New AMC body panels - the REALITY

Well now we do so it's time to change your thinking and get going on those projects sitting in garages barns and backyards all over the continent. I'm not immortal. When I stop making the parts that will be it for everyone. While they last new parts will drive up the value of your cars. I will authenticate your panels for you to show that quality parts were used to restore/repair your car via your VIN numbers.

Most of you are thinking you can get parts from Arizona and so on. Well as the owners retire and die off, so do the yards. What's left now is the stuff no one wanted previously.

Recently we opened up the rockers of an Arizona Rebel. It was seriously rusty inside. Only the 14 gauge steel #1 middle rocker was in good enough shape to be reused. So it's a crap shoot when you're buying used parts - especially rockers which are the most vulnerable of the important parts most of you need.

If you know your rockers are rusty, chances are they're also dangerous to the point it's not worth restoring the car unless you deal with them properly. 

The #1 middle rocker is a key component. If yours is beyond salvation, buy new ones. They are expensive to make. That's because the forming has to include lateral strength as well as longitudinal strength that is just not present in a homemade effort - you get one but not both. Insurance companies like to hear that you used authentic parts when you go to put your car on the road. Our parts are as good or better than original. 

Just so you know, it takes four hours for a pro with state of the art equipment to drill all the spot welds out of a rusted rocker without damaging the #1 middle rocker. Installing an Arizona rocker is actually more expensive in the long run and without the guarantee that it's any good. 

If you are doing rocker work, you can order the parts you need as there are a number of parts involved and they are all new and fit properly. NO rust. 

I'm bringing the 72 Javelin into the shop on Tuesday next. We will template that car as completely as we can including rockers and maybe even the trunk if possible. The trunk on this one is beat so not holding my breath on that but we'll see. We won't be dismantling it because the car is a loaner and I will be giving it back in better shape than it was when I borrowed it. 

If you have a car that could benefit from that process you might want to consider it. Especially if it's an AMX and it has brakes and runs. You have to get it to my house in Trenton, Ontario for that to work. 

Anyway, if I were you, I'd be saving my money and investing in some body panels. They won't get any cheaper than they are right now. For instance, floor pans are $150 right now for Rebels, Matadors and Marlins. That price will be going up by at least $25 each come fall.

So the bottom line is this: save your money and start buying parts while you can. This won't last forever. Put a sense of urgency into it.

I don't mean to sound abrasive but I also don't want to be having people moaning over not getting the parts when they were available. Almost all of us doing this are well past retirement age with all the usual infirmities. We don't have replacement people waiting in the wings. The next generation didn't think they needed these skills. 

When you send the money for your parts, the money is kept in an escrow account until your part is shipped to you. If for some reason your part cannot be supplied - like I died or someone else equally critical to the manufacture of these parts dies or becomes unfit to work, your money will be returned.

It's not like there's tons of orders at once to sort through and turnaround is only a week or two at this point. So I'd say the process is as safe as I can make it for you and as risk free as possible.

But again, the only way you can order any parts is to send me an e-mail. First come first served.

I do have a small waiting list and those people will be notified shortly.

We all want the same thing: to keep our AMCs on the road and track and be confident that the car is built with correct, safe parts. 

I'll go one more. If you know your car's rockers are not done properly, do them over. Better to be safe than sorry.