Projects HOWELL'S SHEET METAL

Support services is not the same as manufactured product. I spent half of my 30 year career as an engineer in metal fabricating manufacturing environments. No manufacturing company can run one-offs and stay in business unless you are a prototype shop. It is all about set up time and the efficiency that comes in running volumes. Many companies that have distributor networks, require them to keep minimum stock. There are all kinds of payment options for them to carry that inventory.
For example, Bendix manufactures military spec electrical connectors. They gather up orders from their distributor network, and only run two production runs every 12 months. If you just missed a production run, and your distributor has no stock, you are $hit out of luck, and will need to wait 6 months. Ask me how I know, because it happened to me.

 

If nothing else direct your customers to the distributors that sell your products.

 

I think Howells is trying to use JIT (just in time) inventory management. But theirs is turning out to be NOT (never on time).

 

not to start a war, but, are you in a rural area with a hard to find address? Those are some pretty substantial totals, & not receiving any of them? I use a CC for online & major purchases all the time, never been out anything.
Howells has been taking a beating in some forums the last few years. I've bought so much from them, & have never had a problem, panels fit , subrails were nice & I've never had any negative customer service

 

You heard wrong. There are tons of threads on here covering this. I never buy anything from them and I only live a state away.

 

What did I say that was incorrect?

 

Sorry, that they were one of the best. Their stuff is mediocre at best.

 

I'll be darn, regarding their products I've never heard a complaint, only about shipping times and phone response/customer service.

 

The only time I have ever bought anything from them, it was when they were standing in front of me. It was ok, but didn't fit right and had to cut and splice. I made it work, but they are no Brookville or Mack.

 

Then heck, no reason to even buy from them and take a chance on poor fit and long wait times.
Good info to add.

 

I put a bunch of Brookville parts into an original Deuce roadster body a number of years ago- floor panels, sub rails, sub rail extensions, inner wheel wells, tail pan, catwalk panel, etc. I think they could be forgiven when their parts don't fit well with original Ford stuff, but when their parts don't fit with their own other parts...

 

Really? That's concerning.

 

I am thinking the tolerances of vehicles mass produced 90 years ago weren't very tight. I'd be really concerned if Brookville parts didn't fit a Brookville car, but I am not too surprised that they don't perfectly match a single car from th eol days that may have even had modifications to it over the years..

 

This Brookville trunk lid fit very well and had all the gaps to my liking in an hour. Fitting to a '29 coupe shell.

 

Super happy

Sent from my SM-G900P using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

About ten years ago my brothers and I were piecing together a Model A coupe and ordered a decklid skin from a local vendor. He supplied a Howell's. It was basically a flat sheet of steel with four turned edges, and two of the edges had a curve shrunk into them. No crown to the panel at all. We took it back and got a Brookville skin which fit perfect.

This past year I was putting patch panels in a 32 five-window for my Dad. He ordered a pair of quarter panel rocker patches from Howell's through their Ebay store. The parts came in a reasonable time, and they are very nicely shaped.

So, my experience has been hit or miss on the quality, and the supply is the same as others have said: Use a vendor or Ebay to purchase them.

 

Funny, that was the exact part I bought for the 30 Coupe I was building. I had to try and add crown to it. Wasted a ton of time.

 

We were working on that coupe about the time you came to Iowa and we welded up that frame jig.

 

I got all my 41 Ford truck parts from Midwest Ohio and was very happy. They have been very good to deal with.

 

That's been a day or two...

 

To be fair:
We're lucky to have the abundance of patch panels and new steel bodies that we have available to us.
I'm gonna bet they're all using soft tooling to stamp this stuff- the cost of OEM production style hard tooling capable of pounding out hundreds of thousands of crisp parts would be huge, and the resulting parts far too costly.

The universal rule of hotrodding applies here: "Bolt on" parts usually don't bolt on without a little tweaking here and there. Starting with an aftermarket patch panel that's an 80% fit is far cheaper and quicker that starting with a flat sheet of metal. Most of the Brookville, EMS, United Pacific pieces I've used needed a bit of hammer and dolly shaping or a bit of a nip and tuck to make them fit. Can't really complain too loudly. Just be prepared, expect to have to tune things up a bit.

 

While this is true, I feel that EMS stuff fits as advertised. I can't speak for the others.

 

I am currently looking for floor pans for my 33. Have messaged Howell's through ebay with questions 1-12-20 and 1-16-20. Same question both times, no answer so far. After reading everything I thought buying through ebay would be safe, but now even that looks sketchy. I will update this if and when there is any progress. Any suggestions on another source for floors would also be appreciated.

 

Howell's listed more 33-34 patch panels on ebay today, but they have not replied to my questions yet.

 

What a shame, but not a surprise. So, what's worse-knowing the parts are just not made, or know the parts are made but unobtainable?

 

What's in your wallet?

they sure ain't in mine... would not stand behind me when I scammed out of 600 bucks on computer fuck up in January 2019, quit and changed cc company's. This after months of trying to get problem resolved, and years and years of being with em and no balance on card, I pays my bills... Ug fug em................

 

well, even after all the stories, they got me too. i thought, i only need one part, and if they say its in stock, how can it go bad? well, it did. i need the radiator stone guard/splash shield for a 34. every vendor has them, most are powder coated, which i dont want, so i thought buy it from the source. so i called Friday morning, the 10th. you got one in stock? yeah. it'll ship out today? yeah. i'll take it. so i wait 11 days, call them on the 21st. this first time i called, they actually answered the phone. the guy had me hold while he in theory looked it up, comes back to say yeah, we shipped it, so call me back in 15 minutes and i'll try to find out where it is. so i call back in 15 minutes, and nobody answers. i then called about 20 times that day, and after the first few of no answer, then it goes to busy signal until closing time. called again 20 times the next day, some where in there it allowed me to leave a message and phone number, but most times it was busy or the voice box was full. so by Thursday i thought fuck em i will buy one some where else, but need to cancel the CC payment first. so, call visa, wait 20 minutes to get thru there, finally when the gal looks it up she see no charge ! so obviously the motherfucker was lying all along because they certainly wouldnt ship it without billing the card first! visa lady agreed, it was never shipped. so i call Tom Bay in kansas , you got one in stock? yeah, it'll ship today? yeah. now i dont know the man personally, but we have met at chickasha swap meet. so while doing the order, just for fun i tell him about howells. he says, hmm, thats funny, they buy them from me, and i dont remember an order lately, so they must be out of stock. so, i thought i was buying from the source at howells, when in fact tom makes them, and clearly howells had none when i ordered it, and were too stupid to immediately place an order with tom to cover my order. i did go on they're web site and leave a long rant on the "contact us" thing, but thats the last time for me

 

I ordered parts from Howells Feb 1, got'em on Feb 3. Sorry that story doesnt fit into the Howell Haters Club. You gotta buy on Ebay.

 

Been over a month since I asked them some questions through e-bay AND emailed them direct.
Never any response. If I am going buy something I want to know some details. Howell's apparently wasn't interested in customer service. I bought everything through Tom Bay, got ALL my questions answered in short order and he has been great to do business with.

 

Midwest Early Ford in Springfield, Ohio, good people, good merc, I haven't had any problems with them on our F1