Aftermarket Body Panels

[69ChevySB]

Hi folks, I was just wondering if anyone here has ever bought any aftermarket body panels and how good do they fit? do they look good once they are on? also, what about the complete kit for 2500 that has the fenders, grille, hood, and bedsides, etc.. from GMCPauls , is it worth it? or will the aftermarket parts look different when on the truck?

Someone please clear all this up, what is the difference between the aftermarket, shouldn't they fit pretty much the same and won't it look the same once they are on? thanks.

[72MARIO]

It Sucks.

My opnion.

[junkyardjohn]

I'LL SECOND THAT

[rigo]

just put an goodmark fender on the passenger side of my 68.....I do a great deal of body work.....I new what to expect.....If this had been the first time that I'd done this, I would've been pissed off!..quite a few of the holes didn't line up..had to go about it in an ordered sequence to get everything lined up..and LEAVE IT LOOSE so you can move stuff around, still had 3 bolts on the inner fender wells where you couldn't even see any of the clip or hole to put the bolt in...that's how far off the stamping was on this particular fender...after some egging out of the factory holes..got everthing to fit....

rigo

[72shadetree]

put a tailgate on mine and the spot welds broke 2 weeks later

[72MARIO]

Worked on my truck again tonight just have to say that the pieces suck, again.

[Tim Christian]

I can not speak for all of it but what I sale I do use and the doors fit great. The patch panels such as rockers are better than GM. Now please remember this is my opinion. The cowl hoods fit great. I have only installed two of the fenders but I did not have any problem. I will say if you are not a body man and have never installed a door, fender, hood, or ect. Just take the orginal one off your truck wait 5-minutes and then try to put it back on. It will not just bolt right in place without any adjustment. Now remember again guys this is just my personal opinions don't bash me because I sell the stuf!

[junkyardjohn]

TIM -- I SURE DON'T MEAN TO PUT DOWN YOUR PRODUCT ----- BUT------ I'VE NEVER SEEN ANY AFTERMARKET SHEETMETAL THAT EVEN COMES CLOSE TO OEM SHEETMETAL. IF I LIVED IN THE RUSTBELT, & COULDN'T COME UP WITH ANY OEM SHEETMETAL UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ..... WELL I MIGHT CONSIDER USING IT. I HAVE WAY TO MUCH FIRST HAND EXPERIANCE (ALL BAD) WITH AFTERMARKET SHEETMETAL THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BETTER THAN OEM. I'M NOT SAYING IT DOESN'T EXIST MIND YOU...... I'VE JUST NEVER SEEN IT.

[Low67C10]

On a very similiar subject, I bought a Goodmark bedside for my 67 short fleet and have yet to install it. If anyone has installed one before Id like your feedback on the fit and quality of the bedside. It looks good to me, but wont know till I actually install it. Thanks

[69ChevySB]

Wow, I didn't know they were that bad! lol actually Tim Christian is right though about the fender issue, sometimes it's hard to get the original fender that you took off to go back in the fender wells properly, but he says they fit so I believe him....maybe i'll just try my luck and take advantage of all these great places around the Arizona area to look for these 67-72 parts. thanks folks

[Tim Christian]

John, I did not take it as you putting down a product I sell All I am saying all of us don't live were there is no rust and beleive me if you lived in Tennessee you would be using a lot of aftermarket panels if you messed with a bunch of these trucks.

[GMCPaul]

There are both good and bad pieces being produced aftermarket. Everyone assumes or most do that if its made overseas that its all the same, it not. There are around a dozen major sheetmetal manufacturers in Taiwan alone. Some produce good quality and others real trash, some have highly competent quality control others do not. Some defective parts do reach the USA and the good manufacturers replace those defective pieces that do reach here IE- Last year there were nearly 2 dozen passenger side doors that hit the USA all assembled on a damaged fixture jig, 2 of our customers received these before the fact that the skins on some were cocked was discovered, there doors were replaced with good doors as ours and the manufacturers cost and upon receiving and installing there passenger door both notifified us that the fit was great and one even remarked his drivers door fit better.
Goodmarks passenger fender was a Gordon wasn't it rigo? Gordon let several hundred bad passenger right front fenders into the USA a couple of years ago I know, we had a few of the Gordons and out of 10 68 rights, 4 were bad, since then we have done a ton of fitting of parts from almost every manufacturer and ended up settling on having new tooling made with the use of the zinc deep draw steel from our prefered manufacturer. Not that the other manufacturers weren't good the majority of the time, its just that they didn't have rigid enough quality control, and there was still always the occasional wrinkle in a fender cup area. To date the new zinc fenders we have installed have been great and I am more than pleased with the change.
Were a Goodmark licensed distributor but if you notice we do not offer fenders supplied by Goodmark. When we offer a Goodmark supplied panel it states its Goodmark in the heading. For those of you still thinking Goodmark is a manufacturer they are not. They buy from Manufacturers and then wholesale & retail to others. In May I am headed Taiwan to meet with what we feel and has proven to us to be the very best manufacturer existing doing these parts in the USA or Taiwan and will be spending a week discussing current parts made by them, made by others they do not produce that we want them to, and new product development of both reproduction parts and some new Custom parts that include grilles ( Wait till you see these beauties!!! Sorry but I can't say more other than its gonna rock the billet grill industry!! ) and several other products.
I know I'm a vendor I'll say anything to sell a product right? WRONG, I am a truck owner who restores his trucks using these parts, I probably throw away original fenders and other parts many of you would try to save, but myself I find it faster and nicer to use our new than repair a original!!
GMCPaul

[SCOTI]

Thanks for the info GMCPaul. It's vendors that know the little things about their products & understand what their customers need that make all the difference.

[BobM]

I can vouch for GMC Paul. Purchased his full outer door skins and they installed and look great. Much better than replacing the entire door if you don't have to. Unfortunately he doesn't ship to Canada anymore. Guess a few bad apples spoiled it for the rest of us up here.

[Jason71k10]

Great!! ....and just when I was hearing sooo many good things about gmcpaul, I find out he doesn't ship to Canada anymore
that's $hitty
Jason

[GMCPaul]

Bobm you hit the nailon the head a few bad apples, we lost several thousand dollars due to Canadian customers being international quite often the credit card companies up their are not tied into credit card verification services outside Canada so we lost money on several transactions involving stolen credit cards, then I decide OK we'll just have Canadian customers use the method of mailing in payment, then several Canadians decided I won't do the customs declaration documents myself I'll let the ship company do so then refuse to pay the document fees and for some reason the ship companies allow this refusal and bill us for these fees. Well when that happened 3 times in 1 month it burnt the final bridge. So now if your Canadian the only way we will ship is to a USA address then you must cross border and pick up or have it forwarded on by someone at that address.
We don't carry a high profit margin on our parts and can not afford to eat losses of this nature.
GMCPaul

[Jason71k10]

that's ashame that a couple jacka$$' give the rest of us a bad name! PLEASE don't assume that we're all like that, gmcpaul
Jason

[matt_field]

i have purchased some body panels from gmc paul such as fenders , and they seem to be great quality

[gmc67swb]

A while back I purchased a tail gate from LMC. The tail gate was from over seas and did not fit well at all. After having it about a week, I was loading some stuff in the back and the tail gate collapsed in the middle under my own weight. I'm 6'4'' 260. Needless to say, I was very dissappointed. However, LMC did make good on the gate and refunded my money. That's kinda left a sour taste with me when it comes to replacement parts. Anyone else used a replacement tail gate with better quality? I've already painted the truck and am still without.

Thanks Larry

[Spoof]

Wes ships to Canada!