Another bang up job by the aftermarket

[87we410877]

Another abortion by the aftermarket world. These are the aftermarket side markers. They don’t fit. They’re about 1/4” off from landing on the tab for the screws. And yes, these are original bezzels. Quite frustrating.

Thank god for spool fool. He has literally been the only one who makes something aftermarket that fits on our cars. So thank you for that.

 

[silver/black]

where did you buy it?

 

[Slick87gn]

Aftermarket getting worse and worse

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Aftermarket getting worse and worse

Entropy.

I had an interesting talk with one of the guys that was upper-middle management at GM back in the 1980s. He was showing a friend of his, ( and me) all the spots on the body of the car where they had to do shimming and bodywork at the factory in '87 that wasn't necessary in 1978, because the dies used in the stamping machines were completely worn out.

The same would go for the injection molds used to make plastic parts. What's happened is GM sold the tooling after shutting the plants down, and the aftermarket bought it and used to to make replacement parts.

Now thirty years onward, the Chinese are making the parts, but the original tooling is all but destroyed by now just from use. So they make molds from sample parts... sample parts made from worn out tooling. It's like a copy of a cassette tape. Each generation of copy gets slightly worse. There's no way to really stop that. Somebody's going to have to get their hands on a virgin, near perfect original part, disassemble it, scan it into a computer, fix the defects, and start 3D printing them.

But a side marker light made with that process would probably cost you $500.

 

[87we410877]

Entropy.

I had an interesting talk with one of the guys that was upper-middle management at GM back in the 1980s. He was showing a friend of his, ( and me) all the spots on the body of the car where they had to do shimming and bodywork at the factory in '87 that wasn't necessary in 1978, because the dies used in the stamping machines were completely worn out.

The same would go for the injection molds used to make plastic parts. What's happened is GM sold the tooling after shutting the plants down, and the aftermarket bought it and used to to make replacement parts.

Now thirty years onward, the Chinese are making the parts, but the original tooling is all but destroyed by now just from use. So they make molds from sample parts... sample parts made from worn out tooling. It's like a copy of a cassette tape. Each generation of copy gets slightly worse. There's no way to really stop that. Somebody's going to have to get their hands on a virgin, near perfect original part, disassemble it, scan it into a computer, fix the defects, and start 3D printing them.

But a side marker light made with that process would probably cost you $500.

Or they can just use a factory set up to mock it up and make sure it fits, trim or modify the mold, then mass produce. Not just assume it’s going to work. . Just an idea.

 

[87we410877]

where did you buy it?

Ide rather not say. A vendor here but it’s not their fault. It’s goodmark or whatever .

 

[Hahny]

Aftermarket getting worse and worse

Gotta love it.

 

[robert duncan]

Wait 'til you need tail light lenses. What? A Buick ... what?

 

[forcefed3.8's]

I do collision repair, and am forced to use aftermarket parts all the time. Overall, they have gotten better over the years.

 

[87we410877]

I do collision repair, and am forced to use aftermarket parts all the time. Overall, they have gotten better over the years.

On g body Buick’s? I’m not talking snap together cars like today. Lol

 

[87we410877]

Wait 'til you need tail light lenses. What? A Buick ... what?

Lol. I can only imagine what the aftermarket headlight bezzels are like. Probably gaps all over on the header panel

 

[robert duncan]

Lol. I can only imagine what the aftermarket headlight bezzels are like. Probably gaps all over on the header panel

Well, as a matter of fact I just got a set of chrome ones. They look very nice. Chroming looks good. Unfortunately I haven't installed them yet, so I can't respond to your critique, but I got them from CARS, a vendor that sells thousands of vintage Buick parts. I doubt they would sell junk that doesn't fit.. I don't think it's so much the quality of what we can buy, I think it's the scarcity of parts we need specifically for our very popular TRs and Regals in general. Need some obscure part for some Chevy that hardly anyone owns, and you'll have a few choices. Big deal, you can buy new GN emblems from Classic Industries. Whoopee doo.