GM NOS Replacment panels Quality
 

I am looking at buying a 69 Camaro with GM NOS replacement panels. The owner said they were installed in 1993. My question is - what was the quality like for these panels in 93? Are they exactly like the originals or were they thinner gauge, or bad stampings. Thanks.:D

NOS stands for New Old Stock. If the panels are legit NOS parts that means they are brand new never used replacement parts from 1969. The term NOS gets used far too much in the old car hobby and most of the time not used properly.

You really need to find out if they are true NOS parts or reproductions of original parts before you can determine their quality.

The car owner said they were purchased from a GM dealer in 1993. So i wandering how correct the GM New Old Stock panels were in 1993.

You missed the point in the last reply (I think?) If they were bought in 1993 and manufactured in 1969, they would be NOS and therefore, as correct as can be. If not, they are reproductions, and your question would now be how correct are reproductions manufactured in the 1990's.

I thought as long as GM made them they could be made years later. i.e. 1969 NOS fender could have been stamped in 1976 or some other year as GM ran out of 1969 fenders. So NOS has to be made the year of the car then.

Guys they could have been stamped in 1993 and are still NOS sheet metal! As long as GM made them and they had a GM part number they are GM panel!

To the OP, if they are I stalled on the car already and the fit is good then I wouldn't worry about. Most of the builds you see on the web today are built with aftermarket sheetmetal. When a shop like RS or Iron Works is going to modify the panels anyway it really doesn't make sense to spend the extra money on NOS sheetmetal. Not saying that some don't buy nos and modify it but most don't.

And yes in 1993 you could still go to a GM dealer and buy GM sheetmetal for some of the older cars. In 87 I bought a 1967 Nova and it needed fenders, I went over to Z Frank Chevy in Chicago and asked if I could still get fenders? They parts guy said let me look, sure enough he came back and said he could get them in a few days? I said how much? If I remember it was like $150 a fender so I bought them!

Correct!! If the fenders were stamped by GM in 1993, but the fender model is for a 69 they are NOS. New Old Stock doesn't mean every single part was made in 1969 only and none thereafter. It simply means that are part is new, but the stock is old due to the part being discontinued and no longer being made by the manufacturer. The "Old" part doesn't mean it is 30, 40, 50 years old. If a part was made in 2008 and is no longer made by the manufacturer in 2013, then it is now new, old stock and it is only 5 years old. Once a manufacturer decides to not produce anymore of a specific part that's when it's considered "old stock" because it could sit on the shelves for months to years due to it not being much of a need for that part. Which may be why the manufacturer decided to stop production in the part to begin with. There are other factors in there as well, like when GM breaks down the tooling to stop production on a specific part, etc.

I can see GM making parts into the 70's, but were they really continuing to produce sheet metal for these cars in the 90's? I would more likely believe that they were sitting on a shelf somewhere rather than produced twenty something years after the last one rolled off the assembly line. Either way, as long as the fit is good, what does it matter?

That's why I said GM produces parts on a need basis. With the 69 Camaro being such an iconic car, I would assume so. I'm pretty sure there were alot of front end, wrecked 69's prior to 93 and the need was there for GM to keep making them. I had a 78 Monte Carlo in college in 1995 and could still by GM parts for it in 1995 and that was just a Monte Carlo. A 69 Camaro was a far more influential car. Something GM does today quite often is change part numbers on an item that is still produced. They will then refer to it as the "old stock" number, but the part is still being made by GM. Now, as to why the part number changes, I have no idea.

The quality for NOS was quite good. Your statement is that the owner installed them in 93, but it doesn't really say that they were stamped in 93. There is a sticker on the inside and there is a die stamp. Perhaps some one will post a photo of 69 NOS quarter panel and the die stamp location. NOS sheetmetal is 18 gauge. Goodmark and dynacorn, etc are 24 gauge. AMD is 18 gauge, and fits quiet well. Can you have a bad stamping? Yes, it is possible. I bought a NOS 69 Cowl hood in 1985 from a Chevy Dealership. All the sheet metal comes from a warehouse and is shipped to the dealership. Anyway, the first cowl hood was bent in the back, so they ordered me another one.

I have a 67 RS Camaro, but almost all the sheetmetal is NOS. Cost for NOS full quarters on 69 Camaro has skyrocketed. I seen some at one store for $4795 a pair.


Jeff