Choosing The Right Parts When Repair Damage On Your Car

It happens to everyone at some point. You are involved in a minor collision with your car, truck, or SUV, If the accident was minor enough, you might be able to repair the damage yourself but only if you have the parts available for the job, There are several places to get auto body parts for your car or truck and levels of quality that will be available to you.

Factory Replacement Parts

You can get the exact factory replacement parts for your car that will be a perfect fit and ready to bolt in place with very little effort. These parts are available from the dealer and while they are a little more expensive to buy, they are a higher quality part that is made to fit the car the same way every single time, They are typically coated in primer and just need to be scuffed for painting once they are on the car.

Aftermarket Parts

These parts are designed to fit like factory parts but they will be made from lighter steel and may not fit as precisely as the OEM part does. They are available at a lower price than the factory parts but you may have to spend a little time adjusting them to the car to get the fit you want. Also coated in primer and ready for paint, these parts are available at most auto parts stores or supplies and some online retailers.

Used Parts

While it might seem odd to some people, recycling auto parts has become a huge business in recent years and the parts are much cheaper than new parts. If you can find a car that has the body parts on it that you need and they are in good shape you can, in essence, replace the damaged sheet metal on your car with factory sheet metal at a fraction of the price of new. The parts will be painted in whatever color the car was that they were taken off of but the upside is that if you find a car that matches your car, you might get away without repainting at all.

New Old Stock

If you have an older car that is hard to get the factory sheet metal body parts for, you may be forced to use aftermarket pieces. If you are lucky enough to find some NOS (New Old Stock) parts for the car, you may want to grab them while you can. NOS parts are parts that were made by the factory and placed on a shelf to be used as replacement parts but never got used. They are old parts but in new condition, sometimes still in their original packaging. They are rare but if you find them, they are going to fit perfectly and look great on your car.

Contact a part supplier or repair shop, like Collisions Plus Performance, for more help.

Share