New Quarter Panel and Trunk Replaced

[gh5168]

Finally finished getting the trunk and the quarter panel done;

[gearheads78]

looking good....nice work

[citcapp]

nice looking project. Keep us informed with pictures as you proceed.

[Eric Anderson]

Nice! looks like it's taking shape, keep up the good work.

[gh5168]

thanks everyone for the kind words and encouragement

[csstrux]

I must have been on the road when you posted this, and not come across it until this morning. Did you notice any sag in the body when you cut the entire tail of the car open like that? I will be doing essentially the same thing with my 68, but am rebuilding a couple inner wheel houses from a doner car. I have only dug into one side and have been reluctant to pull the wheel house out untill I am finished with the replacement even with a brace tacked into place. It would seem to me to be infinately easier to cut all the cancer out at once, but dont want the whole house of cards crashing down around me once I did. How long was the car sitting open like That? beautiful work BTW.

[gh5168]

Originally Posted by csstrux

I must have been on the road when you posted this, and not come across it until this morning. Did you notice any sag in the body when you cut the entire tail of the car open like that? I will be doing essentially the same thing with my 68, but am rebuilding a couple inner wheel houses from a doner car. I have only dug into one side and have been reluctant to pull the wheel house out untill I am finished with the replacement even with a brace tacked into place. It would seem to me to be infinately easier to cut all the cancer out at once, but dont want the whole house of cards crashing down around me once I did. How long was the car sitting open like That? beautiful work BTW.

There was no sag at all. I cut both of the quarters off and removed the trunk floor and removed the inner and out wheel housings all at once that way I had room to work with. I never had the rear sway either. You say you are going to use a donor car for the inner housings? then I would suggest you be very careful when you remove them because I practically destroyed my old ones trying to get them off. There are tac welds in them. I just went back with everything new,quarters,wheel housings,floor and the trunk floor drop down which was very rusty with holes in them.I found it much easier working on the frame which I sandblasted and used POR15 on it while I had the rear of the car exposed.It is very hard to say how long I had the car open in the rear because I only work on the car on Saturdays so maybe an estimate of about 4 months to complete the cutting off and reinstalling. I just found it easier to replace with new metal than to try to patch,just my opinion though.
But I honestly can say that I was very pleased with the way everything turned out

[csstrux]

I will likely sit on mine until I can afford new inners too. I cut the car apart (doner) and then cut or ground the welds to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak. Much easier to do when the car is going to the scrap yard. I have found after many moons of farting around when I have a bit of extra time I could have bought both inners new for the amount of time, gas, and electrisity I have wasted try7ing to rebuild 1/2 of one inner. I was warned about this before I started, and what is done on the inner looks pretty good, but it is a bi&^% trying to get the patches absolutely flat, welds ground down (without getting too thin) and everything looking like it came from the factory.

[john]

does anyone know how to replace a roof on a 1972 cutlass? some little kids jumped up and down on the roof of my project car i just picked tody.don't know who they were.

[junior supercar]

and it can't be pounded out from the underside to make it look like nothing happened?
to replace you'll have to drill out like 5 bazillion spot welds in replacing the exterior metal. good news is, rust free roofs from parts cars are pretty easy to find and people usually sell them for next to nothing as they are hard to sell. bad news is, they are a bear to ship being so large. I've actually had to toss a couple because no one was interested and I had no room to store them