An equivalent drawbead model(EDM) for sheet metal forming analysis, which replaces complex drawbead geometries with drawbead forces in modeling the stamping dies with finite elements, is experimentally verified and applied to the numerical simulation of auto-panel stamping process. The drawbead restraining and opening forces of elliptical drawbead, circular drawbead, square drawbead, and step drawbead are obtained by performing the drawbead pulling test and compared with those of EDM and commercial code models(CCM). Better agreement with experimental measurements is found in EDM than CCM. Furthermore, the excellence of EDM is demonstrated in its application to the auto-body stamping analysis.