dec plastic panel mounts - ordering?

[Jay West]

I was showing someone my collection, and while standing in front of my 11/45 
restoration project I lamented about how those little black plastic brackets 
that attach to the upright rails just can't be found anymore. You know the 
ones... the bracket has two round knobs that always break off - these are 
used to mount DEC filler panels.

He said he knew a plastics firm that may be able to do a short run at a 
reasonable price. Failing that, he felt another company he knows of may be 
able to make them out of metal. This gives rise to two questions...

1) Would replicas made of metal work as well as replicas made of plastic?

2) How many people would be interested in some if the price is reasonable? 
And how many? I know a few of my systems I'd go back and use 4 brackets on 
each panel instead of the 2 I skimped on. In addition, a few racks I simply 
couldn't mount filler panels at all because of no brackets. Of course, 
before the guy can quote me a price I need to give him a firm minimum count. 
The more in the firm count the lower the price is. I figured I'd order 40 or 
50 if the price was reasonable. But I'm sure my own order would be cost 
prohibative unless other collectors jump in.

On the other hand, if some collector has a big crate of these, I'd rather 
just buy pile of originals :)

Jay West