N.O.S. vs. Aftermarket sheet metal: when to invest?

[GEARBOXGARAGE]

So here's my thought of the week:

When building/restoring classics, at what point to you search for any available N.O.S. sheet metal? The prices are way up there compared to even the best aftermarket panels. But at what point does that investment become feasible? For a nice quality PT car, much like the ones on this site, is the investment worth it when many of us are exposing our cars to high-speed scenarios on track where the potential for damage could happen? I'm aware of the trade-off of aftermarket metal and the likeliness of spending extra time to get them to fit "perfect", but when N.O.S. is 2X, 3X or even 4X more.... is it worth it when we aren't keeping the car original in the first place? Here's an example: I was over at National Parts Depot last week and they have a "discounted parts" room for returned items. There where a lot of sheet metal items that were marked about 1/3 off of retail because of "poor fitment". One item in particular, a '69 Chevelle front LH fender for $250, but on ebay you can buy a N.O.S. on for $700 plus shipping. I can understand more so if you are doing an original 100 point restoration of a rare packaged car like a Yenko or even just an original SS or RS, etc. I think we've all probably considered this and would like to see some thoughts and opinions on this topic.

[Build-It-Break-It]

The time and money you spend to fit aftermarket panels you might just be better off buying N.O.S. Some aftermarket panels fit decent enough to put in the time to "save" money but like anything you have to see what's more important to you,Time or money.

It's like buying a set of DSE mini tubs for $300 and paying $2500 or more to have them installed. Is it worth $2500 to pay the shop or take a few days to follow instructions and do them yourself? I know it's a fair amount of work but $2500 worth? Depends on who you ask. I know the shops will argue all day that it's worth it because that's a popular aftermarket panel to install and they're making a decent amounting of money doing it. But after said shop has done a few I'm pretty sure you can knock the time down substantially since it's pretty much the same work in different cars .

I think for how heavily most modify their cars here an aftermarket panel would be fine.

[CampbellshotrodsAZ]

I fall into more of the "neither" category. I've been able to make aftermarket fenders fit 3 cars just great (71 Chevelle, 68 Firebird, 66 Mustang), they aren't much more work than my typical go-to which is good original steel that needs some dent or rust repair. I don't want to spend several hundred on NOS stuff that I'll have to correct gaps on, and block anyways, so I'd just as well spend a little more time on decent original parts. As mentioned, I'd kind of rather leave the NOS stuff to the guys that want the 100% original look/parts count.

[raustinss]

I understood that the aftermath panels from decent companies are quite good.... Only a few of the crap ones still in business