Suppliers
Posted By : Jason Chinn, 11-Nov-2004, 03:37pm
You got a catalogue out of Fitchetts? Wow, good work 
Most Triumph panel work comes from only a few sources, Fitchetts are one - I'm not 100% sure but I think they make those floors on their own tooling - I could be wrong there. Fitchetts are very good on price but have no web site, on-line ordering nor email and they only just tolerate the fax manchine You get best service by turning up there and dealing over the counter.
I can't think I've ever seen a catalogue as such, a 2 page advert maybe but not a catalogue. Having said all that, top guys set in their ways offering good quality parts.
Most Triumph panel work comes from only a few sources, Fitchetts are one - I'm not 100% sure but I think they make those floors on their own tooling - I could be wrong there. Fitchetts are very good on price but have no web site, on-line ordering nor email and they only just tolerate the fax manchine
You get best service by turning up there and dealing over the counter.I can't think I've ever seen a catalogue as such, a 2 page advert maybe but not a catalogue. Having said all that, top guys set in their ways offering good quality parts.
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Suppliers
Posted By : William Davies, 11-Nov-2004, 04:56pm
The Fitchett catalogue is a decent glossy publication. My copy is a maybe a couple of years old, I don't know if it's currently available from them.
Cheers,
Bill.
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Suppliers
Posted By : Richard Halfacre, 11-Nov-2004, 05:27pm
Thanks Jason,they supplied the catalogue by return of post and very nice it is too!. The chap I spoke to did not have the best customer manners Ive come across! but they did give me the impression of knowing what they were doing. When asked about a rival supplier of parts and the quality this supplier produced his answer was pretty blunt but echoed what has been said by others!
I will place my order for virtually a new body shell and wait with baited breath
Regards
Richard
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Suppliers
Posted By : Raymond Johncock, 11-Nov-2004, 06:01pm
You hit the nail right on the head there Richard
They were the first company i rang when i
Brought my 1st herald . I was quoting code
numbers to this guy at fitchetts when i dropped
the reference book . His reply was
COME ON MATE I AINT GOT ALL DAY I just put
the phone down . I will never buy from them
with that attitude i would rather pay more and
be respected than be insulted by a stranger
RAY J-
Suppliers
Posted By : Adrian Lee, 11-Nov-2004, 08:43pm
Don't quote bloody numbers then,ask for the panels you want.They can and do supply good stuff at good prices.The only thing wrong with Fitchetts is that they are not called Canley and don't get free advertising on here,Jason.
Or is it that they "ain't all called Dave and don't have a silly accent",buy the stuff from Quillers then!-
Suppliers
Posted By : Richard Halfacre, 11-Nov-2004, 09:10pm
I can stand the attitude what I dont want are panels that wont fit/not in stock/over expensive.There wont be much left of this body when I start repacing and the last thing I want is to be messing with poorly formed panels!
When I asked Canley re stock levels they did not have at least 30% of my needs and were not 100% sure on delivery,whereas Fitchetts bluntly said "yea mate plenty of those, next?!!!
We will see, I will post the results!!!!!
Richard-
Suppliers
Posted By : Adrian Lee, 11-Nov-2004, 09:20pm
My reply was aimed at Ray and Jason ,not yourself,i hope you get what you require.Good luck.-
Suppliers
Posted By : Richard Halfacre, 11-Nov-2004, 09:28pm
There was no prob wih your reply Adrian! I want quality at the right price!
Regards
Richard-
Suppliers
Posted By : Raymond Johncock, 11-Nov-2004, 09:30pm
Red light district comes to mind richard-
Suppliers
Posted By : Richard Halfacre, 11-Nov-2004, 11:20pm
Raymond, my doctor has given me a note to say I should'nt do that sort of thing anymore! I am going back to him to have it resinded I'm sure a GT6 rebuild is more stressfull!
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Posted By : Jason Chinn, 14-Nov-2004, 06:40pm
"Aimed at Jason" sorry mate you missed, was I supposed to bite at something?
Back to panels - the only panel work I buy is stuff that I can see fitted. Doesn't matter where you buy from you do need to make sure that the seller has at least some knowledge of how the panel work fits. If they have a work shop and use the panels or restore their own cars then you are in with a chance. Some panel work is simply of poor quality and needs a lot of work - I've seen replacement panels treated as mere repair panel starting points because quality was so bad. That's not too much of a problem unless you've paid top dollar for the damn thing in the first place! If you can pick stuff up at auto jumbles and at the right price on eBay then that's great. Unfortunately there's no "on stop shop" to go get panel work from, Spt and GT6 stuff seems more abundant than Herald and Vitesse stuff - eg there is no tooling for Vitesse front wings. Any new ones sold now started life as Herald 13/60 and have been modified - New Old stock sells for a premium because of that.
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Suppliers
Posted By : William Davies, 11-Nov-2004, 11:01pm
Fact of life is that if you buy all of your panels from one single major source, you WILL be disappointed somewhere down the line. For example, in the case of the Herald (my specialised subject!) , there's more than one source for outriggers, rear wings, floorpans, 1200 front wings, doorskins just for starters. I wouldn't dream of buying outriggers from the place I get my doorskins, the quality isn't comparable. Equally I wouldn't touch the currently available boot floors with a bargepole, I'd rather tell customers that they aren't available.
The "over expensive" above is fine as long as you are comparing like with like - don't take it for granted that you are,
Cheers,
Bill.
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Suppliers
Posted By : Richard Halfacre, 11-Nov-2004, 11:17pm
Thats fair comment Bill, as nobody has come up with a negative response over panels from this supplier then i must form judgement from experience. I believe that they manufacture some themselves and I would assume that they probably sub sell these to other suppliers.Apart from a personal visit to their premises how can you tell quality apart from the day they arrive on your doorstep.
I will start with the structural panels and see how they go,good or bad ,I will post my findings!
Regards
Richard-
Suppliers
Posted By : Raymond Johncock, 11-Nov-2004, 11:31pm
Richard
By the sounds of it there aint a lot left of the bottom of your car. Id be inclined to only buy a couple of panels and see how they fit . Once youve brought all the panels no supplier will be to happy to take them back.
RAY-
Suppliers
Posted By : Richard Halfacre, 11-Nov-2004, 11:37pm
Good point Ray, the tin worm must have a full tummy! The only worry about that is floor/sill/inner sill need to go in together really, perhaps just do one side and take it from there. was going to be cheeky and ask for discount for quantity!
Richard-
Suppliers
Posted By : Raymond Johncock, 11-Nov-2004, 11:44pm
Bill has a superb way of discribing rust
Iceburg effect 10% showing 90% hidden
as for parts rich ask for a discount . Dont ask dont
get or wait some suppliers have sales in january.
RAY-
Suppliers
Posted By : Richard Halfacre, 12-Nov-2004, 00:01am
Thanks for the encouragement Ray, got the bit between my teeth now its been standing 12 months.Just built a 2x2box section dummy chassis that its sitting on hopefully this will keep it together while the work progressess, must be MAD!
Reichard
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Posted By : William Davies, 12-Nov-2004, 09:42am
Hi Richard,
Other than word of mouth, you've no way of knowing where a particular suppliers panels originate. It's also surprising how much (inaccurate) hearsay there is over what panels are produced from original tooling......
If you've not done so already, can I suggest getting out to local autojumbles. Buying someone else's unused panels is a good way to save money AND get a chance to check out quality before buying. At the recent Bristol Restoration Show there was a good quantity of unused Sptifire/GT6 panelwork for sale.
Cheers,
Bill.
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Suppliers
Posted By : Raymond Johncock, 11-Nov-2004, 11:19pm
Hi BILL
Were abouts is your next show bill need odds & sods .
Cheers RAY Ps was the red any good-
Suppliers
Posted By : William Davies, 12-Nov-2004, 09:35am
Hi Ray,
Next one booked is the Bristol Classic Car Show (actually at Shepton Mallett) at the end of January, then the Triumph Spares Day at Stoneleigh, beginning of February (not had the booking details for that one yet).
The Red was very nice indeed, thank you!
Cheers,
Bill.
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Suppliers
Posted By : David Pearson, 13-Nov-2004, 08:38am
Richard
I have of course been following this thread with a great deal of interest! Just thought I would like to deal with one or two points arising, now that various views have been expressed by others.
Firstly on the subject of pricing and availability of Spitfire/GT6 panelwork. You may not be aware that we are members of British Motor Heritage, BMH manufacture or have sole sale rights to all OE Spit/GT6 panelwork and 95% of reproduction stuff through Steelcraft (Taylor Pressform). We are obliged to sell at SRP (Suggested Retail Price), we of course nudge the margins downwards as much as possible! Fitchets are not (as yet) members of BMH, and as such have no direct access to product, therefore are either operating with stock bought from Steelcraft before the BMH marketing agreement (about 3 years now), or some other means. As for availabilty from us, we automatically re-order on a weekly basis all available OE and repro panelwork that is available from the only supplier/manufacturer (BMH). As for quality issues, I am perplexed as to the responce you were given by Fitchets about the dubious quality of another suppliers panels, all Spit/GT6 panels originate from one source? We share a good working relationship with Fitchets and currently supply them with parts in nearly equal value to the parts we buy off them. On a final point about catalogues, we are currently compiling a worthy successor to the John Kipping catalogue we inherited. Am I the only one to have ever noticed the remarkable similarity between the ilustrations in the JK and Fitchets catalogues and the way items are grouped in a manner that appears in no Stanpart catalogue? I'm sure Iv'e also spotted one or two of the original hand drawn Kipping/TSSC (they compiled and printed the JK catalogue) ilustrations in the Fitchet book! I have the original artwork here, I'm thinking of having it framed!-
Suppliers
Posted By : William Davies, 13-Nov-2004, 11:27am
"As for quality issues, I am perplexed as to the responce you were given by Fitchets about the dubious quality of another suppliers panels, all Spit/GT6 panels originate from one source? "
No sure about that one, Hadrian have a substantial range of Spitfire panels in their lists - are these coming indirectly from BMH, or are they from their own tooling? I know historically there have been some pretty nasty pattern sills and outriggers for Spitfires.
Cheers,
Bill.
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Suppliers
Posted By : David Pearson, 13-Nov-2004, 02:27pm
Bill
The panels I have seen proporting to come from Hadrian (floors, and some other repair panels) have certainly been Steelcraft with a Hadrian sticker on them. The last floor I saw like this had the Hadrian sticker over the top of the Steelcraft one! There certainly were some terrible Spitty repair panels around years ago but these thankfully seem to have all but disappeared now? The question still needs to be asked how Hadrian have Steelcraft product if they don't have BMH licence?
Dave
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Posted By : Jason Chinn, 14-Nov-2004, 06:16pm
Thanks for the mention Adrian. If you've ever spoken to any
of the Fitchett brothers you'll know that they do have funny accents!
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Posted By : David Pearson, 13-Nov-2004, 03:30pm
Richard
There are only two guys who answer the phone at Fitchets (the same two that work the counter, do the packing,etc), Andy and Graham. Andy is as pleasant as pie on the phone, Graham is great at his job!
Just out of interest who was the 'other' supplier they eluded to as the purveyor of poor quality panels?
David-
Suppliers
Posted By : Raymond Johncock, 13-Nov-2004, 06:51pm
Sometimes people are blinded by price its very easy looking at a web site and comparing prices.
In a lot of cases going for the cheap option always seems to back fire weve all been down that road.
I think when a trader slags another there playing the mind game the buyer then has to think on his feet am i buying a much better product .
But he has nothing to compare.
Price is an important factor but also a good quality service is also reqiured canleys provided superb service this week to resolve a small problem.
ANOTHER
Canley took back unused parts that i purchased from them 11MONTHS earlier that in my book is superb service .
Once you find a good supplier and can trust them
what ever the price quoted you will pay.
RAY J
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Suppliers
Posted By : Jonathan Reed, 13-Nov-2004, 10:21pm
I agree. I make no comment or comparison, but if you enter code 149011 into Canleys and Rimmers the results are interesting. Without further investigation I don't know if there is anything different in the product supplied (one has an added letter) but initial impressions can count. I've always had good relations with both, no free ads here!!
Jonathan-
Suppliers
Posted By : Raymond Johncock, 14-Nov-2004, 00:34am
Jon
One &163;4.00 sold with a profit and rightly so.
Two&163;18.75 sold with a ??????
Can someone please explain yes companys have to make a profit but over 4.6 times more dearer is there a logical explanation or just greed .
Restoring a car with these prices could mean an over spend of &163;1000,s.
RAY J
The biggest joke is i expect both are made in the same factory-
Suppliers
Posted By : David Pearson, 14-Nov-2004, 04:25pm
Ray
We inherited our pricing structure from our forbears the Kipping dynasty! We operate a 'cost plus' pricing method. Put simply whatever we buy in we calculate an across the board margin that covers overheads, wages, heat, light, etc, and a fair profit. The only items outside this structure is BMH product, because we are a licenced Heritage supplier we have to sell their product (95% of Spitfire/GT6 panelwork) at or near to SRP (suggested retail price). Others use versions of RRP (recommended retail price) to calculate margins. Put simply RRP is effectively what a supplier thinks the punter is prepared to pay for something, this is how toy shops, clothes shops etc also operate. On the other hand the major supermarkets wouldn't sell a brass bean if they tried that on, competition being what it is today!
David
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Posted By : David Pearson, 14-Nov-2004, 04:08pm
Jonathan
We get our 149011's from one of the largest UK Lucas agents/ licenced manufactures, so its either a Lucas item or a very good reproduction. Never had a problem with quality on it.
David-
Suppliers
Posted By : Jonathan Reed, 14-Nov-2004, 10:50pm
I have never had any doubt you deal in quality gear, just perplexed at the variance of quotes. No offence felt I hope-
Suppliers
Posted By : David Pearson, 15-Nov-2004, 06:21am
Jonathan
No offence even contemplated! I suppose having such a differance in prices on the same parts could be actually working against us for just that reason. What do you think, bump our prices up, shift more gear!
David-
Suppliers
Posted By : Jonathan Reed, 15-Nov-2004, 06:45pm
Just chuck on a 20% surcharge to all my future orders, that way we will all be happy
Jonathan -
Suppliers
Posted By : Richard Halfacre, 15-Nov-2004, 07:05pm
Hi David, well I would have dearly wished to have faxed a list to you guys today, unfortunately your phone lines must have been down as they were engaged all day, or was it the rush of people after the reduction in prices that we will all get with the extra advertising Canley have had on this message board!! Sorry!!!. Will email it to you,an alternative source has already costed and returned it
Regards
Richard
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Posted By : Richard Halfacre, 13-Nov-2004, 07:54pm
Hi David, well I have only just returned to my PC and am supprised at the level of comments over this subject!
The "other supplier" is a nationally advertised retailer of all things Triumph and whilst I never mentioned the vehicle to which the floorpan refered to, people have assumed it was a spit/Gt6, in actual fact it was a Stag.
I was suprised that Fitchetts made the comment however it may well have been an "off the cuff" remark when promted by me.
Having had no experience of aftermarket Triumph parts I can only go by others feedback. I want good quality at a sensible price and available when I need them.
This vehicle is having a ground up body off rebuild,if I have a multitude of pattern body parts(which i will need) I want to make sure that I dont have a build of poor tolerances which will spoil or even make the finished results I want, unobtainable.
Hence my original question at the start of this thread ie good quality, reasonable price and availability
Just as a matter of point,when I contacted your company last week re floorpan/innersill/outersill, and these were only for starters, you only had one floorpan.
regards
Richard-
Suppliers
Posted By : David Pearson, 14-Nov-2004, 04:00pm
Richard
Just had a quick check on stock (yes I am here on a Sunday afternoon!) and all those parts you mentioned are in stock, bar reproduction outer sills (we have lots of OE ones in stock). We have a weekly delivery from Heritage every Thursday, so rarely (if ever) get caught out of stock of the common panelwork. Worst case without stuff (as long as BMH have it) can only be a day or two at the most. Perhaps it was a communication problem on our part, I will investigate.
I to am surprised that a trader aired his negative views about another so openly. Most customers might be unaware of the level of trading that goes on amongst the larger operations, the stuff gradually filtering down to the smaller trader/customer. It amuses me sometimes to see our stuff being sold 3rd, 4th, or sometimes 5th hand (five lots of profit/dreaded VAT!). I can count the number of core Triumph parts suppliers/manufacturers on the fingers of one hand, yet how many advertise as such? Stick with Fitchets (or us!) they are a good bunch of guys who know their stuff, and more importantly they are one of those core producers, so you should never pay over the odds for your parts.
David
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Suppliers
Posted By : Richard Halfacre, 14-Nov-2004, 08:53pm
Thanks David,
I will be faxing a list to you guys in the morning, hopefully we can work together to put another Triumph back on the road
Regards
Richard
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