Where to buy body panels? (1 Viewer)

[Roastchestnuts]

I'm about to have to buy a few things. Floor pans, rear corners, corner channels, at least. Even though they are a lot more expensive, I think I'm going to try CCOT this time. I wasn't really impressed with Real Steel.

I used CCOT for my rear sill. Like most said it was nice because they did have a weldable zinc coating on some of the items. It fit really nice too.

 

[Aussie Alaskan]

Both corner channels if not the entire rear quarters on 1975 FJ40. Depending on shipping costs I would consider others as well. One issue I keep running up against with large vendors is the only use overnight carriers which is ridiculously expensive for Alaska delivery. USPS if far cheaper but so many wont use them.

I use Carlisle Transportation up here in Alaska for any bulky or heavy shipments. They are the cheapest option I've found in the past. And most places will ship for free to their terminal in Tacoma WA. For a couple rear quarter panels the shipping from Tacoma to Fbks is $75.
Food for thought.

 

[suzuguru]

Thank you for your response.

We did the evaluation on the zinc coated option, from pure technical point of view. Also I used a lot of zinc coated sheet metals in my previous business. I was the founder and CEO of USSV, and we built Rhino GX and Rhino XT vehicles in small volume production. All our vehicle bodies were hand welded from zinc coated sheet metal. Using zinc coated sheet metals was not because we wanted , but because we had no choice. No matter how much protection the panel is, the rusty area is always at the welding zone. The welding process will damage any rust protection and produce smelly smoke. Most of the time in order to avoid the smelly smoke from the welding, operators always ground off the surface coating. After welding, we applied primer to cover it, but it will rust anyway after a certain period of time.

Actually in China, the zinc coated sheet metal is cheaper than the steel we are using. Using zinc coated metal will produce a lot of smoke during laser cutting and welding, and the cutting edge is not as clean. Another reason is that, even if we are using zinc coated sheet metal, we will still need to weld them together and still need to put in e-coating to protect the welding area from getting rust.

All I say here is just an explanation from pure technical point of view to put my two cents in. Nothing offensive.

To be properly welded, the zinc coating needs to be removed in that area anyway.

 

[EStein]

I believe you missed my threads check out www.tpautoparts.com, or call 1-800-815-8275, or email to sales@tpautoparts.com. One of my sales associates can take care of you. Tim

Just checked out your website. Intrigued! The complete painted body looks pretty awesome! look forward to some reviews coming in. Just a suggestion, it would be helpful if you had more pictures from different angles of your parts. Also I didn’t see anywhere to put in specific years? Could have missed it.

 

[EStein]

Just checked out your website. Intrigued! The complete painted body looks pretty awesome! look forward to some reviews coming in. Just a suggestion, it would be helpful if you had more pictures from different angles of your parts. Also I didn’t see anywhere to put in specific years? Could have missed it.

Sorry just saw your threads from earlier about your store opening.

 

[wimberosa]

I talked about a few CCOT panels in this thread at

Where to buy body panels?

Looking for body panel vendors. I found this page but it dates back to 2007 and most of the links don't work. The Great Cruiser Parts Link Thread - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/the-great-cruiser-parts-link-thread.191314/ Who do you guys prefer? Is there one that stands out as the best...

forum.ih8mud.com

Further update...I have now used their rear quarter panels and wheel wells for my 1979. Very pleased. Everything there is spot on
with some addendums that are pretty normal for body work.

1) You should add a small lip (approx 2") at the quarter panel lower attachment to the sill to pretty up the lower corners at the ambulance door area
2) There is a gap on the wheel well side at the rear door jam channel. Basically CCOTs door jam channel is not as deep front to back as the original channel..so you need to add a bit of material. I'm using CCOT door jam channels to replace original OEM and it looks like the wheel well side is designed to be used with the original jam.
3) In the fuel filler neck area, the wheel well top needs to be nipped out (or actually a bend added) to get the fuel filler pipe enough space.

I'd say the wheel wells were impressive. The ribs are exactly right and the measurements are spot on.
Next up is my floor panels. I have not ordered them and am pleased enough with CCOT that I'll probably go that route.....however the cost seems a bit out of line for such a small patch. Perhaps it was probably more effort to make...

If someone is really pleased with their driver side floor panel for the 1979+ years .... then please post.

EDIT: Curious, CCOT is NOT listing floor pans for 1979 right now.
I looked at TP autos parts and the picture isn't correct for a 79 floor pan nor is there an option (as others noted) to select a year specific panel. I'll be investigating real steel also.

 

[ginmtb]

@topnault did I miss where these parts are manufactured? Looks very interesting…

 

[ginmtb]

Where else we can build the parts with this level of details and with this level of price?!

Figured that much just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. I see your address is in Southern California - is that where you warehouse your parts? If so, next time I’m down there would love to stop by and see…

 

[wimberosa]

We took one of our passenger side of floor pans and put in our cab, we took the pictures of whole process for you to judge. What we have matches 100% to the original cab, otherwise none of them will go together. As for the tail of the floor pan, technically we can trim at any location to fit the needs, if this is what customers want. The pictures we put on the web store are the back side of the floor pans. I already instructed my team to take new ones and replace them

The thing that is throwing me off here on this pic is that there is an extra rib on this floor pan that isn't present on the 1979. Its that angled short rib
on this panel. When I saw that pic....i thought this must be for some alternate year (perhaps later) and was why I was trying to see if you had a "model year" option when purchasing through the web site.

 

[brian]

Ccot is the way to good for panels