Restore the old or buy new parts? Something to consider carefully.

[da_bears_da1]

Just read this thread and have to offer my 2 cents. I have followed Lugnutz build and know that he does good work. My build is not a restoration but instead a resto mod. I am doing the full frame off build but wanted some things changed. My truck came with a 350 motor and TH400 tranny so the mod side was started already. I bought my truck sight unseen off eBay and that was one of the dumbest things I could do.

On a number of my parts I had no choice but to go with repop. I have tried to buy good used OEM and NOS parts, they are sometimes very hard to find and/or very expensive. For example, I was able to find a OEM hood out of Arizona; when I started working on my original I found that the front support braces were completely rotted away. I also drove to Kansas and picked up a set of doors from a fellow forum member, again mine were gone. I have spent a lot of time patching and repairing where I could. I spent 4 months on the cab patching and filling/priming.

On the repop side, I used repop floor pans, inner and outer rockers and cab corners when fixing the cab. (seems the only choice) I tried to find NOS or good front fenders and what I did find was extremely expensive. So I have repop front lower fenders, inner fenders, radiator support and grill support. I will also be buying a whole new bed from Mar K, they have a great reputation and its all made to order in Oklahoma.

I do think we all have to make our own choices based on what we are after. I am jealous of the folks that can find good used parts in the area. Trust me, there is nothing like that in Northern Illinois. If I could find good used parts I would go with that first. If my starting point is not usable, I have and will go with repop. I will be posting on my build thread how the front end came together with all the repop parts. It did work and looks pretty good. Yes there was some cussing and sweating to get them together along with some mods to get them to work.

One other repop part that I did use was a door skin. When I got the used doors from Kansas the driver's side had been hit. I tried patching it but the metal had been stretched from front to back so I went with the repop skin. It surprisingly was the best fit for a repop part. Took 2 days and the door skin was done. I will comment on the other thread about experiences with the different vendors but will start that off with the point that almost all of the repop sellers buy their parts from 2-4 companies in Taiwan.