replacement sheet metal

Just got a 99 Dakota cab and 1/2. beautiful shape (surprising for an Illinois truck) except for 1 spot... a hole in the top of the driver side wheel well. A few spots of chipped paint and 1 soft spot about the size of a quarter, over the other wheel well. plan to mask and bead blast, then put POR 15 on those chipped paint spots and Id like to apply bedliner about as wide as the plastic wheel well moldings that were on some trucks, around the wheel wells and probably the bottom most 4" of the body kind of like the "chip guard" that was popular in the 80s and early 90s.... just want to slow down the rust progress if I can.
the question is about aftermarket sheet metal... I have found replacement wheel tubs for ~$74. The best price I have seen yet on an OEM is ~$160-ish. I know about fitment issues with some aftermarket sheet metal, and the fact it isn't the same gauge steel as original. you guys oughtta see the pass. side fender on my Wrangler, it was an aftermarket replacement, It's the worst rusted panel on my Jeep.
Anyone have experience with aftermarket sheet metal, any better brands out there than "usual"? doesn't look like a hard job to drill the spot welds and replace the bad wheel well. I do have "some" body work experience.
other idea is to just find some random sheet metal scrap (wont be hard to do around here) cut the bad edges out to solid metal and weld in a patch. I may line the bed on this as the rest of it is quite nice, thoughts?
looking on cat-part.com, I was amazed at how many beds for these trucks were listed as being just like mine. Nice except for rotten wheel wells/

anybody got any experience with the aftermarket panels for these trucks? Any of them any better than the others or are they "all the same part" sold under different names? or a lead on an NOS one that maybe "splits the price" between what I have found? Good used rust free cut outs? cmon throw me a bone

zzzzzzz zzzzzzz zzzzzzz zzzzzzz so nobody here has ever used any aftermarket body panels, huh? I know I'm not the 1st.

Might ask your question on the Q&A board. More traffic there.



Tim

This was awhile back (12-15 years) My son bought a passenger fender and a tailgate for his 82 D100. The fender was OK except the top didnt have the same profile as the OEM hood, so we had to "massage the hood to make them match better. The tailgate looked good at first. After a couple of years the spot welds started busting loose allowing the sheet metal to delaminate from the framework.We bought them from Certifit, maybe things are better now with other brands available? Personally I would try to find OEM used or NOS first...

No experience yet, but I will have some soon! I bought my wife an 04 Dakota quad cab, and it has rust at the top of the wheel arch on the drivers side of the bed. I'm going to buy one of the aftermarket replacements, and use panel bond adhesive to put it on. Other than that, all I gotta do is fix a few dings and paint it from the top of the doors down. The truck was painted once before, and the top still looks great.