here is some old press release/opinion on the dynacorn bodies;
What's this mean to you? That you can order yourself a brand-new all-steel stock-replacement body for a '69 Camaro convertible. Dynacorn has 45 dealers ready to take your order, and by the time you read this, delivery time should be about 4 to 6 weeks. The price for a body from tailpanel to cowl and from floorpans to the windshield frame (no doors or trunklid) is $10,500 plus $495 for crating. The crated body weighs about 900 pounds and can be delivered in the mainland United States for about $400-$600, freight collect.
We spoke to Dynacorn's Jim Christina, who wound up signing the GM licensing contract last April 1 while sprawled on a hospital gurney with a collapsed lung and a questionable ticker. He had his priorities, after all, since lots of people had been waiting for the news for a long time. Next, Dynacorn plans to crank out '67-'68 Camaro convertibles. In addition to the obvious change to the doors ('67s have wind wings, '68s don't) the two model years differ in the floorpan, trunk, and dash. Coupe versions of Camaros of all three years are also being prototyped, and Christina says the demand for the hardtops has already been stronger than that for the ragtops. Dynacorn produces a complete convertible top mechanism for $995, and by the time you add the fabric, the glass, and the weatherstrip, it's probably around $2,000 to put a top on the car. If a coupe body becomes available, the cost of the extra stamping and welding will make it at least $2,000 more than the convertible, so normalcy is inverted: It will probably be cheaper to build a ragtop than a hardtop.
The next priority at Dynacorn is to produce complete cabs for '47-'53 five-window Chevy trucks, followed by '67-'68 Mustang fastbacks if talks go well with Ford. A year ago we speculated that Firebird bodies would be pretty easy to make because they use so many Camaro stampings. Christina says it's doubtful he'll ever do Firebirds, though you could make one at home using other Dynacorn component parts. As for production of new Mopar bodies, Christina's comment was, "Way down the road, if at all." Instead, if Dynacorn had the time, '66-'67 Novas would be the next priority.
Readers still hit us with a lot of questions about the bodies, and to answer the big one, yes--the sheetmetal is all stamped in Taiwan. A Camaro convertible body requires 850 separate sheetmetal stampings that are welded into 35 separate subassemblies. These are shipped to Long Beach, California, and then sent by rail to Belews Creek, North Carolina, where they are robotically welded in precision jigs using GM's Saab production standards. The sheetmetal itself is slightly thinner than the original, but of a higher grade that is less brittle.
Also, the welding is more thorough than the originals--so much so that Dynacorn says the rigidity of the bodies is significantly improved so that the OE cocktail shakers are not needed on convertibles. But they are available if you want them. In fact, between Dynacorn, OER, and aftermarket suppliers, you can now buy every single part you need to assemble a complete car with nothing but brand-new parts.
Another common question is if the bodies accept all the original parts. Yes; they are designed as stock replacements that are virtually identical to OE components. Does everything fit perfectly with zero effort? No. Do the bodies require some blocking and fitting to get the seams right and the sheetmetal perfect? Yes. But they are better than almost any fiberglass body we've worked with.
Everyone also asks us about legally registering a new Dynacorn body, and there is no clean answer since laws vary drastically from state to state. It's safe to say that the new bodies can be used to re-body an existing '69 Camaro in virtually any state, though the laws about how the VIN will either be reaffixed or reassigned will differ. The bodies also come with serial numbers (not VINs) of their own, and some states will let you use those to register a car built from scratch, though sometimes it will end up registered as a homebuilt rather than as a Camaro. In those cases, you are often required to build the car yourself rather than have a shop do it for you. Basically, you need to investigate the laws of your home state, plus get with a local Motor Vehicles office to get its interpretation of the state law.
Finally, there remains the issue about what the new bodies will do to the value of existing real production Camaros. In fact, there seems to be a deep ethical debate about this, and all we can offer is that the introduction of reproduction '32 Ford bodies certainly didn't hurt that marketplace. In fact, it ensured those cars will live forever, and if the same happens to musclecars, it just ain't that bad."
that is someone else's opinion.
the last thing in the world I want to buy is a Camaro made in Taiwan!
