Hi all. Am building a '57 Super 88 and looking for suggestions on whose rubber products I should use, i.e. (Steele, Fusick, Arnold's, Etc).I need the rubber, weatherstripping, and all bumpers for the entire car. I want the best that I can get. No fitment problems. Many thanks for your expertise in advance.
Bill. here, or WFG4U@aol.com.

 

rock auto lists rubber for this car from metro and shermann, but I can't speak for the quality

 

I used Steele Rubber on our '68 Flat Top Wagon, and had outstanding results. Great fitment, and wonderful folks to deal with. There was a problem with the tail gate area, the holes were mismatched; turns out it was for a different year, but they had no "pattern" (at the time) for a '68. They asked me to mark the one I had, send it back to them COD, they would then make one for our car, and send the 1st copy and "please let them know of any fitment problems and they would take care of them"! Installed on car, and fit perfectly. Highly recommend Steele, for obvious reason(s). As a quick aside, you can actually telephone them and a real person will answer and talk to your about your problem/questions.
Aron

 

I used a lot of Steele products on my 55 and found them to be excellent products with good fit and longevity.

I think you will find that many of the rubber products found from other distributors( not manufacturers ) are also made by Steele and relabeled with their logo, sometimes at a cheaper price than Steele so shop around....Tedd

 

I used Steele Rubber when I redid the weatherstripping on my 71 98. The price was decent and the quality was ok. Unfortunately, the body to door seals started to split soon after installing them. I suggest checking out Soff Seal.

 

This is my experience as well. There are only a handful of actual manufacturers of rubber products. Everyone else just resells and possibly re-labels these.

I've had good luck with any of the major rubber product sellers over the years. MetroMoulded, Steele, Soffseal. But, as Tedd notes, do shop around because prices can vary widely, with a capital W, from vendor to vendor for the exact same thing. Fusick will tend to be the priciest, so check rockauto and others to see what they charge for the same thing.

As one example, I wanted new door weatherstrips for my '67 Delta 88 convertible. Autozone, Metromoulded, rockauto.com, and carparts.com all had the exact same thing, right down to the same part number (LM 21-I). The part was actually made by Metro, but it was sold by all four.

The prices:

Autozone: $94.71
Metromoulded: $107.20
rockauto: $64.79
carparts.com: $80.44


Needless to say, I bought it from rockauto.

 

Many Thanks for the info. Guess I'll have to do some shopping!