I finished welding up my quarter skins on my GTO and am now coating the whole thing with plastic to get all the waves out. I am an old timer and always thought you wanted almost no plastic on your car. You could go surfing on these panels. I also had to repair some spot that had some warping.
The old quarter were messed up over the years. but could have been fixed with alot of work and as much plastic as I just put on my new ones.
And now because I pro streeted the car I have to lengthen the wheel opening to allow for the bigger tires.
We had new GM quarters put on our '69 a few years ago and they needed a little work as well. The repro stuff is typically not so good and needs more. With all the shiny cars at shows, it might just scare you how much filler is under that paint.
when we did quarter panels on the 70 el camino we used metal to metal on the seam and then a light coat of bondo over the metal to metal. the metal to metal is hard to sand but it wont soak in water like the bondo does.
as long as the filler is on top of good metal it will never be an issue, and of course it all depends on what your idea of "strait" is. Most guys that think they have strait cars I think they have a wavy pice of crap. To get a nice body truely "strait" I skim coat the whole car, rough it in with 80 grit. High build, block with 180, ice any waves, high build again, 320 grit. then spt prime as nessacarry to eliminate waves. The amount of build up required to get a car truely strait is pretty impressive, you would be amazed what it really takes to make a strait car. Why do you think factory cars are orange peeled as hell?
It seems like 50% of the material you put on ends up on the floor as dust. When you step up to 320, are you still block sanding dry or wet? It seems that wetsanding, you could wash away alot of dust.
I have to laugh when a potentual new customer says he wants a car with "no bondo". There is no such thing, well there can be, but most dont want to pay for what that would actually take. We always do our best to work the metal but you will in most cases have filler in the car. We redid a Pro Street Camaro here in the shop, you would have been better off fitting the quarter first with clecos, with your tires on, cutting and strecthing them then weld both sides. (Now you find out) You can look at my website to see how we did that one, kind of too late now for you but you might get an idea.
I had put the tires on when I had the old quarters on, for some reason I thought there was plenty of room. I am going to start that job on Thursday. This little side track will put me off a few weeks.
I guess im lucky, my full goodmark quarters really are quite straight, a few waves here and there but nothing some real real light filler wont fix. Most of those are my fault anyways. So if you spray 2 coats of epoxy primer on the car including the weld seams, is it still necisary to use metal to metal or can you go right for the rage?
How do you guys apply filler to the whole quarter panel? How do you mix it up? On a LARGE piece of cardboard or in a tub? Seriously, can you experts (Makmetalfab, Mikey69396, etc) how exactly is the fastest way to apply/mix enough filler to cover an entire quarter panel??? Do you mix a gallon at a time? What do you use to block it with-80 or 40 grit?
A galon at a time is a bit exessive, but a quart isn't unheard of. And yes, a large piece of cardboard works really well.
Check out www.radrides.com and go to projects, then Notorious. It will show you that even $150,000 cars have to have plastic if they want to be straight.
As to the original post, you bring up a great point. I think a lot of people have the idea that brand new skins would work the best. The reality is, unless you are a very good metal worker, you will end up with just as much plastic as if you had just worked out the dents.
I'll take the original, thicker gauge, better fitting metal anytime over thinner repro panels unless the originals are too far gone with rust or excessive wrinkling.
As already mentioned, in the real world (i.e. making a profit or finishing your project in a reasonable timeframe), to get a laser straight panel you end up with a solid sheet of plastic filler or primer anyway, so you may as well work the original metal.
Spend 50 hours replacing a quarter and cover it with filller or leave it there and cover with filler anyway in half the time................? I think the old saw about filler cracking is overrated. I have grinded on lots of 40 year old panels only to find perfectly preserved bondo hiding under old paint.
I took plastic off the doors that was about 40 years old. It also had the holes still in it from pulling the dent. No rust. Sometimes I think a lot of this work is overrated.
When I welded on my quarters I spent 2 weeks trying to weld all the pinholes. I got as many as I could, so I put the water proof filler and then will water proof the inside. I can't see how it will rust.
Nefarious- that was just AWESOME!!!!!! Thanks- I was looking at that site for 1/2 hour- Damn nice cars!!!
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