Quarter repair advice needed

[SledZ]

After a two year break I am going back to work on my 73.

I knew the quarter was messed up and removed the 3 or so inches of body filler. I'm a decent welder but a rookie body man.

I need to take care of this final issue and I think I know the answer but scary stuff when the rest of the car is so nice and time invested.

Should I take the whole quarter and replace it with the spare quarter I have. The dogleg is in bad shape and I have already replaced it on the car so I assume I'd pick a spot cut and weld.  This seems like the scary logical choice although I did take the quarter off a donor car so I know what it takes.

Or should I used the butchered quarter and patch just the back bad area (somehow!) and deal with the body lines and poky holes with body filler?

Or somehow try and do a better job pulling the dent out. Someone tried and lft a lot of big screw holes! Although I wouldn't be able to replace the bracing behind the rear of the qtr.

I have the rear panels that I'd replace also..Thanks

[Patcon]

You have the quarter. I would use it. How is your welding?

I dont know that I would do it exactly like the factory. I would like to leave the inner structure alone at yhe roof and along the side of the hatch. If the dogleg was good on the donor, I might remove whats there and put all new donor metal

 You will probably need to work on the wheel wells and maybe even the metal below the antenna. It took a pretty good shot. You could always get the old quarter off and have someone else mount the new one. Weld slow and lots of breaks

[Namerow]

3 hours ago, SledZ said:

After a two year break I am going back to work on my 73.

I knew the quarter was messed up and removed the 3 or so inches of body filler. I'm a decent welder but a rookie body man.

I need to take care of this final issue and I think I know the answer but scary stuff when the rest of the car is so nice and time invested.

Should I take the whole quarter and replace it with the spare quarter I have. The dogleg is in bad shape and I have already replaced it on the car so I assume I'd pick a spot cut and weld.  This seems like the scary logical choice although I did take the quarter off a donor car so I know what it takes.

Or should I used the butchered quarter and patch just the back bad area (somehow!) and deal with the body lines and poky holes with body filler?

Or somehow try and do a better job pulling the dent out. Someone tried and lft a lot of big screw holes! Although I wouldn't be able to replace the bracing behind the rear of the qtr.

I have the rear panels that I'd replace also..Thanks

Picture #1 should serve as a cautionary message for anyone thinking about buying an old car.  A great example of what the 'collision repair industry' does when nobody's watching too closely.  Metal butchers.  Bondo artists.  I've seen similar evidence at a much higher $ level in the form of a 275GTB Ferrari that had a nose job with up to 1.5" of bondo.  The car looked immaculate until a new buyer ordered a 'refresh' and the paint came off.

[Terrapin Z]

Mine had a long overlap splice with a ton of bondo. I was having repairs done for a deer impact so I was able to have the shop replace the quarter at the same time they were doing the front end. Just cost a little more but that was the time to do it since the whole car was going to be painted. It looked good from the outside, just a little crazing in the old paint. Different story underneath.

[Patcon]

I was looking at it on my phone...

Worse on the laptop!

[grannyknot]

You know what you have to do, if you mud up that original quarter again it will just gnaw away at you. The black quarter in the second pic  looks like the better of the two replacements.  It's always interesting to find out what has been hidden.

[SledZ]

Yea no way can I mud it up. I never thought of splicing it. I know when I took the quarter off the donor, the door jam gets flimsy and that area is where the only visible spot welds are so a little troubling. Just looking to see if anyone has done it and any tips. I'm an ok tig/mig good welder so not worried about that, just the size and scope is what freaks me out! But I assume like anything else that a person hasn't done before, once you do it its not all that bad...

[grannyknot]

I've never done a whole quarter panel yet either so I understand your hesitance, maybe some bracing is needed in the door and hatch space.

[Patcon]

I haven't done a whole quarter yet either but I have removed the whole rear end of a car.

I think I would handle the quarter much like I would handle a roof skin. I would try to leave as much of the interior metal around the wheel alone as possible. I would probably block the car up on the rockers or frame supports. I might also drop that side of the rear suspension out to make it easy to work and remove weight from pulling on the strut tower.

I might may my seam at the factory roof joint but by leaving the interior metal alone. I don't have a weak joint or a complicated welding job to beef it up.

A couple of die grinders and an assortment of heads work really well.

Like these

The round one is my go to for dealing with spot welds when I don't need to same the panel. Bear in mind they make lots of metal splinters (closed shoes and no fleecy clothes)  and need a decent amount of air to run.

Once you get the existing mangled quarter off make us some more pictures.

Also, remember to always leave more metal than you think you need. You can always take a little more off but putting it back is double the work!!!

[240dkw]

Replacing a rear quarter is a bit of work but quite doable. I did both of them on my car. 

 

l used a half dozen or so of the cheap spot weld bits. I cut about 6” lower than the original seam on the rooftop and butt welded it. Everything where else I plug welded using the hole left from drilling out the spot welds. Make sure not to drill trough when removing the old panel, you need the metal to weld to. I did not bother with any bracing. 

[Casey_z]

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Posted March 27, 2011

Ebay came through with a rust free quarter.

New fenders from Nissan.

Close to final blocking and sanding.

First pictures are of donor quarter panel from Washington State.

We in Ontario are amazed at the condition of parts when salt is not a factor:stupid:

The quarter is lined up and tacked into place and should be welded in place by now:)

 

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Edited December 9, 2020 by Casey_z

[SledZ]

I've done a lot of spot weld removals and adds for just nothing this visible! ha ha  

CaseyZ interesting on the cut further up above the dog leg to patch it. I'll take a good look at my options and tackle this soon and post my progress.