Overdue restoration starting on '69

[72 72 SS]

Hi Guys, first post.
This was my first car that I bought at 16 which was 42 years ago. At the time I had new GM panels hung and painted Hugger Orange as original but with the Z/28 stripes. It was originally an SS350, 4spd,a/c car. Original 350 was gone but the m20 and 12 bolt made the trip. It made it thru high school and the party years while I bought other distractions and worked on them. I have a pretty complete set of GM metal, I think the left fender is the only outside metal needed. Luckily it leaked enough oil over the years that the underside is pretty good for a New England car.
My main question right now is to find out if it's ok to ask about manufacturers by name? Example would be if Company "ABC"' weatherstripping/floor pan is worth the extra money?
Thanks in advance, hope I chose the right forum.
Mark

[KurtS]

Welcome! No issues with those type of questions.

[KevinW]

Personally, #1: I would fix an original GM fender #2:pony up the $1500 for a NOS one, #3: only as a last resort, go with repro (but you will be breaking spot welds and doing a lot of cutting and filling to get it to fit IMO). 

[David K]

Kevin is correct. Used GM is much better fitting. There is a section here about verifying your sheet metal is GM.

[169INDY]

^^ Correct.
Exactly what I did on mine.
My Body man warned me about contour issues with various repop metal.

[72 72 SS]

Thanks guys, 100% on fixing the original. I learned that on the 67 Chvl 1/4 years ago.
I picked up most of the GM metal over the years just in case. There are 3x L fender, 2 are NIB, 1 rt, both rear 1/4's valances etc. The one that shocked me was a pair of NIB GM door skins I got last year, never seen them before. One of the better ways to guarantee that you won't need something is to have a spare.
The floors aren't horrible but now is the time to do them. The areas around the seat are fine, mainly rear foot area and front foot about 2 inches up.
The middle of the trunk pan is thin, where it goes up and out is good. Which brand would you recommend for these items? Money isn't the main concern with this, fit and quality are.

The pic is after we brought it home and before we starting tearing in to it. Who knew you could put that much Bondo on a car?

[Stingr69]

My advice is to cut the minimum out of the floor pans as needed and keep any original metal you still can use.  The repro stuff is rather thin and its easy to loose structural/dimensional integrity when you replace the whole shebang at one time.

I got some crappy outer rear wheel housings years ago that DID NOT fit when it was time to fire up the MIG. Too late to return.

[David K]

A friend of mine backed in the drivers quarter panel on my 68, and told me to fix it and he'll square up with the body shop. I dropped the car off, and a week later, the owner called me and was rambling on about how he should have insured the concrete floor in his shop and wanted to charge me more. What? He said he heard the panel it hit the floor with a big thud/bang when it was cut off the car, and thought another car fell of some jack stands. 🤦‍♂️😆. In the "Exterior" section on this site, there is a part that shows where the trunk lid run number stamp is, and as stated, used GM will always fit better than aftermarket. IIRC, Rally Sport fenders have extra brackets and are not the same.
Definitely show some more pictures

[72 72 SS]

David
You reminded me of backing in to my buddy's 68 on a downward slope driveway. All air shocked up the back window of mine was good for 6" FOV on level ground. Perfect imprints of 69 bumper guards on his upper valance, no other damage.
Managed to cut the rear window out yesterday, the rubber blocks weren't used so it slid down. Metal was better than I expected.
Today's question is on Steele rubber and their weatherstripping. As an example on HB city the roof rail WS is around $60 and it's $168 on Steele. Frankly the $60 scares me because the vendor is making it for 20-30$. In general is the Steele product better or do they just charge more? The extra 100$ doesn't bother me if it's a better unit. I need to get WS for the '72 Burb and was looking at Steele for that also.

[camaronut]

Check this out:
http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=21722.0

Go with the ones from Precision.....they are sweet.....