Thread: I Just Wanted To Know If I'm Alone?

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I bought brand new body metal for my 1969 El Camino from NPD. And for some reason it's not lining up to well. For example my passangers side outer fender while I was putting it on lined up perfectly except for the main attachment bolt that's right above the firewall. It was sitting 1 1/2 inches to the right and the only way to get it to mount is if I heat the metal and bend it. I've been having some other small problems with my grill mounts and other parts and I just needed to know if anyone eles has had this much trouble with their body metal. I know it requires a little moving and shifting but I didn't think it required this much.

Don't know specifically about that company, but in general aftermarket body parts don't fit as well as the oem ones. This pertains to specialty car parts as well as fenders and other body parts for current cars. At the body shop where I worked we would only use factory parts because the body techs would have to spend so much time fudging aftermarket ones to fit. Some insurance companies would only pay for aftermarket parts so we would fight with them to get oem replacements authorized.

A few weeks ago I was watching a tv car show where they were restoring some classic car and the guys doing the job were complaining that the aftermarket fenders, hood, and bumpers were tough to get to fit correctly and needed massaging.

Don

Some of the aftermarket companies are worse then others, but generally none of them have panels that line up exactly.... I've found that not even the OEM ones are perfect, but usually much better then the imported stuff. I guess if you save the $$$$ on the panels, you pay it back in labor making things fit.... When these cars were built there were so many variables as the car went down the assembly line, got to remember that human factor in their assembly.... Heck if everything was a bolt on it'd be way too easy!!!!!

After my tango with the after markett body panels ,I can tell ya dont be scared to bend /beat and stretch those bad boys to fit,they are no where close to being perfect or something to be scared of bending and making it fit,....because more than likely it will not fit without some force and manipulation.