quarter panel replacement

Well i finally took this on. It wasn't as bad as i had thought, but it was still pretty time consuming. im about ten hours deep at this point.
I couldnt really find any info online on how to even begin this project so i took some pics along the way. Maybe it will help someone in the future.

I drilled the spot welds out on the replacement fender. I should have picked up a spot welding bit, but i just used a step bit. It worked well, but made the holes way too large in most places. the smaller the hole you drill, the easier it will be to fill in when welding later.

The spot welds are pretty tough to find, if you sand the paint off but dont go too deep, you can see the low spots where the spot welds are.

After i removed the replacement panel, i got to thinking...if i drill my car like this, it will be hell to fill in the holes in the body itself.

So this parts very important,

when removing the throw away quarter panel, grind the spot welds off. So that the car itself is unharmed, and you are only destroying the first layer of metal.

There are a lot of spot welds to find. There are about 20 in the door jam, along with a couple of welds at the edges there. Then there are about 30 on the fender lip. i cut the fender lip out. there are about another 30 inside the trunk on the backside of the fender. Not looking straight down, but looking back at the fender. I first started drilling the wrong ones here. There are also three spot welds at the back right above the tail light. and three or four more towards the bottom at the very back. Then they just follow the bottom of the fender. I cut a straight line here, and welded it back. seemed easier to me.

I also cut it just below the roof. the roof is fiberglass, and i dont know what the protocol for getting in behind there is, but when i tried to peel it back on my junk car it started breaking. so i cut about an inch below the fiberglass on the line, and welded it back there.

If you have never tried to match metal up like this before, it can be tough. I'm no expert by any means, i dont even measure it. I just got it close, then hung the fender. I then used a marker to mark how much more i need to take off and cut a little less. It took a few tries but this is the best way i have found. I am definety not a body man though. lol

I'll probably think of more tips and steps later but heres a start!

Dude...this info is golden to me. Please load this thread with pics & info in as much detail as ya can !!! I'm not any kinda body man either but I wanna remove the quarters from my white Z28 in the future. I'll be watchin' the progress & may ask some questions as I look @ my car in the process. I just wanna get 'em off for now. Are ya gonna install 'em yourself on another car?? I have the GM shop manuals but haven't read that info yet. From glancing thru the pages it gets intense on installation.

I only removed the passenger side from my parts car. To install on my driver. I'm almost done now. Just have to do a little more welding and bondo of course.

To clarify, the throw away fender on the good car needs to be ground off. Don't drill the good car. Lol.
You must drill the replacement panel to get it off, then weld the holes back up.

Here's some more pics. Sorry I'm not much of a diy thread builder. The info here, y'all just gotta make sense of it. Lol

This is the old car. I removed the good panel from here. This should give a general idea of where the spot welds are. they seem to be pretty much the same on both of mine.

Don't use a step bit like I did lol. Drilled the holes too large, they make a spot welding removal bit. Would surely be worth a shot

Looks like a great job man...

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nice write up! I may just try to tackle this myself, I was planning on having a body shop do it but if I can do the panel replacement then have them paint the car that would save me some money.

What tools did ya use to separate the sheet metal on your driver once the spot welds were ground down? I saw an episode of Power Nation & they used an air chisel. Some of the weld locations seem to require a contortionist on an F-body...LOL.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ardent_Z28

What tools did ya use to separate the sheet metal on your driver once the spot welds were ground down? I saw an episode of Power Nation & they used an air chisel. Some of the weld locations seem to require a contortionist on an F-body...LOL.

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once ground down enough it basically falls off. i used a flat head screw driver and some snips to grab it and pull to help me find the next rivet once one was removed. the ones in the deck area were the hardest to access i think, just because of the angle.

the fender lip may have been rough as well, but mine had been beaten to death, so i just ran the cut off wheel along it. worked out perfect, now it meets up with the fender with no lip.

Looking good so far. Can't wait to see the final outcome. Nice job!

I've got a spot weld cutter from HF that works pretty well, used it to cut off some under-hood brackets. That's some ballsy work OP, nice job.