Body Panels

[ArdWrknTrk]

I received my Right Side Upper Wheel Arch Panel over the weekend from LMC. I have to say that I'm not pleased with it at first glance. The body lines don't seem to match up well

Tabco panels never seem to have crisp body creases. It's not that they are in the wrong place.

I imagine their dies are getting worn after all these decades of use.

But I thankfully haven't had to cut that high above the wheel arches and that leaves me with some nice annealed drops for other small patches/reconstruction.

Bare metal parts? I'd stay away from those if possible.

Tabco panels are galvanized, not bare.

I've never had a Ford replacement panel but the black primer found on many aftermarket panels is hot garbage that I make sure to strip off before before repriming with proper DTM 2K epoxy, then after patching I procede with sealer/surfacer.

[81-F150-Explorer]

I received my Right Side Upper Wheel Arch Panel over the weekend from LMC. I have to say that I'm not pleased with it at first glance. The body lines don't seem to match up well

Tabco panels never seem to have crisp body creases. It's not that they are in the wrong place.

I imagine their dies are getting worn after all these decades of use.

But I thankfully haven't had to cut that high above the wheel arches and that leaves me with some nice annealed drops for other small patches/reconstruction.

Bare metal parts? I'd stay away from those if possible.

Tabco panels are galvanized, not bare.

I've never had a Ford replacement panel but the black primer found on many aftermarket panels is hot garbage that I make sure to strip off before before repriming with proper DTM 2K epoxy, then after patching I procede with sealer/surfacer.

Galvanized is a different kettle of fish. Quite a few of the Factory Ford panels are galvanized, then primer used on top of that.

I've used a few Ford replacement parts. Tailgates etc... The black primer on those are very decent.

It does not surprise me, the quality of the aftermarket stuff.