Has anyone used these pans from Rock Auto? I need to replace the fronts
in the 70. They seem like a good value to me. Thanks for any input on them.

 

Adam,

Here you go. This was on my Cutlass the first of this year. Goodmark pannel I bought from restoration performance (They are in AZ, I think.) I didn't know RO sold body pannels at the time I bought mine. RO was cheaper, but shipping may make a difference for you. Worth a look see.

I ran into a couple of small issues, mostly my fault, as this was my first attempt of fitting a big chunk of metal. First attempt with a mig. You get the picture.

The only real problem I can say with the stamping is the three ribs/valleys running from the floor board to the toe pannel are just a tad off. A good metal guy could handle it easy enough.

 

Looks good Troy. I don't really need to go quite that far back. I really
just need patches in the toes for the most part on the right side. A little
further back on the left. I will check them out, thanks.

 

Unlike most of the Chinesium repro panels, there are at least TWO different sources of the 68-72 A-body front pans. Last Spring Carlisle, I bought a passenger side floor panel from Autobody Specialties (they were out of the driver's side). This panel was nice and thick, with well-defined stamping lines. This Fall Carlisle I bought a driver's side panel from Ausley's Chevelle Parts. I didn't realize how poor it was until I got it home and compared it to the passenger side. The Ausley's panel was about 60% of the thickness of the passenger side panel and the quality of the stamped lines was horrible. I don't know which one RA sells, but based on price I suspect it is the thinner one.

 

Thanks for that Joe. I thought Goodmark was made in the USA.
Checked the ones from Autobody Specialties. They look like true quality
units and the price is nominal compared to the R/A ones. Freight may
be a killer, we'll see.

 

Adam,

You probably already know this, but I'll mention it just in case. You have your passenger side laid out in a basic square as I did when I started cutting on mine.

However the upper right corner going to the floor board to the toe board you are going to run into the body mount out on the cowl. That is why I changed the cut to go around that part. You can see the notch I cut out of the pannel in the first picture to miss the body mount.

 

I bought my panels from Tamarz, dont know who or where they were made, but they seem nice. They look alot like the panels shown by Troys Toy, but who knows. They fit very nicely but same with mine, the ribs were just slightly off but that was no problem. I only used the toe for my right front passenger floor and a short piece off the middle trunk panel where the drain plug is.
Ok after posting the pic it dosent look like Troys LOL, its not black. Other wise it looks like Troys......
I dont have a pic of the trunk patch yet. However for repo patch panels i was happy with mine.

 

Adam

watch out for the double thickness material right up front , i see in your chalk outline youve gone right over it. I did the same only w a body saw fortunetly i realised my error after a few seconds of why isnt this cutting

i think its where the body mount attaches to the body shell

 

Good to know, thanks for that Troy, Retro, Steve. Nice work guys.
This will be a 1st for me. Did you fellas use a plasma cutter or a wheel?

 

I used a cutoff wheel and a spot weld cutter. That was before i had a plasma cutter, i would probably use it now if doing it again. That square outline is a body mount brace lower firewall and under that corner, a spot weld cutter will get it off, but theres an area on the bottom thats not accessible to weld it so it has to be welded inside the car in that area. I actually welded mine all inside and on the botton that was accessible, but i have my body on a rotisserie. Then ground it smooth just to be sure i had a solid weld. HOWEVER do not use the plasma cutter in the outlined area as it is a body mount brace for that corner of the body. Again its on the lower firewall and wraps under the body.

 

Ok one more thing, that area in my pic is actually a lower firewall patch that i cut to fit my need. I got it from OPGI. Im pleased with its fit. The other patch panels i bought from Tamarz are for the other 442 I have, but i did use part of the middle trunk patch panel from it to patch the trunk in the car above. Didnt need the middle for the other car.

 

 

Mad man with a body saw. Oops, I guess I didn't want to cut that. I'll go around it. Oops, I need to go a little further to go around it .

Also in that corner there are two rubber fuel line pieces that connect the steal lines. They may not take to kindly to a lot of plasma sparks and hot metal.

 

Here are the little rascals, I was talking about. These are in the same area as the body mount, when you are cutting up the right side of the passenger piece.

 

I've heard nothing but good things about Auto Metal Direct. Supposedly their stampings are thicker and a lot more crisp. They sell on their website but I think can be found cheaper on the summit racing website.

 

I used an air saw like the link w the shortest blades i could get. it cut well and was easy to use my body was on the frame and only access was from in the car it gets tight up under the dash and this saw is only ~6" long. where the fuel lines are i just used some sheet metal to protect them from sparks and cutting

 

All AMD body parts are made in Taiwan.

 

Yeah just like everyone else, but AMD's stuff is susposed to be higher quality. There's a few US made panels out there too.