Robbie693 wrote:I have a repro on my car at the moment and to be frank I hate it. I'm a bit of a pedant about these things but I think the fit is all wrong. I dislike the way it doesn't fill the recesses in the side, being too short it doesn't extend forward enough. Neither does it follow the curve from the rear to the side very closely. The profile is very square whereas the originals have more of a curved profile to the vertical face and look much nicer in my opinion. The lip is also missing from the repro. I don't know for sure but I have no reason to suspect the current repro ones are any different.
I have an original but I'm waiting for some spare cash to get it chromed.
As I said, I'm a pedant
Robbie
I suspect there may have been more than one source of manufacture for repro's available over the years. I have seen a few pretty poor looking efforts, but have a repro which apart from the lip on the lower edge, is quite good both in fit & quality. I bought it second hand, but was told it came from Matties. I also have an original that had a very small dent & poor chrome which I have recently had restored, & comparing the two, with the exception of the lip, there is very little difference. The repro does have a slightly bigger gap between bumper & body where it wraps around the corners, but it does fill the recesses to the same extent as the original. Shape & profile is virtually identical. When bought 30 years ago, the car came with a repaired & re-chromed original, it has had patches let in to both corners which have been done very nicely, but then the lip has been lost by a combination of dressing it out & grinding it back so the vertical section is now a bit shallow. Apparently, the re-chromers did it as the lip destroys their polishing heads
I remember the guy I bought the car from was not at all happy about it, but it might explain why the repro's are made without the lip.
Regards, Tim