Rear Quarter Panel Repair [Merged 11-8]

[GSXpower]

Hey I just rolled my car and I am getting it fixed cheaper than you are. A door from a salvage yard is around $50-75, and I had an estimate on welding in a whole quarter panel and it was around $300. Now I always op. for pulling out the dent with a pin welder, and muddin it, cause it is cheaper and something you can do yourself. I know not everyone has the knowhow or equiptment to paint a car, but my bud had an autobody shop for me to paint in, I will post pics when it is done... should be done by may. Good luck, and don't be afraid to replace whole panels, it will be better in the long run. Heck if you want a new door I can get you one, even red, cause that is off the car I am using for parts to fix my car.

 

[mykfwdtalon]

well so far i have registered for an auto body technology course at the local comunity college, and i am going to set up my own paint shop in my fathers garage. about that door, if i cant find one when i hit the junk yard next week i will send a pm your way. thanx to all for help
-myk_

 

[Damned Talon]

as you can see in the attached photo.. i have some rust breaking thru on the drivers quarter panel on my 91 TSi AWD was wondering if patch panels exist or what a recommended repair would be thanks for your time.
jamie

 

[Stapl3]

cut it out, weld some new metal there, bondo, paint.

best of luck.

 

[HighPsi92GST]

wow thats some bad rust you got there. like said, cut weld fill paint. body shop could do it pretty easily

 

[Solar_Eclipse]

Ok, so once upon a time I was buying my first car. Long story short, I bought a 1990 Eclipse GS (auto). When I think about it now, there is nothing I like about the car except the style. I payed 1,200 for it, and would like to resell it to get another. There is a softball sized dent above the wheel well on the passangerside rear quarter panel. A piece under the wheel well prevent me from getting to the dent to bang it out. My questions:

-How much goes into replacing a quarter panel?

-Is there anyway I can get to the back of the quarter panel?

-Other repair ideas??

Thanks loads.

 

[dis_ill_usion]

OK i am kind of going through the same problem but much worse (see sig pic) with your dent though if it is just a dent, and there is no creases you can use a dent puller, which is basically just a suction cup with a handle, and just push it on and pull. another way that I can think of is if you are talking about pounding it out from inside the car and there is a wheel well sort of thing blocking your way, try taking the wheel well line off from the outside, you know that black plastic above your wheel, and I think that should expose some more of your 1/4 panel. but if it comes down to it and you have to replace it, find a junker 1g and cut out the section you need, but cut a bigger section then you need, go to your car and cut the dent and replace with the section you cut off of the other car. you will have to do some trimming with that other piece to make it fit right. then go and disconnect you battery and bust out your welder. put that piece up and what I found that would work best is a magnet or two to hold it flush with your body. tack the piece in place with a couple tack welds around the piece. remove the magnets and your piece should stay in place, it is not really smart to leave the magnets there because they could mess up the ark of your weld. when you are ready to fully weld the piece in just remember not to do one continuous weld, it will warp the metal and cause bigger problems, just do small welds and alternate from side to side


sorry I cannot go into larger detail right now but I am in school and I have to go to my next class

 

[Gary 420A RS]

pop it out.. drill a little hole and i mean little in the dent and pull it even with the rest.. and bond it flat..

 

[dis_ill_usion]

yeah, ooops forgot about that approach.

 

[Solar_Eclipse]

awesome guys, thanks for the advice! I'll definitely be looking into those. I'm so psyched...!!

 

[Psycron]

Hey all, I need a second (or third/however many I can get actually) opinion on what I can do to fix this. It had minor rust damage when I bought it last summer, now it has gotten much worse. I want to fix it this summer before it gets bad enough where it might be truely expensive to fix. Pic of damage:

 

[Psycron]

What I am thinking is hit up a junkyard, cut the portion off I need with the right tools then weld, grind, primer and paint until fixed. I am confident this can be pulled off by a novice (since the damage isn't too severe, YET) if I have the right tools. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I have a 15 gallon air compressor which should suffice for painting, what else will I need?

 

[babell2]

Wow man that looks like a panel repair. I have done some door shaving and I have two spots at my rear wheel wells forward of the tire between the plastic trim panels. I believe that you will have to trim out the corroded material and replace it with some new steel sheet. Weld in the new pieces grind off the high spots and do what ever you need to smooth out the panel and paint. Good Luck

 

[Psycron]

Thanks babel! Yeah, it's going to be kind of tricky. The piece I'm going to cut will probably be a triangle, from the bottom "lip" of the wheel well on both sides to near the top of the glass where the other hole is. I'm praying there's nothing else underneath but at this point it's going to be speculation until I get this piece removed from the car. I guess I just need to know what the right tools for the job are.

 

[ddavisaf]

Actually, you need to remove the fender.
Grind ALL the paint off it. Just because rust pops through on only a little section of your fender, doesn't mean it's not other places. You'll prolly end up patching about half of that panel. Grind it down with some kind of orbital sander with a paint stripper pad on it. Don't worry about how smooth you get it at this point. Find where your rust is, front and back. Cut it out, put the patch in and weld it. Sand that down to that it's smooth. The more smooth you get it the better the finish. Primer, then block sand the primer down, then primer it again. Put a small layer of paint on it, then block sand it again. Keep doing this until you don't have any primer showing through your paint after you block sand it. After you get it painted, spray rubberized undercoating on the INSIDE of the fender to prevent rust from forming in the future

 

[Psycron]

ddavisaf, thanks for the response- in regards to removing the fender are you referring to to cutting most of the fender off? Is there any other way? I heard you can also locate the spot welds and remove the fender. I'm going to check my Haynes manual when I get home to see if there is any info on how to do that (unless you can help me ). This seems to be the hard part- knowing what to cut and how much I need to get from another parts car. I'm a noob when it comes sheetmetal and am unsure how to identically match the stock quarter panel- what do you do to get desireable results? The rest of what you're saying makes perfect sense.

 

[ddavisaf]

Ugh, I wish I was in front of my car right now so I could help you more. PM me and when I get home I'll see exactly what you have to do and give you any insight I can. And by desireable results do you mean smooth metal finish?

 

[Psycron]

Ok, I'll be out of here (work) around 7p EST. I'll send you a pm before I leave. When I said desireable results I meant mainly the lip on the quarter panel (around the wheel well)where it is rusting- that part of the panel seems to be hard to replicate with sheetmetal due to the half-elliptical shape and how it is creased... I will better illustrate when I get home

 

[ddavisaf]

Yeah, I see what you mean. You could try and work the sheetmetal enough to conform to the design, or go chop the piece off of your fender, goto a parts car (please ask permission first ) and cut out match piece from the parts car and weld that on in it's place. Slow cuts are the key to not warping the metal.

 

[Psycron]

Baaaaahhherrrrrzzzzzt

Some guy: hey! what what are you doing?

Me:

, I wouldn't even try to get away with that! It definitely seems to be the best way to go about it. What do I need to cut the piece I need? This just might require purchasing additional tools...

 

[ddavisaf]

You could do it with a cutting wheel as long as you're careful

 

[Psycron]

Would this do the job?

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[ddavisaf]

Yup, and prolly a couple more as well

 

[Psycron]

Awesome. I'll pick one up on eBay friday. Now all I need is a spray gun and to rent some welding tools, then I'm set! What stuff do you use to coat the backside of the panel? I am guessing more stuff will need to come apart- mainly the shields in the inner wheel well, correct? This should be good

 

[ddavisaf]

It's called "Rubberized Under Coating" by: 3M Yeah, take all the stuff off the back of the fender