Scott, who do you use for the bubbles and other components. I am searching for a vendor to supply me with all of the rest of the shaker parts. I can buy one or 50. It doesn't matter as long as they are good parts at a fair price.
Well, good luck buying any of this stuff from either Gene or Ben in volume, you'd be better off getting Mike to tool up IMO..........That being said:
I reccomend using Gene Gregory for bubbles (and most everything else). He also sells through Art Pachecho at Six Pack Performance. I haven't seen any same or better quality on the market compared to Gene's stuff. That being said he's also the most expensive (but not by a ton) so it depends on where the buyers priorities are, bottom dollar pricing or accuracey to OEM. AAR fiberglass makes a nice bubble as well but Gene's trump them in the finer details and cost is about the same.
The most criticle items to get "right" are the bubble and the grills, the rest of the smaller parts you can shop around for the best price and do ok concerning decent fitment and original appearance. If the bubble is a low end piece it will show, same goes for the fitment of the grills into the bubble, cheap usually shows or requires a TON of extra custom hand work to make them look anything near right.
There are only two sources making base plates and adapter rings in steel as factory, Ben Snobar and Gene Gregory. Again, I prefer Gene's as IMO his are closer to OEM in appearance details at a similar but typically higher price. There are other manufacturers making them in fiberglass but they are generally lower quality and show poor details, plus I don't reccomend using FG under the hood.
IMO the door is wide open for someone to do a lower cost reproduction of all of these parts, I thought someone would have by now as that's where the real bucks are required when doing a complete Shaker conversion, currently it's hard to buy everything aside from the hood itself for any less than about $2,500.00, heck the hood (or hood kit
) is'nt even 30% of the cost, hoods are the "lost leader" in the overall scheme of things.
*Concerning bubbles with paint and holes for emblems, no, I don't know of anyone selling them pre-drilled (correctly) however if you look on the back sides of most brands you'll see tiny marks (bumps) on the undersides where the holes should be. AAR's scoops have them for sure. Gene Gregory used to sell his bubbles painted in Silver Argent already, he may still, you'll have to ask.
