VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Upholstery - Interiors & Glass Le Baron Bonney new owner??

Anyone know if Le Baron Bonney aka Hampton Coach was bought out and now operating? The last I checked, the company was still in receivership.

It is still lockup min bankruptcy court.

i have found all my needed trunk material from SMS auto fabrics for my 39 that once thought was HC only
gave them a call and the sample was correct
so now i can order it very happy i found it!

How are the prices compare to HC? Do they have any interior patterns? There will be a huge increase if they need to measure out the interior and headliner of your car.

I believe it was SMS who purchased the assets of LBHC. The court proceedings show that the firm handling the bankruptcy was paid.

they seem to have a good selection, but maybe it get bigger as time goes on? so far they have what ive been looking for, plus they also have the correct material to restore a mid 70`s car . as far as i know NOBODY is thinking about mid 70`s impalas

I talked to Leslie at SMS tonight and she said they don't have the fabric from Le Baron Bonney and she didn't know who might have bought it.
I'm still looking for fabric for my 29 coupe.

I spoke with Leslie last week as I Emailed KIM on Nov.13th regarding my order which she said would ship in Nov. Leslie said Kim was out a week and just got back so I opted to wait a while to see if I got a reply. Did not happen. Spoke with Leslie again last Friday and Kim was again out-not sure why. Still have not received a reply and I am starting to get a little concerned as they have had my arm rest panels since April or May. Their estimate of four months has turned into eight so far and hopefully they will not go the route of HC.

I sent an piece of original top material from a Chevy Roadster Pickup. Got a reply stating they had the material with two samples. One very shiny and the other a matte surface. That was May of 2020. We negotiated a price for 100 yards of the matte material. Was told it would ship in mid June and asked for payment which I made by credit card. Called and left messages several times when nothing had been received by mid July. Finally sent an email and got a reply from Kim stating they were having problems because of the virus. Not receiving any material by September I filed claim with credit card company and Kim emailed. I explained the problem and I was still wanting the material she wrote she understood and would try to get the material made. So far they claim that they need to make the material and their supplier has not supplied the needed material. I still have hope to get the material but confidence is fading.

I don't think they are crooks but are not the best business people. My advise is to be aware that they likely will not adhere to their commitments.

Yes they did require a credit card payment and that was last April. So far I did receive the headliner which I am told comes from another supplier. It concerns me when a vendor is either incompetent to estimate a fairly accurate ship date or intentionally outright exaggerates it just to get the order then avoids contact when they can't fulfill their commitment. I understand this has been a hard year for all with the Covid and the fires out West but the phones and Email are still working so I expect at least the decency of a reply. May have to go the credit card route but don't want to make too big a wave as they do still have my armrest panels.

I looked up the status of LBHC and it appears it is still in court and that covid is probably holding up the process. Here is the docket listing: https://www.docketbird.com/court-cases/LeBaron-Bonney-Company/mab-1:2019-bk-10856


I have read many complaints on different forums of problems with SMS not delivering goods. Unfortunately, I doubt all their current issues are due to the virus. I work for a big company and we sell a variety of products. Some products are harder to get in their normal time frame than others because of the virus but they are still being made.

According to the bankruptcy inventory list that I had from the Department of Justice, LeBarron Bonney had almost no inventory of material left when they filed for Bankruptcy.

Suppliers and shops in many cases have been the busiest they have ever been in their existence. Took me 9 months to get a headliner for my 38. The local shops are the same and they are booked up for months and months and many bits and pieces from suppliers are also delayed and backordered. People that have sat on projects for years have finally started working on them while at home and have create a huge rush of abnormal business in the restoration world.

Same problem with home renovations. Everyone is doing them or trying to find a contractor to do them and have created a shortage of building materials at a time when supply chains move slowly due to Covid problems. It's been a perfect storm of hugely high demand combined with amplified inefficiencies in the supply chains by Covid induced delays.

Sure be nice to get timely calls back but the staff are being battered with tons of new business plus tons of complaints due to the delays. The few staff I've dealt with at various suppliers have been on the verge of burnout and very frustrated.

My initial fear with Covid is that we would lose many of these businesses but the opposite has happened and they have boomed so happy for that but would certainly avoid ordering anything complicated right now myself.

I was at LBHC about 10 days before they closed their doors and they had considerable amounts of materials on the shelves. Later, when I thought about looking into purchasing the assets, and before any real court proceedings had started, I spoke with the owner of the property representative and he told me there was two 40’ containers full to the doors with the patterns, materials, packing supplies and other things. He said that there were only a couple sewing machines and the CNC pattern cutting machine had already been sold off. So some how, some way, there’s two containers worth of assets out there and maybe no one really knows where it is.

If there were any assets of value when they filed by the time the lawyers get paid (assets sold) there will be nothing left for creditors or customers. Having been to their location a few times though not as recent as Ted I agree that there was probably a considerable amount of materials on hand and much more than two trailer loads. I can only speculate that some of the high dollar saleable goods were removed before the locks were put on the doors. RE: SMS I have started a new thread in the Vendor forum.

I always thought that it was very strange that they wouldn't have lots of material on hand. I still think that there were hidden assets that were never reported to the bankruptcy court. You would think that both The DoJ and the bankruptcy attorney would dig into it father. Especially the attorneys because that is what their payments are based on. My contact with the US Department of Justice said she couldn't help me any more after it went past a certain stage of the process.

I seem to recall towards the end that guys were getting partial kits with indication that some fabrics/materials were backordered. It almost seemed like they had been using up what they had on hand or had been cut off by suppliers. I wonder what these similar conversations look like on the other Forums? Like anything, we may never know the full story and I suspect many staff won't even know the full story.