Panels from Mac's

[chimp koose]

I am sure someone here has ordered body panels from Mac's before. How is the quality and how is the service? Their panels are just a bit more money than from Howells but I have found a lot of disgruntled customers complaining about Howells on various sites. I would like to order a bunch of body panels for the T coupe shortly . Is there another manufacturer or supplier of T sheet metal that anyone can recommend? Any good Canadian suppliers? Thanks in advance.

[butch27]

Somewhere I read that Mac's gets them FROM Howells.??

[chimp koose]

I had heard that Langs got theirs from Howell. I thought I read somewhere that a guy in sweden makes them for either snyders or macs?

[wvcab]

i have not used the patch panels from macs, but their customer service is great.

[enjenjo]

The sad truth is nobody's patch panels are great. There is too much variation in original bodies, and the cost of proper tooling to make panels that will fit everything, at a price that cab be afforded by the masses.

Topsterguy just went through this with EMS panels which are generally pretty good, but in his case were not a very good fit on his particular car.

[Charlie Chops 1940]

When I buy patch panels I accept that I will have to slice and dice them...for all the reasons Frank just mentioned. I've got a lot of EMS panels on my '40 Chevy and all I can honestly say is that they look like '40 Chevy parts. I used an EMS rear pan below the trunk for a '38 Ford coupe and it acrually fit pretty nice...only minor fitting required. As for Model A and '32 parts its a real crap shoot. I've replaced a lot of A parts from one Henry car to another and I have often found it hard to believe the parts were made off the same prints.

There are lots of perfect patch panels...the problem is there aren't perfect original cars.

Charlie

[chimp koose]

I hear you guys about the panel fit situation. Kind of hard to expect a stellar fit on an 87 year old car. I will make my own floors and firewall but I need a trunk lid and the panel under it. I also need running board aprons, rear inner fenders,hood shelves,rad shell and rad apron. I will make my own 3 piece hood.26/27 rad shell is hard to find. I think I have found one in fiberglass made from an original with the proper taper. I also need rear fenders but will get glass ones when I am ready to paint.