Pleasantly surprised

And just like that, the tail light panel showed up via UPS today.

There are a few options for a person who needs one of these parts. A hand-laid part will work, but they are notoriously filled with air bubbles and the back side looks like a plate of hashbrowns. If a NOS part can be found — and they are becoming very difficult to find — they go for about $1,000. A panel can be sourced from a parts car, but they must be repaired since they come from a parts car that is a parts car for a reason. Most are 1973 cars so they are SMC and not black fiberglass. These can also be very expensive.

The best option for this car seemed to be a press-molded part made by Corvette Image Inc. They looked good in the photographs they provided, but these are much better than advertised.

Now that the part has arrived, it's clearly been made using the original GM molds. It has all the original markings, part numbers etc. Once installed, this will be as good as the original part for a price that is workable.