Green Mountain Parts
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Hello all, i am new to the board here, but not new to Hudsons! I had a nice 47 super six for awhile and sold it. Now i have my 50 commodore 8 club coupe that i am just now getting to work on. Anyways, my question is i am looking for a set of reproduction rocker panels for it. Green Mountain Parts used to make them repro, but the owner who was 80 years old closed the business i am told....Just wondering if anyone acquired their parts or tooling, or if anyone else is reproducing them? I already ordered repro floor and trunk pans from c2cfabrication and they are excellent! any help here appreciated. Thanks! Matt
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Matt, funny you should be bring this up at this point. I have recently had tooling made for the 1948-53 Hudson lwb rockers in both sedan and coupe. The tooling should be finished soon and the initial run will follow shortly. They will be fiberglass and from all indications they will be first class. As far as Green Mountain was concerned ,well to be charitible, they produced decent 54 rockers but the 48-53 needed a lot of attention and modification once you got them. I hope to have fiberglass rockers sometime early in the new year. Stand by.0
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That sir would be excellent! please keep me in mind.....0
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I've heard from a number of sources that the Green Mountain rocker panels were only curved in one direction, but they really needed to have a compound curve to fit correctly. They were curved in cross-section, but looking from the top down, they had to have a curve from the front to the rear of the car as well. So these new fiberglass ones may be the next best thing to buying a set of NOS ones.0
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I used Green Mountain rockers on our "54 restoration, and Jon you are correct they only have the one curve. Looking down they did not have front to back. I had to cut slots in the top to get curve correct.
Ted Sibole0 -
I would never consider using fiberglass rocker panels to replace an original metal one. This is worse than using bondo!0
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I have purchased a few parts from Lance....parts were as he described and seemed fairly priced. I'd consider glass rockers...wouldn't have to worry about the rust!!0
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I have had no dealings with Hudzilla - good or bad!! But let's not get into badmouthing other forum members.
Tuesday: The offensive parts of the offensive post have since been edited out - Thank you
My initial statement still applies.0 -
Andy wrote:I would never consider using fiberglass rocker panels to replace an original metal one. This is worse than using bondo!
Without an extremely wealthy and semi-philanthropic HET member stumping up the 10's of thousands of dollars for the dies required to reproduce steel 48 to 53 rocker panels, the only realistic alternative for a continuing supply of rocker panels is a fibreglass item.
The caveat is of course that they will need to be accurately reproduced in both dimension and shape. One of the potential problems with making long skinny fibreglass items such as a rocker panels is shrinkage over the length, but this can be overcome by careful selection of the mould materials and the resins used to make the part.0 -
I have talked with "Hudzilla" Lance several times over the phone and visited his shop twice. He has always been very friendly and helpful. He comes across as very knowlegable in regard to Hudsons. I never got the impression that he was anything other then on the up and up. Sure you got the right guy?0
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Fiberglass vs Steel - let the debate rage on. In favor of fiberglass it can be formed in just about any shape you want. Steel requires far more effort. As a point of fact there are more fiberglass repro's out there, for all sorts of different cars, than steel. At one time you could, literally, build a Model A Ford from the ground up using fiberglass components - fenders, doors, hoods, just about everything except frame and drive train. And it was good stuff.
Another problem with repro'ing for Hudsons is (in this case) how many rocker panels are needed. If a supplier is going to spend X number of dollars to make the molds (for fiberglass) or dies (for steel stampings) he expects to at least pay for his outlay. Same goes for anything else that may be needed for reproduction. It's just not a case of somebody waking up one morning and deciding "Well, today I'm gonna go out in the shop an rip off a bunch of components for step-down Hudsons".
That's my persepctive.
Hudsonly,
Alex Burr0 -
Andy, please be careful when making false accusations. Lets see,you have ONE post and it's negative. A credibility problem here. I have sold to many, many on the Hudson forum with excellent results. It's kind of like ebay. A guy has 500 transactions with 100% good reviews and then some knothead gives him a bad review because he didn't read the description of the item he bid on and got mad at the seller. Now the seller's reputation is notched down to 99.7% You just can't win all the time. Thats OK because when you deal with the public you have to have some thick skin. However going on a public forum and spreading this trash is libelous and stupid pure and simple. Perhaps you should contact some of the members on the forum and see what their experiences are. How about contacting Ron Sotardi, Ken Cates, Niels Pederson, Russell Chilton , Zach Webster,Rob, MacKey, Jon Battle, Jeff Nielson to name but a VERY few. BTW what have you contributed to this forum or the club that is of use for the others? I don't see much. I have only answered this for the benefit of others in case someone actually might believe the garbage you wrote.0
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Andy:: seriously? one freaken post & all ya do is talk trash openly? WOW! welcome aboard --now go away!
Hudzilla i have never dealt with you-but have heard good stuff about you. have great day boys-n-girls.0 -
I think the "fiberglass" issue started in ernest when Chevrolet built their Corvette, not the first glass car but one that has a reputation that is steller. Now, I know your could bring up a bunch of issues about glass including the craze or crack problem. However, having worked on glass and metal they both have their issues and with metal it is rust. Be it what it may, I have a roadster pick up that has glass fenders front to rear. This is the car that I drive in the rain, snow and cold weather. Bring it home and wash it off and put it "wet" in the shop and never worry about it. It parks next to a full restoration of the steel type. You would never find me out driving my restoration in a snow storm...
Anyway, I say they both have their purpose. As far as the "slime" goes... I have seen it here on the web ever since I started posting. I even quit posting for a while because when I posted in favor of a company being slimed the folks started ripping on me. There is a fine line between "watch and beware" and negative comments. I accept every peron on the Forum as a good close friend. I would not want to bad mouth a friend.0 -
Thanks for all the replies here! I for 1 cant wait to get my hands on a pair of rocker panels no matter where they come from. i should probably post this seperately, but anyone watching this post would know anyway....do the quarter panels unbolt on these stepdowns from inside the trunk? are there still any spot welds i would have to drill out? thanks again guys.0
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I probably shouldn't comment here. But I'm going to anyways. I prefer to use steel where steel was originally used. However, in this case, I think fiber glass is a good alternative. If the pieces come out good. I've had people ask me to make these in steel. I've not made any though. But I've patched a few. It's going to be harder than it looks to make. Not just the the fact that they curve in two directions. But that they have flanges on the top and bottom that change and have recesses for mounting bolts, etc. Not to mention that the ribs that are stamped in are not parallel to each other the entire length of the rocker. They look like they are, but they're not. So they would have to be installed individually. If done in steel. It's worth it to patch a rocker, but not to make one complete, in steel.
Also, this is a 'bolt-on' type of part. So why not make them from fiber glass? If you decide to change it later, for whatever reason, you haven't altered the car at all.
That's my two cents.:)0 -
Well the other thing is the cost of tooling for what amounts a 90" length of stamped steel. Go ahead and find a press that today ,will stamp out a completed rocker. Those presses are still sitting in the former Gratiot Ave. body plant in Detroit for a good reason. It's called too expensive to remove. They're huge. Getting the tooling for long wheel base as well as short wheelbase in coupe and sedan configurations would take a a colossial amount of money IF you could even find the equipment to do it. BTW how many large steel stamping presses are even left ? Most cars these days are built from fibreglass or have panels stamped offshore. Simply put, you can do fibreglass, you really can't do steel. The decision was made to lwb coupe and sedan rockers . The folks who need swb rockers may want to modify the long ones. Again, a decision was made to cut out the swb rockers due to return on investment.There are more lwb cars so they get the part produced for them. We're using NOS rockers for dimensions so that will be a plus as far as replication goes.0
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Lance, I would sure buy anything I needed from you period. Just wish you would make more like fenders ? If you had seen the patch panels, fabrication etc I had to do on the area below the head lights to conform to proper shape then a reproduced part would have been a blessing.I did gain a few metal fabrication lessons from it!Dont let a bit of "Bad mouthing" worry you or anybody.0
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Hey Hudz,
You can count me in on that positive list as well! ANYONE who has ANYTHING to the contrary better put up or shut up.
Just like any ball game, theres ALWAYS one in every crowd that DUH just doesnt DUH have what it DUH takes to be out in public. DUH
JMHO :cheer:
Thanks for all you do!
Jeff0 -
Anybody that knows Lance, knows that he doesn't do anything half way. I've known Lance several years and He is a fair guy to deal with. If he says the parts will be done right, I have no doubt that they will or He will not sell them. You're not going to find any one more honest, or knowledgeable to deal with.
Bob Hickson0 -
Hudzilla wrote:Well the other thing is the cost of tooling for what amounts a 90" length of stamped steel. Go ahead and find a press that today ,will stamp out a completed rocker. Those presses are still sitting in the former Gratiot Ave. body plant in Detroit for a good reason. It's called too expensive to remove. They're huge. Getting the tooling for long wheel base as well as short wheelbase in coupe and sedan configurations would take a a colossial amount of money IF you could even find the equipment to do it. BTW how many large steel stamping presses are even left ? Most cars these days are built from fibreglass or have panels stamped offshore. Simply put, you can do fibreglass, you really can't do steel. The decision was made to lwb coupe and sedan rockers . The folks who need swb rockers may want to modify the long ones. Again, a decision was made to cut out the swb rockers due to return on investment.There are more lwb cars so they get the part produced for them. We're using NOS rockers for dimensions so that will be a plus as far as replication goes.
Sounds good, look forward to seeing them available.:)0 -
Hudzilla wrote:Andy, please be careful when making false accusations. Lets see,you have ONE post and it's negative. A credibility problem here. I have sold to many, many on the Hudson forum with excellent results. It's kind of like ebay. A guy has 500 transactions with 100% good reviews and then some knothead gives him a bad review because he didn't read the description of the item he bid on and got mad at the seller. Now the seller's reputation is notched down to 99.7% You just can't win all the time. Thats OK because when you deal with the public you have to have some thick skin. However going on a public forum and spreading this trash is libelous and stupid pure and simple. Perhaps you should contact some of the members on the forum and see what their experiences are. How about contacting Ron Sotardi, Ken Cates, Niels Pederson, Russell Chilton , Zach Webster,Rob, MacKey, Jon Battle, Jeff Nielson to name but a VERY few. BTW what have you contributed to this forum or the club that is of use for the others? I don't see much. I have only answered this for the benefit of others in case someone actually might believe the garbage you wrote.
I have delt with Lance and he gets an A++ from me. I will deal with him again. Richie.0
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