I was working on my A.D. they were great for availability not always on price. Plus i picked up every thing in person so they could not ship me incorrect parts.

 

One of my concerns is part fitment compatibility between repro and oem. The skirts I'm buying will fit well hopefully. I'm buying all my grille chrome from one of the catalogs so hopefully they at least match up with each other. I priced getting everything rechromed and it came out to a little over $4000 so that's out.

 

your concerns are well-founded. Sometimes those reproduction parts need to be "tweaked" in order to fit properly, and sometimes it's never as good as OEM. Did you only go to one chrome shop or did you shop around? Show Chrome is most expensive.

 

I can't remember but there are only a handful of chrome shops left. The epa is shutting them all down so prices are shooting through the roof. If I can find nos or even good (driver quality) originals I'll buy those first but it seems like there's never anything I need when I need it

 

That's Murphy's Law and when you don't need it, there's tons of them.

 

I have found that most import parts don't fit, so I don't order them. I have google searched a part number and have had good luck. I am looking at Ford parts but Chev should be the same. Never use import engine parts.