can these quarter panels be saved?...

[dwelle]

ok, so the green car is done (mostly) and on the road racking up miles. yay.

it's time for me to dive into my '74 which will be getting into metal work and paint in a few months. the car currently has SC flares that were lap welded and very (and i mean VERY) poorly done. my hope was that the original quarters were in tact enough to just cut the SC flares off and butt weld some RS flares on. i took the paint and a sea of bondo down to the welds to see what i have to work with.

i'm not optimistic that i can save the existing quarter panels for two reasons. first, they were welded HOT and the seams literally shrank .5-.75" in spots, hence the gallons of bondo. second, the SC flares that were scabbed on seem to have been cut much higher up the quarter than i normally see, about 10" at the top. the quarter extends about 1" down underneath the flare, but it is so deformed i can't see it being any good.

i have a month or so to figure out how i want to go about fixing this. the two most likely scenarios in my mind are to try and find some used SC quarter panels (not easy) or just buy new SC quarter panels (pricey). either way, the RS flare idea seems to be out the window unless these panels can somehow be saved.









thoughts?...

[Bob Kontak]

How did the shape of the flare look before the bondo was ground off? Did it look appropriate?

Mind you, I am not looking up into your wheel well at the over(under)hanging original quarter so I can't have a full appreciation of things.

I see the weld and it ain't pretty. However, does it have integrity? I see some rust here and there. It is through? You have plenty of depth to patch weld.

Personally, if I had the car and it was of driver quality, I would keep it intact.

I would pay a good body man to apply the appropriate different types of muds and do the forming work. This is not dual action sander stuff after a point. It's hand work with a hard foam slightly flexible sanding tube. I could be wrong as I only have my set of experiences.

Body guy may be able to ping out some of the depressions with hand tools as well.

[juanbenae]

maybe try linking this to the body & paint forum.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by juanbenae

maybe try linking this to the body & paint forum.

+1 Porsche962 will respond.

It's down the list in the miscellaneous group.

[dwelle]

will cross post to paint and body.

bob, the welds are very sound. i'm just not comfortable with that much bondo going back on my car, the channels made by the welds are 3/4" deep in some places. the quarter panels have so much bondo on them it's comical, it literally covers the entire fender. i'm putting in a front pan, welding up the sunroof, and putting a nice paint job on here. i want to do the fenders "right". this will be a fairly high end build...

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by dwelle

second, the SC flares that were scabbed on seem to have been cut much higher up the quarter than i normally see, about 10" at the top. the quarter extends about 1" down underneath the flare, but it is so deformed i can't see it being any good.


thoughts?...

that was the 1st thing I thought when I looked at the photos. almost like it was hit to the point the damage being cut away dictated the flare seam limits.

[dwelle]

that's just it, no discenrable damage on the car other than a front pan that suffered from battery acid.

just a bad execution of the wider flares. and the ugly turboish deck lid it came with...