[webfoot]

Now that your mind is in the gutter, I want to know about experiences by the regular joes out there that took it upon themselves to replace their own quarter skins/panels, especially those who had very little to no previous welding or bodywork experience. Did you finish? Did it look good? What would you do different again?

I will be putting outer wheelhouses and quarter skins on my 68 GTO 'vert.

I have spent many an hour researching this and other websites and have decided I will butt weld the panels together. I ordered some cleco pliers and fasteners to hold everything together and just bought a lincoln 180. My garage is also equipped with an 80 gallon 4.5 running hp compressor. I will buy some sheetmetal for practice before I have at it.

Here is what I'm dealing with:
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/clarkbar04/GTO/righttopquarter.jpg
cut the amateur patch job out with my cutoff tool
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/clarkbar04/GTO/patch.jpg

 

[Andy69]

here is my experience, so far, in a nutshell

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176897&highlight=quarter

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182290&highlight=quarter

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192613&highlight=quarter

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199807&highlight=quarter

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200884&highlight=quarter

 

[Dave]

Are You going to do full skin's or partial's? I gotta tell Ya, it's alot easier for the rookie to hide the seam's at the factory locations.

I should add that You already have the tool's, I believe that You can do it. I had some experience, not that it mattered that much, all the knowledge is right here at Your finger tip's.

 

[webfoot]

The goat world is not as blessed as the chevelle world when it comes to repro stuff. There are no full quarters for a 68 convertible. I will splice it in probably 3" down from the top of the panel.

 

[BlueSS454]

The Charger was the first car I took on solely by myself. The 2 Chevelles, my father did the metal work on. I thought early on that I was in over my head on the Charger, but in 6 months, I had taken a complete rot bucket POS down to nothing, and piece by piece replaced the floors, trunk floors & drop offs, outer wheel houses, quarter skins, rockers, and tail panel. I had no exeprience welding sheetmetal at all so I started with the floor pans, and when I felt comfortable welding, I moved on to the other areas. I used 90% plug welds on the entire car, I didn't butt weld anything mostly because of the lack of experience doing so. I already had a little experience with bodywork so once I completed the metal work, I moved on to that aspect and thusly completing the job with the top coats in a total of 18 months.

The car went from this.....

To this in 16 months......

Then to this 2 months later.....

Then to this 7 months later (completion)

Best advise I can give is keep a positive attitude towards it and you'll persevere through anything. There were times I about gave up b/c it was getting into more than I cared it too but I didn't and this is the end result.

 

[Chevl_Steve]

I have seen many obvious seams on cars at car shows. You have one awesome car there and people will be expecting to see quality work on a quality car like that.

I hired a pro body shop guy for a few weekends to help me replace mine. He earned some cash money and I got it done right and at a fraction of what a body shop would have charged.

After experiencing what he did, I know that I never could have done it myself this well, even with this place to help. It's one thing to read it, it's another to do it.

Just my 2 cents.

Steve

 

[webfoot]

While I'm prepared for the possibility of failure, I still think I can do it. I will defer to a professional if I screw up too bad. After all its just metal and money.

 

[Dave]

Just make sure to leave enough to have a "pro" fix it later. j/k

I thought that You posted a link to GTO panel's. I'd have to look into maybe sliding the wheelhouse's under the 1/4's, and just patching as little as possible on the lip of the panel.

One thing to look into is that Panel Adhesive is a great tool to learn how to use.

 

[136679ss]

The goat world is not as blessed as the chevelle world when it comes to repro stuff. There are no full quarters for a 68 convertible. I will splice it in probably 3" down from the top of the panel.

I might add, there are NO full quarters available for anything but 70+ in the Convertible world as far as Chevelles are concerned. The hardest part about the first time is getting past the intimidation factor of cutting the old panel off.

 

[Dave]

One thing to add there Griswold, I got a lotta specialty stuff, You could borrow. Spot weld drills, air flanger, about 25 pairs of VG clamps, all sorts of stuff You'll need, but don't need to buy.:thumbsup:

And.........the very expensive glue dispenser gun.:yes:

We'll need to talk, I am going to be in Ellensburg this coming weekend.

 

[keg69ss]

think twice or even 3 times before you cut anything.add a little common sense , and with all the help on here ,you should be alright.:thumbsup:good luck

 

[webfoot]

One thing to add there Griswold, I got a lotta specialty stuff, You could borrow. Spot weld drills, air flanger, about 25 pairs of VG clamps, all sorts of stuff You'll need, but don't need to buy.:thumbsup:

And.........the very expensive glue dispenser gun.:yes:

We'll need to talk, I am going to be in Ellensburg this coming weekend.

Details please!!

Bring your rotisserie!

 

[Dave]

Well, We need to talk on the phone sometime, I can't type well enough. But the first thing is get a body bushing kit in there. Get the car sitting like it will in the end, to get the best results.

Then do all the welding/panel replacement, then onto the rotteserie.

I'll PM You my number.

 

[ssal396]

I think for those of us who do NOT do this for a living, the hardest part is cutting those big holes in our cars Once you get past that, it's really not that hard, just take your time and make sure everything fits before you weld it in....

 

[cromedss]

Some good advise was given earlier in this thread about practicing welding (floor pans if possible and necessary). You want to make sure you are real comfortable welding before you tackle the large panels. Floor pans are a great place to start as there is a lot of welding and still a large margin of error as it will be covered by carpet. If you think you can do it more than likely you can. Take your time and plan all your work carefully and you will be fine.

 

[webfoot]

Thanks everyone who posted in this thread. It should be a lot of work but I am looking forward to doing it.

I'm not scared of cutting the holes!!

 

[bigdave]

Not dealing with a vert, we repplaced the right side with a full quarter and thye left with a skin. After doing both I wish we would've done both with a full quarter. It was the first car we have done as much so far. My son learned how to weld and cut off on this car.
The skin would have come out ok but he was impatiant when filling in the welds between spots and heated up the metal. we had alot more work on our hands straightening it out.
Just take your time.

 

[webfoot]

I work from home, so time I gots.

I figure I can work until it drives me nuts, then go work on the car until it drives me nuts. What a vicious circle.