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Did any body had any bad experience with SMS AUTO FABRICS oregon ?
My experience with them was very good. They are a little pricey but they have some fabric that probably no one else has so they can charge what the market will bear. They matched the material for my '52 from a picture I sent them. Response time from them was a little slow but not to bad.
Ahhh...the "SMS Discussion". I've seen a few of these recently. 
It seems that SMS is known for being generally slow when it comes to the time that it takes to fill orders. However some folks get lucky and receive their yard goods in a pretty decent amount of time; maybe even within just a few weeks. It probably depends on the type of fabric/vinyl that a person needs, regarding whether it's in stock or not, or if the fabric/vinyl, or the related patterns are unusual or "rare".
SMS can produce some fabric/vinyl even if it's not in stock, but that can take months if they have to make new molds and such. For example, they only had the gray dielectric vinyl that I needed for the back seat of my car in 54" widths. But I needed this same vinyl in a 60" width so that the pleats could run in the proper horizontal orientation. So they have to make a wider mold, which isn't as huge a deal as it may sound, but I'm still waiting for this piece of vinyl, which was reordered several months ago.
When I decided to have work done on my car, the first thing that i did last June was to order from SMS, having been warned that it might take some time for them to fill the order. I received some of the vinyl, and the "fabric" for my car within a few weeks, so that was fine. They had some original "fabric" for my car which was a real bonus!
I ordered four door panels for my car last June, and they are not yet ready. But I had heard that a year is probably about the average time that it takes to receive the finished door panels from SMS, so I was prepared to endure the wait. It's the reason that I ordered from SMS before I did anything else regarding the mini-resto of my car. Some folks with other makes of cars wait less time, some wait longer. I know of one fellow with a "rare-ish" late 50's Mopar who waited about two years to receive his completed door panels.
I have heard that SMS makes very nice door panels. I myself, have heard no complaints about their work when it comes to door panels, or with the quality of their fabric/vinyl.
If you order samples from SMS, they will usually get back to you with the samples within two to three weeks. They will also let you know whether or not the fabric/vinyl that you need is in stock or not. They will also include a list of all of the fabric/vinyl/door panels/headliner/carpet that they might carry for your make and model of car.
Some folks stated that SMS had sent them the correct samples, to only then go on to send them the incorrect fabric/vinyl which did not match their original samples. Not that the samples were misleading; they had sent fabric/vinyl that didn't match at all, and that was likely from another make of car entirely. I've heard the same thing about the door panels; after waiting a year or so, SMS sent the incorrect door panels. Yikes. I've not heard of anyone having problems returning items to SMS, or with receiving refunds from them. Maybe some folks have had problems in that regard, but I've just not heard of any.
So to sum up; I've had pretty good service from SMS on one hand, and fairly slow service from them on the other. However, I knew well in advance that they would take at least a year to get my door panels done, and that they might be slow with supplying some raw materials. What materials they have supplied have been very nice, I must say. Also, they have not ever stated that I would receive any of their products or services by a specific date. In other words, they have never made promises that they did not keep. They've been pleasant during phone and internet communications. Their samples matched exactly the fabric/vinyl that they did then send to me. I was a little miffed that the gray dielectric vinyl that they sent was too narrow to span the back seat. I had sent photos of what the rear seat was to look like, along with the dimensions, as did the upholsterer. In fact, SMS themselves had sent photos to me of what this back seat would look like once it was done, so I thought that they should realise that I would be needing 60" vinyl, as should any company that is used to working with those wide, big old cars.
My recent experiences with SMS seem to be similar to the experiences of most other folks who have dealt with them during the past few years. I think that they honestly do try to do a good job, but they are so busy, and have what appears to be a rather small staff, that it might be more difficult for them to keep up with orders? They are one of a very small number of vintage fabric/vinyl suppliers, so I'm not sure that things will change any time soon?
Good luck!
See the following thread on the Forwardlook site:
http://forwardlook.net/forums/forums/th ... 40&start=1
Here is a possible alternative: http://originalauto.com/
Thank you all !
