Wanted fiberglass 1 piece nose , or any molds for a 57

[mongo4u2]

I am looking for 1 piece nose, or any molds doors, bumpers, etc. that are not too radical.  I am located in mid Tennessee,also ,I may have to have mold built , so if anyone has an interest, let me know.  email or phone 931-739-0152 Dave

[JPotter57]

Whatever you do, do not deal with Showcars Body parts out of Canada.  I bought stuff from them a couple years ago, and it was complete garbage, a couple pieces even had to be thrown away.  The parts are very thick and heavy, wavy and full of dents.  Yes, dents: when they made their molds, they didnt bother getting the parts perfect before pulling molds from them, and every part is as bad as the original.  They would not answer calls from me concerning the bad parts, so I made it my lifes mission to discourage anyone from buying anything from them.  The only part that was useable was the front bumper, and it was ok, not great, but ok.  I bought almost $2500 worth of stuff from them, everything except their doors, and was totally, 100% disappointed when I opened the box.  I ended up selling the front fenders to a buddy of mine for less than half of what one of them cost, and it took his body man over 100 hours to get them in good enough shape to paint white.  Yeah.  I gave the trunk lid to another guy, it was 20 pounds heavier than the stock steel lid, some places were over 1/2 inch thick and had to be ground down so it would even close properly, and sit flush.  The hood was almost 1 inch too short from front to back, and the gaps looked terrible, had to add a lot of glass to them to get the length close enough to not look like crap.  They do offer a one piece front end, but if it is as bad as the front splash pan, fenders, hood and upper grille are separately, I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole.
In the end, I used a pair of 45 year old AI fenders, the crappy hood I bought from them, and everything else was steel that I had welded and filled up.  All the other parts I bought ended up sold, given away or thrown into the dumpster, a serious $2500 lesson.  To add insult to injury, I had just sold my perfect Crites hood to another friend, and it fit as well as a stock hood, and was as smooth underneath as on top.  Never again.  Good luck in your search.  There is a fiberglass shop in Athens, TN if you are familiar with the area, and from what I am told, they turn out some nice parts.  I used to live across the river from there, and I still have lots of family there, some hot rodder types that keep me up on the goings-on in TN.

[OUTLAW]

Contact Richard Earle at Suncoast Race Cars. 352 628-5001. Can email pics of my front end. Hope this helps..........Rick.

[mongo4u2]

I talked with those people in canada last year, decided not to use them, there 2 other people around here who will  ,make me a mold, one guy in onieda tn. does all kinds of willys , etc. said , $1700 , he does nice work, would have a decent mold, I just need a decent steel nose to copy right now. I will probably swing by crites for the trunk lid. Dave

[OUTLAW]

Suncoast Race Cars is in Homosassa, Florida. Check out Mega Ford on youtube. Good luck with your project........Rick.

[JPotter57]

I have a Crites trunk lid and you will not be disappointed with it. It is a high quality part, fit right the first time.  Only $275 too...

[RICH MUISE]

James..It sounds like crites is a recommended source as far as your concerned. I was considering ordering their scooped hood. I was curious, are they moulded over a steel reinforcement at hinge mounting locations? I was going to try a custom welded scoop on my original hood, but was told it was almost impossible to cut and weld on a hood without serious distortion so I wanted to make sure I had a backup souce for a hood if I screwed mine up. ...any experience with welding on a hood?

[JPotter57]

The scooped hood is all fiberglass with reinforcements for the hinges, and the mounting points.  When you use any fiberglass hood, you will need to remove the springs from your hinges and use a prop rod.  Crites really does make the best glass parts, bar none.  You wont find a better fitting part other than steel OEM stuff.

[JPotter57]

By the way, you can weld a hood like any other steelpart, just use low heat, and many, many, many spot welds, never try to stitch weld it, or it will distort.  This is the method I used on my valve covers and there is no distortion.  Take your time.

[wildhog]

give crities a call and see what he will do, i talked to charlie at columbus a year ago, and he had plans to make the front fenders. Tom

[glen b henderson]

Hi Dave, long time no see. I have seen Ted Eaton's one piece nose from Sun Coast and it looks good. It is light weight race quality but I think they make a heavier street version. If you decide to make molds, I have a perfect hood that you can use to pull the mold from if you need it. I aggree with James, for the money the Crites parts are the best deal for the money and maybe if enough interest is shown  he will make the fenders. It is sure getting hard to find orginals in good condition.