AMD MAY still be making A Body sheet metal

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Dana67Dart

Dana67Dart

The parts you don't add don't cause you no trouble
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I remember from at least 2020 that they posted they were eliminating most if not all of their A Body sheet metal. And when supplies were exhausted there would be no more.

I stumbled on the AMD Facebook page and someone was mentioning about how great their sheet metal was. I piped in and said unless your looking for A body sheet metal or something to that effect.

I got a message back from AMD with a link to their A body line of sheet metal.

I asked point blank are the still making A body sheet metal? I have not received a response but I suspect after the holiday I will.

I even pointed them to a Way Back Machine copy of their website where they stated the discontinued A Body sheet metal.

Discontinued Mopar

Fingers crossed!

This is the official word "we discontinued SOME of the A-body parts. No plans to eliminate anything or add anything at this time." So maybe it was a wives tail that they were eliminating all A Body!
 
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$700 for a repro panel that cost $10 to make in Taiwan? No. There's no worse feeling than the feeling of being ripped off by absurdly high prices. I'll stick with good used parts.
 
tom999w said:
$700 for a repro panel that cost $10 to make in Taiwan? No. There's no worse feeling than the feeling of being ripped off by absurdly high prices. I'll stick with good used parts.
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Apparently you don’t know how much it costs to develop, make and perfect tooling to produce acceptable short run replacement sheet metal parts. $10 is a stupid assumption even if it was made by slave labor.
 
ch1ll said:
Apparently you don’t know how much it costs to develop, make and perfect tooling to produce acceptable short run replacement sheet metal parts. $10 is a stupid assumption even if it was made by slave labor.
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He may be wrong about the cost of production, but he's not wrong about the quality. I have first hand experience multiple times with AMD's ill fitting quarters. Nothing's gonna fit every car perfect, but holy CRAP what an experience. Like with FOUR different cars.
 
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RustyRatRod said:
He may be wrong about the cost of production, but he's not wrong about the quality. I have first hand experience multiple times with AMD's ill fitting quarters. Nothing's gonna fir every car perfect, but holy CRAP what an experience. Like with FOUR different cars.
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It’s not an easy task to produce the tooling and short run (very few parts, less than a couple thousand) tooling has to be cost effective and will always be less than perfect. Metal stamping is a nitch industry these day’s, really good die makers are hard to come by and the pay is not great.

Back in the day before plastics and composites, when stamped metal parts were everywhere, there was a big employee pool of highly skilled die makers. Now its getting to be a lost art like hand forging.
 
ch1ll said:
It’s not an easy task to produce the tooling and short run (very few parts, less than a couple thousand) tooling has to be cost effective and will always be less than perfect. Metal stamping is a nitch industry these day’s, really good die makers are hard to come by and the pay is not great.

Back in the day before plastics and composites, when stamped metal parts were everywhere, there was a big employee pool of highly skilled die makers. Now its getting to be a lost art like hand forging.
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It's funny though. All the GM guys have good sources.
 
RustyRatRod said:
It's funny though. All the GM guys have good sources.
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Not hard to imagine the other two of the big three have plenty of reproduction parts, 1/2 million camaro’s and mustang’s made every year. When you have a bigger restoration pool, one can spend more money on tooling to produce medium and long run parts to fill demand. There were only 60k barracuda’s produced in any of the 1960’s year models. They can afford the truly gifted die makers.
 
ch1ll said:
Not hard to imagine the other two of the big three have plenty of reproduction parts, 1/2 million camaro’s and mustang’s made every year. When you have a bigger restoration pool, one can spend more money on tooling to produce medium and long run parts to fill demand. There were only 60k barracuda’s produced in any of the 1960’s year models. They can afford the truly gifted die makers.
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Yeah you're preachin to the choir. I know how it works. That doesn't make it any easier on the rest of us though, does it?
 
Hell no, it sucks. Who would have known the best cars of the time were the least popular. But anybody could/can be a shivvy/furd guy. We are unique. And you think we got it bad, just think what it’s like for those AMC guys.
 
AMD never stopped making A-body sheet metal.

They thinned their catalog a few years ago, dropping pieces with lower sales rates, but they never stopped making A-body parts altogether. For example, for the Dusters they dropped their quarter skins and lower patch panels, but still make the full OE replacement quarter panel. That's actually true of E-bodies too, they got rid of their quarter skin offering and only offer the full replacement quarter. Which probably had a lot to do with more people doing the full replacement than anything else, the skins weren't selling as well.

For some of the other stuff they dropped out lower production years, so like for some of the quarters and fenders you have to buy the wrong year and replace the marker light.

And I don't care what make or model you're buying replacement sheet metal for or who's making it, ALL of it requires adjustment. The only real question is how much, and AMD is generally (not always) the better fitting option.
 
Yeah, it was this time last year they contacted me to tell me the fenders for my Duster that I pre-ordered months earlier were in and here's the bill.

Dialed it back? Maybe. Stopped? Nope.
 
72bluNblu said:
AMD never stopped making A-body sheet metal.

They thinned their catalog a few years ago, dropping pieces with lower sales rates, but they never stopped making A-body parts altogether. For example, for the Dusters they dropped their quarter skins and lower patch panels, but still make the full OE replacement quarter panel. That's actually true of E-bodies too, they got rid of their quarter skin offering and only offer the full replacement quarter. Which probably had a lot to do with more people doing the full replacement than anything else, the skins weren't selling as well.

For some of the other stuff they dropped out lower production years, so like for some of the quarters and fenders you have to buy the wrong year and replace the marker light.

And I don't care what make or model you're buying replacement sheet metal for or who's making it, ALL of it requires adjustment. The only real question is how much, and AMD is generally (not always) the better fitting option.
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I heard from an AMD dealer that they used to make the skins out of full quarter panels, they just cut them off.
To me, it makes sense to streamline the operation by only offering full quarter panels and let the customer cut them off if they want to.
The same dealer who actually installed full quarters on several cars (he is a skilled body man by trade) said that they fit pretty well on most Mopars with some minor adjustments, but of all things, the '67 to '69 Barracuda full quarters fit the best with almost no adjustments.
It's too bad that they were discontinued.
He also said the floor pans fit great.
Dynacorn?
He said they are great for cheap patch panels if you cut them up because they were actually designed from day one to be put over top of an existing panel on the car...
 
Chevy and Ford may have an abundance of sheetmetal available but it's not all quality. Imagine the tolerances after pounding out all of those panels. Multiple shops complain about poor fitment and wasted hours on those cars.
 
I was told by a rep at Carlisle a few years back- each die set for one side of a quarter panel was $100k to produce.
That’s a lot of quarters panels to sell in order to make the first dime of profit.
Let alone how many people are actually replacing quarter panels. How many cars are left?
Yea, I know the quality is going down hill BUT I’m just glad somebody decided to do this as many many cars would be trash cans or beer cans now if it were not for AMD or whom ever actually produced the parts.
 
If it was easy... women and children would be doing it! :poke:

Just cause you gave big $$$$ for that panel, so what if ya have to cut and weld to get the seam right!!:BangHead:

Find the guy that bought a project and spent all the $$$ and hours....offer him pennies on the $$. Thats what some do. Thats what they always want to do to me!:thumbsup::steering:
 
RustyRatRod said:
... I have first hand experience multiple times with AMD's ill fitting quarters. Nothing's gonna fit every car perfect, but holy CRAP what an experience. Like with FOUR different cars.
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I second this. I would never replace quarters again knowing what I know now. The amount of effort required to make it fit was very high. I would love to see AMD's shop install them. I would only replace lower sections even if I had to cut up a full quarter to do it. That said, its nice to have choices.
 
RustyRatRod said:
It's funny though. All the GM guys have good sources.
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I've yet to see ANY aftermarket body panels that were great.

I think it's a matter of the cars not being super consistent and the factory developing ways to slap em together more than it is the aftermarket producing crap (although they certainly do that too).

Look at roofs on new cars. No body putty. A couple black strips and you're done. I had that idea ten years before they were doing it! The closest our cars came to that was a vinyl top, unless you were getting a window plug at creative industries.
 
Each die set costs $100k to make? So because of that I'm supposed to feel sorry for them and feel good that my wallet is getting reemed.... Ok, got it... If these aftermarket companies think I'm going to pay $1000 for a repro grille then they're out of their minds.
 
Price points are often set by supply and demand. In the 60-70's, Ma Mopar was often #3 in sales behind GM and the Blue Oval. Less cars made. It costs the same to tool up a die weather it be any of the Big Three. Prices have to be higher for Mopar stuff partly because there's less of them to begin with.
 
tom999w said:
Each die set costs $100k to make? So because of that I'm supposed to feel sorry for them and feel good that my wallet is getting reemed.... Ok, got it... If these aftermarket companies think I'm going to pay $1000 for a repro grille then they're out of their minds.
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It’s just capitalism, stuff costs money to make and supply and demand sets the price. You don’t like it, can’t afford it, whatever- don’t buy it. That simple. If no one buys it either the price will come down or the manufacturer will go out of business or maybe both. Just how it works.

You don’t have to feel bad for the manufacturer because tooling is expensive, but I wouldn’t expect any sympathy from the manufacturer if you’re too cheap to buy their parts either.
 
Most of us long time Mopar guys and classic car guys in general, tend to be "frugal"! Conservative. I recall opther year when AMD was running out of a lot of A body sheetmetal, maybe to be discontinued was the word, and all of a sudden we said " wow got to go ahead and buy, I had been just not wanting to spend those $$ yet!"
 
I purchased a 67 Barracuda fastback early in 2023. It came with 1/4 panels, outer inner fenders, and trunk drops. Additionally I purchased rear valance and trunk floor. All AMD. Metal replacement was completed a few months ago, a ton of work but everything fit well. The left 1/4 was for a 68 so the sidelight hole needed to be filled. It also had a large mis shaped area forward of the wheel well which required most of a day with hammer and dolly to straighten. Apparently it was manufactured that way because there were no marks on the e coat and no signs of rework. As well the top of the panel immediately in back of the door, above the crown needed to be split reshaped up and out to match the door then rewelded. No idea if the panel or the car was the cuplrit but everyone knows the tolerances on these old a bodies were all over the place. So you're just going to have to make everything fit.

I didn't use the outer inners, because the left OE panel only required 2 small patches to repair rust and the right needed minor reshaping to correct previous collision damage. I was grateful for that because getting into the wheel well of fastbacks is not for the faint of heart. We mini tubbed my sons notch, it was a piece of cake. I had hoped to mini tub my fastback but I want to retain original interior so mini tubbing is not realistic.

All in all the AMD panels fit well.
 
I eas at Turkey Run Daytona Speedway yedterday and saw AMD booth and they had a couple if A-body qusrter panels. I remember Dart but not what year. Still worth chevking out if you have an A-body need.
 
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