I have been pretty vocal on this site about my frustration with SMS over the little more than 3 year wait to have my 1971 Chrysler 300 Door Panels reproduced and the repeated claims that they are getting close to being up next in line that haven't proven reliable over time.
Yesterday, I received a large box at my front door for signature, and at first I had to think about what it might contain, but then it quickly dawned on me, given its dimensions, it was what I had been waiting for a very long time.
I know myself pretty well, and I am quite hard to please when it comes to reproduction anything, and I actually waited 15 minutes before working up the courage to see what the results looked like - would they be below my expectations of what I expected or much better than expected or ??? My thoughts hovered around the bottom end of the range so I was preparing myself for that outcome.
But then I opened the box, that did have some handling rash on it, and was hoping not to be disappointed. Well, all I can say is that I am extremely impressed with the quality and faithful reproduction efforts of SMS - they might even look a little better than original from the factory in some respects. The 300 emblem on the door panels I sent them on the panels I wanted reproduced were not perfect, but when I got them back on the new panels, it looks like they took the effort to even replate them and paint them black in the areas needed to make them just like new again. Even some areas of the door panel contain padding behind the covers to give the panels some 3 dimensonal enhancements that were also faithfully recreated. The "chrome trim" around the 300 emblem was also done perfectly.
I would rate them an easy 90% overall. The only slight flaw I could find when comparing to an original one I have shown in the photos next to the reproduction one is that a couple of the smaller lines in the vicinity of the door pulls should have had embossed stitching, but were just straight, but the embossed stitching is so small in the originals that it is not that big a deal to me, as I had to look at one of my originals closely to note the difference.
I was hoping they would provide the same cutouts for the power window switches, door locks etc, but in thinking about the absence of them, I realize that might cause a lot of problems for them in terms of redoing them if there were any communication errors about what options to include given that they do all makes of vehicles and keeping it all straight could lead to too many problems. So I will make the cuts, very carefully that are needed. The cutouts on the back sides of the panels, however, do include the provisions for mounting the door clips, in the same exact locations as the originals and the quality of the backboard surpasses the cardboard from the factory.
Given my being pleased with the results, I placed an order for another 4 sets of door panels with them, with each set being almost $1000 to reproduce with shipping included. They also assured me that this next time around, the wait should be half the time it took for mine to get done. But just in case, I placed an order that would cover about 3 years going forward of restoration car efforts.
Yesterday, I received a large box at my front door for signature, and at first I had to think about what it might contain, but then it quickly dawned on me, given its dimensions, it was what I had been waiting for a very long time.
I know myself pretty well, and I am quite hard to please when it comes to reproduction anything, and I actually waited 15 minutes before working up the courage to see what the results looked like - would they be below my expectations of what I expected or much better than expected or ??? My thoughts hovered around the bottom end of the range so I was preparing myself for that outcome.
But then I opened the box, that did have some handling rash on it, and was hoping not to be disappointed. Well, all I can say is that I am extremely impressed with the quality and faithful reproduction efforts of SMS - they might even look a little better than original from the factory in some respects. The 300 emblem on the door panels I sent them on the panels I wanted reproduced were not perfect, but when I got them back on the new panels, it looks like they took the effort to even replate them and paint them black in the areas needed to make them just like new again. Even some areas of the door panel contain padding behind the covers to give the panels some 3 dimensonal enhancements that were also faithfully recreated. The "chrome trim" around the 300 emblem was also done perfectly.
I would rate them an easy 90% overall. The only slight flaw I could find when comparing to an original one I have shown in the photos next to the reproduction one is that a couple of the smaller lines in the vicinity of the door pulls should have had embossed stitching, but were just straight, but the embossed stitching is so small in the originals that it is not that big a deal to me, as I had to look at one of my originals closely to note the difference.
I was hoping they would provide the same cutouts for the power window switches, door locks etc, but in thinking about the absence of them, I realize that might cause a lot of problems for them in terms of redoing them if there were any communication errors about what options to include given that they do all makes of vehicles and keeping it all straight could lead to too many problems. So I will make the cuts, very carefully that are needed. The cutouts on the back sides of the panels, however, do include the provisions for mounting the door clips, in the same exact locations as the originals and the quality of the backboard surpasses the cardboard from the factory.
Given my being pleased with the results, I placed an order for another 4 sets of door panels with them, with each set being almost $1000 to reproduce with shipping included. They also assured me that this next time around, the wait should be half the time it took for mine to get done. But just in case, I placed an order that would cover about 3 years going forward of restoration car efforts.
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