paul bradley

[fireinthesky19]

Watch this guy. I hear he;ll be at Hershey. He;ll smile and take your money and you may never see your parts. Paul Bradley of Paul Bradley Floor Pans. I've been waiting almost 2 years, never - and I mean never - will return an email or phone call. Will be filing charges shortly.

[Ken/Alabama]

Wow! I've bought two sets of floor pans for 39 Zephyrs at five years apart and Recieved them in less than a week each time. Hate to hear this.

[Hitman]

I received my 36' pans from him after 4 years and no threats to him.

It sucks, but be patient. They're worth it.

[ford38v8]

All good things come to those with patience. Paul makes some damn good things.

[Don Rogers]

What year and body style floor pans are you waiting for?

[scicala]

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Sounds like Paul needs to improve his communication skills up to the quality of his floor pans. No excuse to me.


Sal

[TJ]

This has been an age old story with Bradley. Lots of past posts on his business practices.

[Kube]

Ya know, I like Paul. He is truly a good guy. And, he does beautiful work. Still, he is so terrible at business, I believe he should stop taking orders all together.
Nice guy + good work + terrible business person = bad business.

[leon bee]

Four years? Man, a lot can change in 4 years.

[rotorwrench]

Guys that make stuff one at a time can get easily swamped but a person has to tell the customer that and set up a better plan about back orders. Some folks are good at the work they do but haven't the foggiest about how to run the business. It's a shame too. It seems to be a decent enough niche business. Steel is just going to keep on rusting away as time goes by and the big boys of the business look at it as a low volume endeavor for the cost of set up.

[Branded]

If the fella had accepted my money and I had waited four years I believe I’d be making a trip to Hershey and solve the problem, along with bail money.

[VeryTangled]

I have never bought something from Mr. Bradley. But I was a novice Judge at a meet in Charlotte where he was the head of our team. He really took a lot of time to tell me important things about the cars we were looking at. So my experience is he's a good person. That said, I have heard here on the FordBarn of many floor pan stories.

[Tinker]

Never used, but wanted to. So many threads on this.



There is no better quality correct floors made. If so there wouldn't be these threads yr after yr after yr... add a couple more yrs . Please add if there is. Kind of wish the guy took on a few young guys/ladies to help him and teach the next generation.



If restoring, he is the guy, well respected. Think Kube sums it up.

[JM 35 Sedan]

I've probably said this on many of the past threads on Paul Bradley... Paul is the nicest guy you would ever want to meet, but unfortunately running that floorpan business is not the best thing he could be doing for this hobby.

[Frank Miller]

Originally Posted by JM 35 Sedan

I've probably said this on many of the past threads on Paul Bradley... Paul is the nicest guy you would ever want to meet, but unfortunately running that floorpan business is not the best thing he could be doing for this hobby.

Just pretend his floor pan business does not exist and go from there. This is a common problem where there is a top quality product you just do not know when it is going to be delivered.

[tubman]

"Frank Miller" is right. I think the problem is that the guy is an artist (he knocks these out on a one-off basis). I have never known anyone who was a real artist that was any kind of a business man; it just doesn't happen. I know that if I was even thinking of buying, say, a '32 Victoria (one of my favorites), the floor plans would have already been ordered.

[rotorwrench]

There was a discussion some time ago where a person responded about making steel patterns that Paul uses for the different forming processes. I think they were cutting them out of steel. I do the same thing except I use plywood made off a thick paper pattern. The plywood won't last but for a few formings so the steel would be much better. Water jet machines are expensive to I still use plywood but I never planed to make a business out of it. I pound the stuff out by hand where he likely uses rollers. There is some art to it in making the patterns & rollers and such but it is more about following procedures that will do the job without too much wrinkle repair than it is about art. Folks made everything by hand before the presses & dies were invented to do mass production. Now someone that makes an exact copy by eye with no pattern is an artist.


I suspect he will retire at some point if he doesn't keel over first. Someone else may take up the niche but who knows. Right now he is the only one that advertises and places a price on the product. Other metal shapers do it on a one off basis and likely charge more for their labor too.

[Frank Miller]

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

There was a discussion some time ago where a person responded about making steel patterns that Paul uses for the different forming processes. I think they were cutting them out of steel. I do the same thing except I use plywood made off a thick paper pattern. The plywood won't last but for a few formings so the steel would be much better. Water jet machines are expensive to I still use plywood but I never planed to make a business out of it. I pound the stuff out by hand where he likely uses rollers. There is some art to it in making the patterns & rollers and such but it is more about following procedures that will do the job without too much wrinkle repair than it is about art. Folks made everything by hand before the presses & dies were invented to do mass production. Now someone that makes an exact copy by eye with no pattern is an artist.


I suspect he will retire at some point if he doesn't keel over first. Someone else may take up the niche but who knows. Right now he is the only one that advertises and places a price on the product. Other metal shapers do it on a one off basis and likely charge more for their labor too.

I know a very prominent sheet metal artist. His shop perfectly reproduced a quarter panel for a 72 Ford Torino. I asked him what it cost to do that and he said, I'll charge him 6 grand but the guy working for me was a bit slow so it should probably be 10 grand. As my jaw is dropping the guy next to me, who does sheet metal work on Porcshe's in California, just nods like sound about right.

[Kube]

Originally Posted by Frank Miller

I know a very prominent sheet metal artist. His shop perfectly reproduced a quarter panel for a 72 Ford Torino. I asked him what it cost to do that and he said, I'll charge him 6 grand but the guy working for me was a bit slow so it should probably be 10 grand. As my jaw is dropping the guy next to me, who does sheet metal work on Porcshe's in California, just nods like sound about right.

What sounds "wrong" is why would anyone spend $6k on '72 Torino?

[johndee138]

The "Craftsman's Prerogative" is in play here.
That is the craftsman will get it done when he damn well pleases.

The other thing in play is: Quick, Cheap, & Good.
Choose two