FWIW, my experience has been that the people at TRF are the friendliest
of all the suppliers I've talked to. I even get personal notes (asking
about the family) from TRF employees included in my orders. How's that
for PR? True, the Roadster Factory has been backordering parts more
lately than they ever did before. I don't know why but it is distressing.
I have never had a single complaint about the quality of the parts I
bought from TRF and their people are usually quite well informed.
I don't deal much with Moss directly. We have a Moss distributer as a
member of our club and we like to give him as much business as possible.
When I have called Moss directly they were normally friendly and informed.
Their parts availability has been better than TRF but their prices are
on average about 2 - 5% higher. (Before you jump all over me, Yes I know
that their price on some parts is lower than anyone. I said "on average".)
The quality of parts I bought from Moss has been first rate, quite the
equal of TRF quality.
I have only purchased a few parts from VB, and then most of them were
really from their "other side"; Long Motors for my Datsun 240Z. I've gotten
maybe thre or four things from VB for the Brit cars. Their prices are "on
average" (there's that disclaimer again) about 4 - 10% higher than TRF, at
least on the parts I compared. Mostly those were engine parts when I was
rebuilding the TR3 engine. The people I spoke with at VB were not
discourteous, but they were to the point. Take the order and get off the
phone. Didn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling about doing business with them.
It may not be applicable to lbc's but the quality of the parts I got from
them for the Datsun was VERY disappointing.
There are a few others that I've bought parts from in recent years.
T.S. Automotive, Pandora OH. Ted Schumacher knows his stuff and has
an extensive inventory of used parts. He also has a big bag of tricks
for improving the performance of your lbc. Ted's prices are pretty good
and availablilty is what you'd expect from a breaking yard. Ted has been
concentrating on selling accessories lately (coffee mugs, key fobs etc.)
as they provide a better market for him but you can still call and get
parts that may be backordered at TRF and/or Moss. He has an 800 number that
I don't have with me at the moment.
British Parts Northwest. If you're into modifying your Spit, GT6, Tr7 or
TR8 for performance, you need to talk to these guys. Great stuff at
very reasonable prices. Their focus on specific models means that their
market is limited but their in stock availability is very high.
My personal opinion is this; First I call our member (Kim's Import Motors
(518) 842-8611) who's the Moss distributer, then TRF, then Moss direct and
then T.S Auto. Finally, if I'm really desperate, VB.
This is just from my personal experience and of course all standard
disclaimers apply. FWIW, YMMV, IMHO etc., etc., etc. I'm sure someone
will write that they've had wonderful experiences with VB and lousy
experiences with TRF.
rik
***************************************************************
Rik Schlierer "Weekends don't count unless you
RGS03@HEALTH.STATE.NY.US spend them doing something
NYS DEPT OF HEALTH, ALBANY NY completely pointless" (Calvin)
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