In august I called Vintage Speed and talked to Charlie about power valves for my 94's . Nobody could have been nicer or offered any more help than he did. I ordered 3 different sets of power valves from him and had them in a coupla days.. No problelm for me to deal with him . Very nice fellow seemed like to me. Stafford
I too have had a similar good experience with Charlie. My stuff works well too. Oh well. It sucks some people have had problems. I agree his old Lady is a bit snappy.
Man what is the deal with all the vintage carb guys. The have the market and are steadily screwing it up.
I've never dealt with Vintage Speed for parts or service, but if you call them and get Charley on the phone, try to get him talking--he is a fountain of historical info on the old speed equipment makers and such. He used to hang out with Els Lohn (Eelco) in Florida until he died recently.
People get warned about this loser all the time but they keep ordering stuff from him. I dont get it. He will never have my buisness again!
I ordered a couple of 97's and an intake from Vintage Speed 18 months ago. Maybe they will be in the mail today Charlie has always been nice on the phone but I have never received my stuff from him. I moved on a long time ago. Caveat Emptor. Doc.
ordered a pile of Parts from Charlie Price and recieved them in good order, a little longer than expected but that was at the time of the bad storm in Florida last year.. still only took a few weeks for there transatlantic adventure.. didnt have no problems
there is a guy in Olathe that does good work. Len, the manager of O'reillys on blackbob. hes a ford guy so watch out he has always given me the best advice.
I ordered 2 kits and 2 power valves from him last thurs and there were at my door today, online and no phone converstaion needed.. just my recent experience.
Back in 94 when I was doing my coupe (pre-Ebay) I had one old chrome 97 and a few stock 20$ cores. I called Jere Jobe in California. He wouldn't talk to you if you didn't have a core. No core...no carb He couldn't find enough. When I explained that I wanted a chrome one to match mine he said "Oh I've got plenty of them. it's the stockers that I have a hard time finding for the restorers." I sent him my chrome and stock core and got 2 chrome ones in return. I'm betting that with the explosion of the 97 hot rod market things may be a little bit different today. I couldn't imagine anyone having plenty of chrome cores but he did....back then.
When I first spoke to Jere a couple of years ago he said 97s were getting hard to get but 48s were plentiful. When I ordered mine he said the 48s were drying up too. Still, no problem supplying without a core. Geez I hope mine turn up. Pete
Matt Werksman has a business rebuilding Strombergs and he does very nice work. Also has lots of parts. He was the second dealer signed for the new Stromberg 97s out of England and those should be available soon. If you want to contact him, send me a pm.
Vintage Speed does SUCK. I personally know of at least 2 friends who have been through shit with that guy. either shitty products or shitty service or both. If I only had one hand and couldn't rebuild my own carbs anymore, then I'd send them to Nate Leinfelder, in Martinez, CA. he rebuilds carbs for free, he likes to do it for fun and he does a good job. The only gripe I have is that he needs to keep the Swisher Sweet ashes away from my carb while rebuilding.
I don't get on here much anymore and I'm not sticking up for anyone but I can tell you from experience that the market has exploded and it is hard to keep up sometimes. I had some trouble myself for a few months and had to reorganize to deal with the increased load. Cores are drying up and parts are being discontinued almost daily it seems. This requires us to tool up and make them ourselves. There are a lot of good people in our industry and a little patience goes a long way. I don't know anything about how Charlie does business, This is my perspective.
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