VB lower rear quarter question

[LanceM]

What started out to be a little rust hole had turned into the usual monster. Luckly for me my neighbor is a high quality body man that has a very good neighbor discount, at least for me

Anyway the part I need to replace it Item 11 on page 25 of the VB catalog. His question is: is this a replacement panel (glue on over the top of the existing panel) which I guess is a common thing for a lot of replacement panels or a cut to fit and weld in panel?

His preference and mine are a cut and fit panel but I need to know before I order and so that he can give me an estimate. Hopefully someone has gone this route before and knows first hand.

[2ManyZs]

It would be wise to do a cut-and-fit as you may find more rust underneath that needs to be taken care of. Not only that, but if you were to fit the new one over your old one, it would mess up the door gap in the door jamb.

Not too hard, but you will end up doing some cutting and fitting to make it look right. Mine was rusted through in the center of the panel, yet, underneath was a lot of rust hiding all the way back to the inner fender panel where the dog leg mounts to in the fenderwell. You only need to drill out the bottom 4 or 5 spot welds in the fender lip, the spots welds in the door jamb, the spot welds along the lower flange, and then there should be 4 in the vertical overlap at the front. The front edge not being sealed with anything other than paint, is another place they will rust out too....

[mdbrandy]

Those VB panels are metal cut and fit. They are generally tabco panels. The quality is average - you'll probably need to do some shaping on the panel to get it to fit. I have two of the panels, but haven't gotten to the the place where I need to put them on. Still working on all the rust that was underneath them . You might want to try tabco themselves. I bought inner rear fender wells from them for $20 less apiece than getting them through VB, and they are really the same part. Note that ordering through their website is painful. I called their 800 number, and they were appreciative :classic: .

[LanceM]

I've alread cut in and luckly there isn't much going on inside and what was is taken care of. I just didn't want a glue on panel, I want to fix it right and once. I will check out tabco, thanks for the tip.

Lucky for me I have this ace body guy available, he said that if they are weld in he would do both sides for $100 ready for paint!

I've seen a lot of his work and when he is done you won't know they were repaced!