I'm in the middle of a resto with my 70 GTO convertible, and had to replace alot of the sheetmetal. I looked into buying repo panels because they were available and reasonably priced, but was warned against using them because they require ALOT of work just to get them to fit right. The guy who did my body work said he would much rather work with dented, rusted original GM sheetmetal, so I found the doors and trunk lid from a Lemans in the junkyards. The fenders and endura bumper I bought from a guy who had extra parts from his 70. I bought the valance panels new from Ames. They were original GM valances, and this is one time where original GM let me down. The rear valance was nice, but the front valance was junk. The last run of 70 front valances had some issues. The front filler brackets were spot welded in the wrong position, and the panel was bent wrong and doesn't fit correctly where it meets the left fender,(and no, it's not the body work that was done to the fender). I stilll have the original valance panel and it fits nice, and when compared to the NOS panel, you can see how it was bent differently where it meets the fender. The NOS supplier turned the original GM part into a "repro like" piece of garbage. Anyway, I hate to see what happened to your GTO, especially since it was so original. I'm not sure why your attitude was called into question - I know if my GTO was rear ended by someone who shouldn't be driving anymore, I'd be plenty upset. It's time for the old guy to use "Dial a Ride". I don't have much in the way of parts to offer, except for some rear bumper brackets. I have a rear bumper also, but it would need to be rechromed, and I'm not sure if it's perfectly straight. I would be willing to give you the parts - you would just pay for the shipping. If you need the parts, let me know, I would be happy to part with them.
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