I agree, Art is a great guy (I refer business to him all the time for other products). But keep in mind, Gene Gregory builds and supplies Art with everything Shaker oriented that he sells, Art is simply a sales outlet for Gene.
When discussing Genes hoods and thier quality there is some subjectivity there depending on who the observer is. I purchased a complete hood from Gene several years ago (before we ever planned to make or offering any Shaker parts) in fact, Gene himself delivered it to my door (which was nice of him) I respect Gene as a competent competitor. However, as a picky buyer I was not happy with the finish work on the hood I purchased, nor the lack of OEM features on the trim ring an under bracing structure, I won't go into details here because my intent is not to bash Genes products, only to offer another opinion based on my own observasions as one of his past customers. In fact that experience was one of the reasons we decided to produce our own parts so that more accurate hoods could be built.
All I ask of our customers is that they see both our products and compare it with our competitions before they make a buying decision, the differences are many and obvious once pointed out. As far as hood conversions go aside from the prvious name I posted I have a list of several other people in the midwest and northeast who will convert your flat hoods, some of them can also supply core hoods, they all charge differently for thier work but all have plenty of experience and can do a good job. I am not going to publish thier names for competitive reasons but I will gladly supply thier names and contact info. with purchase of our products.
