One thing that annoys me is us who have american cars in the U.K. when we need a part or whatever, there are several U.K. based part suppliers who have websites & email addresses. They advertise constantly in Classic American, & my recent experience is that of when e-mailing them, you either get a response about 2 weeks later or never at all.Yet if you email part suppliers in the U.S. you always get a response (and much cheaper too).

Surely they need as much business as they can get right now? Anyone else feel this way ?

 

I've noticed that as well, phone those orders through, and bug the hell out of them untill they arrive!

 

I have to admit it can be rather frustrating waiting for an e-response, but as Phil has pointed out you can't beat the old blower when it comes to ordering. The human touch seems to make all the difference.
Managing a parts supplier (non-American), I can understand how hard it would be to list enough parts to make it worth the effort, due to the nature of the automotive aftermarket. There are so many variations, so many mistakes to be made, and as a rule of thumb the general public need guidance when buying bits for their cars...present company excepted of course

I agree though, you would think the US parts suppliers in this country would do almost anything to hang on to us die-hard enthusiasts...we're a dying breed. I have to say I have had nothing but good service from both Dave Eady's and United Spares of America, and neither are on the internet.

 

One of the reasons I rely on email is I work shifts & can't get to the phone during the day. When I can, I can't spend 10minutes at work making enquiries, so end up having to either ask my wife to do it or wait till a Friday when I have a half day.

Sure,the old blower is great for the personal touch. One thing about email is you can send attachments of a picture of a part that you may be looking for so that there is no confusion.

 

Now THAT is true. I've never taken advantage of that but I can suddenly think of a few instances where it would have been mighty useful.

I also see the point about shift work. In that respect, email is the best thing since sliced bread. Maybe we should convince Dave Eady to get an email address? You can tell he wants to help you, just from the tone in his voice.

 

Sorry newbe hear
does any one have a good list of uk suppliers for parts as ive had my ta for over a year now and it needs a few bits doing

 

HI chaps,
Done absolutely nothing on the car lately,Trying to get garage sorted,and hopefully a 400ci block with top jonny internals might be coming my way.600hp sir,ooh suits you sir.Anyway here goes:

Rodley autos:great for cheap off the shelf general spares

real steel:similar to above+loads of performance parts.

Hauser racing:mainly hardcore race parts,but also get their hands on anything.

LA racing:great on some prices,way off on others.

Ultimate spares America:Complete Waste of ****ing time.A mate of mine has been messed around on loads of bits.

There is also a gent who advertises on ebay under the name of something like "britusa" or similar from Loughborough.Says he get almost anything.I bought a Genuine GM fender for 100 quid!
of him and was very happy with it.

BUT RING AROUND,as prices vary massively.If it means getting 10 items from 10 shops don't worry,you could save hundreds.

 

Today I was pleasantly surprised. Got an email from Specialist Autoparts of Yeovil saying they had a belt tensioner & belt IN STOCK ! WOW ! Well, all I can say is the proprietor Barry Dufty is a top guy. As I was out for the afternoon he kept me up-to-date on how the order was going. Item is on it's way, thanks Barry. Okay, I've had to pay extra but as my wife uses her Dodge for the kids getting about, I could've been waiting till the 3rd week in January before getting the tensioner so don't mind paying extra if I can get the van on the road in a matter of days. [][][]

 

Well as it happens, I have been quite loyal to Ultimate for some time, but the belt tensioner that I required, I sent them a pic of it, phoned them to say I's sent a digital pic, waited for a reply on price & availability....still waiting. Have asked for my £30 credit to be refunded & part enquiry cancelled.

As for BRITUSA, that's Kevin Kerry of Interstate Imports. Not quite sure what his set-up is nowadays,but used to use him all the time for Ford Fairlane parts till I sold the car.

 

Well, as far as the belt tensioner is concerned, Specialist Autoparts of Yeovil came up trumps here...contacted me over the x-mas hols, promised prompt & immediate delivery, I got what I needed. Nice one Barry Dufty (proprietor). Well recommended.

 

Boydee,

I used to live near Yeovil and have met Barry once before. He's a guy that tells it like it is LOL. I've heard other reports that he very good. One major thing that put me off him however was when I took my IROC there (not long after I bought it) and asked him what mods I could do to the exhaust, he said "GM spent millions to get this design right, why idiots want to go and change it is beyond me" He then proceeded to tell me that there was nothing available. Needless to say I never went back there again.



That was about 6 years ago and I haven't forgotten since.

 

Despite your one hiccup, is he good for spares ? Would it have been an off-day ? Certainly from my own experience he bent over backwards to help me out & I can't say fairer than that.

 

Fine for spares, just don't go for lunch with him

 

The guy I bought my Transam from has his own transam & also a limo business. He used to deal exclusively with Ultimate & just last year switched over to O.C.W. who offered him a personal account as he spends thousands every year. don't know how he's fared to-date.

My saga with Ultimate got worse when it came to light 2 weeks ago they had debited the wrong credit card (it was my mothers) & it consequently put her over the credit limit incurring charges. No apology from them whatsoever or offer of goodwill discount.

 

UPDATE!!!


I've bought quite a few things direct from the states lately.The larger,more costly items I had to pay duty on,because they had to come by a Fedex type operator.But I saved so much money it doesn't matter.On other items,particulary from ebay,they were sent United states post office.I've had a fair bit sent this way and it's got under the radar.Check out the USPS international rates page.Some sellers will be happy to send it this way,Big companies like Summit won't,but they're a bit pricey anyway.Trawl through Ebay quite often,as well as private individuals,loads of companies sell new off the shelf parts.

 

Thanks for the update eric, I'm still a bit reluctant to use ebay though

I need to buy a HOT cam- any suggestions?

Felix

 

Hi ZZ42FAST,
Glad to see you're getting the cam fiasco sorted.I know it's easy for me to say but don't write off ebay just yet mate.I found this site recently,although it's mainly hardcore race parts there is loads for sale.Smax Smith will get you anything you want and his prices seem to be good.He knows a thing or two about cars as he is the current European top fuel champion.


Eurodragster

 

Thanks eric, I'll give them a try.

Felix

 

It took Real Steel about 6 weeks to respond to an email recently, whereas I usually get responces from american companies withing a few hours. Its always sooo much cheaper to buy direct from america, and it needn't be too slow either, as even with the more expensive quick delivery, its usually still cheaper than buying here. They say you can expect to pay £100 for an item here when its $100 in america, but in my experience its more like £200 = $100, so we pay about 4 times as much. I doubt I'll ever buy over here again

 

That's a shame about Realsteel,they used to be very good.I know more and more people ordering straight from the states nowadays.I saved 800 quid!!! by buying an engine block,crank and rods from Scott Shafiroff racing in New York.That was even after all expenses,shipping,duty etc.I would try and get items sent over by USPS as well.They're a hell of a lot cheaper than UPS/Fedex etc.and so far I've never paid any duty!

 

Eric:- How much did shipping for your block, rods and crank cost? How long did it take?

Edit:- Nevermind I just answered my own question by doing aa search and looking at this thread - https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=231310

 

Hi Dr G,
It took about 2 weeks from the time I wired the money to the stuff being in the UK.The shipping was $183 and that included delivery to the door!!!Try getting that sort of deal here in rip-off UK.

 

Thanks Eric! I think I must have been editing while you were replying! Thanks very much! Would you recommend Scott Shafiroff? Are they good at returning calls/emails etc?

 

Shafiroff are very well known racing engine builders in the U.S.Check out their site,and then wish you'd won the lottery!I only ever dealt with them via e-mail,and they were very prompt,although the e-mails were straight to the point.I think as with any purchase if you had loads of ??? then it's probably better to ring.I think I'm going to buy some AFR heads from them in the future.Again the $183 shipping is ridiculously cheap.

http://www.shafiroff.com

 

Guss_B you're lucky you got a response at all. I emailed real steel at the start of the year & never got a reply. In fact it's a gripe I have about UK part suppliers...why do they advertise a website & supply a email address but fail to get back to you ? Same goes for the hobby mags here. Their editorial comment asks for details on local meets etc & when you take the time out to send in details they don't reply back to say thanks ? WHY ?

 

I'm going to order a set of AFR 195cc heads soon.I'm not even going to waste my time ringing anyone in the UK for a price as I can get them from the states for (hopefully) 850 quid as long as I can get someone to send them USPS(read that as NO DUTY).Try getting that sort of deal here.

 

Eric:- For your AFR heads talk to www.tenperf.com.

 

Thanks Dr G,Thats a bloody coincidence as I contacted them about the heads yesterday and they replied today!Thanks again.

 

I just got some aluminium heads sent over, fulley assembled with centrebolt valve covers, shipping cost about $200 USPS, which works out at about 3 times what venders on ebay ship iron heads for over here, so it can't be bad. Fingers crossed I won't be asked to pay duty.