my car has a lot of rust around the rear wheel wells and behind the rear wheels. I have a great set of OEM quarter panels from a coupe.

I am concerned that the OEM coupe quarters will be too difficult to work with and fit onto my convertible. Wondering if I should just sell the OEM coupe quarters and get the reproduction quarter panel skins even though they are not great - just because it will be easier for the body shop to work with the reproduction skins.

any advice? And any idea how much solid OEM coupe quarters are worth?

Thanks!

 

I don't know about value, but the driver quarter on my '68 convertible was ruined in an accident many, many years ago. When the body people got into it, they found bondo 3/8" thick in some places. We looked high and low for a replacement convertible quarter panel but didn't have any luck. What the body shop did was cut out the bad quarter and use a reproduction quarter panel for a coupe, fitting it in place. I really don't know exactly how they did it, but it's what I would call near perfect. You cannot tell anything was changed and the repro panel did the job.

They also had to replace just the peak of the wheel opening on the passenger quarter side, which they fabricated.

That's my experience - the repro quarter panel for a coupe, cut and fitted to be on a convertible, worked perfectly.

Randy C.

 

We had a '70 Chevelle 'vert back in the early '80's we did the same way - a good bodyman can get it right, and I believe we charged an additional $150 for the extra labor.

 

The coupe quarter will work, they just need to be trimmed and fitted. I used tabco quarter skins on my 68 and I didn't seem to have any issues with them. Just finished up the passenger side, about 2 weeks ago. The tabco skins are hard to come by from what I've heard since getting mine a while back.

Good Luck on your build.