Thread: Rod Bods Dealer along the East Coast?????

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Newbie here. Anyone know of a Rod Bods dealer along the East Coast or one that sets up at the larger street rod shows like Daytona's Turkey Rod Run or the Nationals in Tampa? Shipping cost from Nevada doesn't work for me.

When you get to Daytona, you can look at the Brookville bodies....

Hey, one more Florida guy. Welcome. A couple more and we are going to try to overthrow the guys from Washington State.

Just kidding Bob P., geesh.


As for your body, one way to save freight is to have the vendor haul it to a major event. They will usually do it free if you prepay, or sometimes you can buy their show display, but you have to get to them soon, as there are other rodders with the same idea in mind. I had Mickey Luria from Total Performance do that for me a few years ago, and it saved me some shipping money.

There are a lot of vendors at the Turkey Run, so someone should be able to accomodate you. You still have 3 months, so if you get going you might be able to set it up. Otherwise, call them and see what they can do for you.

Good luck, see you at Daytona?


Don

Originally Posted by SirSpeedy

When you get to Daytona, you can look at the Brookville bodies....

Amen. As soon as I get a couple of projects done I am going to buy their '29 roadster pickup body and replace the body on my '27. I really think they make one heck of a product.

Don

Sounds cool.

The B-ville is far and away the best quality and value of ANY '32 body on the market. Steel or glass.

Thanks guys. I'll check out the Brookville bodies and might be ready to push the button by the time Daytona comes around.

Heres a direct qoute by Brian Martin over at the Hotrodders bulletin board. He speaks of some freinds of mine on a similar topic.

"I have to tell you, after reading this thread this morning I went the Goodguys show and specifically hunted out steel bodies and gave them a "feel". I felt every one there and I have to say, they are REALLY rough. I had the impression that these bodies were like the new parts I deal with everyday at work on late model cars, they are NOT. As Mikey pointed out, VERY poor body lines, door fit, general "waves" and much worse than that most had severe low spots sunken in.

I have only tried to use one of these metal repro early ford parts (other than a few lower body panels on Model A coupes) and that was a Model A front fender. It was so rough, I sent it back and repaired an original bought at a swap meet.

I thought that this was the "old days" as this was 10 years or so ago. But after copping a feel on these bodies, they have not improved one single bit, they are VERY, VERY rough. They would take MANY hours, into a hundred or more I would assume to get them nice enough for my taste.

On the same subject, I checked out one glass body that just knocked me out. It was made by "New Age Motorsports" and was absolutely beautiful! Now, I can not stress enough, I know next to nothing about the fiberglass industry. One 30 minute chat with Mikey (Powerrodsmike) at the show today tells me I know even less than I thought I knew. But this New Age body is absolutely fabulas. It had a very shiney black gel coat and you could see it was VERY straight.

I would look into one of them before the repro steel bodies.

Brian"

I'm not sure what steel bodies he was looking at, but the Brookvilles I have looked at for over 5 years at Daytona are subperb. I would die to have one of the coupe bodies they make.

I kind of wonder about his last statement endorsing the one brand glass body. Almost seems like an advertisement of sorts??

Don

I dont know exactly whos bodies the man speaks of. Its just one mans opinion.

There aren't that many steel bodies out there, are there??


Don

I look forward to seeing whatever '32 bodies the vendors bring to Daytona but from what I've seen and read, I want steel. I would love to see a Rod Bods and Brookville side by side. I've seen Rod Bods for considerably less money from a couple of their dealers which makes it pretty attractive plus I don't want to pay $1500 shipping for any of them.

There's a reason the Rod Bod is less.............as often happens. Pay me now, pay me later.

If you're not a skilled body man the $1500-2000 difference will be made up and surpassed in body work you hire out to get it smooth enough to paint. And if you're not a body man there's no way you'll SEE the waves in the sheet metal. Body men see that sort of thing with their hands, not their eyes. Lay people see the shiny metal and go OOOHHHHHH! I've been around both B'Ville and RB, the B'ville was much smoother by comparison, and the lines are more accurate as well as better lined up to start with. They do require more reinforcement to make them more stable, but in my opinion they're worth it. I looked at their coupe at SEMA last year. Again, very impressive.............but, it did need some straightening to be really nice.............a TON better than the now discontinued Hot Rods & Horsepower coupes.

If you don't have a lot of experience with feeling irregularities in sheetmetal here's a tip. Take a thin cotton glove with you. Then with your hand gloved, run it over the sheetmetal with your fingers and palm flat (most novices tend to try to do this with just their fingers, it works best with the whole hand surface in contact). Concentrate on what your hand feels, don't try to carry on a discussion with your buddies, and don't let the guy selling the body chatter your ear off. If you can feel any irregularity it will show through on the paint big time......the darker the color the worse. Don't just feel across the big expanses like door and forward portion of the quarter, that's a good place to start to get the feel of it. But also feel around the cowl, top, bottom, middle. The last two RB bodies I was around were absolutely horrible in the upper cowl side area near the body line, dished and wobbly, major time consumer to fix right. Feel the curved surfaces too, especially the deck lid, but also the quarter tops, down low in particular.

If you are building a traditional car - the bodies come out the same price. The Brookville looks like a Henry car - with a couple minor exceptions(tack strips)

The Rod Bod has no cowl lip - flat firewall - hidden hinges, plastic Mazda Miata inside door handles, no cowl vent, poorly shapped upper inner door area(where the top side of the door panel would fit under), etc, etc. If you order the RB with a cowl lip and vent, outside hinges, stock inside door handles, etc - it comes to the same price.

I don't see SoCal or Brizio building rod bods.............

Originally Posted by BIGBLOCK

On the same subject, I checked out one glass body that just knocked me out. It was made by "New Age Motorsports" and was absolutely beautiful! Now, I can not stress enough, I know next to nothing about the fiberglass industry. One 30 minute chat with Mikey (Powerrodsmike) at the show today tells me I know even less than I thought I knew. But this New Age body is absolutely fabulas. It had a very shiney black gel coat and you could see it was VERY straight.

That is a laugh. There is a lot more that makes a quality fiberglass body than shiny gelcoat.

Do some searches on the boards for New Age - tons of quality issues there....

The ONLY fiberglass roadster body worth buildng is a Wescott.

A freind of mine recently recieved his new age roadster body from a new mold. He was quite pleased with it. Perhaps, you should do some homework, as their website explains how the body is built, and many people i've talked to say it is a "right on" hand laminated body.

It's a shame someone cant come on one of these forums and state a simple opinion without someone directly trying to put that mans opinion down like he knows nothing at all, and you're Mr. Know It All.

The whole industry seems to have quality control problems. Im sure when wescott, brookeville, outlaw, redneck, and bear started up they had tons of issues. It's a part of growth. One man can like a certain company, while another man could hate a certain company.

As me or anyone else here, you're just an opinion. Ive found by reading through these forums that they're controled by only the guys in the "click" and anyone posting as a newbie to the forum, sometimes bringing up new information is immediattely put down or run off. This doesnt help the forum grow, nor does it help hotrodding grow. When people have to hesitate to put anything on this site that ends up being attacked thats really a shame. Theres no more "fun" here.