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Hi all;
To a degree I can see both sides of the arguement but I
have never heard of anyone being stiffed by Andy Berbaum. I have however heard
of people being stiffed by Mitchells and Brad's NOS, either parts not being
delivered at all or misrepresented, to the extent that Hemmings pulled their
ads. Most of the folks that supply repro parts are from the old school of car
restoration where most of the work was done by D.I.Y and not by pro's on a "get
it done yesterday" time schedule. There is the odd hustler in it for the quick
buck but most are fairly honest.
I have encountered such problems, similar to the
vendors, when I tried my hand at old radio restoration as a side line. This is
in part why I gave it up, with few exceptions, people just can't, or won't,
understand that you can't go to the local Radio Shack to pick up parts for a
60-70 year old radio. They also can't understand that the poor thing has been
around for decades and has had God knows what and how many pairs of hands mess
with it and that sometimes it takes more then a week to find out what's wrong
with it. Then there is the kind that figure that the price that they paid for it
should be commiserate with the repair bill and complain about how much it costs
and how much a cheap new one sells for.
One guy brought a radio in that had all but two tubes
missing and a rats nest of amateur wiring and expected me to supply the other
six that were missing. If it had been a post war set it would have been no big
deal, but the thing was from 1932! Even if I had supplied the tubes the set
would have taken at least a month to put right. At least in the car hobby
most people know not to buy a car that's too incomplete or butchered, or if they
do so it's for parts not for restoration.
Up until 12 years ago there was very little in the way
of reproduction parts for old radios and only one or two outfits that offered
some for the more popular sets. Now there are at least a dozen suppliers, of
various types, and hundreds of repro parts and supplies available. I am not
going to say count your blessings about what we have for repro MoPar part
suppliers and to excuse rude or bad service but expecting instant gratification
isn't realistic and burning bridges doesn't help matters.
The reason for the expansion of repro parts in the old
radio hobby is not so much because of an increase in demand but because of
increase in technology, bringing tooling costs down for small runs of things. It
is also due to the iniative of individual restorers who either could not find
what they needed or were disatisfied with the quality or price of what was
available. In time the same will come with MoPar parts and eventually
Imperial parts.
Best Regards
Arran Foster
1954 imperial Newport
Needing A Left Side Tailight Bezel and other trim
parts.
P.S If I ever get one I am going to investigate getting
reproductions cast.
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