howell's vs. brookville

im going to start piecing together a 28 madel A roadster as i can afford it, some orriginal pannels but mostly repops-i was wondering wich company provides a better product? iv looked at variouse panels from both brookville and howells and the prices dont differ too much between the companys, does the quality? thanks for any and all imput,
-Brian

 

brookville
howell's parts don't fit too well
tk

 

any one else try howell's

 

I use them. Will be ordering some stuff from them soon.

 

If you're trying to conserve the bank account, try making them all yourself. It'll give you experience, and self satisfaction that you did it yourself.

 

howell takes for ever also....unless you order it off of ebay
tk

 

I used the Howell's rear inner wheel wells, the quarter patches ahead of them at the bottom, cowl sides, trunk outer skin, visor, and header (beam the windshield hinge bolts to). The only one that required some real effort to get to fit nicely was the trunk skin....I had to do a lot of work to get it to work on the original style hinge pins, open and close nicely, AND not have super uneven gaps at the sides and bottom. I thought the price was pretty reasonable for what I bought though.

 

I've used both, and prefer Brookville over Howell's. Howell's quality is decent for the most part, but I've found that Brookville's stuff fits better "out of the box" in nearly every instance.

 

Howell's take forever!

 

brookville is local for me and they are the cats ***(recomended)...dont know about howells....

 

Iv'e used Howells several times and ordered the parts from their website. They communicated through email quickly, gave shipping info, tracking etc quickly and shipped them promptly. The parts have been fittin just as good as any other manufacturer that I have dealt with. I don't have any complaints.

 

From what I understand Howells makes all their stuff by hand. If this is try quality can vary from panel to panel.

Brookville, I think stamps all their stuff. This mean their quality will be more consistent. If the guy running the press is having a bad day it does not matter as the press is doing the actual work.

You might want to look into Macs and the other restoration places and see where they get there stuff from.

 

sounds like i should stick with brookville, kinda what i thot, thanks for all the replies
-Brian

 

I used to work for Brookville and they supplied alot of the other Model A businesses with patch panels and other parts.........Don't know about Howell's..........

 

Had to reorder my part's twice from Howell's, which wasn't real easy since they wouldn't answer the phone.

 

Yeah, good call. I used Howell's bottom patches and all you really get is a "closely" made panel that has to be made to fit.They take more work than you would think they should.