The Rodding Roundtable
Motorhead Message Central => Rodder's Roundtable => Topic started by: enjenjo on November 30, 2005, 04:46:03 PM
I find that as time passes, my vendors of choice change. Purchases in the last few months have been from , Jegs, good service, but shipping is high, Yogi's, good all around, Summit, good all around, Vintage Speed, too many delays, I cancelled most of the order, Northwest Speed, lets just say I was not pleased, I won't deal with them again, J C Whitney, good as always for the last 40 years, Speedway, good service but some of the parts are no longer good quality, Kanter, not really happy with the quality there either,but some things you can't get any where else, good service. Ididit, good all around, Enco, good all around, Stainless Steel Brakes, good all around, Rhode Island wire, some back orders, but they told me up front and beat all the shipping dates they gave me.
I ordered some parts from Vintage Elsinores, they sent parts for the wrong model, after sending them back, they gave me the runaround for nearly a year, and then would no longer respond to messages by phone, mail , or Email. I ended up getting my money back from the credit card company, and getting them elsewhere.
How about the rest of you?
Most all my stuff comes from Speedway.
good all around service. :D
usually 3 days shipping to Tx :)
have had good luck with Summit, Yogi's, and Jegs too. :)
My 2 cents worth.
Vance
I recently have had great experiences with Yearwood with great prices as well
I've been treated well from Summit , Speedway, Yearwood, Jegs.
THe need to watch shipping is true, specially with fuel rates now .
Enco has been good. Quality is usuually on par or better than Harbor Freight.
I will NOT buy a stick of gum from Zig's Street Rod , treated me real bad on first order, they get no money from me ever!
Southern Rods and parts ..... had trouble with them. Owner made it up to me on price for some other parts when I proved to him that HIS people screw'd up
I use the following in no particular order: Summit, RB's, Parr Auto, Juliano's, Enco, Harbor Freight, Crutchfield for audio, Chevy Duty, Speedway, Rod parts warehouse. Haven't had trouble with any of them. I also use the Chassis Shop for brackets and tubing for fabrication. Smartshoppersinc.com for paint. For those of you that need computer parts, Newegg.com almost exclusively. They set a standard for price and delivery that few can get close to.
When it comes to specialty rod shops I usually save up my money and deal with them face to face at one of the major shows. The ones I've dealt with recently have all treated me good...
Danny's Rod Shop (@L'ville), Southern Rods (@L'ville-K'zoo), Maval Engineering (@L'ville), Obsolete Ford (@L'ville), Haywire (@L'ville & K'zoo), American Auto Wire (@L'ville & K'zoo), PARR Automotive (@L'ville), Stainless Steel Brakes Corp (@L'ville), Yogis (@L'ville)
As for mail order I've been dealing with Speedway - good prices/fast shipping/good customer service, Technostalgia - good prices/fast shipping, SoCal - good deals on ebay directly from them/fast shipping, Duece Factory - cut some good package deals/fast shipping
Of course when I say fast shipping I've recieved everything in just a couple days.
I also buy a lot from Summit Racing but I've never done mail order with them. Since I live about 40mins from their main branch, I just drive out there when I need something. Of course with their show room and clearance area I always end up buying more than I went for.
Just about all other aftermarket parts I need I buy from Lobeck's. Again, I live about 30mins from them so I've never done anything by mail with them unless they didnt have it in stock, and in that case they just shipped it to me at no charge. If you're ever in the area, they give some good in house deals and a lot of times they'll give you an even better break when paying in cash.
For the last few months me and my personal UPS driver have been dealing with Bob Drake, Vintage Air, and Dennis Carpenter, Have had very good results from all of them. My only problem is that we are getting down to needing just a few small unforseen pieces, especially from Vintage air and the shipping is costing more than the small parts. But that's my fault for not planning ahead, or more accurately for grabbing the phone when I know I need a piece instead of waiting to get a better idea of everything needed to finish specific installation.
Lee
Enco and Rutland for machining supplies, Summit engine parts (excellent Customer service) NAPA (Best parts house in town), O'Reillys Auto (second best in town) ,
Auto Zone (Last Resort) , Sachse Rod Shop excellent customer service, Mac's lots of stuff. Newark for electronic stuff.
I try to use UPS when I have a chioce as the Delivery Man is first rate and will make a second trip the same day if I am not home and a signature is needed.
dave
I have only dealt with a few of the above..
Bob Drake..good in all respects
Yogis......Good in all respects
Macs.....tell you anything without looking...prices a bit higher than the rest, a good array of stuff, but do they actually have it in stock?
Julianos...good in all respects
Colorado Customs...good in all respects
Being an international buyer, the time zone makes it hard to talk directly over the phone. Emails are the best medium....but some suppliers don't respond very quickly.
I've also had good luck with Enco and Rutland for machining supplies, but have added Travers Tool to the list, because of good service and pricing.
I've been buying all my hot rod stuff from Yogi's out of Iowa, they seem to have just about everything and you can usually get a discount from stated prices. Good folks.
Ken
Quote from: "Grandadeo"For the last few months me and my personal UPS driver have been dealing with Bob Drake, Vintage Air, and Dennis Carpenter, Lee
That's funny, I just started talking to my UPS guy recently when he stops by the house, he is enjoying my progress on the 59 ElCamino.
I use a lot of Speedway and Summit
Diamondback treats me well
CW Moss for "A" parts, in person and by mail
The ElCamino store is OK but online order processing is slow
Obsolete Ford parts SUCKS
R&B Obsolete SUCKS,
. I was treated bad by R&B 10 years ago and still hold a grudge
. against those rat bastards and their * service inside
. the store in Fife.
Many of the same experiences as you folks have listed with some adds.
Chassis Engineering Inc. has been been very good all around. Since there're two companies by that name I mean the hot/street rod guys.
ECI Brakes has been good not only in quality and prompt shipping, but also in advice.
A good alternative on vintage Ford parts is * Spadaro.
Years ago I bought wheels from Wheel Vintiques, though recently I've had three buds that were miserable with their experience. Wrong color powder coat, wrong offset, "lies" about shipping. In all three cases they felt like WV didn't give a rats *. The last time I bought some customized steel wheels I used The Wheel Smith. Cost a few bucks more per wheel, but they were right and on time as promised.
On Speedway experience has taught to avoid some of their "in house" parts from a quality standpoint. Otherwise good.
Comment on a couple listed above from a Northwest perspective. I don't know how Zig's stays in business. When he took over from his father-in-law he knew zip (hmmm, maybe a name change is in order) about how rods were built. Hasn't learned much since!
RB's seems to do a better job on the mail order side, which is where they make most of their money. Let's just say nobody misses their store since they moved to Arizona.
Summit, excellant customer service & I usually get the order the next day if I order before 4pm. Speedway, just because. NAPA, I've known "that" parts guy for thirty years. Wilwood, SSBC, Brembo$$$$, Jegs, LMC, Sac Vintage Ford, Mustangs Plus, Flaming River, PST, Eastwood, Western Tool, Harbor Freight for cheap consumable tools.
Canter sold a customer of mine an engine kit for a poncho 326, they charged him way too much and the kit wasn't close to being complete. I wish they'd take me off their catalog mailing list.
The only problem I have with Summit is their catalogs. I get them at home and at work, I get one with each order, I get new ones almost every month, they're quite large, they're really hard for me to throw away, I have way too many of them. maybe i should invent a contraption that rolls them into fire place logs. And, now that I'm a computer whiz I use their online catalog. Jbird 8)
Quote from: "Ohio Blue Tip"I've been buying all my hot rod stuff from Yogi's out of Iowa, they seem to have just about everything and you can usually get a discount from stated prices. Good folks.
Ken
Same here for me - another plus, when you buy something from them at a show, they usually ship it for free :D
Mike
I have had good luck with many of the same vendors mentioned above.I will add a couple to the list....Heinzman Rod Shop,John is a super guy and will help with accurate advice,good prices and prompt service.For steel wheels I use Early Wheel Company....Again,Pete provides a great product at a fair price with courteous service and prompt shipping.I also buy my trim rings and caps from him.Diamond back is my choice for www tires...they will build you a set of white walls from any tire on the market...not cheap but they have been satisfying me for years.I just had them do a set of BFG Radial TA's for the 36 and they look awesome!
Haven't ahd to buy too much for myself this year but have used NAPA, Summit, yearwood and CCI
Juliano's-excellent
Heidts--excellent
Yogi's--excellent
Summit--excellent
CarQuest (local)--excellent.
Randy's Ring and Pinion--excellent
Bill's Hot Rods--excellent
Centech--excellent
Having built a rod before, I know who I like to do business with and the standard of their service is still the best.
Yogis
Summit
Jegs
Vintage Air
Hot Rod Air
Southern Rods(only on stock items)
Lane Automotive/ Motor State Distributing (We get jobber from this one)
Macs
Julianos
Tire Rack.com
Wills Wheels.com (great American Racing prices free shipping)
Yesteryear Ford Parts (He is in Mason Michigan and has a pretty inventory)
I've been ordering up a bunch of stuff lately, and all these places have been great about ordering online, shipping and saying if something was back ordered and when it was expected:
Streamline Hot Rod Parts
RJay's Speed Shop
Snyder's Antique Auto Parts
Savage Speed Garage
Adams Hot Rod Rubber
Radir Wheels (some backorders but honest about when expected)
Early Wheel Company
Total Performance
Speedway Motors
Summit
Jegs
Rock Auto
Mooneyes, Wheel Vintiques and Coker where good on their products but freaking terrible about back orders and dates.
I still need some mult-carb linkage setups, but after hearing stories about a couple of suppliers, I'm not really sure where to go for those parts, or if I should just order ahead of time and wait it out. I may have to start fabricating things on my own.
Gus
Ive been buying from
Wirths Custom Auto
Very nice people and cool products.
http://www.wirthscustomauto.com/about_01.htm
Ozark Ford
Speedway Motors
Besides the people who answer the phones at speedway being mean to me all the time I have had good success with them. I met Speedy Bill about a 18 months ago and he was real nice to me.
Summit
Great Online Ordering and Fast Shipping
Nick[/url]
The one that I have to put at the very top of the customer service list is Lokar. You won't find a nicer bunch of folks to deal with. I had them make a custom cruise control cable for my truck. I sent them the cruise unit,with the cable housing marked where I needed it cut,and a firewall connector installed. They not only did it EXACTLY as I requested,but they also sent it back to me with a spare cable,some connectors,and a bill balance of ZERO. Not even a shipping charge on it!
Art Morrison gets very high kudos as well. I have never had a problem with ANYTHING I have ordered from them,and that includes a LOT of custom built stuff . I have always had my questions answered,and have been treated with the utmost respect and courtesy.
Jegs gets my vote for #3 as I have had a couple of bad experiences with Summit. Specialty Power Windows is a very nice company to work with as well as Yogi's.
Master Power Brakes always seems to have an attitude whenever I have called them.........
I have had great service from Boyds wheels , Yogis used to send via usps but won't now and ups is too expensive to New Zealand but their service was good
The guy from Streamline tried to rip me off so I will never ever use them again
have used summit,eastwood,yearone,danchuk,and classic chevy with very good luck.
called classic auto parts for some door wire looms,needed the 1/2" ones,they said they would call me back after calling their supplier and never did. this was going to be a first time ordering but will not order from them now.
When building my 32 coupe over the last 18 months I bought a LOT of parts, including a LOT of Pete and Jakes , from RJAY's in Cuba Missouri. He's probably the best overall dealer I've run across in a long time. No hold ups, free shipping on orders over $500, but even on some lesser ones, and no hassles on returns of wrong parts if you get them. I'd reccommend them bigtime! :D
DelCity
Year One
Centech
Rhode Island Wiring
Snap-On (tool truck)
Mac Tools (Tool Truck)
Cornwell Tools (Tool Truck)
Speedway
Summit (when I need the, occasional, racer-boy stuff)
Vintage Speed
the Tool Warehouse
Crutchfield
Lawson Products
B&H Photo
Macs Antique Auto Parts (Lockport, NY)
Sherman Associates
MSC Industrial Supply
Metalflake Corp
Comp USA
All on my "recommend" list