I started doing a LOT of hardcore Camaro and Chevelle resoration in 1987. So I had the chance to call the dealer and buy new fenders, hoods, quarters, was pretty easy but even then stuff had already gone disco (discontinued, disco was dead, LOL).
Keep in mind on NOS panels GM ran the dies until they wore out. That is the only reason they stopped making parts is they couldn't use the tooling anymore. We could get both quarters in 88 / 89 for 69 Camaros. We was able to get (can't remember which) until 95 or so. I remember clearly on 70 Chevelle quarters we could only get lefts well into the mid ninty but I never got a right even back to 87. And I can also tell you as the dies got more and more worn, the panels got worse and worse. That is why some of the repro panels built from "the original tooling" we so horrible they had to be re tooled. 67 / 68 Camaro convertible quarters come to mind. They came out, then were pulled out of production. Project Prodigy was the axe on the repro 67 / 68 convertible panels. We could not use them, had to use hardtops and cut of the sail panel. I know those guys, they pulled the parts. You could not get any repos for years after they first came out. They were made from original dies.
With all that said, I just installed a set of NOS 69 convertible quarters a customer supplied with a invoice from 1979, and they were perfect! But ya know what, the door gap still had to be bead welded to make it as nice as we make them today!
So in closing, NOS is not all it is cracked up to be especially since most panels available are late production panels.
Amd is cutting panels of perfect cars and reverse engineering the tooling. they are close as you will get to NOS.
And they are thicker and heavier then Dynacorn or Golden Legion
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Frank Serafine
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