[vanceman]

Originally Posted by Classic Heartbeat

There are 5 different manufacturers of sheetmetal for these trucks. Tri-Plus, Dynacorn, & Gordon are the only 3 of the 5 who's names I can remember and are the main 3 that you will see offered up here. I know that a company by the name of keystone buys what is known in the trade as "crash parts". What this means is a good bodyman can make them fit, but if you look closely you can see that the fit actually is not great and some body lines are missing. A bodyshop's customer is usually happy with this, but have no way of knowing what the weight or gauge of the steel is and because the vehicle was crashed, it looks great in comparison to what it did when it came in. By far Tri-Plus has the thickest steel, best fit, and finish. However Tri-Plus doesn't make everything so that is why (at least myself) we have to purchase parts from the other manufacturers. With our experience we have figured out who has the best parts and that is what we buy and supply.
Not all catalog companies are concerned about the best quality, and their prices will reflect that. It's whatever is cheaper. We discovered this by talking to different retailers about purchasing Classic Heartbeat's Exclusive parts. Our exclusive parts are high quality and not as cheap as the imported parts that are already out on the market. We were told by more than one catalog company that unless we could get more competitive with the price, they would continue to purchase from their existing suppliers. They deal with the problems that the lesser quality parts have by just replacing it with another and that usually satisfies the customer. Problem is the new part has the same problem and the customer just figures it doesn't get any better than that. WES

So who makes Key Parts?