SMS Upholstery order

Frank Miller

Frank Miller

Well-known member
I ordered December 11th and it arrived January 18th. It took a little while but with the holidays I understand. I'm just happy to be able to find what I did because Kanter no longer carries it.
I recently saw some negative comments and was beginning to worry. In the scheme of things I do not think the wait was excessive.


Frank
 
I canceled my order with Cartouch’ after four months with no end in sight. The prediction from Classtique was 5-7 weeks with the qualifier that it will likely be earlier. So far it’s too early go tell.
 
Frank, you are very lucky. After over one year of having my upholstery paid for, numerous calls and lots of worrying, SMS finally returned my money. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Very poor business practices and I would rate them at negative one in customer service. I am glad to hear you were pleased with them though.
 
v8fordman said:
Frank, you are very lucky. After over one year of having my upholstery paid for, numerous calls and lots of worrying, SMS finally returned my money. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Very poor business practices and I would rate them at negative one in customer service. I am glad to hear you were pleased with them though.
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Did they ultimately give you an explanation. You’ve scared hell out of me. Next weeks order is now on hold !
 
If it's for materials just make sure they have them in stock. If they don't then reconsider about whether to order or not. Materials are getting more difficult to source due to multiple problems in the world. Almost no textiles come from the US anymore. They mostly all come from somewhere else now days. With a world pandemic and problems with world trade, things are up in the air right now.
 
We still have lots of cows. Leather has not been a problem to date. I realize it's not authentic but it's nice. Just did my 40 standard coupe seat, panels and pkg tray in leather, I like it.
 
They told me the material was in stock when I ordered. They never gave me an explanation why they couldn't deliver. BEWARE
 
Does anyone have an update on where to purchase replacement interior kits now. I fear they've all gone out of business.
 
Even tanning and dieing leather is a trade that has largely gone overseas so no matter how many cows are out there, it's no guarantee that a well tanned and died hide will be available. It's a messy business processing leather hides. I sure wouldn't want to do it.

When a textle mill does a run of a particular material, it sells by the roll. It is usually ordered that way by retailers of material. A roll is a lot of yards to sell. I'm sure they don't mind ordering a roll of quick selling material but slow to sell stuff maybe not so much. I don't know if SMS has any mill equipment or not. If they do then they can mill material themselves but they still pick and choose what the customers are wanting and how much they might need. This will bottleneck production if there are too many orders.
 
I can add....Green Hartz canvas get run "maybe" once every 5 to 7 years SO.....You either buy a bunch when available and hope it holds for your needs for the next several years OR you wait till the next run!!!! Depending on the source and how long they have had their inventory, you can get samples form three or four shops...ALL a different shade of the same color dark green!!!! THEN you hope whichever one matches, they have enough to meet your needs!!!!
 
SMS is 40 miles from me. I can go there for you. Their warehouse is HUGE the inventory is staggering. Maybe I can get a photo of stacks of rolls 30ft high and out of sight. Workers moving all over the place, it is VERY busy, the choices in interior parts is overwhelming to inventory. Newc
 
dfoster said:
Does anyone have an update on where to purchase replacement interior kits now. I fear they've all gone out of business.
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To answer your question, there is no place to order authentic early Ford V8 upholstery kits any longer. They are all gone.

There has been numerous disscusions on this topic in the past 6 months here on the fordbarn. If you search you will find them.
 
I bought upholstery cloth for 1952 Crestline from SMS. At first I went thru their online samples and could not find the exact pattern so I thought I would get something period. I asked for quite a few samples, 15-20. When I didn't get them in a few weeks, I contacted them and Doug the owner, over 70, got back to me and said that was a lot of samples and it would take them some time. He asked what I was working on. He said he had the original material and it wasn't on the website. I bought it from him and made the trip from CA to Ore to pick it up six months later combining with an RV vacation trip. I kept in contact since it was so long. I let them know when I would be there and they had it ready. Bottom line, with all the places to get upholstery and kits drying up, we have to do more of the work and put up with less than perfect customer service. For me I was completely satisfied. They do have a huge warehouse and when Doug hangs it up who will take over?
 

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Scott52 said:
I bought upholstery cloth for 1952 Crestline from SMS. At first I went thru their online samples and could not find the exact pattern so I thought I would get something period. I asked for quite a few samples, 15-20. When I didn't get them in a few weeks, I contacted them and Doug the owner, over 70, got back to me and said that was a lot of samples and it would take them some time. He asked what I was working on. He said he had the original material and it wasn't on the website. I bought it from him and made the trip from CA to Ore to pick it up six months later combining with an RV vacation trip. I kept in contact since it was so long. I let them know when I would be there and they had it ready. Bottom line, with all the places to get upholstery and kits drying up, we have to do more of the work and put up with less than perfect customer service. For me I was completely satisfied. They do have a huge warehouse and when Doug hangs it up who will take over?
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It's shameful that you had to request 20 samples just to get something that was "close enough". At this point all they are is a run of the mill frabric retailer. That's fine. It's not for anyone looking for an authentic interior.
 
I don’t feel that way at all. The samples I requested we from other makes in the same years and I wanted then to match the vinyl door panels I wasn’t replacing and has changed color in the past 70 years. I should have let them know up front what I was looking for. Once he knew, he sent me a sample of the original pattern and gave me a 15% discount.
 
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