Quality body panels?

[toddscharger]

My 70 restoration is going to require new floor pans, trunk pan, rear quarters, and rear frame rails.

I have priced these items from many different suppliers and was wondering are there any big differences in the quality of these reproductions?
Is there only one or two manufacturers and several distributers??

Who has the best quaility? Or are they all the same?

I was hoping to be able to pick these up at the Carlisle Pa Show, and save on the truck freight.

Thanks, Todd

[Back N Black]

Check your local UAP/NAPA store they carry all the sheet metal and body panels you require.

[toddscharger]

Really? I never would have thought that NAPA carried that stuff. They obviously have to be special order items, dom you know if they have competitive pricing?
Thanks, Todd

[Mike DC]

   
In most cases of the major panels, it's just one single supplier making the panels for all the various re-sellers.  When multiple sellers are adviertising a panel that sounds about the same (dimensions, coverage, arrives in the same coating, etc), then it's virtually guaranteed to be the same item they're both selling. 

The costs of actually tooling-up and stamping these panels is HUGE, so there are only a few different manufacturers actually making them.  Everyone else is a middleman.  (The prohibitive tooling costs is the big reason we still can't get many more panels that are needed.  It literally takes hundreds of thousand dollars to create the stamping molds for just one fender.)

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Another thing to be aware of is the fact that virtually any new reproduction panel for these cars is worse than the originals to some extent.  (Metal quality/thickness, the fit of the panels, the coverage may not be up to the original seams, etc.)  The replacement pieces can obviously be mounted onto the car and work acceptably with some labor, and even the weaker metal typically still feels thicker/stronger than any modern car's sheetmetal.   But these reproduction panels are really not "original grade" stuff. 

--  So whatever you do, DO NOT hack your rusty car apart to get the old panels off until you've already got all the new replacement panels in your hands.  The replacement part doesn't extend all the way up to the original seam in some cases.

-- And you might wanna start looking for a decent used set of subframe rails for the back end if your car has significant rust there.  There are patch sections available for parts of these rails, but many people with major rust problems end up deciding to just pirate the rear subframe out of another car.