Long story, but here goes.....
I recently had a very positive interface with a company that I'd not heard of before. Loren suggested I order a glove box liner from them. They are the only company we've seen that lists a liner for a 65 Skylark with air conditioning. As many of you know, that liner is tapered front to back on the right side to clear the A/C discharge vent on that side of the dash, which makes it different than the liner for a non-A/C car. I was surprised to find a liner for an A/C car because I had asked about them here on the Forum and found that none were available. New liners for the non-A/C car were being modified to fit.
The company I bought it from is:
http://www.classicbuicks.com. They are located in Dallas, Oregon. Suburban Portland, I believe. I noted on the order confirmation that the liner was scheduled to be drop shipped directly from the manufacturer. So the box arrived and I opened it to find that this is a liner for the non-A/C application. It was a Repops brand, their part number BU101. I wasn't surprised based on the information from this group, but a bit disappointed. I figured I'd have to modify this new liner to fit my A/C car like others have had to do. But before doing that, I decided to call Classic Buicks to make them aware that this liner is not correct for a non-A/C car.
I ended up talking with Marc, the owner of Classic Buicks. I explained the situation and he was surprised and pulled up his ordering information from Repops. It did list separate parts for the A/C and non-A/C applications, but with a little more digging, he found that BU101 was listed as the part number for both. He said he would call Repops, discuss with them, and get back to me. A day later he called back and asked me to call a representative at Repops (actually Montco Manufacturing in Mena, Arkansas) to discuss the situation. I did that and found the Repops rep to also be surprised that there are two different glove box liner for our cars.
So, now I'll shorten the story. I sent the liner from my air conditioned 65 Skylark parts car to Montco. It was structurally good, but suffered from normal wear and tear. I confirmed today that he received it. They are going to make a pattern from it and in a few months will be offering the correct liner for air conditioned Skylarks for sale. He will send the first production part to me when they are available, probably in 2-3 months. They will be flocked and will have the internal document shelf, just like the originals. He said the only feature they have not been able to duplicate is the vinyl pipiing on the document shelf. When I receive the new liner, I'll post some pictures and let this group know they are available. When that time comes, I'll be recommending that those interested in purchasing buy them from Classic Buicks. Any company that takes the initiative to have a needed part reproduced for us deserves some business!!
Stay tuned.....
Chuck
