Pre-A nose panel

arprea · Post by **arprea** » Tue Jan 26, 2010 9:08 pm

Hi all,

I'm in process of restoring my '54 pre-a and about the missing piece from the metal work is the nose panel. My car has been involved in some accident in some point of time and nose panel has bent. Moreover, someone with lot of will but short of skills has been doing the repairs and the end result is that the panel is now in pretty bad shape and probably the best solution, in precedence order are:
1) NOS nose panel
2) Very good used item
3) New good quality repro part
4) Having one made by skilled professional

I'll skip the 1) unless someone has for reasonable price and 2) seems to be hard to find as well. Does anyone have any contacts where to get repro in Europe? I understood that someone made them in Italy but I have lost the contact information. Any help will be appreciated.

I have already contacted Roger Bray and they only carry 356A nose piece. If there are not too big differences this could be used as basis? I also have a quote from Trevor's Hammer in US but shipping is fairly expensive because of the size.

br,
Aki

Hendrik Moulds · Post by **Hendrik Moulds** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:50 am

Hi Aki,

Have one made or buying a repro one are your best bet.
Original nose panels (whether from another car or NOS) are very hard to come by as they are one of the first places to rust.
Finding someone locally to make one maybe difficult as it is a very complicated panel to make in one piece. I know you say that Trevor Hammer Works is expensive, but I have bought from them before (including 2 B nose panels) and can really recommend them for the quality of fit and workmanship. Lets face it you can find one cheaper (Stoddard for example) but if it doesn't fit well you could spend days getting it right and end up not saving anything.

Graham · Post by **Graham** » Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:41 pm

The A nose piece Roger Bray stocks are genuine panels and I dint think there areany differences in it for a 54 Pre-A.

arprea · Post by **arprea** » Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:44 pm

Graham wrote:The A nose piece Roger Bray stocks are genuine panels and I dint think there areany differences in it for a 54 Pre-A.

I got response from them that the only difference is the location of the horn grilles, which can be changed obviously.

Good things happen when least expected: I was able to locate and buy a NOS pre-a nose panel for my project.

Thanks for the help to everybody on this forum, hopefully this topic will help others with the same problem in the future as well.

br,

Aki