Aftermarket Sheet Metal Body Parts

Many restorers feel that aftermarket sheet metal body parts from the likes of AMD, Dynacorn, Goodmark and Sherman are poor quality. There is a perception that these US marketers stamp their own metal here in the US and then sell to the market. The truth is that most of the aftermarket body metal is stamped in Taiwan by CHL Automotive, TriPlus, Golden Legion Automotive Corp, Shyi Tan Enterprises CO LTD and He Qing Industry CO LTD. These metal stampers sell to most of the US marketers on a non-exclusive basis.

These companies have been around for years and produce a wide variety of universal shaped sheet metal for many different applications. They make dog-leg shaped patch panels, rocker panel shaped patch panels and wheel arch shaped patch panels among others. These are sold to body shops as a cheaper alternative to new or salvage OEM replacement parts. Body shops typically cut these into the proper shape and weld them in place primarily to repair rust damage.

These knock-off crash parts were the subject of a famous Illinois lawsuit that resulted in insurers no longer mandating the use of aftermarket parts in their repair operations. The main reason for this was that the OE look-alike body parts had severe fit issues; tabs were off, side maker light holes weren't tapped in, etc.

Tags:automotive sheet metal | automotive sheet metal panels | bending parts