Reproduction Sheet Metal for 'A' Bodies

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Well ****! I got all excited about trunk extensions for my 66 Dart till I realized how old this thread was. Such a shame.
 
[QUOTE="scampman, post: 1971729279, member: 884



















The A bodies are starting to be noticed by collectors and it won't be long until their prices jump up in value. (scampman) [/QUOTE]
righttttttttttttt!
 
I saw some USA made unpainted steel trunk extensions on ebay for 67 up darts. They looked pretty decent but no drain hole in them. Easily remedied though.
 
moparmat2000 said:
I saw some USA made unpainted steel trunk extensions on ebay for 67 up darts. They looked pretty decent but no drain hole in them. Easily remedied though.
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If I could just talk anyone into cutting some steel dies for the 66 dart (should fit 63-66) I'd be happy. I have about 7 goto guys and none of them are willing (yet) to do it. I'll wear them down eventually or croak,one or the other I guess
 
I just went through all that. Early Dart quarter patches and wheel arches are made along with some floor pan pieces. Trunk floor extensions are a different story. Hell even China built ones would be better than nothing. I bought a pair from a member here but they were for Valiant and were too short and of course the ends were wrong. I ended contacting Desert Valley Auto Parts in Phoenix. They are absolutely the best to deal with. They sent me lower 1/4's and trunk floor extensions and they were damn nice pieces. That's what we have to do until somebody repops them.

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and lets face it, there is one co. that has been repoping sheetmetal many years and a drunk one eyed 6 yr old could make better stuff.

I sometimes have to wonder if any English wheel, a homemade metal brake, 1 good hammer, 1 vice, and a small book on how to se the friggin wheel would do s better!!?? ha OK throw in a small plasma cutter???
 
Yep
barbee6043 said:
and lets face it, there is one co. that has been repoping sheetmetal many years and a drunk one eyed 6 yr old could make better stuff.

I sometimes have to wonder if any English wheel, a homemade metal brake, 1 good hammer, 1 vice, and a small book on how to se the friggin wheel would do s better!!?? ha OK throw in a small plasma cutter???
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Agreed. I have a friend that is pretty handy at that stuff. He could have done mine but he needed the car to fit the homemade pieces to. I had already committed to the body shop. It's a great, hi tech body shop but they are not fabricators.
 
years back when I was elbow deep in these cars, 80's,, I had one guy that built street rods, and he could fab anything when he hadn't had his daily full case if beer yet). and he had hadly anything to se equipment wise, a steel able, a hammer, and a vice, maybe a few pieces of pipe!! ha
like the toolman said, hi tech body shops are not fabricators!! most just bolt and glue,on new nice straight perecft panels.....

I have seen examples of members on FABO that have fabed some extremely nice stuff!!
 
It can be done. I saw some nice pieces made by Alex Borges Br for his dart in brazil. Check out his build thread in the restoration forum. He didnt have a bead roller either, but still made his own beads in his new homemade fabricated floor pans. They dont have the availability of repop parts there, and shipping from the states is expensive for them, the only alternative is make what you need, repair what you got, or junkyard hunt for something better.

Thats how it used to be in the mopar world back in the 80s. I remember year one being the Go To guys. Their mopar catalog was maybe 1/8" thick. Now the internet is full of stuff for those cars. I got excited when they repopped dodge charger interior door panels for the first time in 1990 and bought a set for my 69 R/T.

I needed a spare tire well tire hold down for my barracuda, since nobody made one at the time i needed it, i made my own, among many other parts i have needed. Granted it took me 8 hours to fab up this part, and 2 years later AMD decided to repop it and sell it for $20. But what if they decided they didnt want to repop it?

Outer sheetmetal is tougher to do, but trunk extensions should be fairly easy. Those dart ones dont look to be that tough. Years ago i restored a 1960 el camino. Talk about a ***** to get **** for. I was lucky outer lower quarters were available, as well as floor patch panels. But thats about it. I was lucky that the rear quarter patches went high enough i could hide the seam under the body side trim

I had to rebuild the outer wheel houses on both sides, and fabricate my own trunk extensions, because they were rusted off. I didnt even have a template to go by. Thats when cardboard, or cardstock and a pair of scissors comes to the rescue. Easy to trim n shape to make a template to xfer to your steel.

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i'm not sure if the guy who first started talking about reproducing early A body sheet metal is still on this thread. but if he is, i would suggest you contact AMERICAN METAL DIRECT in cleveland, georgia and ask to talk to their marketing or manufacturing rep. i just had a 69 Cuda restored by AMD using a lot of their parts and they had problems sourcing some of the panels that they regularly stock.

my understanding is that AMD has its parts produced in South Korea. their parts are of a VERY high quality as compared to other resto-panel companies out there. i'm pretty sure AMD does not deal with very many pre-67 A body panels. if what you want to produce does not compete with what they are selling, i suspect that they would be willing to give you some advice in how to proceed with sourcing a manufacturer. craig hopkins is the shop manager for the resto shop. he might be able to help you.
 
My paint and body guy is a damn good at sheet metal and doesn't cut corners. When he makes my trunk extensions I might be able to convince him to make a few more sets for you guys for 66 darts and whatever other year and model that design would fit.

Not sayin it's gonna be cheap, but how much would you guys be willing to pay for a set?
 
Peyote said:
My paint and body guy is a damn good at sheet metal and doesn't cut corners. When he makes my trunk extensions I might be able to convince him to make a few more sets for you guys for 66 darts and whatever other year and model that design would fit.

Not sayin it's gonna be cheap, but how much would you guys be willing to pay for a set?
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I have thought about that myself. $100 a side would be great if they could be mas produced but body shops nowdays get $75-100/hour in my area. You can't spend much time making them. Metal stamping dies cost around $10 grand a pair and you would need 2 pair of dies. I bought a pair of early A body extensions from a member here. They were Valiant parts, too short and the ends were shaped differently. There seems to be a lot of early A guys building cars. The extensions would probably sell if someone would pull the trigger. Everybody needs them.
 
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