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I have just bought a K plate Open Classic (Mk1s getting too dear to buy at handy money!) Anyway I need to panel up the front end. I bought a mixture of Heritage (not that impressed) and Mini Machine (very impressed) for my Cooper S but whilst the car value warranted this they are pretty expensive. Any tips on who makes a reasonably decent panels that won't need stretching an inch at the A panels or miss the scuttle by a mile. Also how much would I expect to pay for wings, front panel, A panels etc. Not done this for years and want to make it as enjoyable as possible. Cheers. Mark

ive just fitted a heritage door skin today on late cooper at work and i wasnt that impressed with it... it was a bit BIG..

i dont know who to suggest, we order all our stuff from m machine as it seems more cost effective to buy the "better quality" panels but ive fitted after market subframes in the past and found they fit easyer than heritage or genuine ones.. then iv had it the oposite way round so i think its a bit hit and miss sometimes.. However hadrian pannels are shite.. and veng is it? something like that.. they where really bad!!!

A lot of M-machines panels are re worked Hadrian ones, with a bit of time & effort there's nothing to stop you from doing the same. The budget panels from somewhere like Minispares should be about the best you can get. After all its not in their interest to sell a really shit panel if there is an equally priced alternative is it.

If you can get ACTUAL Hadrian panels they are normally OK, but a lot of the stuff we have been getting in recently has been restickered Magnum/SVG/Veng stuff (it smells different when it's being welded).

The Veng wings were truly awful (unless you wanted to just fit one of their wings over an original )

Phone M-Machine - they offer BMH, and "budget" which usually tends to be the better "Hadrian" stuff - although I don't know, I assume that some M-Machine & Hadrian panels may be pressed in the same factory?