Crate Camaros
"The release of the reproduction Camaro body was really a watershed moment for this hobby," Kevin says. "The fact that Dynacorn was willing to invest a great deal into the project up front combined with the great reception the cars have received means the hobby itself is on very firm ground for the foreseeable future. Musclecars are the new '32 Fords. They've become timeless. It used to be that musclecar enthusiasts were the people who grew up around them. We're now seeing younger generations getting involved with musclecars, and a fresh supply of bodies will do wonders for the hobby. As for the bodies themselves, the best thing about starting with one is the fact that you don't have to invest a lot of time and effort into building a good foundation for your project. Affordable original bodies in really good shape are gone. The good ones have been snapped up and now command a premium. What are left are rough cars or cars that have seen the ravages of time and abuse, and it takes a sizable investment just to get these cars into usable shape. With a reproduction body, everything is solid, fresh, and new. The build can begin as soon as the body arrives, instead of having to spend untold amounts of time and effort doing metalwork."
Reproduction Parts
"Reproduction sheetmetal is just like everything else in the world," says Kevin. "There are good and bad examples. Generally speaking, we've seen tremendous improvement over the years in quality and fit. That's not to say all reproduction metal will fit like OEM parts, but some of it will. Any reproduction item is only as good as the tooling used to make it, and the efforts of the manufacturer to get it right. Fortunately, we now have a number of companies that go the extra mile to get stuff right. Part of this is because tooling techniques have improved, but mostly it's due to the fact that NOS parts are getting harder to find, and thus more expensive, which leads to more investment in creating quality reproduction pieces. Think about it this way: If NOS fenders for a particular car were everywhere for $100, there wouldn't be much incentive to build a quality reproduction of that item. On the other hand, if an NOS fender costs $1,000, then there would be solid demand for a good reproduction unit, which justifies investing in good tooling and better quality control. As time goes on, we expect the quality of reproduction sheetmetal to continue to improve."
Repair Or Replace?
There's something to be said for trying to keep a car as original as possible, but unless you're doing the metalwork yourself, it may be more cost effective to replace a body panel instead. According to Kevin, if there is a quality replacement component available, it really doesn't take much to warrant replacement. "Good metal guys can do wonders with a bad piece, but it might take them quite a long time to get it done, and that can get very expensive," says Kevin. "If we're talking about an aluminum fender on a lightweight car, there's really no choice but to let them do their thing. However, for something else, it may be cheaper to replace the panel than having someone spend a large amount of time working on the original, even if that means finding an expensive NOS item if the quality of replacement panels isn't to your liking."