exterior body parts
 

well I finally shipped my 55 2nd series off to the body shop ...the body guy is telling me that it would be cheaper/less expensive and less time consuming to replace panels instead of spending his time and my money fixing them ...ie the front fenders and doors need to be fixed or replaced ....I was wondering if what he is telling me is true cause at $100 and hour it adds up fast.....if I choose to replace those parts , is there a best parts supplier ....I know there are a lot of suppliers out there ....I was thinking LMC of course and I have also seen brothers and others ....if iu am going to get replacement parts I want the use the best parts out there

your thoughts

thank you

Re: exterior body parts
 

In my experience, the general consensus on here is to save original panels as the aftermarket stuff does not fit very well and will take just as much time to rework plus the money you spent on the replacement panel. Perhaps it depends just how bad the originals are though. Pics?

Re: exterior body parts
 

that is why most of us do our own bodywork/rust repair
the nice thing is you can buy every part for the tf trucks new for a price :D

if you stay with a shop doing all the work then you should probably buy what they need or be prepared to pay the piper
i personally believe that only one company owns the equipment to stamp full panels and sells it under many names/brands
new doors are $600 each plus shipping, plus fitting; figure $800 per door plus painting and any bodywork
fenders are $540, plus, plus; $3 grand just for four pieces would buy a lot of patch panels and tools to diy and you get to keep the tools
depending on the condition of the cowl, vents, cab corners, floors and steps the shop might also suggest a new cab
a new bed, headlight buckets, grill, inner fenders, etc... :D

if you get out of paint/body jail for less than $20k you will have almost as much in your paint/body as i have in truk minus the motor
i have a couple of friends that do classic restorations, they ask for $10,000 up front to get started with no guarantee of a finish price

Re: exterior body parts
 

We do a lot of new panel installs here and don't seem to have the issues others have. If you want to pay him to fix the truck do you really care if they are new or reworked old panels. Run a calculator over the costs and see

New parts quicker , no rust , next to no body work, adjustments to fit.

Old parts will always have some rust no matter what you do to treat it, acid dip, sandblast, por 15 it all leaves some rust behind. Metal work can cost 3 times the replacement of the part. If the truck was hit sometime in the last 60 years your original panels may be tweak out of shape,

I have a AD door in here now that the customer wants fixed, a huge dent in the center and bottom of the outer panel, its oil canning like an inch in each direction from a bad repair, Cost... $450 to replace the door, $950 so far to fix and we are not done yet, but he wants his original metal, i expect its going to be a $1200 door by the time we are done.

Think about this, if all these panels were crap or didn't fit, it would be much bigger news than you here now, no one would buy them and half the resto body panel industry would be out of business.

No one ever wants to think maybe it's their truck that's all jacked up and out of whack and blames
the new panel. Some panels come out just plain wrong , no doubt about it , but the vast majority come out just fine.

Re: exterior body parts
 

I maybe have not installed the brand panels that dwcsr has, maybe some of them fit.

My experience is they take more work than fixing the old stuff. Personally, my experience tells me that guy at that shop doesn't do much of this kind of work.

If he does, if he tells you he has done these trucks using the reproduction parts and he rather do that, then go for it. If he thinks the parts are going to fit like the aftermarket parts available for a 2015 Honda, he is sadly mistaken, they are NOT the same quality.

So ask the guy, if he has done it, and he rather put the new repros then go for it. But make it clear that you won't pay for more time to fit the reproduction. You have to make a choice, fix those or put new, but if he isn't going to back that, I would say stay with the original.


Brian

Re: exterior body parts
 

I am not a professional auto body expert. I have done lots of repairs on old rusty panels and I have used a lot of new repro parts.

Old rusty parts have rust in all their pockets and crevices. No matter how much blasting, sanding, dipping you do. the rust that started is still there. Rust Never Sleeps.

If I use the original part in its original location (and don't screw it up with bad blasting or welding) it will usually fit as well as it did when it was new.

To get clean, level, 3/16" gaps, it usually does not matter whether the part is original or repro, it is going to take hours to get a really good fit.

For me the question is whether it is worth the time to fix the rust versus the cost of new parts. The quality is not as much an issue as cost.

DWCSR gives a perfect example, a customer will spend $1200 dollars to keep the original door. Is is almost certain that a new door would cost less no matter how bad it fit initially. You just have to do the math.

Re: exterior body parts
 

I agree that they will not be 2017 OEM quality.

I would not accept he not pay for more time for the reason I stated above. How do you know if the cab or frame or what ever hasn't been torqued , it doesn't take a lot and its not always visible to someone that does do these on a daily basis. A little tweaking on each part makes a big problem at the end.

If you've take enough of these apart you know they can tweak and twist just sitting wrong on the jig or wood frame you made to hold it. These are poorly made trucks by today's standards and they flex a lot.

When we do a complete back panel we first set it on a leveled known good jig, ( frame section) tighten the front mounts leaving the back undone but shimmed to spec so it can move. We cut the panel off, trim up the edges and clamp the new panel in place for two to three days. Hour 1 you see the panel may be twisted or even warped. Day two its smoothed out significantly and by day 3 it usually looks like a factory installed panel and we haven't done anything to it since it was clamped up. So what moving the panel or the cab structure? Most likely both.

If we welded it in position on hour 1 it would stay warped permanently but what's the issue, whats warped, the cab, the way it was put on. Both is my guess the panel came out of the box straight and smooth.

Signs you have a problem with a torqued or twisted cab,, you cut off a panel and hear , ping , or boing or snap or pop on the last 1/8 inch or worse you see it shift when you do the last cut.

Re: exterior body parts
 

You do make good points. I just hate the thought of some guy who isn't well versed in this stuff to get some crap repro parts and spend a month to make them fit and covering them in bondo, I have seen it! I have seen many parts that the guy put more time into them than if he had fixed the original, that wouldn't be fair.

Brian

Re: exterior body parts
 

Guys....I appreciate all the info ///I have an appointment to sit down with the body guy today to go over what needs to be fixed and or replaced .....I can say this ....the frame is perfect ...no rust or rot or weld patches .... and I think it would be "less than smart to pay twice as much for a fix when it would still have a chance of rusting out again ....I will keep posting with updates ....OH,,, I do not posses the mechanical ability nor do I have the space to do body work

again thank you

Re: exterior body parts
 

i can appreciate when somebody knows their limits
while truk is my first and only major overhaul i have been welding and fabricating for years
and when we moved to metro detroit a shop was on my list of needs
mostly for woodworking but i brought truk with me with plans of redoing it

Re: exterior body parts
 

i believe dwcsr has a build pic or ten of a tf cab with new cowl/floor/steps pics that he can share :D