Allan R

I've always held that OEM was the best. Not saying the repops aren't good, many of them are extremely good and match OEM production very closely.

NOS is so often interpreted as 'worth more money' because it's OEM that hasn't been used. Sometimes right, sometimes wrong.

eg 1: someone who advertises NOS parts that were only on a car for a short time? They're not NOS as soon as they went on the car. They were then excellent quality OEM USED parts. Will likely fit damn good and not questioned by a concours judge. But are they worth the $$$ compared to a repop of the same part? My jury's still out on that. I sometimes do stupid things like buy NOS parts (when I can afford to).

eg 2: OEM used parts. Sometimes it's just worth buying something used to get the OEM part. Might be a little weathered, but a guaranteed fit. I bought repop 442 grills for my car. As many of you know, the repops from Fusick, Year One, Tamraz, Parts place, BAP etc LOOK good, but fit like crap. Need extensive mods. Used 442 grills cost about the same, but need restoring. Not as many OEM 442 grills floating around though right? Everyone I've contacted and asked about the OEM grills say they just 'slide right into place'. The good thing about new repop 442 grills? They are a great test of patience, creativity, and have an incredible effect on your vocabulary

eg 3: Front lower control arm bumpers. OEM is what it is. Rubber parts get hard with age, crack etc. What do you use to replace them? Do you look for OEM or repop? In this case the repop should be exactly the same, right? No, they are not. What a shocker huh?

Last fall I rebuild the suspension on my Cutlass S. Part of that meant cleaning and painting the CA, new bushings, ball joints and lower control arm bumpers. Well the bushings and ball joints were no problem. They even look like GM replacement parts. Now we get to the LCA rubber bumper. I really didn't even think I'd replace them till I saw some damage on the drivers side. How the heck to they get any wear at all?

Anyway, I bought repops and installed them. Looked great! 3 weeks ago I'm browsing ebay and find 2 LCA front lower rubber bumpers (NOS & OEM) listed for 5.00 Well I couldn't pass that up so I bought them. Got them yesterday so I pulled a repop off the car and was really surprised at the differences. Have a look:

At first glance they look similar


Then you look at the base details; OEM looks like this:


The repop is not as carefully molded and the metal tang that holds the mounting bolt is exposed:


But to get a better perspective of what this all means? You have to look at the overall height. The repop is a good 1/4" shorter than OEM:


And the last thing is the width. The OEM is about 1/4" thinner than the repop:


So now you know. There is a significant difference in some cases. Maybe this is just a piddly small part that really doesn't get much use. For 99.9% of the replacements the repop will do just fine. I bought mine for 24.00. Just by luck I got a better deal on NOS OEMs. Guess which ones I'm going to put on my car?

Lady72nRob71

My original bumpers had just small metal tabs in place of those big round ****.

Nice writeup! I should have been documenting all of my oem vs repop snafus...

Allan R

Well, I'm prolly going to redo the PS pressure and return lines now. Just found out I can get concourse correct ones from ILT (even have the painted lines on the hoses). More work to undo, and document as correct. $55.00 /set - decent price. Could keep the ones that I bought last year, but they 'jump/flex' too much when the steering is turned. The OEM style snugs up tight to the pump to prevent that.

marxjunk

heres a monkey wrench....many NOS parts are not assembly line parts, they are service parts, and they arent always up to the standard of Assy line parts, even though they are NOS..

mrolds69

I've bought many repro, NOS + OEM used parts for my cars over the years. I like NOS parts if they are in good condition, they usually fit pretty well. NOS sheet metal may fit well of not. Fitting well 45 years ago is not the same as fitting well for a show car now! I've often heard that if a fender didn't fit well on the assembly line, they would toss it in the corner and grab another. Same with chrome, if there were pits under the chrome, or chrome over scratches like on a molding or door handle they tossed it in the corner and put a good one on. GM wanted every car out the door + on the showroom floor to look good. So, what happened to the tossed parts? They re-boxed them for crash parts + put them in the parts system. That would explain why you buy an "NOS" door handle with scratches under the chroming. I've had NOS parts come out of a perfect box that looked like they were under the ocean for 40 years! It may be an old wives tale, but it makes some sense. I only use NOS now if I have to, I don't really care if my lenses are repro, or my control arm bumpers, or the bolts at the top of my rear shocks, or whatever. In most cases, I'm just grateful to have a replacement part. As a judge, I'm not docking anybody for smaller control arm bumpers. As a classic car owner, I'm not travelling down logging roads and worried about bottoming out. Does it suck they can't make them right? Absolutely!
Repro items for the most part are ok. They are NEVER EVER the same as OEM or NOS. I can't think of 1 repro part I've ever bought that if you put an NOS part next to it, I couldn't tell the difference. There is ALWAYS a difference, sometimes fit, some times quality, sometimes function, etc. My biggest gripe is weatherstripping, I don't see why nobody makes good door or roofrail weatherstripping for 65-72 GM cars. At least 68-72, most are the same, everybody needs it, NOS command like 1K a pair now.
Olds guys have it pretty good, many repro parts are available now. Buick...not so much!