patch panels.........
 

Wheres the best place to buy em? Certain brand that fits nicer? Sponsors that sell em? thanks

Re: patch panels.........
 

I bought from 3 different places , and I think one place called classicparts.com , 800-741-1678 .. I needed a couple lower inner cowl panels , and they had one with more detail than my local place that had panels that were only half as good .....I think all the floor repair panels are basicly just something to start with ,never had one fit perfectly .. maybe I am expecting too much ....

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I haven't gotten any panels for my truck yet, but I have gotten a lot of other panels from Goodmark that look and fit like OE, so I will be getting my stuff from them. It helps that I have a connection there, but if their C10 stuff is as good as the other stuff they make, I know I'll be happy.

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Just looked on goodmarks site and they dont have anything list "in stock". How about LMC? Are their patch panels any good?

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x2 curious as well

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Hard to believe nobody here has done any sheet metal repair on their trucks.

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I buy from Kenny's Trucks in Oklahoma, pretty much because they're local. They sell keyparts and triplus which I think lmc carries as well. At this point i've purchased mostly cab patch panels. If you check out the last few pages of my build thread you can see some of what they look like. The rockers seem to fit well. The floor patch panels are good.

Re: patch panels.........
 

http://www.lmctruck.com/
http://www.truckandcarshop.com/
http://www.ecklerstrucks.com/
http://www.classicparts.com/
http://www.classicindustries.com/

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thanks.........nice build by the way and nice work as well.

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thanks man, same goes for your build.

Hey, I also bought complete front fenders years ago, but they've just sit in the garage so I can't say how well they fit. As far as a brand just from my limited experience I believe the keyparts/triplus is going to be the best available. Their logos are the same so I'm pretty sure they're one in the same company. The parts are stamped in Taiwan and have the thickness printed on the sticker in metric. Like the rockers say 1.2mm and my floor patch panels are 1.0mm. So we're talking like 0.050" and 0.040" or 18ga and 20ga. Honestly from what I've seen 18 and 20 are plenty thick. Years ago when I first started tinkering in sheet metal repairs on my 65 I went out and bought a sheet of 16ga. Holy crap that was way too thick and I could tell as soon as I started trying to clamp it in. Then here recently I got a sheet of 18ga for some of the cab areas and honestly it fits okay and it's definitely easier to work with and form, but hindsight I'm thinking 20ga would have been just fine.

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Ive found that with other trucks Ive done, most all patch panels take a lil massaging wherever you get them - Ive heard stay away from LMC sheetmetal, but I cant speak for their quality first hand.

Im in socal so im planning to use Brothers here ina couple months for mine - Ive got EVERY classic rot place on our cabs to fix:

Inner/Outer Rockers
Bottom Doors
Lower front fender
Lower Cab Rears

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I think there are only 2 manufactures that make these panels, in my expirence , they seem to be the same no matter who you buy them from.

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www.bowtiebits.com

good as any of the repops.

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You're probably being generous saying there's 2. More than likely it's one place doing all of the stamping and sending select lots to different distributors to slap their names onto. Lets just face it...our trucks aren't THAT popular to require a huge aftermarket/repo parts demand.

This exact thing happens in the gun world with AR15 receivers. Most of the different companies out there get their forged receivers from one of the 3 forges, yet you'll find some that are $60 and others that are $300 for a stripped lower. 9 times out of 10 the only difference is in the roll mark/engraving, the level to which casting marks are eliminated, or the color of the anodizing.

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I got inner fenders from Goodmark. They arrived with Triplus stickers on them. They are absolute garbage and will not fit and the hood hinge holes were a mile off. The body shop the truck is at didn't want to use them. I had another pair that I bought at Tuckers years ago and they were alot better. The front fenders I bought at Tuckers were Triplus and they were terrible. They are actually 1/4" too short and no bolt holes line up at all. Most everything I have bought at Tuckers I have been very disappointed with, but it may just be the same everywhere. As a side note, they claimed they buy fenders from 3 different sources.
As for patch panels, I have bought floor panels, rocker panels, cab corners, door bottoms, fender braces and fender bottoms from Classic. I don't know if anybody makes floor panels that are going to fit correct, they have the strength ridges that are way off. The cab corners were shaped pretty good. The fender bottoms needed more massaging. Be careful though, because I tried to bend the fender patch a little to get the arc to match the original and it bends into a crease way easier than regular sheet metal. It may be the same gauge, but it isn't the same density or strength. That's a good reason to use as little of the patch panel as possible. I am also of the opinion that there is probably 3, possibly four manufactures if you add in Dynacorn. I will sell a brand new dynacorn passenger door for $300.

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Thought I would mention as well that I bought a front panel for a fleetside bed from MAR-K. It was really good. Heavy, straight, evenly spaced welds, and fit perfect. I can't imagine that Chevy did it any better.
I have bought their bed strips and side trim and am very happy with it. I have seen the wood kit at a body shop and it fit great.

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We have used patch panels in the floor, sills, cab corners, door bottoms, door corners, fleet side front, wheel arch, rear corner. full guards, hood base.

We got these from LMC and the fit was OK. We have made a real effort to line up swage lines, everything has been plasma or hand cut to fit then butt welded. We have kept as much original steel as possible so have thrown a lot of the patch steel away in the process.
I stressed over the fleet side bed trying for some months to get a replacement. In the end we ordered the patch panels by looking at what we had to cut out and seeing what was available then cut and shut ending up with matching panel steel and minimal filler.

The guards fitted OK too. Some door curve adjustment required, some steel filling to guard/scuttle to even up the gaps but otherwise real nice.

Cab corners Paul scrapped a lot of patch panels and bashed them into shape, but welding them in and again minimal filler. Floor patches we went for halves and found that swage lines and cab mount holes didn't match so these were sorted, re-drilled, re-swaged and butt welded in.

One panel we couldn't get was the transmission tunnel as we have changed from floor to column shift. So we fixed the old one which cost a lot more than a pre-punched original would have if they made them but it looks good. Earl from Earls Body Shop did this in Wellington along with some other real tricky bits.
The tailgate we replaced complete and had to adjust and smoothed spot welds did some tricky stuff for the high stop.

We have test fitted the body on the chassis, first off to see what we could do with wheels, and ride height and now we have bolted the body together again to check the gaps and contours.

We have done a lot of panel work on our truck. I am so fortunate to have had a skilled master craftsman, Paul Knight taking on the steel work. Google him and check out his car which has now been replaced by a magnificent Mustang that looks better than showroom. Re the truck we have some photos up on here, she's going to be great when she's done.:chevy:

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Interesting question. It tool me three years to complete the welding on my 62 cab and I can speak from experience as Ive bought and used a ton of patch panels, sometimes ordering from one place and then throwing it away and getting it from somewhere else. Nowadays i use classic truck parts (www.classicparts.com) for most everything. I must say Ive had very different experiences with cab corners. Most of the ones available (even from classic parts) are garbage and VERY different from the original ones. I was lucky to find some american made corners from a different supplier that were PERFECT but they no longer are available. Floor pans have been OK. Rockers, lower hinge pillars, front and rear floor supports, inner rockers, inner cowls have all been good from classic parts. SOmetimes the parts (i.e the rear floor supports) are a bit thinner than I'd hoped for, but thats repro stuff for ya. Oh yea, btw those rear rear floor supports caused me alot of extra work, they needed all kinds of mods before they could be used.

Just bought my ENTIRE bed from classic parts so I will report on the quality. Im talking bedsides (american made and supposed to be very nice), rear fenders, front and rear tailgate, etc....

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Oh yeah Ive done the door skin and lower inner door too. The lower inner door is actually high quality and fits pretty nice, only problem is the beads they rolled in them are slightly different, but not enough to be a problem.

The door skin is not a full one and you will have a weld line across the entire door just under the window. Take your time on the welds and grind them down nicely. THank GOd I have a buddy who is an artist with the filler, and the final product is well, perfect.

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It would be interesting to know if Classic is buying their beds from MAR-K. They are the only ones I know of that are making them in USA, and as I said before what I have bought from them has been perfect. I buy alot from classic, but any bed parts or trim I have decided to only buy MAR-K. I don't work for them by the way, just impressed.

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Anybody have experience using Tabco products? I talked to them a couple days ago, apparently all their panels are stamped with their own dies in the USA.

http://www.tabcobodyparts.com/

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Wish i had found these guys before i bought my stuff. The panels i got all were stamped out of US (Taiwan or PRC):sumo:

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Well I haven't actually used the panels yet. For all I know, they're crap. I'll post up some pics when I get them.

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I ended up buying just a couple cab corners and door bottoms from our local guy Dan:

http://www.dansclassic.com/index.cfm

D-1114D Cab Lower Rear Corner - left 1 $16.95 $16.95
D-1114C Cab Lower Rear Corner - right 1 $16.95 $16.95
64-702354R Door Lower Inner Bottom - right 1 $47.50 $47.50

The price actually comes out better because you don't have to pay for shipping.

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My shop has built four of these trucks in the last year and we have used Goodmark parts on each of them with no issues. The fit is usually decent with only minor adjustments needed to make them work great!