Most of my articles, all of them I guess, have discussed painting, both single stage and two stage. Once the surface is prepared, paint is paint, regardless of the age of the car. This month I am going to talk about parts. Although the article has applicability to all cars, this is primarily about parts for cars that are 20 years old or less.

When a potential customer comes into the shop and wants his car painted, he or she generally wants the dents or dings to be removed. By the way, some customers have told me about “dings” and when I look at the car all I see is a car that is “crushed”. Sometimes they do not want them fixed and we do remind the customer that dents will be more obvious after the car is painted and shiny.

So then we look at the car and we have five choices, most of the time, to repair the car
1. New parts from the dealer
2. New parts from an “aftermarket” source
3. Used parts from a salvage yard
4. Remanufactured parts
5. Fix it and not buy a part

New parts from the dealer is pretty obvious: you get a “real” Ford, GM, etc part from a new car dealer. The advantage is they always fit correctly. They come well packaged so it’s less likely they are damaged in shipment. They are sturdier too. This particularly applies to bumpers; they are thicker. So what’s the problem? They are the most expensive type of part you can buy. If your car is in the older range or it’s a “soft” part, like interior trim, you may not be able to get a dealer part at all and therefore a dealer part is not an option.

New Aftermarket parts are parts that are not made by Ford, GM, etc. Judging by the packaging, they are made some guys in Taiwan or China. I do not think any of the aftermarket parts I see are made elsewhere. In any event, aftermarket parts are also named “Almost Fits” because they do not fit quite as well as the dealer parts and occasionally they do not fit at all. Most of the time, consumers can’t tell the difference once the part is on the car. Sometimes we spend extra time to get a part to fit or the difference would be very noticeable. Of course sometimes we just can’t make it happen at all. OK, so they don’t fit as well. Since they are not packaged well, we tend to reject quite a few parts. They are not as sturdy. So why use them? Because they are cheap. Aftermarket parts cost 40% to 70% less than the manufactures part. If your F250 Super Duty is a 2001, does it make sense to put on a $300 fender from the dealer when you can get one for $60? No. If the car was a 2009, it would be a different story. Finally, why is the savings range 40% to 70% so big? If your car is a Honda, they can make zillions of fenders and the price goes down. If you have a Mitsubishi Eclipse, there is less volume and the price increases. Got a Mercedes? Forget it. Nothing is available for low volume (and high priced) cars. Finally, aftermarket parts are available only for the likely areas to get damaged (remember, think volume). So you can get hoods, bumper covers, fenders, etc. No doors or decklids.

Used parts from the salvage yard. I have seen lot of people buy really bad parts from a salvage yard at high prices. In fact, many times I can get a new aftermarket part for less than one from the salvage yard. There is also a hidden cost of a salvage part as well. A consumer will bring in a part from the salvage yard, thinking they have saved money, and ask us to put it one the car. We say “yes” and then ask if they want us to fix it before we put it on. This is a difficult moment when the consumer understands they bought a part to avoid body work but bought a part that needed body work. With that said, salvage parts, if purchased correctly, with allowance made for any damage, are perfectly OK. It was a used part on your car that was damaged and we are replacing it with another used part. These parts are factory parts, fit well and cost less than new. Sometimes a salvage part is your only real choice regardless of condition.

This is a tangent but a good one. Be careful if you are buying parts over the internet. One customer had a new, less than three years old, Corvette. He wanted to put a different, racier, hood on it. So he purchased one over the internet and had it delivered to us. In this case the hood was a new aftermarket part. He spent pretty close to $1000. We called him and said his hood was at the shop. When he dropped of the car, we asked him if he wanted us to fix it. “What?” he said. This new aftermarket hood needed about 7 hours of body work to look OK on his car. He told us to do the work. And don’t even ask me about body kits.

Remanufactured parts are damaged dealer parts but made to look like “new”. Typically remanufactured parts are bumper covers, wheels and headlights. Availability of these parts is “iffy” because they need a “core” to repair. However we have had excellent results with these parts. Insurance companies used them frequently.

OK, the cost of the parts from most expensive to least expensive is
1. dealer parts
2. remanufactured parts
3. salvage parts, as long as they don’t need rework
4. aftermarket parts, after you finally get a good one
Note: the above is a generalization.

In terms of availability, dealer parts are available for all newish cars, then gets spotty as cars get older. Remanufactured parts are available for newish cars if there is a core to repair. Salvage parts speak for themselves. Aftermarket parts are available for popular models of cars and trucks, but only for areas that are more likely to get damaged.

Finally, how do we decide what to recommend to a consumer when they bring in their car? Here are the factors we think about
1. How old is the car?
2. What is the condition of the car
3. What is the value of the car?
4. What is the desired quality of the repair?
5. What type of parts are available for the type of damage the car has
6. Budget

Looks like I am out of room.. I finish up on parts next time and get into body work. As always, send mail or an email if you have questions or want to suggest topics. Actually, I hope you will because then I will know someone is actually reading this stuff.