Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldbluoval
There is a big difference in what are/used to be quality parts and junk. Much of reproduction sheet metal and patch panels are no longer available. Then there’s things made offshore and what used to be quality USA. Most bearings and gears come to mind.
It’s been discussed before but the demand has a lot to do with it. If 25 (RHD demand might be 2!) is the demand and the economic build quantity is 200….no one is going to make it and lose money.
As to patch panels, the good dies are MIA; likely scrapped in a bankruptcy.
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When I needed a rear panel for my 35A restoration I was lucky enough to to be the final customer of a quite elderly old school panel beater who really new how to shape metal and create exact replicas of the original vehicle panels using techniques and equipment that I suspect are now sadly gone. Watching him take a flat sheet of metal and create the curves and shapes needed was quite magical! Panel Beaters and repair shops nowadays just paint and bolt on massed produced panels rather than repair or manually recreate. In some ways sad; but a product of reality.