The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk LMC v. Brothers v. Classic v. Chevy of the 40s

Truck is dismantled and now its time to start buying some parts. Need just a few sheetmetal pieces (cab corners, etc) and then all the other stuff that is 60 years old and needs replacement (weatherstripping, glass, handles, etc.).

Who do you guys use/like best for quality, customer service, part fees, shipping fees, etc.? It would be nice to order everything from one company. I currently have the catalogs to LMC, Brothers, Classic Parts, Chevy's of the 40s, Jim Carter for comparison.

Thanks.

Your rubber parts I would recommend Steele. For the rest of your parts you might take a look at The Filling Station when you compare vendors.

I like Truck Shop out of CA, they can be found here Truck Shop Website
Their prices and quality seems rather "good".

dont they all get the stuff from over seas

I do not know, I do not see anything in the catalog saying they do... so, I just called them and asked Truck Shop said "yes, a lot of parts come from over seas". She did not say which parts though. I would guess it is the sheet metal parts and if so, I would think all of these places get the parts from the same place.

Thoughts?

I use various vendors including this one that supports financially the Stovebolt site. I would suggest that if you do require a large order at one time that you negotiate shipping cost. Some vendors will ship large orders for free or little cost excluding oversize packages.

http://www.americanclassic.com/

I prefer Classic Parts. Their prices are competitive and their customer service has been great.

I don't buy from LMC at all anymore, check out this thread: Caveat Emptor: Let The Buyer Beware (LMC) https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...;Words=caveat&Search=true#Post495875

Do your homework and put it down in black and white. I put my stuff in the "cart" then print it out. I go to the other vendors and do he same. You'd be surprised. Just a week ago I was going to order from a preferred vendor for years. Well, turns out they were over $15 higher on the exact same parts and that was after a discount.
.... do the math. Cheap is cheap no matter which vendor it comes from so why pay more for cheap stuff when you can get the same cheap stuff cheaper somewhere else.

One important point in pricing parts is to avoid if possible any vendor in your state. I am assuming all states have a sales tax on items purchased in state. This tax plus the shipping may put the price of the part above vendors in other states. I only buy parts from American Classic unless I can't get them elsewhere. They are good people with great service just too close to home.

Most of the parts are repops, from China,Tiwain or anywhere they are made cheap,I use Chevs of the 40's, for all I can, price seems to be ok, they ship to me same day usually, Orange truck parts is useless, they ask for a ph # we'll call you back, by the time they do its too late to ship, and they don't do same day, JC is good but they don't do same day either and most want a fortune to do same day, and then still don't, Orange has poor customer relations and Co40's was real good but help has changed and they are marginal.

You are on the West Coast and I agree, S of the F is a great place to buy stuff. However if you're in a hurry it will take almost 5 days to get from Washington State to Texas. I rarely ever am in a hurry but if I was I would have to do business with Chevy Duty in Kansas. From there to here on UPS is only two days.

The Truck Shop in Orange, CA carries fairly good quality parts. They were great to deal with on the couple of occasions I was in S. Cal and went there in person. However, if you call in an order they have the worst policy of any vendors I have dealt with. They will not tell you if a part is in stock or not and charge your card even for the back ordered parts. Then they charge you additional shipping when they get them in. Every order I made had back ordered parts. They got the last of my business because of that policy.

Chuck

Chuck
When I lived in Sacramento back in the early 80s I saw what a large chunk of $ the state took out in sales tax. Is that still the case, if so why don't you shop out of state?

If you are a CA resident you pay sales tax. I try to support local business as much as possible. The State needs all the tax revenue it can get. I am willing to pay the tax but not willing to get shafted by the vendor at the same time. CA is proposing regulations that would require major out-of-state internet retailers to charge CA residents tax and send it back to CA. If this comes to pass I hope it does not count our vendors as major.

Chuck

That's pretty common. Kansas has been doing it for years.

Are you guys aware that we still get a 10% discount at Classic Parts (formerly Chevy Duty)? Just enter the code "stovebolt" (without the quotes) on check out.

I'm aware now that you reminded me. I've spent over $6,000 there and not once used the discount. Heck that's over 600.00, DANG!

Asked Chev of the 40's if I could speak to a tech person regarding what a dd starter was? I was told there wasn't a tech person, and no one there knew what dd stood for in their catalog. Jim Carter and Brothers always answered my questions in the past.

i have used them all.Had good luck with all of them.The only one I preferred was at the time Chevy Duty,in Kansas City.The reason being is that I received my parts quicker from them,being located in the middle of the country versus being on the west coast.Chevy Duty now is under a different name???

Yeah, "Classic Parts of America". GMC forced them to quit using the "Chevy" in their name. ticky, ticky, ticky...