The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop body panel supplier recommendations

Hello,
Just getting started on a '53 shortbed. Will be needing sheet metal for repairs to the cab including complete floor, toe panels, cowl splash panels etc. Who manufactures these parts? Any recommended suppliers? I've seen Goodmark and TriPlus Automotive (Taiwan). Are there any others? I suspect Classic Industries, LMC truck, Brothers, etc. are all reselling the same stuff, but wanted to know who's is best (fitting). Thanks.

All the same. You will have to tweek every suppliers product. That’s just the state of the restoration business today. In the end it will look just fine.🛠

I have received some excellent panels from Jim Carter, Classic Parts, and a few others.
I have also received a few duds from each of them.

If you want to get analytical, indicate each specific parts by the vendors' names for each part.
Maybe members will remember the good parts and bad parts they have gotten from different vendors.

Here are some lists:
Jim Carter Truck Parts
Classic Parts
Chev of the 40s
Classic Industries
Dynacorn

It would be nice to know the manufacturer(s) of those vendors' parts.

Just for FYI.....a few years ago while at the K.C. Reunion we visited JimCarters (almost every time) also Classic Parts and even LMC one year.
During visit to Classic Parts and JimCarter..... the guys at Classic Parts, when ask, by me and others, admitted that a couple parts we looked at came from JCarter. We also were told, I think it was by Jim or maybe someone that worked there, that the American made parts Jim sold would be primer colored (and we saw many that were....even at Classic Parts) and that the ones with the slick looking black on them were definitely made overseas.

Not sure what this means in todays world but I do know, once upon a time, JimCarter was the supplier of many parts to other vendors. In todays world what you gonna do....ask the vendor what the color of the repo sheet metal part is???

....and is "metal man" still doing some sheet metal parts. If so, I understand his patch panels are great even though I have never purchased one. Only read the praises here on the bolt.

The part about the primer colored parts being American made, if true (I have no reason to doubt it) is interesting to me because I have had the most trouble with parts which fit that description.
In particular, inner cowl, and inner-to-outer cowl.
My recommendation to the OP would be, if you need to replace the inner-to-outer cowl, try to remove the old one intact and try to patch it up. There is no part of the reproduction inner-to-outer cowl which fits along the inner cowl or the outer cowl.
Another heads up would be to avoid the gray primer full length inner cowls. They do not come close to fitting at the bottom. I bought that full panel and the black lower half panel and cut the bottom of the gray full panel off and butt welded the black lower panel (which fits perfectly at the bottom) to it.
Carl

Re: Carl's experience:

"the most trouble with parts which fit that description.
In particular, inner cowl, and inner-to-outer cowl."

We had the same problem with those parts from JC.

Images below:
left: Classic Parts (some are similar/same as JC)
middle: JC
right: JC

.....yes, you have to beat some of the panels into submission.
The drivers side cowl on my panel were bad, yes all three pieces. I ordered all three pieces from the same vendor figuring surely they'd work. WRONG......the 3 pieces from the same vendor would not line up and fit. When contacted they told me they had been selling them for over 20 years without problems. (I kept that correspondence for a long time and got disgusted one day and finally threw it away) And I think I actually posted it here on the bolt "way back then".

52/carl, your right. I ended up taking my old beat up, and badly rusted out inner to outer piece to an old local guy who pieced it together with new pieces and I was able to make the new pieces work using the old one. Whew! I hate even remembering the battle.

Thanks. I spoke to a guy at Goodmark who explained there only a few people in taiwan making parts and all the dealers are buying from them and reselling. He said there's only one guy making firewall for example, so everyone is reselling the same panel. I'm buying all goodmark stuff through A to Z vehicle parts. I"ll report back how they all fit.

Keep in mind, this is how they were built. No robot arms to weld it together. So, even though they all look similar, no two were built alike. Someone took an imperfect truck, duplicated a panel, and now you are trying to fit that part to your imperfect truck.

See attached picture.

I agree somewhat Mark, but still if you get a used GM part it will fit much, much better than repro.

Dennis

This is your answer.
There will normally be some tweaking and even rework to do. Sometimes it fits OK. There are all kinds of factors. A truck could have gone thru many collisions, many donor panels or patch panels. Done well or done badly. Bondo, leaded, weld warped, etc. I would try to use a donor part if that part is original metal. Otherwise buy the cheapest deal and make it work. An original GM part could be screwed up by PO and you don't know it. A new Chinese part can be twisted from handling or worn tooling...or either could be close to good. The panel adjacent to the "new" panel can be out of whack giving the impression the "new" one is the culprit. The GM part could be thicker metal and for sure better metal. That makes them hold their shape better. Especially on large pieces. When checking a donor, run your hand all over, tap on it all over and use a WEAK magnet.
Lot's of stories about bad fit, but until you know the exact problem they had and if the rest of truck was OK, you can't pay attention to all that. You will have your own specific fit to resolve. Patience and study and ask when you get there. The factory gaps had large acceptable tolerances like +/- 1/8. The parts themselves had large tolerances. Every manufactured part on earth has tolerances. When two max's meet it's tight, when two min's met it's loose. Other times max meets min and more trouble. If you want a show quality fit all around, be prepared for a lot of work by an expert.

Whoa MNSmith! Where did you find assembly pics of a suburban? Way cool!

One of a few floating around the internet.

"Whoa MNSmith! Where did you find assembly pics of a suburban? Way cool!'

That one came from oldGMCtrucks.com (Rob English).

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.