Finally finished getting the trunk and the quarter panel done;

 

looking good....nice work

 

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

 

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

 

thanks everyone for the kind words and encouragement

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

Nice work Bro!

 

Gary,
Awesome job. Thanks for the pics and write up.

I'm about to do the same thing. Do you have any pics you could post showing the steps when you installed the wheel housings before the quarter went on and maybe even some of the during pics as the trunk was coming together? Do you have a spot welder or did you have to drill holes in the wheel wells and plug weld the trunk floor and wheel wells together?
Thanks,
Randy

 

I will post the pictures that I do have when I get home this evening. I used a mig welder. On the wheel wells I purchased a flange tool to punch holes in the edges of the wheel wells to do my spot welding.I found the flange tool very helpful. I replaced both the inner and outer wheel wells. I thought that way I would not have to worry about anymore rust. When I removed the wheel wells they were spot welded so I used my air gun chisel to cut the spot welding. I butt welded the trunk floor also,I bought a 3 piece kit for the trunk. If I had to do it all over again I would have purchased the 1 piece whole trunk floor. When I replaced the quarter panels all of the welding that I did was butt welded, no overlapping.I did not use any bondo. I used a product called ALL METAL. Whatever you decide to do just be patient and take your time. I have been doing my restoration on my car for the last 3 yrs. I only do the work on Saturdays. I hope to be finished by the end of this summer. I will be more than happy to give you any help.

 

Hey Gary,
Thanks.
I've welded a little. Just small patches and other projects. The reason I was hoping to see pics of the other parts in the process of being installed was to try and see exactly how you went about it. I guess, since I haven't done wheel wells or quarters before, I'm basically looking for things to do and things NOT to do.
One thing I picked up on in your response was that you said you butt welded the trunk floor. I assume you mean that you butt wlded the seams between the 3 pieces. Did the new floor have the lip around the edge that you could punch holes into in order to plug weld it together with the inner wheel well? That appears to be how the factory did it. Just wondering if that's possible with the repro parts. I have a one piece trunk floor but it doesn't even reach all the way across the trunk and certainly doesn't include the lip around the edge.
Again, I'd really appreciate any tips you'd like to share. Do's and don'ts..........

 

The lip I think you are referring to is the trunk drop down. That is a separate piece that connects the trunk to the quarter panel.It rests on the end of the trunk or the floor where you can spot weld it down and then it drops down to where you can weld the bottom quarter panel to it. You are probably thinking your trunk is too short because you dont have the drop down.I bought the kit below although not from this Company,I got mine from Tamraz and I don't believe I paid more than 150.00 for it the entire kit. I bought all of my sheet metal from them like the trunk floor,both quarters and the drop downs. I also purchased the floor for the inside from them.I also did not cut the 2 outside brackets off the car.I used the ones that were already on the car. I just sand blasted them and coated them with Por 15

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/68-69...item35a9b07195

 

Hi,
The lip I'm referring to is where the trunk floor meets the inner wheel well. This area is up on the shelf so it's not part of most, if any, repo trunk floors.
As for my replacement being too small, it's not just a bit too small, it's 4 inches short of where the original floor drops off on the left and right sides.

 

yes there is a lip on my trunk floor where it meets the inner wheel well housing. I did use my flange puncher to put hole in that lip and then spot welded the two together. You are going to have to use seam filler in between the two on top because there is going to be a space there,maybe an inch or so on either side.

 

I have looked at my album and I do not see where I took many pictures of the trunk but here is what I have

 

[IMG]http://i640.photobucket.com/albums/uu125/gh5168/hood/IMG_0242.jpg
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Gary,

Nice work. Thanks for the pictures...keep'um coming!

 

Hi Gary,

Thank for taking the time to post the pics.

Where are you at on it now?
Randy

 

I have the everything back together,I plan on painting it sometime this summer. I am making sure that I have everything mechanically sound before I paint it.I will post some more pictures where I am in this process.I do not have the fenders and doors on the car because I want to paint them seperately.

 

 

 

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