Has anyone used any of this ems sheet metal on any of there older projects? I was thinking of buying some stuff like rockers and lower door panels and cowls and wanted to make sure its good product or i need to go somewhere else, like drakes. thanks for the help
Much of the bottom 1/4 of my car is from EMS. Sure beats the hell out of hand forming your own patches.
Just odered / recieved my first items from EMS for my 1941 Chevy. Seem to be good. All that i was told was good for them.
I've used a fair amount of their stuff. It's usually pretty good,some of their parts fit better than others.As stated above, it may sometimes need a little fiddling,but gives you a real good starting point. What are you working on?
define "good".. EMS is hit and miss. it depends on what part for what car. I worked at a shop where the owner did a tail pan install on a 38 Chevy. while the part was better than the bondo, wire mesh and old socks it replaced, it was not a good fit. I would say they are no better or worse than any other company making aftermarket patch panels. the best patch panels are cut off an original car.
I have used E.M.S. as well as others. My feelings are, there's are as good as the rest. The thing to remember here is, it's reproduction parts not O.E.M. There is going to be some fit work to do no matter what. We all have different ideas of "good enough" as well as metal working skills. If what you get doesn't fit the way you want, take the time to get it there and be glad we can get any of it to start with. E.M.S. pieces are as good a piece to start with as any if you can't hand build your own. The Wizzard
your profile says you have a '39 coupe. I have a '40 coupe and have done a lot of rust repair on several of these coupes for customers. If you need a rear body panel, go with Drake. They fit a lot better. Also, the EMS rear fender patches for these leave a lot to be desired,but I don't know if anyone else makes those. The 50's-60's stuff from them seems to fit better than the '40 Ford stuff.
quote "the best patch panels are cut off an original car" I helped a kid replace a tree damaged roof on a '37 Chev 2dr, we cut it through the pillars like a chop. The the stamp lines in the pillars of the replacement roof were totally different than the original roof. Found the same deal when piecing Ford bodies together too. Just glad that someone is making parts that can be worked with.
I don't think EMS makes a 37 Chevy roof. I haven't done a bunch of cars, but there was only 2 times I ever had a panel that fit right, a Sunbeam Alpine where the owner brought big chunks of another car for me to patch it all back together., and a 65 Mustang where I got an NOS Ford made tailight panel. under the car type of repairs are not so critical with the aftermarket stuff, but just about any body panel with a body line in it will be off.
We are in the middle of putting rear quarter panel patches (just behind door) on a 39 coupe(just finished drivers side),bought the patch panels from EMS .Had to modify the panel to work,they were to short in length (front to back). But after some massaging they worked good.One thing to look out for is, don't cut out to much of the original panel (top to bottom).
Their Chevy stuff fits great. I have not used any of their Ford panels. Just remember that your old car may not be exactly the same shape it was the day it left the factory. Old body men will tell you that cars from different factories (Ford had at least 3 different body plants) were all slightly different.
I have used their parts on both a 39 chevy and a 40 ford. Both rear tailpans and both fit great. Good parts. EMScustomerservice is a member on here. pm him.
There is no patch panel that will fit perfectly on everyones car, there are just too many variables. If you understand going in to it that any reproduction panel is gonna take at least SOME work to fit your paticular 60 year old car you will be fine. EMS makes great panels to fit lots of stuff. While they will never be perfect on every car, they are very good quality and made in the United States. They might even be Alliance members... Order with confidence, you will be fine. -Abone.
EMS is on the HAMB. You can ask your questions here. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/member.php?u=22626
Had a '41 chevy coupe,rockers fit real good,lower cowl and lower front 1/4 patches took some fitting.
We have a '37 tudor with the same patch and the trunk opening is wrong in it, it's too wide, the person who installed it lined it all up on the right side and the left side is off by almost an inch, so the lip for the seal and the edge of the opening do not line up. Still has an EMS sticker on it. But that's the only thing I have experience with. On a Ford I'd lean towards Drake, since they're repoping so much for these - you can't sell many deck lids that are off by that much and stay in business, so I assume they're dead on.
I've used EMS rockers, quarters and one cowl panel in my '40 Chev coupe. They required some work to make them fit. The lines are not as crisp as the original panels, they're obviously using soft tooling and my parts were certainly not the first struck from those dies. Not a criticism, just an observation. Let's be realistic. The '40 Chev was a one- year car, how many copies of each panel can they realistically expect to sell? They have to amortize the cost of the tooling over the parts sold, so there's no way they could justify the cost of tool steel OEM style high production tooling. I've worked with some mid '30's Ford parts too, fit was about the same. If their panels are 80- 90% there, it'll save a pile of time over making complex- shaped patches in multiple pieces from scratch. I think their stuff is pretty good value for the buck, considering the alternatives.
^^^what everyone else said^^^ good stuff for the money, but there isn't an aftermarket panel that you won't have to do something to...if you get one, it's an anomaly and shouldn't be expected twice. Even factory parts are different from car to car. Take time to fit everything before welding anything and you will be happy in the end.
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