Metro Parts Wheel Opening Mouldings

I have a "new" reproduction set of Metro wheel opening mouldings that I purchased when they were still in business. I had never taken them out of the plastic wrappers. When I did this morning, I found that they had been "tried" on another vehicle. While they would make a nice set of driver quality mouldings, they are far from what I wanted. A warning to all who purchase repro items; inspect items before you purchase. A lesson learned today.

My question: Are the ones being made now of good quality? The ones I have look like they will fit pretty well, but I was sold a set that had been clamped onto a car, causing some scratching. Other defects were present as well.
My car is a 69 Coronet.

Thanks in advance.

Is your car painted? Fitting the wheel opening moldings should be done before paint. That way things can be "adjusted" as needed so the moldings fit. Hopefully you can find some nice ones you can use.

Most of the repop wheel opening moldings I have had and resold had many marks on them from tooling and clamping during the manufacturing process. I have rarely had a good set of repop moldings...

Yes, the plan was to fit the mouldings before paint. That's when I found all the scratches and vise grip marks. I'm committed to painting Friday so I won't have time to find a better set. The ones I have fit pretty well, but with all the scratches, I can't put them on. If I knew if the screw holes were the same on all repop sets, I could drill mounting holes before paint. Thanks for the replies.

As explained to me by the expert who restored and re-anodized my aluminum tail panel, the Metro wheel opening moldings were made of the wrong material and are dull anodized, not bright anodized.

They are made from extruded aluminum, not sheet aluminum as the originals are. Extruded aluminum is a different chemistry than sheet aluminum and does not anodize well. In addition, the extruded aluminum is very stiff and springy, while the original sheet ones are soft.

I re-sold my Metro pieces to somebody else due to the non-bright appearance and bought a set of Layson's which is made of the correct sheet and bright anodized. The photo shows an unpolished original at top, a dull Metro in the middle, and a bright Layson's at bottom.

As to the molding holes, some restoration shops weld up the original body holes and re-drill according to the holes in the molding for a precise fit.

We would always polish the repop moldings with a polishing wheel...