North American Turbocoupe Organization



Sherman and Associates Patch Panels
88chickentc Offline
Member
#1
Folks: does anyone know a seller for Sherman patch panels?  For the younger crowd, they used to make affordable patch panels for all sorts of cars.  I used a few of their pieces on a Torino I rebuilt.  

I don't think they're around any longer.  When you google Sherman, you get kicked over to Meyer Distributing.  I gave those guys a call once, and they gave me the contact info for two supposed dealers in the KC area.  But when I called both shops, neither one said they carried the parts.  They do still have some parts listed on Summit and JEGS, but nothing for TBirds I could find.

The old Sherman catalog isn't online that I can find, but I recall them having fender, lower door, and quarter patches.  I recall them having about 8-10 different pieces for 87-88 TBirds and more for the 83-86.  Does anyone have any tips?  

I'm not above hand forming, but as an old metal man I used years ago said, "I'd rather start out with an old wheelbarrow bucket than a flat piece of metal."
1931 Deluxe Coupe
1949 Club Coupe
1951 F-1
1971 Torino GT Convertible
1988 Thunderbird Turbocoupe
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Jeff K Offline
Administrator
#2
I am not aware of any sources of new body parts, patch panels, etc for the FOX platform Tbirds. In my opinion it all comes down to economics. The FOX Tbirds sold very well considering they were relatively expensive cars at the time, and Ford sold many times more FOX Mustangs than they did Tbirds. For example, I paid a little over $15K for my 86 Tbird 5.0 when I bought it new in January 1986. I still have that car 34 years later and it is in better than new condition and fairly heavily modded.

Back in 2010, it got hit pretty bad when I was stopped at a red light. Had it fixed at one of the best body shops in the area. Even 10 years ago, new parts were virtually nonexistent. Took the body shop over 6 months to gather good used panels from JYs in several surrounding states to fix it. Shop manager told me if it had been a Mustang instead of a Tbird he could have gotten all new parts within a few weeks. There are so few of our Tbirds still around that is just isnt economical for anyone to even consider making new body parts at a reasonable price point. Just my humble opinion.
Jeff Korn

88 Turbo Coupe: Intake and exhaust mods, T3 turbo at 24 psi, forced air IC, water injection, BPV, Ranger cam, subframes, etc., etc.
86 Tbird 5.0 (original owner): intake, exhaust, valvetrain mods, 100 HP N2O, ignition, gears, suspension, etc., etc.
11 Crown Vic Interceptor
14 Toyota Camry (wifes car)
95 Taurus GL Vulcan winter beater
67 Honda 450 Super Sport - completely customized
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