Replacement body parts

[rustbucket66]

I have bought new front fenders, rad support, inner fenders, and front header panel. Upon trying to put the front clip together to check how it fits, I was very disappointed. Nothing fits, not even close. Most of it can hardly be put together at all. My rad support had 5 or 6 things wrong with it, including being 1/4 inch short from side to side. Bends in the wrong places, welded nuts in the wrong places, and many other problems. I ended up repairing my old one. The inner fenders have the front lower brackets nowhere close to the right location, you can put your finger in between the rad support and the inner fenders. I've drilled out lots of spotwelds, relocated, and rewelded. It would cost several thousand extra, if you had a bodyshop try and fix this junk. Problems on every panel. A word of good advice, never throw away your old pieces until you are done. You need them to compare and refer to. When two pieces don't fit, you have to figure out which one is wrong. The panels I have are from Tri-plus, I wonder if anyone else has experienced this. I tried another rad support from another manufacturer, forget the name, but it says "made in Taiwan" right on the parts sticker. It was a little better than the Tri-plus, but it was short side to side also, and is way lighter guage than the original. Picking the thing up, it felt like half the weight. What a headache.... Don't expect to be just bolting these things on.