My Ongoing Saga with SMS

[Hudson Grandpa]

This has got to be one for the books.

54 cpe. Door panel restoration.

Front door panels sent to SMS on July 21st 2008. September of 2008 they call me and ask for a credit card to get started. Okay. Patience here by all means.. Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec. I asked do you think I will get a Xmas present maybe. By this time in 10 days I had all my seats fore and aft done locally.
So finally Doug says I think you may have them by then. December 23rd they finally show up. Now I'm not dunnin their work but c'mon. Okay so I goofed and didn't send the back panels way back then. They were paid up front for both sets of panels.. Had other issues going on. So on January 4th of 2009 I send them the back panels, three day select to make sure they get started post haste. Three weeks ago I sent an email to jog their minds. Email back says our door panel department has been ordered to get these out by this weekend Friday. Lets see, tomorrow will be April Fools Day, and I guess I fit the pattern. Still no panels.

I guess I learned a hard lesson. Wished I knew what it was, but I will tell you I will never go out of town for upholstery work. I could have taken them to the seat man, and he said he would of had them out in two weeks. Thats where I am going to have them installed, plus the headliner at the same time.

SMS does fine work, but reliability is not their strong suit. I cannot recommend them to anyone. Sorry.

[Ted W]

I was thinking it might be a fun project to list the woes of the restorer. I have had many experiences that could serve as lessons, but there was no way to see the problems ahead. I try to forget them, but years later...some are kind of funny. :D

As an example, I had an aluminum grille re-anodized clear for an F-100 truck I was restoring. When the grille came back, in record time, I open the box and looked over the work…it was outstanding. Since the truck was in the body shop for paint….that is another story….it was several months before I could install it.

When I started the install, the grille would not fit. The shop had powered buffed the metal and over-heated the metal. The grille had shrunk like a wool sweeter washed in hot water. It looked great, but it would not fit. I could not even sell it…it was junk! LOL - sob sob - LOL

[RL Chilton]

HG-

Get your door panels back and take them somewhere locally. SMS is a great source for purchasing material, but the restorer has a lot more control and less headache with a local upholsterer.

From problems I've had in the past, the conditions would have to be extraordinary for me to have work done long-distance. Sometimes, it simply cannot be avoided, but for the most part, you should have someone in the SA-Austin corridor that can handle most any need.

I've contemplated sending the car up North to either IN or PA area when the time comes to upholster as there are several people up there that have done multiple Hudson convertible interiors. Down here, Hudson folks are fewer and farther to come by, and particularly those that know how to fix, work on, etc. Trouble is, if you don't stay close to the car or parts that have been sent out, you are at the mercy of the merchant's time schedule and quality of work.

[RL Chilton]

I was thinking it might be a fun project to list the woes of the restorer.

You right! Maybe you should start a new thread.:)

[Hudson Grandpa]

Get your door panels back and take them somewhere locally.


Thats a great suggestion Russ. If I haven't gotten the back door panels back by now, what makes you think they'll just package them up and send them on the next plane. And I'll just bet the money they owe me
will come in the mail the next day too. No this was my mistake and I have to sweat them out.

I'm not a mechanic, a upholsterer, nor a painter. I can change a tire, and oil and thats about it. I wanted a Hudson again after owning one 55 yrs ago. So where do I go to get suggestions when your a newbie. To the people that own them, or the forum. Thats where I thought you would get the best advice. See how dumb I am!!