Auto Metal Direct Fitment Issues?

[JeremyAB95]

I got some panels from AMD that ended up being too small in nearly every direction. The rockers sit so low that the transmission crossmember hovers about 1/2" too high where it's supposed to meet them. They're 1/4" too shallow in depth, so the door hangs out past them. Unsure if any of the other panels will fit, and not really that willing to take the risk. Anyone else run into major problems with fitment from their products before? And are there any other brands you can recommend that make panels for a 70 Duster? I looked at Goodmark, but they seem to only have bits and pieces of what I need. I can post up pictures of the jacked up rockers later.

 

[cannucky]

I've never done rockers but I bought a trunk floor ,both trunk floor extensions , rear crossmember , and a rear valance from them and no there were no fitment issue's at all , the stampings were perfect , are you sure there isn't an issue with the car itself ? maybe some previous work ? maybe you were shipped the wrong pieces I would call them .

 

[jos51700]

I have hoped for a long time that the typical Chinese Quality Decline Because The American QC Engineer Went Home syndrome would not apply to AMD.
I hope it's something simple like they're for a Volkswagen beetle or something.

 

[JeremyAB95]

I've never done rockers but I bought a trunk floor ,both trunk floor extensions , rear crossmember , and a rear valance from them and no there were no fitment issue's at all , the stampings were perfect , are you sure there isn't an issue with the car itself ? maybe some previous work ? maybe you were shipped the wrong pieces I would call them .

Talked to them on the phone just a few minutes ago and was told they don't have a tech department to help with fitment issues at the moment...

 

[Frnknsteen]

I bought pretty much a whole new body for my Charger from AMD (Everything but the roof skin, cowl, and panel behind back window). The body is going back together now, but we haven't noticed anything glaring. The only thing I have noticed so far is some of the gap angles around where the front fender meets the door are off and will need some tweaking to get a consistent gap, but other than that, they have looked pretty good.

Now,... I will say that after reading forums on a certain Charger forum, that some of the guys had to do a little mod work to get parts to fit right, but I think that is often the case with any aftermarket panels. Let's face it,... the bodies on these toys have seen 40-50 years of stress and aren't necessarily exactly how they were when new,.... even if they haven't been hit. Unit body cars flex and move over time....

EDIT.... Adding pic of Charger for fun's sake...

 

[oldmopardude]

I purchased an Inner fender extension for my 69' dart,the L shaped part that attaches to the trunk, and then out and down to the outer quarter panel. It was of very high quality, and every bit as good as the original.

 

[JeremyAB95]

Got some images of what's going on with it.

Those two little tabs stand off approx 1/2"

About a 1/4" gap here.

Previous one, viewed from straight on

Edge of door hangs over the rocker, viewed from straight on.

 

[JeremyAB95]

I purchased an Inner fender extension for my 69' dart,the L shaped part that attaches to the trunk, and then out and down to the outer quarter panel. It was of very high quality, and every bit as good as the original.

That seems to be the general consensus. They had the official Mopar seal of approval on them even. I haven't tried every panel, but am afraid to take that risk - plus I can't remove much more structure at the moment with the rocker already out.

 

[JeremyAB95]

I bought pretty much a whole new body for my Charger from AMD (Everything but the roof skin, cowl, and panel behind back window). The body is going back together now, but we haven't noticed anything glaring. The only thing I have noticed so far is some of the gap angles around where the front fender meets the door are off and will need some tweaking to get a consistent gap, but other than that, they have looked pretty good.

Now,... I will say that after reading forums on a certain Charger forum, that some of the guys had to do a little mod work to get parts to fit right, but I think that is often the case with any aftermarket panels. Let's face it,... the bodies on these toys have seen 40-50 years of stress and aren't necessarily exactly how they were when new,.... even if they haven't been hit. Unit body cars flex and move over time....

EDIT.... Adding pic of Charger for fun's sake...

View attachment 1715110679

Yeah, I've only ever heard positive things in them despite their origin in Taiwan. I did my research before buying and everyone had positive stuff to say about them, so I'm really perplexed why I am encountering issues. You don't think the entire body could have some sort of torsional tweaking going on that's shifted everything, do you?

 

[68383GTS]

Yeah, I've only ever heard positive things in them despite their origin in Taiwan. I did my research before buying and everyone had positive stuff to say about them, so I'm really perplexed why I am encountering issues. You don't think the entire body could have some sort of torsional tweaking going on that's shifted everything, do you?

I have never had any issues with them.

 

[dukeboy440]

I also ran into problems on my 74 dart. I bought a replacement quarter panel from AMD clearly marked and sold as fitting a 73-76 dart 2 dr. It was over 1 inch too short length wise and the marker lights were WAY off. The rear angle where the tail panel meets is also off about 10 degrees. I did report it to them, guy said he'd get back to me, I followed up and was told the quarters were now on back order, this was over 2 years ago, still on back order. I expected some fitment issues but being off that much, yeah that's a problem. Pics in my build thread linked below.

 

[Frnknsteen]

You don't think the entire body could have some sort of torsional tweaking going on that's shifted everything, do you?

My Charger did,.... My body guy was having issues getting everything in the rear to line up so he started measuring. I don't know if it was because of the previous body guy removing too much material without supporting, or just years of hard driving, but the whole chassis was tweaked (sagging in middle). He ended up putting it on the frame rack and straightening everything up and welding in frame connectors to stiffen everything back up.

Now,... Big difference between how much mine was pulled apart and just replacing a rocker, so I'm not saying yours is tweaked like mine was. Just saying it does happen.I'm not a body guy, so I'll leave how to fix it to others that are. I can say though that sometimes the bends aren't quite sharp enough on some parts compared to others.

For instance, on my Charger, I was looking at the rear valance corners and the rear valance and the bends on the valance corners were tighter than on the valance, so the valance had to be tweaked a bit to get everything to line up. I think they used a couple boards as dollies and some artistic body hammer work to tighten the bends a bit to get the pieces to match.

Is it me, or are you replacing more than just the rocker? It looks like there is also a new frame piece or inner rocker in there. How is the alignment on the bottom. Only reason I ask is the first guy who I had working on my Charger did a shoddy job of aligning the rocker and I had the same issue with the bottom of the door. Rocker had to be removed and reset. In the attached pics you can see how the back of the rocker was set so low there wasn't even anything to weld to.

Not saying you are doing shoddy work! (Please don't take it that way!!) Just asking how other edges lined up. Maybe the part needs a little tweaking before installing and doing final alignment.

 

[JeremyAB95]

I also ran into problems on my 74 dart. I bought a replacement quarter panel from AMD clearly marked and sold as fitting a 73-76 dart 2 dr. It was over 1 inch too short length wise and the marker lights were WAY off. The rear angle where the tail panel meets is also off about 10 degrees. I did report it to them, guy said he'd get back to me, I followed up and was told the quarters were now on back order, this was over 2 years ago, still on back order. I expected some fitment issues but being off that much, yeah that's a problem. Pics in my build thread linked below.

Man, that's a bummer... On the one hand I am glad to hear I'm not the only one having this problem and I'm not (that) crazy after all, but at the same time that's not cool that they got you too. What'd you end up doing about those quarter panels? I don't think I wanna even bother trying to fit the other panels so I can ship them back. These rockers need to be cut and modified to just get them to fit, so I'm quite afraid to try and hang a quarter panel on and find out that doesn't work either...

 

[dukeboy440]

Man, that's a bummer... On the one hand I am glad to hear I'm not the only one having this problem and I'm not (that) crazy after all, but at the same time that's not cool that they got you too. What'd you end up doing about those quarter panels? I don't think I wanna even bother trying to fit the other panels so I can ship them back. These rockers need to be cut and modified to just get them to fit, so I'm quite afraid to try and hang a quarter panel on and find out that doesn't work either...

I haven't done a thing yet. I've gotta replace the passenger side quarter as well but since the AMD's are not being made anymore, I have to go to a different company and once that one is in, i'll cut and modify the AMD quarter to fit as best I can.

 

[JeremyAB95]

My Charger did,.... My body guy was having issues getting everything in the rear to line up so he started measuring. I don't know if it was because of the previous body guy removing too much material without supporting, or just years of hard driving, but the whole chassis was tweaked (sagging in middle). He ended up putting it on the frame rack and straightening everything up and welding in frame connectors to stiffen everything back up.

Now,... Big difference between how much mine was pulled apart and just replacing a rocker, so I'm not saying yours is tweaked like mine was. Just saying it does happen.I'm not a body guy, so I'll leave how to fix it to others that are. I can say though that sometimes the bends aren't quite sharp enough on some parts compared to others.

For instance, on my Charger, I was looking at the rear valance corners and the rear valance and the bends on the valance corners were tighter than on the valance, so the valance had to be tweaked a bit to get everything to line up. I think they used a couple boards as dollies and some artistic body hammer work to tighten the bends a bit to get the pieces to match.

Is it me, or are you replacing more than just the rocker? It looks like there is also a new frame piece or inner rocker in there. How is the alignment on the bottom. Only reason I ask is the first guy who I had working on my Charger did a shoddy job of aligning the rocker and I had the same issue with the bottom of the door. Rocker had to be removed and reset. In the attached pics you can see how the back of the rocker was set so low there wasn't even anything to weld to.

Not saying you are doing shoddy work! (Please don't take it that way!!) Just asking how other edges lined up. Maybe the part needs a little tweaking before installing and doing final alignment.

View attachment 1715110700

View attachment 1715110701

Everything up top was fine, it was the rockers (inner and outer), lower part of the quarters, and the floor that were chewed up. I got the full quarter panels because I wanted it to go together where these cars were originally welded together without being all patched together and whatnot... But it looks like if I wanna use these AMD panels they may need to be cut and modified to fit anyway. All the measurements seemed to check out and be the same between sides, but maybe I could get a second opinion or have them check for squareness. Hoping it's just a bad stamping and needs a little modding, and the rest will be fine. But I don't know if I am willing to find out by hanging these panels and throwing away the possibility of returning them...

 

[JeremyAB95]

I haven't done a thing yet. I've gotta replace the passenger side quarter as well but since the AMD's are not being made anymore, I have to go to a different company and once that one is in, i'll cut and modify the AMD quarter to fit as best I can.

What's this other company you're looking into?

 

[dukeboy440]

What's this other company you're looking into?

I'm looking at a few, Goodmark, Sherman etc. but all those have horror stories too. I really want a matching AMD quarter so at least the same fix can be used on both sides. But AMD no long sells them

 

[JeremyAB95]

I'm looking at a few, Goodmark, Sherman etc. but all those have horror stories too. I really want a matching AMD quarter so at least the same fix can be used on both sides. But AMD no long sells them

Might just end up modifying them to fit too. Hopefully the rest of the junk isn't as off as these rockers. Thank you for the insight.

 

[Mopar Tim]

Is it me, or does it look like if you align the door bottom, you get the gaps on top to close up?

 

[JeremyAB95]

Is it me, or does it look like if you align the door bottom, you get the gaps on top to close up?

How do you mean? Try to move the rockers further outboard or up, or do you mean adjust the door itself?

 

[awsig]

I had issues with left and right AMD quarter skins being to short. (Front to back) about 1/4 inch.

 

[Mopar Tim]

How do you mean? Try to move the rockers further outboard or up, or do you mean adjust the door itself?

I am not there, but maybe pivot the bottom out? Till the bottom of the door lines up, the gaps at the top should close as well. BUT I am not there, I can't see everything.

 

[Mopar Tim]

If you are going to use these parts, you need to adjust the areas you can see, the door bottom comes to mind. then make the rest fit however you can. Hammer comes to mind.

 

[Coffee&Cars]

I was shocked a few years ago. I saw a box of AMD parts. It said "Made in Tiawan"

 

[dukeboy440]

I was shocked a few years ago. I saw a box of AMD parts. It said "Made in Tiawan"

yep, this has a sticker on the inside saying the same thing. Same with the front fenders on my w200 from AMD