[gto19]

Hey guys , I figured I post this here in this section also because a lot of you have done restorations on your cars

I’m thinking of rebuilding the front end on my 67 . Have any of you went the NOS route? I’m wondering how great the nos rubber might be from sitting on the shelf all those years . I could find nos rubber on eBay for big bucks and would probably take me a year to gather everything or just go aftermarket. I’m thinking 1800 for nos rubbers or 600 for aftermarket.

[4zpeed]

If your going for a 100% concours restoration, "restored accurately, or as close to the way the original creator intended as possible". then you might justify NOS costs.

If you intend to present it to be judged or it is already in near original condition, or you just have a desire to use OEM/NOS parts then that would be the way to go.

Otherwise just consider aftermarket, I used Moog rubber everyplace except sway bar end links, they were polyurethane.


Frank

[dataway]

I'd say it all depends on what is more important, the appearance or the performance. OEM stuff was good, better than much of the aftermarket stuff, but there is premium aftermarket stuff that is as good as OEM I think, and still at a small fraction of the cost. I think the age degradation of NOS stuff is usually visible ... if it's not visible the part is probably fine.

I'd say hard parts are more important ... ball joints for instance, NOS are high quality but GM pieces have to be very hard to find. Unless you plan on riveting them in ( I did ) it won't matter much how they look, go for the best aftermarket you can find. I went with a "correct" looking ball joint from a reputable vendor ... but, who knows where that crap might be made or what quality it is.

A place like Rock Auto you can see the quality range of aftermarket stuff (at least I hope that is the case indicated by the prices).

If you plan on driving it a substantial amount I'd say aftermarket as the parts will wear anyway. If it's going to shows where on the road performance and wear is not much of a factor, go OEM if you can find them. ( I only mention performance with the OEM parts because of possible age related problems)