Who are you buying from?

[enjenjo]

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?

[EMSjunkie]

Most all my stuff comes from Speedway.

good all around service.

usually 3 days shipping to Tx  

have had good luck with Summit, Yogi's, and Jegs too.  


My 2 cents worth.


Vance

[MikeC]

I recently have had great experiences with Yearwood with great prices as well

[Crosley.In.AZ]

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

[kb426]

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.

[flamefink]

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.

[Grandadeo]

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

[soldermonkey]

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

[Pep]

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.

[Leon]

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.

[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

[flt-blk]

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.

[Uncle Bob]

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.

[Jbird]

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

[n.c.rodder]

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

Mike