[TedRamAirII]

Replacing my Tail Panel. Bought one from NPD its a Tri Plus brand, does not fit well. I'm concerned around the corners where the top meets the quarter panel. The contours are off at the weatherstrip channel and just does not line up well. I want it to at least appear OE. Any other brand experience? I surmised that AMD =Tri Plus. Dynacorn? Goodmark? OER scares me, never saw anything with OER on it that was worth it. Cant tell what brand The Parts Place sells? Any one with a good experience with a certain brand? One thing I thought was odd, Real Deal Steel lists AMD as being 18ga, well AMD is Tri Plus and its 22ga. There cant be that many different plans stamping out Tail Panels? can there? I mean its not like Camaros ,LOL

[1968firebird455]

There may be 2 die sets out there but most likely only one. I have used the dynacorn ones before and they can work with some 'adjustment' to the quarters as well as the tail light fitment and the overly tight weather strip channel. For a driver it's workable, for a rare six figure show car the best option is an NOS or original cut off.

[HoovDaddy]

Every 1st and 2nd gen F body I've done has had similar issues and every time I've bought 2 tail panels to get one that fits. You could buy another today from NPD and it might fit totally different. I had this discussion with Goodmark when they were the only game in town 20 some years ago and they told me that their sheet metal is inspected in a jig after every "x" amount of pieces off the line. The most times of any other brand. The other brands coming off the same line are inspected less and the cheapest, not at all. Problem is, the stamping dies wear out and don't get repaired on a timely basis.

It's a crap shoot. I just work with what I get, understanding that it may take "XX" hours of slicing, dicing, welding, leading to get it to fit. And nobody will ever be able to tell once you get good at it. Just make sure the tail light housings fit, the weatherstrip fits, The latch fits and latches properly, and the bumper fits before you finish welding.

I also think of it this way, 30 or 40 years ago when these cars were rotted out the first time, none of this reproduction stuff was around. We had to hunt through pages of Hemmings ads (in a book) to find used or NOS stuff. Now almost any part is just a click away.