Original Parts Group: A Recap of Our 40th Year in Restoration

Whether you are a customer, a potential customer, or enjoy following Original Parts Group (OPGI) on social media, you probably know that we hit a huge milestone this year, celebrating 40 years in the restoration business. OPGI has been the supplier of high-quality reproduction parts and accessories for classic GM brand cars these past four decades, here’s a recap of our 40th.

Expanded our RESTOPARTS® product line

This year, OPGI continued to answer the demand for precise quality reproductions with additions to our ever-expanding RESTOPARTS® product line. Covering GM A, G, Full-size bodies, and Corvair below are just a few of our newly added RESTOPARTS® products, visit opgi.com to see our entire selection of RESTOPARTS® and watch the product line continue to grow in 40+ years!

Projects & Partnerships

OPGI parts have been featured on numerous award-winning vehicles and TV shows, and have become the first choice for many of the nation’s top automotive builders and influencers. Check out some of this year’s projects and RESTOPARTS® used to complete them.

Earlier this year Sam Mahdavi spruced up this 1971 Chevelle on an episode of Sam’s Garage, sharing his installation tips and tricks while installing new emblems, mirrors, and bezels.

Youtube personality Kyle Lindsey made some progress getting the body and sheet metal work done to his wife Christal’s family-owned 1969 Chevelle Sedan. Kyle shared the overall process behind media blasting the body and overall prepping for bodywork and sheet metal replacement in this video.

1968-72 Chevelle/El Camino Hardtop/Coupe, w/ A/C Firewall

Detroit Muscle hosts Tommy Boshers and Joel McMillan demonstrated a step-by-step restoration on the interior of a 1983 Hurst Oldsmobile. They installed an Essex Carpet kit from OPGI that comes complete with a sound deadener, and sill plates with screws. The entire list of interior restoration includes G-body door panel carpet, front armrest pads, and floor mats.

Chip Foose teamed up with OPGI this year and built a 1970 Chevelle. Keeping it mostly original, Chip used several RESTOPARTS^®including but not limited to a turbo hydraulic console kit, complete horseshoe shifter, foam vinyl wrap dash pad, inner fenderwells, inner trunk filler panel, rear bumper brackets, ss cowl hood molding, headlight retaining rings, and roof drip molding kit.

A few changes were made to the Chevelle that had some people questioning if it was in fact a ’70. Watch the video below as Chip talks about his partnership with OPGI and why he installed a 1970 El Camino front bumper and a 71/72 Rear bumper on his ’70 Chevelle.

Despite many unavoidable delays, Courtney Hansen and the ROYL Garage team pulled together an awesome build, a 1974 El Camino. The El Camino features our RESTOPARTS^® quarter panels, body by fisher sill plates, complete dome light assembly, and our identical factory original, ferrule door lock knobs.

You can catch more of the El Camino and OPGI products on an upcoming episode of Ride of Your Life airing in January on the Motortrend Network and in the video below.

OPGI worked with the Fully Torqued team to provide quality restoration and performance parts for Adrienne Janinc’s 1967 GTO. Products consisted of a quality molded reproduction fan shroud, precision-engineered upper and lower tubular control arms, our high-quality 1966-67 wheel opening molding kit, case-hardened steel-stamped reproduction GM A Body lower door hinge, and an OEM-Correct 1964-67 Pontiac battery tray, all manufactured by RESTOPARTS®. Click here for more restoration and performance parts featured on AJ’s ride.

Upper and lower tubular control arms, part# PP04906

1966-67 Wheel Opening Molding Kit, part# WMKG03

Hosted a Classic Car Show

In late July we hosted a Classic Car show for the first time in 2 years in celebration of our 40th. The “2022 Original Parts Group Classic Car Show” was a huge success with an epic turnout of registrants and their beloved rides that filled the lot at OPGI headquarters. Not to mention the spectators who filled the upper and lower parking lots to attend the show, enjoy the cars, food trucks, vendors, award ceremony, and more. Check out some shots from the show below and more here. Looking forward to another!

Fun fact, a quick 17-second video of the Monte Carlo pictured above that received over 40k views on Tik Tok! Give us a follow if you don’t already!

Returned to SEMA

You may have noticed from the videos above that Original Parts Group returned to SEMA in 2022. We were thrilled to be back exhibiting and showcasing the new RESTOPARTS products featured above and more. We also had Chip Foose’s 1970 Chevelle, and The Ride of your Life Garage 1974 El Camino on display at our booth.

We, unfortunately, missed comedic legend Kevin Harts’s unveiling of his 1987 Grand National at the Magnaflow booth, but we were fortunate enough to see the Grand National in person, and, WOW!

That pretty much sums up our 40th year in the restoration business. We look forward to 40+ years!