Rocker Panel Moldings

[John Pelkofer Jr]

Hello, Last year at fall Carlisle I purchased a pair of NOS rocker moldings
for my 1967 Coupe with side exhaust. Last night I went to install them and
found both end holes not countersunk and the head of the mount screws drops
through all the holes. I first thought that someone had switched a set of
reproduction moldings with the GM ones, however I was the first to open the
packages. They both came in a sealed sleeve with correct hardware. The part
number on each is 3933846. Did GM have a bad run of these or did they update
the end mounts? Obviously I am missing something. Thank you all in advance for any and all help. John

[Jack H.]

Re: Rocker Panel Moldings

Remember, NOS simply means New Old Stock and that does NOT guarantee you what's in the box is precisely the same part(s) that were used by the factory when your car was originally built. GM service often packaged 'kits' (moldings + fasteners) that differed from the discrete components the factory used on the assy line. Plus, over time, running changes often resulted in a slightly different configuration of a given part that's visually detectable to savvy judges. Plus, tooling did wear and/or underwent repair/improvement that also generated detectable differences.

Specifically, it's pretty well known that rocker panel molding available through service channels well after intitial production differ from factory originals in terms of their 'fold' adjacent to the front/rear 'arrow tips' with the later service replacement moldings having excess 'bunched up' material and factory originals being quite smooth/flat in this area.

On mounting screws packaged with various service replacement rocker panels, it's pretty much a given they were 'generics' intended to fit and function but NOT exactly duplicate the individual fasteners that were binned on the assy line way back when...