I am in the process of replacing some rusted out inner and outer wheelhouses on my 70ss. Which is the best way to go, replace the whole assembly or just cut out the rusted areas and replace with new. I have bought new wheelhouses from goodmark.Any help would be great. I have done the right side trunk floor and when I get the wheelhouses done, I am going to replace the whole quater on both sides. Thanks

I replaced both rear outer wheelhouses, both rear full quarter panels and the taillight panel on my Nova and I had never done anything that extensive before and what I learned was to take my time and either screw the parts together or put some tack welds on them to hold them in place while I temporarily installed the other panel on top of it. I ended up using some self tapping screws to hold the outer wheelhouses in place and if the quarter fit right around the wheel lip, at the back edge of the door, by the quarter glass, and by the taillight panel I then could pull the quarter panel back off and weld the one outer wheelhouse into place using plug welds. Well like anything else things don’t fit right the first time so I had to make the holes on the outer wheelhouses larger so I could shift the wheelhouse either up, down, forwards, or backwards to get it positioned better and then put the quarter back on to make sure it was indeed right. I also spent the time on mine by putting on and taking off the hatchlid many a time to make sure I had things lined up properly before I got too far along with fully welding it all together. I also took the time to straighten out any lips that were bent from the original spot welder tongs. Some areas on mine the metal lips were bent pretty good and the new panel would not fit right up against it until it was straightened out.
The reason I had to put it all together and take it all apart a couple of times was to get it all to fit right (or better than what the factory did originally) and I was even using NOS GM parts. I did not have any jigs or special brackets that the factory probably used when they originally put the car together but by spending the time like I did I have better fitting panels and as a side benefit, less body filler on the car.
Jim

You are better off replacing the entire assembly as opposed to repairing known bad with pieces from new shells. The key is Measure, Measure, Measure,, patience, patience & more patience.

Test fit up all the pieces to make sure it all fits together just as Jim indicated. Take your time & don't rush ... try not to get stressed out either ;) In the end, you'll be a happy camper.

While on this subject, what would be the correct sequence for replacing the major sheetmetal components? I'm talking about needing new:
Wheelhouses, inner and outer
Rear quarters
trunk floor pans
"possibly" rear deck above trunklid


My research that I have gathered from these postings is, never take it all apart ahead of time- (do one side then the other) I believe the following process would be this:
Replace trunk floor, inner wheel houses, then outers, then quarter panels. Would this be the right way to approach the job? Also, then I plan to take the body off the frame to strip the frame and refinish. Lots of work ahead of me, but I want to do it right the first time-
Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Originally posted by vetteman_72:
My research that I have gathered from these postings is, never take it all apart ahead of time- (do one side then the other) I believe the following process would be this:
Replace trunk floor, inner wheel houses, then outers, then quarter panels. Would this be the right way to approach the job? Also, then I plan to take the body off the frame to strip the frame and refinish. Lots of work ahead of me, but I want to do it right the first time-
Any thoughts would be appreciated! When I was doing panel replacement on mine I had cut off both the quarters, the taillight panel and both rear outer wheelhouses and in the back of my head I though that after this was all cut off of the car what remained could possibly twist or move to where when I went to put on the new parts they wouldn't fit to the twisted or moved remains.
The factory probably had jigs they used so what I did was before I cut all those things off of the car was come up with a way to stabilize what was left. I had a spot in the garage that I could leave the car sitting in the one place while I cut off the old metal and fitted on the new so I then took some 1/4" square tubing and in two spots in the rear corners of the car where the bumper would mount was to measure between that spot and the garage floor. I then cut a piece of tubing a little longer and welded the tube to the car while the tube rested on the garage floor and was square to the garage floor. I then added the second tube in the rear bumper mount area on the other side. I then took 2 more tubes with one on each side and welded them in the area where the rearend would be between the car frame to the floor. The last set of tubes were welded in by the front end of the rocker sills close to where the lower front fender bolt is at. I positioned the tubes so that later I could get in there with a 3" cutoff wheel to cut the welds apart and remove the tubes.
Now with the bottom of the car sitting on the 6 tubes from the firewall to the rear bumper area I started removing panels off of the car. When I was done some of the tubes had indeed lifted off of the ground and this confirmed that the car twisted slightly and moved. Now that I knew the car had moved if I had tried to weld the new panels on I would be in for a fight to get things lined up properly so what I did was get out some cinder blocks and place them on the floor in the area above the tubes that were off of the ground and kept stacking them up until the tubes came back into contact with the ground. Now I knew what remained of the car was not twisted any more and that the new panels could be fitted and chances are it took less time.
I also thought ahead and if the car would need to be moved I would mark the floor exactly where the tubes hit on the concrete and then when moved back into position all I had to do was line up the tubes with the marks on the floor and it would be good to go again.
Jim