I paid for two floor pans for a 39 woodie to this man 11 months ago. I was promised they would be sent within a week. No floor pans, several emails and phonecalls ignored. What do I do? This is really aggravating as he has had my money almost a year. I will call the fraud department of the US Postal Service tomorrow, and the AG's Office in North Carolina as well as the Attorney General's Office. This is simply horrid behavior. Thanks, Jim, janniefunster@gmail.com
paul bradley floor pans
- Thread starter 38woodie
- Start date
deuce_roadster
Well-known member
Boy this is sure a recurring story.
Years ago when I was restoring my 40 woodie and had the floorpan and cowl sandblasted I decided to replace the front part of the RH side of the floor. Called Paul, he said he had a blem RH side woodie floorpan that had a very minor problem in a rear corner where my floor was still good. He sold it to me for next to nothing and I think the shipping was more then he charged me for the part. Got it within a week.
Now I hear all these horrible problems folks have getting anything from him. That is too bad because the part I got was very high quality. I am sorry to hear he hasn't fixed whatever the issue is. He was very nice and helpful to me.
Years ago when I was restoring my 40 woodie and had the floorpan and cowl sandblasted I decided to replace the front part of the RH side of the floor. Called Paul, he said he had a blem RH side woodie floorpan that had a very minor problem in a rear corner where my floor was still good. He sold it to me for next to nothing and I think the shipping was more then he charged me for the part. Got it within a week.
Now I hear all these horrible problems folks have getting anything from him. That is too bad because the part I got was very high quality. I am sorry to hear he hasn't fixed whatever the issue is. He was very nice and helpful to me.
rotorwrench
Well-known member
I think Mr. Bradley started making them for one of the resto parts suppliers a number of years ago and so now he can't keep up with any sort of supply to meet the demand but of course he will still take your money.
Suffice it to say that his business model sucks and he has won no friends over this practice. He does generally fill the orders eventually but I don't know anyone that would order something knowing that is may or may not show up within a year or two.
I make my own patterns for stuff now and beat it out with metal shaping tools or I find a used section from a southwestern salvage yard if possible. It's a lot more work for me but at least I know pretty much when I will be done with it. With Paul, you never know when you'll be done.
Suffice it to say that his business model sucks and he has won no friends over this practice. He does generally fill the orders eventually but I don't know anyone that would order something knowing that is may or may not show up within a year or two.
I make my own patterns for stuff now and beat it out with metal shaping tools or I find a used section from a southwestern salvage yard if possible. It's a lot more work for me but at least I know pretty much when I will be done with it. With Paul, you never know when you'll be done.
rockfla
Well-known member
@38woodie
We ran into a similar experience with a pines winterfront grill out in Northern California.....what ended up happening for US was I corresponded with a fellow from Houston whom he also scammed and another fellow in the northeast, we all called the local sherrif's department and spoke to a "local" detective and fortunately he took up the challenge. He ultimately wasn't legally able to arrest/charge him BUT was able to, By the scammer's ignorance of the law & and by the detectives "perceived threats" to basically get money orders from him for "almost" all of our money back. We ended up loosing some but as the detective said "It was an overall win" given the inability "legally" of making him do what he did.
We ran into a similar experience with a pines winterfront grill out in Northern California.....what ended up happening for US was I corresponded with a fellow from Houston whom he also scammed and another fellow in the northeast, we all called the local sherrif's department and spoke to a "local" detective and fortunately he took up the challenge. He ultimately wasn't legally able to arrest/charge him BUT was able to, By the scammer's ignorance of the law & and by the detectives "perceived threats" to basically get money orders from him for "almost" all of our money back. We ended up loosing some but as the detective said "It was an overall win" given the inability "legally" of making him do what he did.
JM 35 Sedan
Well-known member
Paul Bradley is one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet. I believe he told me the floor pan business was originally his Dad's and now this is just a sideline/part time thing he tries to keep up with. I've wondered for years why he doesn't just turn this over to someone who would run this business properly, rather than causing so much discontent in the hobby.
stangblue
Senior Member
38 Woodie, I don't know if this will help! But I was in your same situation. Paul could not get to me as fast as I wanted, so he made for myself 4 ribs, I only needed 2 to repair my floor pan. I have 2 extra ribs if you can use them. You can PM me if wanted. The dimensions are written on the metal. Both are 19" overall length, one is 5" and the other 4' in width. The rib is 15X1 both pcs. I had them spot welded in and a little body work to smooth over. I can't tell they were installed.
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chap52
Well-known member
Seems that there are quite a few "vendors" that get overwhelmed at times. They may be the nicest guy in the world but when they know that there is a problem keeping up they need to tell folks up front. Most importantly they need to keep customers updated on their order status. A short e-mail, even a "cut and pasted" one can do a whole lot to avoid folks "blasting them" or as they say in the prison system, "putting them on front street" (I am a retired prison chaplain) Explaining the back load situation upfront helps a customer decide if they want to proceed with the order or go elsewhere. Even us nice guys are not exempt from good business practices or common courtesy.
rotorwrench
Well-known member
I haven't seen his operation but I imagine that he has some mechanical forming equipment as well as bucks & forms to pound this stuff out. This is a slow way to do what a 50 ton press used to do in a few seconds but it can produce the same results. It just take time, especially if he is a one man operation. Even if he sold his tooling to someone else, they likely wouldn't know how to use it to form the stuff he makes.
I buy 18 gauge AKDQ steel to do my floor stuff. It has to be special ordered to get it and it's not as easy to form as the 19 or 22 gauge that a lot of cars have in their body skins. I'd love to have a Pullmax but they are hard to find now days and very expensive if you do. A bead roller can do a lot but a person sometimes has to make their own rollers to match the OEM shapes and it can be difficult to compensate for warping. I've watched guys on youtube from 3rd world countries pound stuff out with a hammer and an assortment of home made swaging tools for chasing the metal along forms & bucks. The Statue of Liberty was made this way with the art of repousse but copper is a lot easier to form than steel. Steel is a lot easier to weld though. All my swages are made from old chisles that folks discard after they get dull since they don't use them much or know how to properly sharpen them. A person also needs a large steel table to set up for chasing against. It would be interesting to see how Paul does it.
I buy 18 gauge AKDQ steel to do my floor stuff. It has to be special ordered to get it and it's not as easy to form as the 19 or 22 gauge that a lot of cars have in their body skins. I'd love to have a Pullmax but they are hard to find now days and very expensive if you do. A bead roller can do a lot but a person sometimes has to make their own rollers to match the OEM shapes and it can be difficult to compensate for warping. I've watched guys on youtube from 3rd world countries pound stuff out with a hammer and an assortment of home made swaging tools for chasing the metal along forms & bucks. The Statue of Liberty was made this way with the art of repousse but copper is a lot easier to form than steel. Steel is a lot easier to weld though. All my swages are made from old chisles that folks discard after they get dull since they don't use them much or know how to properly sharpen them. A person also needs a large steel table to set up for chasing against. It would be interesting to see how Paul does it.