My 52 Styleline badly needs rockers. I know alot of people praise chevsofthe40s.com for their patch panels and parts. Any one have any experience with rockauto.com's patch panels or rockers? Not sure who they get the panels from, but are about 1/3 of the price of everyehere else I've found them for a more door. I'm aware you get what you pay for, but $100 cheaper, Thought it wouldn't hurt to ask! Anthony
chevs of the 40's does sell ems stuff rock auto does not buy from us and we do not know who they and if they have them in stock. fyi; a 2 door rocker will work on a more door, it will do the front door from post to post and extend past the center post a lot, the difficult part of 4 door rockers is the bulge in the door/rocker area. we do not make it yet, its on the list. we got pics on our site look for part # 202 www.emsautomotive.com
I don't have experience with them, but I do with rocker panels. There ain't much to them I'm guessing *maybe* they're thinner gauge steel and will maybe take a little more work to make them fit. If you're putting them in yourself, then I'd buy the cheaper ones. If you 're paying someone, get the best and you'll save time that he'd charge making the cheaper ones fit. Odds are though they're not a whole lot different. You can always send them back if you aren't happy with them.
EMS: good to know about the difference in the rockers. I'm going to end up making my own front floor plans and trans trans tunnel, so I figure I'll make my own floor braces as well. But thanks for looking out! Johnny; I was thinking the only difference would probably be thickness of the metal, just dont want to end up with something that beer can thin if i can avoid it. I'll be putting them in myself, I like your logic. saving money is always good on a budget build!!
Rock Auto sells panels from Classic2Current: http://www.c2cfabrication.com/ They sell on eBay all of the time. I've never had experience with them. I called them direct when I saw their ad on eBay to see if they'd send me actual photos of their products. The images they post on eBay are of generic panels, I wanted to know how close to original they are. The owner hee-hawed about sending me actual pictures. I posted a question about them here and it seems their panels are OK for simple replacement pieces but they're basically generic panels. Their prices are decent but I don't think they are correct die stamped.
We actually manufacture our product from 18ga steel, which in most cases is thicker than what the originals were. To answer your question about the prices of our product, we don't believe in charging what these other companies do for the same product because we understand the cost of restoring a great American car. EMS must not be too familiar with our company because we are able to capture the compound curves of a piece and we're stamping out die-formed OEM quality panels for the Comets and Mavericks as well as the 1928-31 GMC Pickup trucks and that is just the start of what we're now coming out with. Most of our product is machine formed using hydraulic presses at this time, but that allows us to only charge you 1/3 of what some other companies may charge you for the exact same item. Some people do get our company confused with a Canadian company that is producing the same outer rocker panels as we are, but they're making them from 21ga steel.
ems ia aware of all manufacuterers of replacement panels including c2c. a press brake does not have the stroke or tonnage to die draw steel or the work holding features need for precision stamping, ems machines it own dies, has the largest press's in the repo industry, along with a workforce that getting ready to introduce its 4th generation of workers to the manufacture of auto parts. the owners granddad started a fisher body in 1919 the owner worked at gm as a on/duty production engineer the process engineer's dad stated at cadillac 1948 ,then mercury/edsal 1957 chief press operator 31years at ems and 15 years at dana, his dad started at dana 1941 (stamping frames) press operator helper granddad started at ford rouge stamping plant 1939, his dad chrysler 25 years and then 15 years at ems our workers make the same parts there dads and granddads did, 100's of years of automotive production experience at ems, we continue to make tooling for oem's and 1st/2nd tier suppliers to the auto industry. a actual photo of our parts is posted on our web site ( the web does need some work) why? because hambers need to see what there gonna get, don't like it we take it back (30 day limit unless you got a good story). did you buy the wrong part at a show from one of our dealers and forgot who it was, we exchange it no charge. (you pay shipping) since ems has been in the industry for a long time and will be here for alot longer the ems company will respect the customer and provide the best part/best value to its customers. since ems has a large presence in the repo industry it make us a target just like folks take shots at walmart. the mentioned company in canada is a honest company providing a "make do" panel at a fair price. they do not try to deceive anyone. we challenge c2c to post photos of its tooling and presses so hambers can decide for themselves. www.emsautomotive.com
i have right and left rockers for 53 4dr and wagon that were reproduced back in 50's or 60's i was told and much better then whats out there now. i also have a NOS right side for same car.in my opinion you can make your own body panels better then what being sold out there today for the 49-54 chevy
c2c, I called your company after seeing your floor panels for my car, a '37 Buick. I called to find out if your panels were actual replacement panels with the correct factory stampings. The person I talked to, I assume the owner, was rather evasive when I asked about sending pictures of the actual pieces. In both your eBay ads and your web site you have pictures of generic looking panels that look nothing like the floor pans in my car. I wanted to know if these panels were like the original floors or just generic panels with a few bends. If they are generic I could do them myself. I ended up buying a 4' X 8' piece of 18 ga. steel for $50 and making my own with more than enough metal left over to make the other patch panels I needed. I appreciate EMS putting actual images of their products on their web site, although they don't have any panels for my Buick. A web site is a relatively inexpensive advertising tool. It's nice to see actual pictures of the products you are looking to buy.
I am sorry that someone at our company could not provide you with the actual picture of the product that you were interested in, but it was not the owner of the company or I would have remembered our conversation. Only 5% of the over 2,000 items that we currently manufacture have a 'generic' picture listed simply because the team that is in charge of our website are tied up with adding product and doing promotions and have yet to add them to the website. We try to accommodate each customer as if they were our only customer, and just like EMS we value our customer's feedback (this is why were are on here discussing this). I am sure that the Canadian company that you are referring to is an 'honest' company, or EMS would not advertise as a company source on their website. I am simply stating that the product that they manufacture is from a thinner gauge steel that you were referring to in your earlier post and not 18ga as to what we use for ALL of our product. The presses and machines that EMS have are far more advanced from the 50 and 100 ton presses that we are using and that is why we are manufacturing body panels that no other company whats to address. Because there are two types of customers on the market, the ones that want exact OEM fit and don't care what it costs and then the other who does not want to spend a lot of money and has the skill to modify if needed; both EMS and C2C have provided quality parts to both customers for some time now. I invite all of you to go to our website and take a look at the new product we are adding to our inventory for the Maverick and Comet models: http://c2cfabrication.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=2_254&products_id=6166 With C2C teaming up with the some of the nation's leading OEM style manufacturers and a tier one manufacturer for Chrysler and GM, we will be adding much more product like the one you see there at a very inexpensive price. The next items that are going to be in production soon are the factory style quarter panels for the Comet, Fairlane, 1961-68 Pontiacs and some early Buick models.
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