Replacing quarter panels

[orlowted]

Just picked up a set of full quarter panels to begin the winter body restoration. I have a friend that is going to put them on, but any suggestions on the correct way to go about removing the old ones without doing any major damage? Hope someone has done this before and can share any words of wisdom before I start the project.
Thanks!

[carboy]

Make sure you chk your wheel well areas . you may need inner and outer wheel well steel.
Take your time.
They make this new kind of putty that is as good as welding but i'm not sure of the name.
good luck

[induction]

Originally posted by carboy

They make this new kind of putty that is as good as welding but i'm not sure of the name.
good luck

I would be VERY interested in the name and where to find the putty if you could look into it for me.
Thanks,
Induction

[carboy]

It was one of the Mustang Magazines, Mustang monthly or Mustang and Fords. They were replacing the cowl panel in front of the windshield and said it was as good as welding. It's been several months ago.
I purchased a Lincoln MIG welder from home depot with the gas kit...Gas bottle and all was around $ 650. I purchased the gas bottle at my local welding shop.
With the gas it makes a nice clean weld and it is very easy to use.
But You may want to call your local PPG paint rep and they probably know what that putty / adhesive is called.

[carboy]

Get yourself a good spot weld drill bit and drill out all the welds. The seam by the back top side near the roof is leaded in, just melt the lead with a torch and brush it away. It's not that hard of a job just time consuming. Take your time you'll be ok. I did both sides on my car.
I had to replace both front fenders, grill, hood (Bonnet), Boot, Bumper, rear valance. The only original pieces are the doors and roof and glass.

[orlowted]

Thanks for the advise on the Spot Weld Drill Bit....Did not know there was a tool for this. I looked at the car and I don't think it is going to be overwhelming....just looks like a lot of stripping and finding the welds to remove them. Did Ford use any guidelines in placing the panels on the car? Where should I look for the weld spots? Maybe it will be easier once I remove the paint and can see the impressions?

Carboy - Like the car...What tires and rims do you have?

TJ

[bmxmon]

My brother, stepdad, and i are replacing the rear quarter panels on my brothers 74 camaro. My uncle is a really good body man, and has been doing it for like 30 years. He came up for a weekend and helped us work on it. What he told us to do is to just cut out the old metal, about one inch smaller than our new replacement quarters. Which he did for us. Then, we fit them up, and screwed them to the body. We are going to use stuff from 3m, called panel bonding adhesive. My uncle says that that is what they always pretty much use now. It is actually stronger than welds. Well, the most important thing is that you have at least 1inch overlap, of clean metal, from the body to the new replacement panel. on the body line, like where the replacement panel ends on the main body, you need to grind it down to like a razor point, so it helps when you have to smooth it out later. Then you just put that panel bonding adhesive on, screw it down, and let it dry. Take out the screws, smooth all the xs goop and what not that came out, then use fiberglass reinforced body filler to smooth it out. Im going to add a pic of my brothers car, with the rear quarter cut out to try to maybe help any confusion or something. This is with the new quarter screwed on.

[orlowted]

That is an interesting approach and I like it, but I am afraid that it will not work for my application. I have Full Quarter panels that actually go into the door jamb almost all the way. If I was using a quarter skin - I think I would do that, but since they go all the way around, if I tried that - I have a feeling the overlap in the door area would prevent the door, strike plate and all hardware from fitting properly and the door might hit the panel when I tried to close it. Any thoughts on that one? I see in the picture that the quarter stops where the curve of the door starts. Mine wraps all the way into the door jamb and to the body of the car past where the door latches...
TJ

[Orange97GTVert]

Before you do anything else, make sure your doors and fenders are lined up as good as they can be because you have to line up with them on your quarters.

then test fit your quarter panel. i don't care where your quarter comes from, they ALL take some massaging to get them to fit your car. We always line it up and clamp it on with c-clamps and drill a hole in the wheelwell and other places and put a screw in place to hold it. We drill small holes and weld inside the holes just like a spot weld.

It's a big job, it takes a long time but if you don't get in a hurry it is worth it!

Been there!

[orlowted]

Thanks for the advise...the point you make about having the doors and fenders lined up is interesting. Part of what I am replacing is both doors and fenders along with the quarters. Should I put on the new doors and fenders first?
TJ

[Orange97GTVert]

If you have your quarters still in place, definitely put your doors and fenders on first. Line the doors up at the back with your quarters and at the bottom with your rocker panels. Then line the fenders up with that. Spend an afternoon wrenching and adjusting until all that is just how you want it, then you are ready to start cutting the old quarters off.

We cut the greatest part of the metal off about 1/2 inch away from the spot welds with a cutoff tool, then we took the cutoff tool and grond down the spot welds to get the remainer off. I have a spot weld cutting tool too, but I like this way better. As you can see from the picture I posted we had to replace wheelwells too.

My car had a beautiful red paint job, I bought it with a bent front end, thinking it would be a quick fix. We fixed the bent stuff and decided the paint looked really thick, so we stripped it. We found 5 paint jobs with primer between each and underneath the top 4 we found swiss cheese quarters patched with halfassed metal patches, pop riveted on and buried in fiberglass and bondo, there must have been a gallon of bondo in each quarter.

You would never know it to look at the paint job, I guess each paint job got a little smoother. My project is terminally stalled out because I don't have time right now, so it sits in primer with 2 new quarters on it and very little finish work needed to paint it, and my buddy who helps me with it got a new job and has to travel all the time, so neither of us gets to work on it .

This picture shows what it looked like the day we started stripping.

[orlowted]

The car is intact as it sits now. I am driving it as much this summer as possible to get all the mechanical kinks worked out. So far - so good. I kind of went through the same situation - I stripped my car down to the bare metal a few years ago just to see what I needed to replace....2 new quarters, 2 new doors, 2 new fenders, maybe the hood and trunk (still deciding), front valance and rear valance. I then threw a coat of primer on it and there is is today. Not much original sheetmetal left when I am done. It is all sitting in my garage until it gets cold and nasty out - then I will go to work on it. Surprising what a paint job or three will hide. Mine still had the original factory paint on it (under the 2 aftermarket paint jobs). I think there is about 4 gallons of Bondo just in the quarter areas. I wil take your advise and do the doors and fenders first. Still not sure what method I am going to use to get the quarters off the car. I will probably end up cutting out the majority and then doing what you did...hitting the welds to get the edges off. I have a friend that is going to help put the new ones on, so I am not too worried about that part. I am shooting for next summer to have everything done and the car painted so I can finally (after 7 years) get it to a car show.

TJ

[Orange97GTVert]

This is the picture that made me sick.

[orlowted]

All I can say is "WOW" - You got mine beat. Mine is close, but not quite that bad.

[Orange97GTVert]

Yeah, the car was beautiful too, it goes to show you never know what you're getting. I call it the "Red Dress Syndrome" - strip away the red dress.....

Both sides, too. We have both quarters welded on, one side is finished out, the other needs a little more work but it is just sitting right now. That's the problem with doing your own work, everything else gets in the way. Right now in Texas the heat is unbearable, too hot to work on it. I have an air conditioner that I can rig up for my garage, but it's too small to be really effective and you have to keep the garage doors down. One of these days
we will get it done.

[orlowted]

Temp is too hot here...humidity is just terrible. That is why I just drive mine on the weekends and collect parts all summer to do all the work in the fall and winter. Plan is to get all the body work done over the winter and have it ready for paint this coming spring. It's going to be a lot of work, but in the end - it will all be worth it. Yours looks really nice. I hope my quarters come out that good. Won't take you long to get it finished. Better to do it right than to rush it. I have been working on mine for almost 7 years. Went from a White 1965 - inline 6 with red interior to a black interior with a 289 - complete suspension, transmission and interior rebuild. Body is all that is left. I think I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel...
TJ