Manufacturers of aftermarket body panels need to step up their game.

That’s the assertion of Wes Adkins, owner of Wild Wes Paintworks in Dover, Ohio. In a new video, Adkins explains why – in his opinion – custom builds and restorations can take so long to complete.

“The aftermarket has come up with a lot of nice parts [for restoration work], but a common problem that a lot of shops run into on a daily basis is the … aftermarket products are close but never exact to what the original parts were,” Adkins says. “On almost every aftermarket panel we hang, to get the gaps correct, it takes hours of finesse, modification and a lot of trial fitting.”

On top of that, body panels from the same manufacturer can have variation between them. To illustrate his point, Adkins puts two aftermarket panels for a Ford Mustang side by side; one panel is a quarter-inch longer than the other.

“The aftermarket people need to step up a little bit on what they’re doing with these panels,” Adkins asserts in the video. “How are you supposed to restore a car with two panels that are from the same manufacturer and you put them on the car and it makes the car lopsided?

“A lot of people don’t understand the time that it takes to do a quality restoration or a quality build, and this is the kind of stuff that the builders are up against constantly.”

To watch the video, click here or view below.