Technical New 32 Rails and A-crossmember $450.00 from Gearhead World???

It doesn't surprise me that Gearhead could sell a repro part that cheap. I saw a repro '32 grille and shell COMBO in their booth at Goodguys once for about $250 total. It looked a little misshapen, but it was cheap. Probably straight off the boat from China.

 

Remember the old saying "If it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn't". Buy American!!!

Frank

 

I bought a set of them just to hang in the rafters and save for future use. I haven't mocked them up yet but they do look nice. I like the front cross member that came with them too. It goes all the way to the inside rail rather than having to just weld them to the boxing plate like some are made.

 

Pics, please

 

BUY AMERICAN!

 

I am all for buying American and you'll get no argument from me on that. But, if I needed some '32 rails, which I do, I would take a close look at these and snap them up if they looked good. It is the "bird in the hand" thing that works for me. It seems that many of the problems we hear about from some suppliers is poor communication, slow shipping, or not at all. Hell, these rails are sitting there ready to go, they are going to be fully boxed with a rigid cross member. Where I live, with rails and shipping I'd be looking at about $1000.00 delivered. I mean, that's why I go to swap meets, to buy things I can't get in my area and to save some dough.

 

Thanks for all the replies, you all said what I figured. I did not buy the rails.

 

One has to remember that that is their "Show Price" and probably introductory show price at that show and the regular price will be a bit higher. They aren't on their website yet though.

 

ASC rails are dead nuts on! If they fit in same frame jig as ASC rails they could be ok!

 

In defense of Gearhead I got a cowl vent handle from them off of EBay for less than others wanted and in a hurry. Turned out it was a Bob Drake part and he had been out for quite a while. I did call in advance and had them verify it was really in stock..

 

I'm with the ASC rails, good matl.

 

Would like to see pictures.....pictures of the frame in a 32 frame jig.

 

JW Rod Garage does many shows and swap meets every year in the U.S.A. (see their web site for a schedule) and if ordered ahead of time, they will bring your frame so you can pick it up at the show. Give them a call.....I'm sure they still do this. A good way to save a big chunk of cash!

 

I'm not defending Gearhead because I know nothing about their product, but after reading this thread is seems the only real problem they have is that the price is too low.

Does anybody have any real knowledge of the product?

 

Suppose you could clear this up a little for us as you seem to be the only witness to come forward. Have you measured the thickness of the metal? Also if you grab the measurenents off of westcotts website and lay them out does the profile line up as it should? Droping us some pics of the reveals would be helpfull also.

 

I doubt putting them under a high end Brookville 3W would make much sense, but under a 27 T modified or something similar might.

 

Steel from china

 

Yeah that can happen
I cut a foot off of a quite substantial wide flange beam that was going to be a ground level column for a 5 story building. When that drop hit the floor it broke into 3 pieces.

 

Wow! Never had that happen, or even close, I was gonna say your American Hot Rod should be American...but here's another good reason.

 

So has anyone actuallly used these rails ? Are they made in China and inferior quality or is this all speculation ? Im not standing in defense of them as I've never used them. Just like to get all the facts before I jump on the bandwagon here. I only saw one post who actually bought them, and he's yet to uae them but visually likes the quality. Anyone else have real experience with these ?

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

One of the best material wizards I've met said; "There are over 150 types of austenitic steel..."
The 'quality' matters. Percent of Carbon content, amount of cold working, impurities, trace alloying elements, consistent property value throughout. You'll want a confirmation of the material...then I'd be okay in using it.

 

I'll take some pictures of them and measure their thickness.

 

At the Kazoo Nats, Gearhead was set up outside, not in one of the buildings. They were offering parts identical to the inside vendors at cheaper prices. The show prices were also cheaper than their catalog or online prices - just saying.

 

You get what you pay for.

 

I measured the thickness of the new Gearhead frame rail and it measures about .15 inches which is what yellow frame measures. I built the yellow roadster with American Stamping rails in 1998.

 

Is just me or do they look narrower? I dropped them an email on availability but never got a reply.

 

I'm a mechanical designer and the industry I am in builds equipment for industrial processes, we have been seeing a lot of specs lately that require us to prove that the steel used to fabricate our equipment did not come from China. We are also just starting to see specs that don't allow any Chinese made components at all........just as the company is starting to have some of our stuff made in China.

David

 

Careful of Gear Head World, their feedback is not good on other sites.

 

Thats consistant with their feedback and other complaints I have read about in the past.