Quality of Replacement Body Panels

[mowgli]

I'm about to sort out the lower door skins on my nova, and i'd appreciate any comments about the relative quality of different brands of replacement panels.

[novashed]

if you want a relatively good fit go with GM, but if on a budget you cant go wrong with pattern panels, but be prepared to fettle with em to make them fit, wings are a particular pain when they are pattern versions but a hell of a lot cheaper than vaux, hope this helps

[Ben3042]

Just go to a local vauxhall dismantlers and pick up a whole door for about ?30

Much easier than messing around with skins :D

[mowgli]

My car started out as a 1.0 mk1 base model, and has no rubber strips etc, and the glass has been security etched. it is also a lot easier to get the bottom 4 inches repaired & repainted than to refit a whole door, get it repainted & swap the glass & locks, only to have it rust out in the near future.

[novashed]

i would be more inclined to do what ben has said, i just whacked two seconhand doors on, they only cost me 20 quid each, had em sprayed when the whole car was done, not a big job at all to change glass and locks, dont be lazy :wink:

[Wiggie]

the mans made his decision. but to be fair m8 if its the bottom 4 inches. you could just use sheet metal and bend it into shap....as your going to have to do with skins anyway? good lucky anyway.

iv bought a fair few parts using sel-imperial (discount for mentioning this site) and i havnt had too many issuses with miss fits....but iv had to do a little bit of bending with it all. not to labour intensive

wigz

[mowgli]

the car is absolutely mint apart from the door bottoms, it was owned by 2 old ladies before me ( I have proof) and has only covered 7800 miles from new, it has covered less than 200 miles in the last 5 years, it would be a shame to carve it up.
mind you, it didn't stop me fitting a 1.6 gte lump, but all of the holes lined up ok, so I don't feel guilty about it.
i'll try sel imperial.

[mowgli]

I've only been able to find Hadrian panels door skins, sel - imperial don't list them, and their on-line catalogue appears slightly incorrect.

[Mark]

In what way?

[mikeoxford]

vaux all the way.

i tried a pattern part on because i wanted to do it on the cheap :lol: but it was apalling!

[krobinson]

Pattern parts fit like a bra on a man :lol:

Keotj