The 'E' Type Forum

Where is the best place to buy body panels and repair panels these days.

It has been 30 years since I bought any and then the only place was Robey.

Cheers

Garry

Their stuff is still good.

I mostly get mine through Barratts but the panels have all been made by Robey. I have bought door skins, floors and footwells, boot floor and sill bits. All seemed to fit with no more than the expected bit of fiddling.

So I would assume it would be cheaper to buy direct from Robey rather than a reseller.

Oddly it doesn't seem to be with a lot of this stuff.

In fact Autosparks looms are cheaper from SNGB than from Autosparks.

One great bit of advice I was given is to ask SNGB, Manners etc for discount when ordering. I get given around 10% off by both...

Thanks Andrew

I have been taking a close look at what body panels/repair panels I need on the Barratt and Robey sites.

I will need inner and outer repair panels for the rear wheel arches - outer panels are no issue but the inner "repair" panel is more than just a repair panel - the one listed is more of a repair panel for the entire inner guard (and priced accordingly). Certainly you used to be able to get inner repair that matched the outers - ie a panel about 4" wide the shape of the inner guard.

Any suggestions before I contact the sellers.

Also as the rear sill stiffening braces are in poor condition I will need to get these - however I now note that there is a new sill stiffener that runs the full length inside the sill - basically between the old front and rear sill stiffeners. I like the idea of this new full length sill stiffener but would like to know if the old stiffeners are still used with the new one in between or does the long one now replace the old ones.

Thanks

Garry

Boot

Any comments on this as I will be in contact with Barratts very soon and I need to know what I should order??

Cheers

Garry

Looking at
Left and right door skins
Left and right outer sills
Left and right sill stiffener panels
Left and right inner and outer rear wheel arch panels
Sill closing panels.

Hi Garry,

Speak to Andy at Hutsons as they also make some panels.

Regards,

Given where you are anything is going to be imported. So, before committing yourself have a word with Chuck Hadley, monocoque-metalworks.com.

Hi Garry,

I bought almost all the panels you list, all from Martin Robey, although some came with the car and had been bought years earlier. The rest were bought for cash at local shows in UK prior to my migration. I repaired my Sill stiffeners in place.

This thread shows much of the work, together with some description of the task:

viewtopic.php?t=8330

More here:

viewtopic.php?t=8329&highlight=sill

The Robey Panels fitted well and as far as I know, they are the ones sold by SNG - the clue being in the part numbers, generally starting in MRE - for Martin Robey E-Type.

I did have to make modifications and I couldn't find repair sections for the inner arches, which I used the Robey panels for, but in some cases, cut down to use only some of the panel. When the car was finished, I did have some issues with wheels rubbing the inside of the arches and clearly I may have made some minor mistake in alignment, probably because my car was so poor to begin with, but they were easily relieved with a rubber mallet.

I would recommend Robey Panels as about the best from my own research, but I didn't compare with others (you can only build the car once) but Hutsons also have a good rep.

One door skin came from Robey, the other was bought from a private stand at a swap meet, both were fine. All panels required a lot of work to finish them to m y own satisfaction, but that seems to be the case even when the cars were on the production line, judging by the amount of Lead loading in the cars.

Regards,

Simon

Alternatively there is always Chuck at Monocoque

http://www.monocoque-metalworks.com/main/

Thanks for that information.

Monocoque-metalworks seem like a great company but they do not seem to be doing body panels for Series 3s though I appreciate many panels are common with earlier models.

I have asked Chuck at Monocoque-metalworks to clarify.

Cheers

Garry

And Chuck should clarify that he does not make many panels for the Series 3.