Looks to be going back together very nice, with a few positive extras. Very nice indeed!:thumbsup:

Looking good Steve!!

Something about "getting handed lemons and making lemonade" .. lol

Still, I'd rather be driving her right now..

I picked up PHR today. I really enjoyed the article on Penny and insurance. Great info for us guys. Sorry this happened to you, but because of this you have educated many classic guys and gals... Thanks for the value you and PHR provides to all of us. Ive been buying PHR since the 80's... Time to renew the subscription...:thumbsup:

Blesssings,

Here's the deal.. I had an OEM panel and a Repo panel (Goodmark) and compared them.

The GM panel was maybe 10,000th thicker.. just barely compared to the Goodmark panel. The initial fitment of the GM panel was just a bit better than the Goodmark unit.. but..

The Goodmark panel was $300 and the GM panel was $1100. The Goodmark panel would need about 5 hours labor to look as good as the GM panel. 5 hours at $75 and hour is $375. So the Goodmark panel is $425 cheaper in the end. That's a lot of $$$

Also, in the door jamb there a stamp from the factory.. on the Goodmark panel this was clear and sharp. On the GM panel the stamp was barely there. This confirms what I've heard and that is that many of the NOS GM panels were "factory rejects" that weren't good enough for production but good enough for the parts bin.

In my opinion you should save the money and get the Goodmark quarters. The only time I can justify NOS (OEM) panels is when you have a restoration where using all GM stuff adds to the value of the car.

The second gen Goodmark quarters fit better than the GM quarters.

There is also a difference between early OEM sheetmetal and those produced 15-20?? years later. Lines not as sharp as tooling gets worn. I had seen 2 fenders side by side where one was stored for years and the other in the 80's was fairly new. You could see a slight difference.


The guys that complain about the aftermarket parts are collison guys who are used to having cheap offshore repo parts shoved down their throats by Insurance Co's. Those parts are not licensed and can only replicate the part by like 80% without copyright problems. That 20% can mean it fitting or not.


Most of the newer endorsed sheetmetal is just as good as OEM lacking maybe a dimple or date code. Looking at the panel itself installed correctly it is hard if not impossible to tell the difference. The days of 1/2 panels that had the edges just left unfinished are hopefully in the past.

I would think a fender or hood is a better piece to judge because either it bolts on or it doesn't. A 1/4 panel has a sort of fudge factor where it can be adjusted or cut and modified.

Thanks for the info Steve and Brian,

Since I'm doing the body work myself, I want to minimize the amount of modifications required to the panel to fit. I currently have OEM quaters that have been on the car for well over 20 years. Do to a poor installation by the previous owner, the panels are damaged around the flange areas and rear tail panel. I need to do some work to get them to right again. So, basically I've been trying to determine which panels would require more work, new Goodmark panels or my damaged OEM panels.

Steve, do you happen to know what modifications were performed during the 5 hours your shop took to get the panel on?

I'm also curious why everyone likes Goodmark so much. Are they reworking the panels that come out of Asia? I was under the impression that all repop panels were stamped in the same factory.

Thanks again for all the good info its been a real help :thumbsup:

Mike

I have a Goodmark drivers door skin and Goodmark hood on my car. Both fit beautifully.:thumbsup:

i wish i would have waited for the new stampings that are out now, mine didnt fit nearly that well!

The major bodywork is done and the car went to the spray booth to have the worked areas primered. Then some more finish body work and paint.

http://picsorban.com/upload/shop 139.jpg

Also, the floor of the trunk was finished and painted with the fuel cell mount welded in place.

http://picsorban.com/upload/shop 144.jpg