Impressive detailed posts Dataway, THANK YOU, for shining more light on the serious issues with this non fitting reproduction part.
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Originally Posted by dataway
I bought it from Ames about 20 years ago ... I think it is the exact same piece sold by every single vendor that sells them. They all specify the same changes necessary for 68. I have seen some places that list it for only 70-72 .... which is probably what they are actually intended for. I find it very disturbing that places are selling this as a piece suitable for 68 cars.
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Agree the "70" coresupport was reproduced by one entity, & then sold by all distributors, & retailers. With nearly every lower quantity reproduction sheet metal piece, there is one reproduction & that reproduction is sold by multiple wholesale entitys. Not sure why folks can't understand this. Partial floor pans, 3 piece trunk pans, quite high volume parts like '67, 68, 69 Camaro fenders & decklids, early Mustang sheet metal, YES, there are different manufactuting entities cranking out slightly different stampings of the same intended part.
On a part like the above coresupport, unless Diedindacorn went to the trouble in later production runs to correct the lower stamping & the jig/welding process, then one gets the same messed up half#ss mess. Could go on and on about reproduction sheet metal, have had quite a bit go through my hands, & the vast majority of it had issues.
On the above reproduction coresupport, it was marketed as a '69-70 GTO piece, which many of us realized could be easily modified to work on a '68. I've never read any early marketing press notating that it could be used on a '71 or '72 GTO or V8 LeMans (actually over a half a dozen different distinctive original coresupports over those applications). Many, however, have cannabilized the repro coresupport for the upright to scab into these later coresupports. Having restored quite a few original '70, 71, & 72 Pontiac A-body V8 coresupports, personally prefer to use a correct upright, & contininue by rebuilding/replacing the lower rail & if need be replace the battery area. On occasion, installing a different core support