Let's get this quarter panel removal started!
Scraping the edges to reveal spot welds and joints...
Drilling and separating:
Carefully working all around the edges,
making sure to leave the parts that don't come with the new panel!
Lower rear tail panel: lotsa filler here -
gotta be careful to remove just what's required:
Edges all get cleaned up with grinder:
Need to remove and replace the inner fender now:
Before going any further, need to address the surfaces that will be covered with new panels so they will be protected from future rust. After removing any old undercoating, paint and scaly rust, I use a Phosphoric Acid Solution to neutralize and treat any remaining surface rust, or rust hiding between parts, in seams or wherever. The Phosphoric Acid t converts Iron Oxide (rust) to Iron Oxite, a black, inert substance that won't continue to destroy the metal surfaces.
After that we can attempt the first fitment of the new quarter panel:
After a lot of CAREFUL wiggling, prying, pushing and pulling, it looks pretty good:
Fitting quarter at sail panel - a critical point with many attachmenet points all coming together:
Fitting to taillight panel:
After a lot of tweaking, looks much better already:
Getting into my work! In the trunk working the gaps...
Door and quarter looking good together. Lots of gaps to get just right.
Looks done....but still a long way to go...inner fender to quarter requires a lot of work to get close
Welds dressed in glass channel:
...and in wheel well...
Where the roof meets the glass channel at the quarter there was a lot of rust that needed to be addressed:
Pretty close!
After drilling holes for spot welds - and a bunch more tweaking -
it was time to weld it in:
1st dressing :
Second dressing
Quarter to roof seam next to it also welded up:
Rust Bullet seals everything up until we come back to finish it up:
Time to switch sides and repeat the entire process!
The view from inside the trunk looks the same as the other side used to....but we'll fix that.
Ughhh - this side is even worse than the other. Combined with the rust up front, some bubbles along the sides and lots of filler in there....
Thanks and Stay tuned!
Don't forget to check out my website for lots more restoration and rad-rides:
www.E-tekRestorations.com
