Where to buy quality panels?

[clemsonteg]

I started removing the trim today from my truck in the hopes that I can afford some paint and body work soon. As I was removing the trim I was also inspecting the body panels. I know that I have some rust in the psssenger side rocker is bad but I also found that the drivers door, passenger wheel well, and driver rear cab mount also need to be replaced. Where is a good place to buy these parts?
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[flashed]

Auto Metal Direct here in Ga sells Tri Plus panels but there may be someone closer to you .

[tlcrz1972]

Good luck, any reproduced sheetmetal pieces that I have found are make from thinner metal.
The reason being these repo shops can't afford the real production tooling it really takes to make the parts like the general made. (a quantity/cost issue) You just have to deal with the meager quality and hope it last.
My truck has been done now for 16 years and 75,000 miles, and so far the repo metal is still doing good, wish I could say that for a some of the original metal all I could do was clean it up the best I could, use rust preventative and cross my fingers and hope.

[gale]

Originally Posted by tlcrz1972

Good luck, any reproduced sheetmetal pieces that I have found are make from thinner metal.
The reason being these repo shops can't afford the real production tooling it really takes to make the parts like the general made.

This is a little misleading. The steel today is MUCH stronger so it can be made of lighter stuff. Dent a modern GM, Ford, or Dodge truck and you'll see it's not just the repops. Even though the new steel is thinner it is much harder to work so parts just get replaced where older stuff was easy to get the dents smoothed out.

I have a '54 and a '67 and there's a difference in that 13 year span.

[tlcrz1972]

Different views, on that. Who's right I'm not going to argue it. But sheetmetal nowdays has to be thinner, to allow the manufactures to make the vehicle lighter so they can add more options, bells and whistles, and unnecessary stuff that add pounds to the vehicles.

But I have been in the manufacturing world and know that reposhops can't afford to make the parts like they were made 40 years ago.

[gale]

Originally Posted by tlcrz1972

Different views, on that. Who's right I'm not going to argue it. But sheetmetal nowdays has to be thinner, to allow the manufactures to make the vehicle lighter so they can add more options, bells and whistles, and unnecessary stuff that add pounds to the vehicles.

But I have been in the manufacturing world and know that reposhops can't afford to make the parts like they were made 40 years ago.

I think the car makers made their vehicles lighter to meet gas mileage mandates from EPA. Who in the world would have guessed a full sized Buick could weigh less than 3500 lbs?

My background has always been the structural steel industry with some sheet metal. In the '60s structural steel for building construction had a tensile strength of 22,000 psi and that made a jump to 36,000 around 1970. Today that number is commonly 90,000 psi. Steel is bought and sold by the pound. The same strength today weighs much less than it did 50 years ago.

[da-burb]

I can help you with your parts. I am a Key Parts and AMD dealer and can drop ship from either place to you. If you want to PM me your list I will figure out a price for you.
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[flashed]

With da-burb being an AMD vendor I dont think you could go wrong with him. I have a local vendor to me of AMD and Key Parts and I like his parts and prices .I need to add da-burb to my list of places to get parts if I decide to do another project.

[clemsonteg]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far
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