Watch out for aftermarket quarter panels from this one supplier in Houston

I grabbed a pair from a new distributor last week and they warped after I welded them in. The metal gauge was thinner than OEM by like 0.5mm and I didn't catch it until the filler started bubbling. Had to rip them off and redo the whole job on Saturday which cost me 6 extra hours. Anyone else run into issues with these repop panels lately?

4 comments

4 Comments

reese_nelson27d ago

That .5mm difference sounds about right for the cheap stuff coming out of that Houston supplier's batch last month. Did you happen to check if your panels had that weird oily film on them before welding because that's usually a dead giveaway they skimped on the coating too. I heard a few guys on another forum saying the whole container from that distributor had inconsistent metal thickness across different panels.

wells.karen27d ago

Did you notice the same cheap finishing on that batch too @reese_nelson?

oscarc531d ago

Wait, have you guys ever run into that issue where the coating feels almost tacky, like they used the wrong kind of primer? I had a buddy in Amarillo get a whole pallet of those panels last spring, and he said the oily film was so bad it messed with his plasma cutter settings for days. He ended up having to wipe down every single sheet with acetone before he could even tack weld them. It was a nightmare because that supplier kept blaming humidity in storage, but we all knew it was just bad manufacturing.

johnson.faith1d ago

Wait, that oily film thing again? I thought that was just a fluke with @oscarc53's buddy in Amarillo, not something showing up on multiple batches. Idk, maybe it's just me but a .5mm difference AND a tacky coating sounds like that supplier is cutting every corner they can find. I mean, I've dealt with bad primer before but having to acetone wipe every sheet before welding would drive me crazy.