Being as impartial as I can here:
My dealings with them
I have thrown about $7,000-10,000 dollars Gbodyparts.com's way over the last 2 years, multiple orders. Only 2 times was the order incomplete, it took one e-mail to right it and I received the part a few days later. The parts that were used were as described, the parts that were new were of a high standard.
I visited the PA facility twice, it was very cool, a mecca of TR parts. While I was there the phone rang non-stop, Brian was working nonstop while bull****ting with me, deliveries we're non stop. There were 3 people there, and one was his wife handling the transaction side. You could see that Brian's memory was pivotal in every aspect of the business though, I came away thinking that he has a million things on his mind at any given second.
My thoughts on the current situation
Where there is smoke, there is fire, obviously there has been some turbulence since moving to NC. It appears Brian overextended himself and his company and that has been reflected accurately and inaccurately. After the move there was chaos, new employees were not up to snuff, the shop was disorganized, Brians health took a dive, etc...etc.... During this time, complaints started piling up, most seemed legit, and it appears most were dealt with, but then a new phenomonon started to happen.......
Prior to the NC move it was rare to see gbodyparts.com get a complaint, very rare. But while the afore mentioned stuff was going on the people with an axe to grind came out of the woodwork, they saw a weakness and the pounced on it while they could. At this same time the great China debate was raging and compounded the problem with accusations of Brian misrepresenting his parts. So he was getting hit from all sides, and a few companies/people came in while the fire was hot and started trying to undercut his sales. It was one big confusing mess and you just had to sort through all the BS and see the situation for what it was/is.
Brian is not corporate America, there is no ISO 9000, some things are going to slip through the cracks, take longer than expected, etc.. Is it right? That depends on your perspective and whatever Brian told you, a lot of variables involved. Speaking only for myself, as an owner of a rare care with very limited big name vendors supporting anything for our cars I expect problems tracking stuff down, a few delays, a few wrong shipments ( a drawback for any mailorder type stuff), and that's all part of Turbo Regal ownership, it's been like that since before gbodyparts.com existed, nothing has changed. It's how the vendor deals with it that matters to me. This is where you had to sort through the board BS and politicing that has been going around.
People complain about gbodyparts.com, they start a thread, 90% of the Thread Starters never emailed Brian directly first (even though he has said that is the tried and trued method to contact him), it comes off as a bit of internet extortion to the customers that never had issues and it comes off as "Another customer burned" to the ones that have had issues, then the thread erupts into 2 factions infighting and the drama ensues. Usually Brian enters at post 15 and resolves the situation with the original poster, so the actual problem is solved, but the thread keeps going with the infighting until a mod closes it. So out of 60 posts, you have about 4 that actually mean something about the customer, the customer service, and Brian, the rest is totally subjective. As you can tell by now I usually side with Brian but I am aware that something has obviously changed since the NC move and that it's not quite as smooth as the old days.
I would still order from gbodyparts.com first, provided Brian replied to my e-mail and gave me the information I need, so there is my take on gbodyparts.com.
Now because my being impartial is tainted with being partial I'll address the other half of the equation, with my own take being accounted for as well.
The guys bashing Brian can't help me, they can't overnight me a part, they can't give me discounts for being a customer who has given them a lot of business, but Brian can, and has. So obviously I am not going to burn that bridge unless it is absolutely necessary and remain quiet by and large while this situation gets dealt with. As of this time, he hasn't burned that business bridge with me.
In Summary:
"Trust, but verify."
I would recommend him, but I would recommend e-mailing him to see if he has the part, get a price, and get a time, and show some reasonable patience throughout the process.
