Hardcore's new full quarter skins were on display at Dukesfest . . .

[Mike DC]

Sorry, no pics.   

They sure looked good, though. 
Those guys aren't kidding about trying to make a truly O.E.-grade of panel. 

They had the full quarters and some door skins on display.
The metal felt thick & stiff, the bodylines were pretty crisp, even the flanges at the wheelwells were the correct width . . . good stuff.
I don't know whether it was truly 100% flawless or not without laying it onto a car, but the stuff looked light-years better than any Mopar repro panel I had ever seen.


. . . and they displayed the pieces in BARE METAL, not even E-coated like they sell them. 
It was to prove that they hadn't secretly reworked/improved the bodylines on the display pieces.
 
 

[PocketThunder]

Excellent!  I knew there was a reason i was putting off my 500's restoration.   Just patiently waiting for these quarter panels, ya thats it..
but i suppose this means that i'll have to start working on it now... 

[Mike DC]

(bump)

[Lowprofile]

Now if we can just get the price down to where most people can afford them.......

[6pkrunner]

Excellent news. Any update on the coins demanded? Or still $4K per pair?

[Silver R/T]

good news for anyone who's going to buy them. Ill just save those $4K for Challenger project or towards my house upgrades.

[Mike DC]

 
The Hardcore guys didn't talk about any real price decreases.  Still basically $4K+ for a set of two quarters. 
Really sucks for that.  But at least it should help drive down the price of the used parts once these are an option.


Hardcore also said again that they intended to do almost the entire car. 
They didn't sound like they were gonna LITERALLY do a new unibody like Dynacorn, but they were doing virtually everything that a person is liable to want to replace on an old one.  They're doing the hood, fenders, (entire) doors, firewall, subframe rails, etc.  Enough for any old car's resto, and certainly enough to build a steel Charger out of almost thin air if you're doing a race car or something.

We all know the price sucks, but this stuff looks like practically NOS.  The Hardcore rep mentioned that there were places (like the underside hood bracing) where they had purposely re-created the factory ripples in the stamping even though their modern dies could have easily eliminated them.  They claimed that a former 1960's Mopar sheetmetal quality control tech had seen their new quarter panels at a recent show and said there were no flaws compared to the old ones.

     

[nitrousn]

I agree they are nice panels. The pricing is another story. Right now they are looking for dealers which i have seen none advertising. They are also playing the market to recoup as much as they can and as fast as they can. You watch and see the prices will be more realistic in a year or so. They should be about 1,800.00 for a pair when you compare what the e-bodies are selling for. Here is a copy and paste from moparts when the Jack A$$ sales rep was blowing smoke.... His quoted price is for each not a pair...

Price is the same. I had an intro. price. Now the price is 2495.00 + s&h. To qualify for our dealer pricing your company/business will have to meet a certain criteria. Contact me,email,telephone,website,Pm and I will send you our Dealer Program. Thanks.

[Mike DC]

I'm sure they'll fall below $2500 apiece in time.  $4-5K a set is nuts and they won't sell in decent numbers for that.  They'll never get within ten miles of recouping the tooling costs of those panels with prices that high.

But it also bears noting that the HC panels are STILL ahead of the newest Goodmark ones in terms of metallurgy/thickness.  HC's parts really felt like O.E. 1960's stuff whereas the best Goodmark panels aren't even close.  I can flex the metal on the Goodmark panels by hand, but that's not happening with the HC panels that were on display over the weekend.  (They were letting people pick up the panels to feel them.)

[hemi-hampton]

The company that actually makes these can & could easily make the whole car if they Wanted too, Just like Dynacorn does with the Camaro, ect. The ony differance is Dynacorn cars & parts are actually made over seas in a foreign country while these are made right here in U.S.A.. (Maybe this fact explains why more exspensive) Actually made about about 5 miles up the road from my house. Same company that makes the new 67 camaro convertible 1/4's which I had to trial fit on a test mule for them. Seeing their products & test fitting them myself I can tell you these are very good Quality & much better then any previous garbage from the past. LEON.

[Ghoste]

The only thing I can say is that I hope they are successful and I hope they do stamp out the rest of the panels they claim as well.

[Shakey]

The company that actually makes these can & could easily make the whole car if they Wanted too, Just like Dynacorn does with the Camaro, ect. The ony differance is Dynacorn cars & parts are actually made over seas in a foreign country while these are made right here in U.S.A.. (Maybe this fact explains why more exspensive) Actually made about about 5 miles up the road from my house. Same company that makes the new 67 camaro convertible 1/4's which I had to trial fit on a test mule for them. Seeing their products & test fitting them myself I can tell you these are very good Quality & much better then any previous garbage from the past. LEON.

How come the user name in the middle of the photo?

[PocketThunder]

How come the user name in the middle of the photo?

I dont see any username,  it must be just you Mike..   

[Khyron]

they can still kiss my arse for that kind of money. There are many Quality Chevy parts made from the same type of metal for a lot less.

sell less for more doesn't help the hobbie IMO.

[Ghoste]

Volume is part of it.  Look at how many more Chevys they made.  How many 69 Camaros did they pump out, 220,000 or something like that?

[Shakey]

I wonder if Camaro quarter panels could be installed on a Charger with minor modifications?   

[Charger_Fan]

I wonder if Camaro quarter panels could be installed on a Charger with minor modifications?   

It can be done...





























...although it ends up looking like a cross between a T/A & a Batmobile.

[Mike DC]

 

Volume is part of it.  Look at how many more Chevys they made.  How many 69 Camaros did they pump out, 220,000 or something like that?

The resto makers keep claiming that's the reason, but I've never completely believed it.

I mean, the Camaro '69 QP skin only fits the '69, so that's like 220,000 cars, right?

Well, the Charger QP skin would fit all three years of 1968-70 cars with a re-stamped signal light hole. 
96K + 85K + 50K = 231,000 possible Chargers for that panel. 

And yet the Camaro QP is released a decade earlier (not to mention being a hell of a lot cheaper) than the Charger part.

 

[Shakey]

 

Volume is part of it.  Look at how many more Chevys they made.  How many 69 Camaros did they pump out, 220,000 or something like that?

The resto makers keep claiming that's the reason, but I've never completely believed it.

I mean, the Camaro '69 QP skin only fits the '69, so that's like 220,000 cars, right?

Well, the Charger QP skin would fit all three years of 1968-70 cars with a re-stamped signal light hole. 
96K + 85K + 50K = 231,000 possible Chargers for that panel. 

And yet the Camaro QP is released a decade earlier (not to mention being a hell of a lot cheaper) than the Charger part.

 

The Camaro always has been and always will be a more popular choice for a restoration.  Maybe not with the members on this site but with the general public, and that is fine with me.

[Mike DC]

 
I'm not convinced of that. 
I agree with the general belief that GM & Ford have more total fans than Mopar.  And I agree that Camaros are more popular than Chargers overall.

But specifically, I'm not convinced that 1969 Camaros could have sold a lot more quarter skins than 1968-70 Chargers if all things had been equal.  Car-for-car, You just don't see 2nd-gen Chargers in the hands of people who don't care a lot about them.  It was already that way 15 years ago.  1/4-million Camaros versus 1/4-million Chargers?  I don't think the demand for replacement panels would be so different.


If the Charger QP doesn't end up selling as well, then I'd attribute it more to the prices and the fact that the Mopar full QP skins didn't exist until after 2/3 of the restorable Chargers had already been redone with the Goodmark partial skins.  I think cases like this are anti-Mopar biases in the reproduction industry, pure and simple.

 

[JimShine]

Just because an item is reproduced doesn't automatically lower the price. It needs to be cheaper than market value of current pieces to make an impact. Repop Tic Toch Tachs haven't driven originals to cheap money. The new dash bezels that are overpriced have not hurt the originals either. It needs to be something like the consoles and grille parts where great flawless new is cheaper than weathered originals upon release.

[Highbanked Hauler]

 
The Hardcore guys didn't talk about any real price decreases.  Still basically $4K+ for a set of two quarters. 
Really sucks for that.  But at least it should help drive down the price of the used parts once these are an option.


Hardcore also said again that they intended to do almost the entire car. 
They didn't sound like they were gonna LITERALLY do a new unibody like Dynacorn, but they were doing virtually everything that a person is liable to want to replace on an old one.  They're doing the hood, fenders, (entire) doors, firewall, subframe rails, etc.  Enough for any old car's resto, and certainly enough to build a steel Charger out of almost thin air if you're doing a race car or something.

We all know the price sucks, but this stuff looks like practically NOS.  The Hardcore rep mentioned that there were places (like the underside hood bracing) where they had purposely re-created the factory ripples in the stamping even though their modern dies could have easily eliminated them.  They claimed that a former 1960's Mopar sheetmetal quality control tech had seen their new quarter panels at a recent show and said there were no flaws compared to the old ones.

     

I would think they would make the most profit on fenders, hoods  and tail light panels and possibly roof skins

[hemi-hampton]

If you look at my Camaro Picture in other post that Camaros Tailight is a repop. They may just make that next? LEON

[Highbanked Hauler]

I think fenders would be a hot seller. Anything that falls into the category of "crash damage" parts.

[Mike DC]

 
I agree that Hardcore's prices can't be sustained.  Right now those numbers are gonna eliminate most of the demand for their parts. 

They've gotta get those prices cut at least in half in order to move any decent amount of those stampings.