J Body Hardest parts to find

[DCAspen]

What are the hardest J-Body parts to find?

 

[cormir]

Any thing relating to the interior, weather strip, or exterior body panels. Pretty much the whole car minus the drivetrain. Yes, you MAY be able to find parts, but they are usually in no better condition than the parts you already have. If you DO happen to find replacement parts, they will cost you more than the car is worth.

 

[kkritsilas]

I think one one of the hardest to find in decent shape are the rear fender caps. There seem to be a lot of cars that have disintegrated fender caps, and not many donor cars left. That they are different between the Cordboa and the Mirada is also another limiting factor. I can't speak to the Imperial fender caps, if it has them, as I have never seen them.

I don't know if windshields would also be considered body parts, but they are not easy to find, either.

Kostas

 

[Bruceynz]

Who does have windshields to suit a 83 Cordoba? My insurance company in NZ will insure everything except the front screen.

 

[Jack Meoff]

I know up here in the great white north....one of our more reputable auto glass places will make me one. Custom is pricey but it's new glass.

Not sure what you have available down under...

 

[DCAspen]

I'm working on trying to get a J-Body Cordoba parts car,rear fender extensions are toast along with the bumper filler.Body looks decent,Burgandy interior buckets,console,tuff wheel,CB radio,Car has been sitting for years.I'll update when I get more info.

 

[Bruceynz]

Hmmmm we use to have a place who made windshields here but they closed down years ago, what do you think it would cost to get one made?

 

[Jack Meoff]

Hmmmm we use to have a place who made windshields here but they closed down years ago, what do you think it would cost to get one made?

Not s clue....especially to get one to there.
It was a year ago but I think I remember the guy saying around $300 to put one in my Fifth Ave.

 

[kkritsilas]

My last quote was $795 out of a guy in Arizona. He said he would get the exact tint, as well. Then he wanted $500 to ship it to Calgary. I was still thinking about it, as it was the only positive response to trying to find a windshield for my 1982 Mirada at that point. Then he says that he can't guarantee that it will get here in one piece, as he would not take responsibility for the shipping, and shipping companies won't either. At that point, looking at $1200-1300 for all costs (plus duty and GST) for a possibly cracked windshield, I declined.

Kostas

 

[Bruceynz]

I better try and get windshield insurance from somewhere

 

[kkritsilas]

Bruceynz:

I don't know how things are in NZ, but in Calgary, windshields crack a lot, and often. I don't know if the wild weather variation are doing something to the glass, or if it is just the junk all over the roads (specifically, stones and gravel). What I can say is that windshield replacement is a big business in Calgary, far more so that in Montreal (where I learned to drive, and drove for the first 10 years of being a driver). I also know that I have been having a very hard time trying to find a replacement windshield. So far, I am up to 70 people I have called, including local "Mopar Parts Finders", to no avail. I have had responses like "Yes, the windshield is not cracked or broken in any way. It is tinted a light green with a darker blue band at the top. We don't ship windshields. Nobody ships windshields, they would crack" from a junkyard/recycler in Oregon (part of the US). Other parts of the country or the US may have windshields; just relating my experience.

Kostas

 

[Cordoba1]

Agreed about the fender extensions. The reproductions are awful. My body guy fixed mine by fiberglassing what was left of my old ones, and they turned out great. Other parts difficult to find: Un-cracked moldings that go across the tops of the doors. They do pop up on eBay and Brad's, but at astonishing costs. The brushed-aluminum dash pieces are somewhat hard to come by. The mechanicals, however, are pretty much a dime-a-dozen.

 

[Cordoba1]

Oh... Both the 10-Spoke and 5-Spoke Alloy wheels aren't the easiest to find, either.

 

[Bruceynz]

The pieces that go above the doors that always crack, how hard would it be to have a cad one drawn up and one CNC out of alloy, no idea on cost as never had anything to do with CNC before, also is 3D printing evolved enough or cost effective enough to look at getting parts made? Anyone's thoughts?

 

[Bruceynz]

Kostas

Got windshield insurance, its steep though $400 excess but sounds cheaper then me trying to find one, they will have to suss it.

 

[Cordoba1]

Re 3D Printing: It's coming soon, but the current (reasonably-priced) units only produce small pieces. They also don't produce the smoothest output. They're good for prototyping, but not yet good enough for interior-quality parts. In short order, though, they'll be there.

 

[kkritsilas]

Surface finish should be easy enough to clean up afterwards by hand if a reasonably close copy of the basic structure can be 3D printed. Biggest issue is reproducing the wood grain-ish pattern. I have heard it described as "Featherwood" but to be honest, I don't think it is a read life wood grain. I have a couple of guitar hand builder friends, and they don't think this is actually a copy of any natural wood. I did look up featherwood, and it is supposed to be a tree that grows in some parts of Australia. I think, if there is a way to get a stable structural support, that it would be easiest to just veneer a dark grained wood, and then urethane coat the venner. More than likely would last a lot longer than the original parts, and depending on how stable the strucral part is, or if the structural part can be re-inforced around the door lock plunger, it will not crack like the factory parts do. If one wanted to get really ambitious, you could veneer the dash panel as well, and get everything to match up, and also, the same colour. I don't know about everybody else's cars, but mine have a variety of browns to pinks, depending on who much sunlight they have been exposed to over the years.

Kostas

 

[Bryan M.]

Bruceynz: The guy who is building the SRT-8 Mirada (search Facebook for build) was going to buy the glass out of my Mirada until a vandal broke it. He ended up getting a windshield made, said it set him back roughly $1300 USD.

As far as parts go, my money is on the weatherstripping for the door glass. As far as I can tell, nobody ever made replacements. If they did, I'll be impressed, because I could find the Holy Grail, the Fountain of Youth and a sure-proof way to rid the world of my ex-wife first.

 

[Bruceynz]

Ok here is a side view of my door and here is the weather strip I bought

 

[MiradaMegacab]

Ebag seller prosourceglass has 2 NOS Mopar windshields for the Mirada/Cordoba $400 a piece or $700 for both..... 877-345-2800USA
978-975-5400Canada

Hope this helps