Fiberglass quality.....Be-Bops in TN????

Can anyone on here tell me the quality of products that Be-Bops in TN has? I am a little leary of any company that never answers their email. I tend to email my questions to a company's tech department first and get all the answer's I can before calling them. After all, its the modern way now. I can't get a response from them. I'm hoping someone on here know's something about them.

David

They have been around for a while, I first saw their A in York in 1997. Saw a finished 32 hiboy at the Southeast Nats a couple of weeks ago and it look nice, but did not get to talk to the owner. There are some members here who have them and are happy with it. Check with members "Rumrumm" and "Hotrod Dino"and "Guilld". The last two have Bebop bodies.

Other than the obviously recommendations of Downs and Wescott, N & N Fiberglass are heavily recommended here for good glass bodies. I've also heard very favorable comments about Bear Fiberglass as well.

Thanks Bob....I'll PM them all.

I just placed order with Be-Bop. I wasn't dealing with full body kits. I needed fenders and running boards. I was told to go that route because of the poor ductile quality of the steel fenders (getting cracks and breaks from todays driving). Besides....I needed 2" wider rears for 10" rims.

I'll let everyone know what I encounter with this purchase.

Thanks,
David

i tried to e-mail them as well and didnt get a respounce , but on there website i seen where they say they are a small company maybe mom and pop thing going on , anyway i was asking about some fenders as well for my 37 and on their site i seen that you need an outer fender as well as an inner fender i belive the outter fenders was $327 or so with the inner being around $119 im still not sure if this is the way to go with two differnet pieces , the page did not say anything about the rear fenders other than they have regular or 2 inches wider , i still dont know if i have to purchase two pieces but on http://www.chevsofthe40s.com/ they dont say anything about inner fenders:) dont know if this helps or not ..

If your getting glass fenders you may need to mount them ASAP. The ones I got were still curing and I didn't mount them for a few weeks. One fit Ok but the other had twisted quite a bit and was a real pain.
I guess they don't let them sit in the molds for very long so they can keep producing more.

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Originally Posted by Stovebolter

Thanks Bob....I'll PM them all.

I just placed order with Be-Bop. I wasn't dealing with full body kits. I needed fenders and running boards. I was told to go that route because of the poor ductile quality of the steel fenders (getting cracks and breaks from todays driving). Besides....I needed 2" wider rears for 10" rims.

I'll let everyone know what I encounter with this purchase.

Thanks,
David

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there are more than likely people on this very forum who could widen your fenders , or look around your town for someone who can do the work , i personally would keep the steel if at all possible , my own situation is my fenders and running boards are shot to sh%t but if they could be repaired thats the route i would go .. there are a number of guys here on site that own 35s thru 39 chevy pickups as well as a bunch of fabricaters maybe one will post something soon ..

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Originally Posted by flh4speed

there are more than likely people on this very forum who could widen your fenders , or look around your town for someone who can do the work , i personally would keep the steel if at all possible , my own situation is my fenders and running boards are shot to sh%t but if they could be repaired thats the route i would go .. there are a number of guys here on site that own 35s thru 39 chevy pickups as well as a bunch of fabricaters maybe one will post something soon ..

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I would have kept mine too but the fronts someone did a bunch of shoddy repairs to and then fiberglassed them to try to cover up the mess. Theyre pretty bad too. The rears have soo many tears in them I dont think that even drilling at the start of the tears and welding will help. The running boards would be easy enough (I like the smooth running board) but I would have to taper the boards to fit any way. I'm in the same delima as you flh4speed. The body is in good shape though. The bed....ugg! I'm going to make my own bedsides using the factory corner braces and top rail. The bed sides are real bad. I thought I could use a shrinker on it but found it was bad enough I figured I'd start with new metal where I could.

You know....mine doesnt have the inner fenders either. I'm going to try to fab my own. I have a buddy with a brake and bead roller. I may hit him up for some time with his shop. Figured I'd need it for the floor pan anyway.

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Originally Posted by shortyforty

If your getting glass fenders you may need to mount them ASAP. The ones I got were still curing and I didn't mount them for a few weeks. One fit Ok but the other had twisted quite a bit and was a real pain.
I guess they don't let them sit in the molds for very long so they can keep producing more.

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Hey thanks, I probably wouldnt have even thought of it. I'll make sure I'm ready to mount em when they get here.

Hi,

I have the full fendered '29 Ford roadster from Bebops and am generally satisfied. Don't bother to e-mail them unless you contact them by phone first. I have almost always called them on the phone and found them to be very helpful. Once they e-mailed me a photo of a brake mount and are generally helpful. I ordered the Model-A Brookville frame from them and all the chassis gear from Brookville from them as an intermediary just to get what they recommended. The gel coat finish is generally very good and the doors fit fine. The deck lid is slightly off but OK. I found two problems with the '29 which might not apply to other models. First there is a mold flashing on the right side of the cowl on the floor-fenders which my painter tried to paint over but I have a written agreement that he will smooth that over when I get the car running. Second, the floor of what is the trunk/rumble area is set up for a stock spring set up and when you add coil-over springs you have to saw out some access holes which is annoying when you have to figure out a way to cover the holes with some sort of covers. I used inverted Rubbermade tablespoon holders with a bolt down metal frame to cover the top of the coil-overs so that I can change the shocks some day without removing the body! A transverse spring (stock) will probably not have this problem. I bought the Bebops body because I did not want to mess with the problem of aligning the fenders. It is quite a convenience to have all the fenders already there, but I added real bumpers to protect the 'glass fenders so as not to have to worry about repairing the whole floor-fender unit. I have found the Bebops folks very helpful for a lot of questions if you call them on the phone. Apparently they have two women answering the phones and one or two mechanics in another building so they are not keen on a lot of e-mail responses. Compared to a similar company which also has the floor-fenders all together Bebops is a friendly group; the other unnamed company has a very nasty woman on the phone end and apparently copies much of what Bebops has. One last thing is that I had Bebops hang the door and deck lid for me and the doors align quite well. One last comment. I show a picture of the inside of the door to show the 1" square tubing reinforcement for the 'glass body. I found the trans tunnel was far too large and could not find space for my foot for the accelerator and the brake pedal so I had to cut out the tunnel and replace it by a much smaller fabricated fiberglass tunnel about 20% of the size. That caused me quite a loss of time but was necessary.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

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Originally Posted by Don Shillady

Hi,

I have the full fendered '29 Ford roadster from Bebops and am generally satisfied. Don't bother to e-mail them unless you contact them by phone first. I have almost always called them on the phone and found them to be very helpful. Once they e-mailed me a photo of a brake mount and are generally helpful. I ordered the Model-A Brookville frame from them and all the chassis gear from Brookville from them as an intermediary just to get what they recommended. The gel coat finish is generally very good and the doors fit fine. The deck lid is slightly off but OK. I found two problems with the '29 which might not apply to other models. First there is a mold flashing on the right side of the cowl on the floor-fenders which my painter tried to paint over but I have a written agreement that he will smooth that over when I get the car running. Second, the floor of what is the trunk/rumble area is set up for a stock spring set up and when you add coil-over springs you have to saw out some access holes which is annoying when you have to figure out a way to cover the holes with some sort of covers. I used inverted Rubbermade tablespoon holders with a bolt down metal frame to cover the top of the coil-overs so that I can change the shocks some day without removing the body! A transverse spring (stock) will probably not have this problem. I bought the Bebops body because I did not want to mess with the problem of aligning the fenders. It is quite a convenience to have all the fenders already there, but I added real bumpers to protect the 'glass fenders so as not to have to worry about repairing the whole floor-fender unit. I have found the Bebops folks very helpful for a lot of questions if you call them on the phone. Apparently they have two women answering the phones and one or two mechanics in another building so they are not keen on a lot of e-mail responses. Compared to a similar company which also has the floor-fenders all together Bebops is a friendly group; the other unnamed company has a very nasty woman on the phone end and apparently copies much of what Bebops has. One last thing is that I had Bebops hang the door and deck lid for me and the doors align quite well. One last comment. I show a picture of the inside of the door to show the 1" square tubing reinforcement for the 'glass body. I found the trans tunnel was far too large and could not find space for my foot for the accelerator and the brake pedal so I had to cut out the tunnel and replace it by a much smaller fabricated fiberglass tunnel about 20% of the size. That caused me quite a loss of time but was necessary.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

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good to see a good review , this company is not very far from my house and i was thinkng about driving up someday when im ready to do my own fenders and maybe speak to them and hopefully just buy the fenders and bring them home and save the shipping ..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Shillady

Hi,

I have the full fendered '29 Ford roadster from Bebops and am generally satisfied. Don't bother to e-mail them unless you contact them by phone first. I have almost always called them on the phone and found them to be very helpful. Once they e-mailed me a photo of a brake mount and are generally helpful. I ordered the Model-A Brookville frame from them and all the chassis gear from Brookville from them as an intermediary just to get what they recommended. The gel coat finish is generally very good and the doors fit fine. The deck lid is slightly off but OK. I found two problems with the '29 which might not apply to other models. First there is a mold flashing on the right side of the cowl on the floor-fenders which my painter tried to paint over but I have a written agreement that he will smooth that over when I get the car running. Second, the floor of what is the trunk/rumble area is set up for a stock spring set up and when you add coil-over springs you have to saw out some access holes which is annoying when you have to figure out a way to cover the holes with some sort of covers. I used inverted Rubbermade tablespoon holders with a bolt down metal frame to cover the top of the coil-overs so that I can change the shocks some day without removing the body! A transverse spring (stock) will probably not have this problem. I bought the Bebops body because I did not want to mess with the problem of aligning the fenders. It is quite a convenience to have all the fenders already there, but I added real bumpers to protect the 'glass fenders so as not to have to worry about repairing the whole floor-fender unit. I have found the Bebops folks very helpful for a lot of questions if you call them on the phone. Apparently they have two women answering the phones and one or two mechanics in another building so they are not keen on a lot of e-mail responses. Compared to a similar company which also has the floor-fenders all together Bebops is a friendly group; the other unnamed company has a very nasty woman on the phone end and apparently copies much of what Bebops has. One last thing is that I had Bebops hang the door and deck lid for me and the doors align quite well. One last comment. I show a picture of the inside of the door to show the 1" square tubing reinforcement for the 'glass body. I found the trans tunnel was far too large and could not find space for my foot for the accelerator and the brake pedal so I had to cut out the tunnel and replace it by a much smaller fabricated fiberglass tunnel about 20% of the size. That caused me quite a loss of time but was necessary.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

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Thanks Don! I went with my gut feeling and ordered from them based simply on thier attitude on the phone. I intentionally hammered the ladies with questions that really should have went to their tech line, but they willingly answered all of my questions, with the exception of a couple, and those questions they found anwers for. I was quite impressed as, like you said, many of the other competitors were simply rude or just didnt feel like fooling with me. That in itself sold me. I would also like to state to every one on the forum: The prices are absolutely phenominal! I have found that the price of the 2" wider fenders have a huge difference in price from vendor to vendor, with a range of $695 (highest), $422 (mid), and $385 (for Be-bops). So honestly that scared me because of the old adage: "You get what you pay for!". I would rather pay more for a quality product than find I have a mess later. So, I went with a gut feeling, and the few responses that I got on this thread, and purchased them. Thanks everyone! I will let you know how they turn out!

One more thing. The running board they stated had no provisions for mounting to the factory running board brackets. They stated that typically they didnt do this because of all of the variations that people use to build their rides. They suggested that I glue (fiberglass) board to the bottom to mount too. I like that idea as I can now use T-bolts and hide the bolt heads for a smoother look (the running board are coming smooth). Does anyone have any suggestions as to what product to use (High temp resin-catalized) to glue these in with? I can run to my local body shop supplier and find a patch kit but I was hoping there was something out there that was super strong and more permanent.

When I get my stuff and find they ARE all that I had hoped for, can I edit a thread title? To change this thread to- "Be-Bops......A sure thing!". :D \

Thanks everyone!
David

Well, I finally got them.

Form and fit......really bad. (which I expected out of fiberglass...I can make it work though)

Quality of product.....excellent for a chop/cut

Overall....if you dont mind modifying (conciderable modifying) the end product...these are what I would concider a good quality heavy fiberglass product.:D

can you get some picz stovebolter , i would like to see what i might be gettin into myself ?? it reads like a little disapointment over there..

Really....I'm not that disappointed. I expected some trouble out of fiberglass. But there are some serious alignment issues with gaps at corners as wide as a 1/4 inch. I thought it was just me so I put the factory pieces back on and checked all measurements. When I reinstalled....I started with the runningboards aligned...installed the fenders. The fronts werent too bad. Divers side is definitely differnent from the passengers side though. The part that really gets me....with the rears installed....they advertise 2 inch wider but you get 1 inch wider and they are pushed back over an inch. Ive been in the shop several times thinking I've made a mistake or that its a bad dream :D but the rears are only 1 inch. Dang it....I really needed room for the 10 inch rims. Now I'm affraid of them. I'll probably go with 9.5's on the rear. 10's will be pushing it for clearance.

I use a Mavica disc camera and cant find my darn software so be patient and I'll get some pictures as soon as I can.

I purchased my LAST chopper-gun fiberglass part about 4 years ago. I won't buy ANY fiberglass parts without making sure that they are hand-laid and I know the Heat Distortion Factor (HDF) for the resin. I learned the hard way.

I guess I wanted a Model A roadster for so long with limited funds that I tolerated the relatively minor problems. I posted a picture of my most recent solution ot the large trans tunnel on the "Everybody ..." thread so I won't repeat it here. In thinking back I might have solved that by somehow bending the brake pedal to the left, but it is too late now. Regarding the running boards on the '29, the stock braces are about 1 1/4" too low and BeBops told me to cut and reweld the brackets, but I am thinking I will just use four spacers under the boards, but maybe add a 0.25" aluminum plate as well since the boards flex quite a bit. I have been sitting on the boards while working on the interior and they do flex so aluminum plate underneath might be a good idea. I thought of putting shiny aluminum diamond plate on the top of the running boards but I like the look of the painted boards. Still I might go with the diamond plate. Either way the 'glass boards are a bit flimsy for heavy use.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teem rodder

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Originally Posted by Henry Rifle

I purchased my LAST chopper-gun fiberglass part about 4 years ago. I won't buy ANY fiberglass parts without making sure that they are hand-laid and I know the Heat Distortion Factor (HDF) for the resin. I learned the hard way.

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i can feel your pain , thank god for forums as this one to find out about things before purchase:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Shillady

I guess I wanted a Model A roadster for so long with limited funds that I tolerated the relatively minor problems. I posted a picture of my most recent solution ot the large trans tunnel on the "Everybody ..." thread so I won't repeat it here. In thinking back I might have solved that by somehow bending the brake pedal to the left, but it is too late now. Regarding the running boards on the '29, the stock braces are about 1 1/4" too low and BeBops told me to cut and reweld the brackets, but I am thinking I will just use four spacers under the boards, but maybe add a 0.25" aluminum plate as well since the boards flex quite a bit. I have been sitting on the boards while working on the interior and they do flex so aluminum plate underneath might be a good idea. I thought of putting shiny aluminum diamond plate on the top of the running boards but I like the look of the painted boards. Still I might go with the diamond plate. Either way the 'glass boards are a bit flimsy for heavy use.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teem rodder

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i cant really go the route you went for the simple reason i used a S10 frame , and thats pushing a lot of things off ,,re:fenders , running boards, back fenders.. i also have some other issues to be worked out and i will post for help when i decide to start my project as im still kinda sitting on my butte at the moment (cash flow) but it is good to know some folks have had some problems and its good to know how everyone worked them out.. thanks don:3dSMILE:

FLH....got some pics finally. These are after making sure cab, radiator and bed were aligned. This is the best I could make the fenders and running boards fit.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2012/...24e1d2f449.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2118/...a201d53a12.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2360/...9789221d7e.jpg

There was a trick I read about somewhere that if the parts are still in the curing stage you can use a hair blow dryer to heat the glass some to bring it around to clamp it to keep it in the correct shape till done curing. Never tried it and don't know how much heat, but best to keep it spead evenly and not blister it.

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Originally Posted by shortyforty

There was a trick I read about somewhere that if the parts are still in the curing stage you can use a hair blow dryer to heat the glass some to bring it around to clamp it to keep it in the correct shape till done curing. Never tried it and don't know how much heat, but best to keep it spead evenly and not blister it.

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Thanks....I'll try it. My biggest aggrevation is...they were suppose to 2" wider rears (as advertised) and they turned out to be 1". Ive stretched and spread, contorsionalized, and cursed till I was wore out :D, and they still were only 1" wider.

Oh well. I'll make them work.

D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shortyforty

There was a trick I read about somewhere that if the parts are still in the curing stage you can use a hair blow dryer to heat the glass some to bring it around to clamp it to keep it in the correct shape till done curing. Never tried it and don't know how much heat, but best to keep it spead evenly and not blister it.

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Well I tried using a heat gun. No such luck. Guess it was already cured? Or they were actually off that much. :mad: