I won't vendor bash because i'm sure it's probably frowned upon on this site. I will say that I recently threw about a grand into a reproduction lower front valance, fender extensions, and turn signal housings for my 68. It was a grand because I had my buddy's shop also paint it up and install it for me cause I was too busy to do it. He has restored literally hundreds of GM muscle cars (including many first gen f-bodies) and he had a TERRIBLE time with this junk. I could've bought a front valance from a Mopar catalog and it would fit about as good. Not even close. It's hanging on the car, but it looks ridiculous. He even test fit it together on the shop floor before he painted it and it seemed passable. But when it came to moving things around to fit it to the front clip, nothing lined up. Particularly around the turn signal housings and lenses. It was already painted and I couldn't return it. There's probably just 1 factory stamping these suckers out and everyone sells them, so just beware. It's bad enough that I'm looking for original GM parts and I'll through these in the corner and try to forget that I wasted over $900. I couldn't in good conscience sell them to some other poor sap. -paul

nos = expensive, but also cheaper by the time they fit everything to the car.

Bash away! It's welcomed when you inform us about bad parts. It is good to put it here first(like you did) to see if you are the 'lone soldier' or 'one of many' that have had trouble with the same part(s). When you are sure you can be specific it's a big help to put it in the dreaded 'Buyer Beware' column. Thanks!

I've been pretty lucky over the years, but all I can think about on this deal is that $900 could've been something like an Edelbrock cylinder head on the project I'm doing now. Also, this stuff fits so bad, I just can't believe they'd sell somthing like that.

What I don't get is that most of us would be willing to pay more for good quality. Some people pay extreme prices for NOS. Who decided we wanted cheap crap? I've seen some evidence they are trying to produce better quality repro parts. In the Rick's FGC catalog, on some things they offer the "imported" version and the "show" version.

That summarizes my reply very nicely.

I just don't understand why, after 40 years of technology advancements, so many repro parts are inferior to originals.

they can make parts for new cars and get premium prices and sell a s*it load of them.but to make better parts for the very few firebirds out there would be tough considering the set up cost.and sometimes even the nos parts don't even fit good on these 40 yr old cars due to the abuse they have endured over the years.remember that these cars were not assembled by robots in 67,68 and 69.and there are not alot of original parts left.i have thrown tons of them away due to the fact people are so picky they dont want to buy a part if it has a defect.in my experience;i have found that alot of my customers expect somebody pop out of the box and install the part for them.there is 2 sides to the coin.i would never invest my money in reproducing repo parts for a fgf cause it is too risky and not very profitable.me personally;i am extremely grateful for the junk they do make cause it is better than the alternative,,,,,,NOTHING.

Somewhere along the way, the steps of trial fit, mock-up, adjustment and reworking the metal was skipped. Even NOS GM parts, you wouldn't jump into final paint until you've assembled all the parts and inspected the fit. Someone with hundreds of restorations behind them wouldn't spray paint on parts right out of the box.

The issue with this valance is so bad that it would be obvious while bolting it up for trial fit. At least that's the case with the one I received and sent back.

This valance is one of the poorer reproduction panels I've seen. The lens opening is way smaller than the lens that needs to fit. It's not just off a small amount. I read the same complaint two years later on PY.



Since this panel is only used on 1968 Firebird, it's unlikely the errors will ever corrected. The market is too small. The part could be made to work with considerable effort. One would need to cut out the lens opening, make the opening wider and then weld it back. It would take considerably more work than repairing a damaged original valance.

These parts that get to wear the "GM Restoration Parts" license should be better quality. They should at least not need slicing and dicing to make them work. I can understand "spring back" issues on a panel where the angle of the bend needs some adjustment. It's difficult to accept folds being located in the wrong place by 1/8" to 3/8". How does that get a GM logo?

That's what you can buy. If you have nothing, I guess it's lucky to have something. This would be a difficult panel to make from scratch. If you have servicable parts and figured on avoiding body work by replacing all the old metal with reproduction metal, you'll be pretty disappointed.

Terry, I hope you're not throwing out any lightly damaged GM metal these days. Yesterdays blemished GM part is tomorrows treasure, in the right hands.

i have sent tons of it to the scrap yard.for what most people want to pay for it when it has rust issues,i wont fetch enough for it to pay my time to box it up.i deal with alot of real cheapskates big bird.i get people offering me 30 for a repo part i cant buy wholesale for 30.i am glad that most people on this site are nothing like that and i have found most here dont mind paying fair value for their parts.

Here's what I'm thinking Terry. When I got my Firebird, the lower valance was wrecked.



Then I bought the reproduction valance to replace it. That's when I discovered that my original valance wasn't wrecked after all, it was only blemished.

i see things the same way you do bigbird but most people dont want to spend the time to repair things.unfortunately we live in a "throw away" world now.people would rather buy new rather than repair the old

I agreee repairing originals is the way to go. Although repops are good when the cost of the repair is more than the orig and getting nos parts are really hard to get when there is limited quantity. I used repop quarters, tail and trunk lid there was some issues with all of them but they turned out nice.

68 400 h.o 4 spd to go!!

Boy, you're not kidding. I'd love to have that valance. I know that rough original is always better than repro. My car had a 67 front clip on it, so I didn't have an original 68 to rework. And, I was too lazy to seek out original stuff (shame on me). I've done this enough to know that you can't buy new and bolt it on for a perfect fit, but this stuff is so out of the ballpark, it's absolutely useless. In this case, I wanted to surprise my wife and put the correct 68 front end on my car and just ordered the repro stuff and had it sent to my buddy's shop. Now, I plan to locate original stuff and start all over. I'll sell my original 67 stuff (which ironically is perfect) to offset the cost.

That really sucks to hear how much you spent for bad quality metal considering how easy they are to come by on ebay or some of the used FB suppliers out their. I will try and learn from you.

When I bought my car three years ago, I thought I could replace any dented or rotted panel with a new one, have it bolt (or weld) right up and keep the project moving. I replaced portions of a front clip years ago after a deer hit and it didn't need any more skills than holding the handle on a 1/2" drive wrench. I know many joining this hobby comes in with the same notion, that any rusty or damaged panel should look better with new parts.

I ordered one panel, the rear window/trunk filler panel for my car where that original panel was rotted junk and the repair part looked pretty decent. It's one of the better reproduction parts I have seen. I ordered more reproduction metal and it was worse than disappointing.

I was astonished when the valance sent to me couldn't accept the signal lamps. Even worse, the part sent was used and returned by the last buyer who bolted it, found it couldn't fit and sent it back. His order information was under the shipping sticker with my name on it.

If you have no valance, as bad as that reproduction part is, it can be reworked to make it fit. You could cut it on the yellow dotted lines I show and correct it so it fits. This sort of repair is beyond the scope of most DIY repairs, but the restoration shops tackle much worse than this all the time while they put these old f-bodys back together. Many times panels are just beyond repair.



You would need to cut the lens openening, clamp it in correct relationship to the '68 quarter extensions, and butt weld them in the correct position. From there, the panel may need more correction at the flanges so it fits to the fender extentions. I never got that far.

One thing is sure. Original panels we would have thrown out a few years ago for needing too much repair work (like mine in the photo) are the treasures we have to work with today.

Terry, I think if you had a "wrecked panel" like mine in the photo, it's worth $30-$40 today maybe more. You couldn't give that away my wrecked valance for shipping costs just three years ago. I hope you can stow them away, because soon there will be nothing left to work with. I know at one time, selling such a panel would cause a lot of bad feedback, regardless of how detailed photos are. I think there is a market now for repairable parts we one thought were not worth the effort.

Good to know, my valance original 68 valance had some damage on the drivers corner where the signal lite fits in, fixed it but still not right. Was going to order a repro, but not any more...perhaps I'll just rework mine....

Terry, have ya got a good one???

you can take the repop valances, slot the holes for the fender extensions and have them work fine!! slotting is necessary and you cant get around it. several people have stated that here. theres no getting around it on the valances! nos or slotting is the solution but even nos will need work to make right versus removing the panel and slotting what you have 1/4" and re-installing them to have them fit just fine!!

I think there must be significant variations in the repro valance panel workmanship or accuracy. I know the hood's vary significatly, even for the coating. The valance repro part I received (two years ago) had the lens cut out smaller than the OEM lenses that were supposed to fit. This was not just an issue of alignment between the valance and the lens opening at the adjacent fender and drop-off, but the lens opening was much smaller than the lens it needed to accomodate.

Slotting the mounting holes wouldn't help that concern with the valance I received and rejected, because the lens opening was way too small compared with the lenses. The lens openening would need to be opened up to clear the lens. That is why I sketched in proposed dotted lines in the earlier photo. Those were possible cut/weld lines to section out metal to repair the opening size. The panel could be cut there, the lens opening moved and then rewelded and metalfinished. Of course the panel you receive will be different from what I received and we hope these panels get better through time following customer feedback.

Another panel might bolt up with only slotting the holes to allow some tweaking to match the adjacent fender. My repro valance wasn't close enough for the lens to fit without matching the fender and drop-off.

I would fix a damaged valance corner, as it's less work and will give a better result. The original valance is also much more elegantly shaped at the nose and has rounder/softer curves across the exposed panel with nicely formed openings and some gussetting. The repro looks kind of flat.

The best way is to buy your parts from Terry.

There is no doubt about that. GM parts fit your GM car.

or FirebirdBill....he also has excellent parts...