I have read the posts and did the searches and I am still confused. What experiences have you had with 1/4 panel replacement?There are fulls(are expensive and some say you have to shrink them in the middle to make them fit), 80%, skins, and Classics even offer a patch panel kit that includes front and rear patch panels with the entire wheel lip(suppposed to thicker metal). I have read so may different opinions. Some say go with the patch panels becaue they are thicker. I read one post that said use 80% but leave the "piece of cheese looking piece" in front of the tire attached. What is that? I have read leave as much as possible of your old panel. I have read go above the crown and to go below it. I have a little rust in the lower rear(which has also eaten the outter wheel well in that place) and the lip under the molding is very thin at the top of the wheel well for about 6". So I am looking at replacing outter wheel wells, which inturn seems that to get the outter off, will affect the entire 1/4 lip also. I need to some guidance. If I need to buy the expensive stuff(fulls), I guess I will. But if the others are better then I will go that way. I have some experiece in body and fender repair and the guy who is helping me does it for a living. I dont want a butchered looking innner 1/4 either even though the car is not matching numbers. One more area, I took out the battery tray and the subframe mount on the radiator suupport is thinned pretty bad but the radiator suport is fine. Can I buy this anywhere? Seems ridiculus to buy the entire radiator support for one piece. Also the front section of the inner fender is rusted, not bad just thinned. Once again I have not seen that particular section for sale. Have to buy the whole innner fender? Anyone tried sandblasting the section and then preping it? Sorry so long. I am getting started on the car(a 69 RS/SS) and these are the areas I have not been able to come to conclusion on. Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

What do you need to know? If I saw some pictures, that would be of a huge help.

Do you need any of the jamb area(front or rear)? If not, a 80% should work for you. The quality of them have increased alot over the years, and if you have some knowledge, it will be easy. You should be able to have it done in a day.

Also, if the new piece is of something that resembles quality, you shouldnt need to crowd the sheet metal to get it on. If you do, something else is wrong. Once you have the old stuff trimmed down, and the new piece ready to go, it should lay right on top of the old stuff without any problems.

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Jim
67 Camaro SS Conv.
70 Challenger R/T Conv.

I agree with ragtop. I just put two NOS full 1/4s and r/side outerwheel house on mine last month. The full 1/4s are alot of work. They were tucked under the roof panel and under the rear tail panel. If your back window is good and you dont need a full one go with the 80% 1/4. I got my wheel house from rick's and it was a lot easier install than I thought and the fit was perfect.

Stacy..I'm a "piece of cheese" guy! <blush>..If your car is a 69, it doesn't have it..it's a 67, 68 thang! Heres how I look at it...Like the other guys said, if your door jamb area and the roof area are okay, use an 80% panel. Sounds like your car just needs the 80%.

I install the 80% just below the crown line only because I don't think the repro's crowm is as nice as the original. Also, I use the original crown as a good solid reference point.

As far as your radiator support piece..I had the same prob...I located a used rusted radiator support..you can find them real cheap, sometimes free..most of the time they just rust on the RH side so you can remove the mount piece from the LH side of the junk support and weld it to your RH side...they're interchangable from side to side.

The wheelhouse rust under the battery...you can weld in a section, and fabricate the area if you're not a purist (like myself). but the area is not available seperatly at this time.

Hope I helped a little. The important thing is to take everyones opinion on how to do things, evalute them and do what YOU THINK IS BEST FOR YOU!

-Gary

Thanks for the responses. Sorry about the cheescake thing. I meant know disrespect, it just lost me. I have studied this sight more than I did most of my classes in college. My door jams are fine and the window. I have no rust in the front of the 1/4s by the louvers. I have not taken any digital pictures yet. Dont have a camera or scanner for old fashioned pictures. The car just has a little rust about the size of one fist one one side and half that on the other. But the rust has bled over to the outers right in the very rear corner where they join the 1/4s. I could probable deal with it with out a outer but it had some rust on the lip under the fender molding. About 6", right in the middle on top, was too thin to weld anything to it. Any help is greatly appreciated. I will probably be asking more when I put it back together.

Stacy -

I had the same dilemma when I was doing the body work on my car. My advice is to make sure you have checked your car thoroughly before you make any decisions. I found lots of hidden damage as I disassembled my car.

My car also appeared to need only patch panels around the fender lip on both quarters and maybe just a little straightening on the doors. At first I started with one quarter and bought an aftermarket partial skin. As I cut away the metal so I could fit the skin I found more rust and old damage, and more, and more. I finally leveled the car on jackstands in a place where I could leave it for quite a while and started trimming away bad sheetmetal. By the time I found all the rust, old damage, bad repairs, etc. I had only the roof left on the car. There was serious hidden rust in the seams below the rear window, in the rear window channel, in the seams around the tail panel, and in all the previous repairs and patch panels on the car. I also found bondo covering old problems and rust holes, and the area below both rear quarter windows (inside the car under the rear seat side panels) had been hacked to repair quarter panel damage. I was doing this about 9 years ago and found all original metal at a reasonable price so I just replaced everything.

If you're lucky enough to have to deal only with the quarter - if there's no rust and the seams look good it is a lot easier to patch in a partial panel. The roof seams on the quarters are a bitch and when you peel all the other seams apart there is a lot of straightening and grinding off old welds to do. However, IMO, this may be the best approach. Where there's a little rust there's usually more. This is the best time to get it out of there and get some good primer and paint over the metal inside all those areas you can't otherwise get to.

Hopefully, you won't find the same kinds of problems I did. However, don't make any assumptions. Crawl around in the car and probe seams and look very carefully. You'll be bummed if you find problems, but not as much as when rust starts bubbling through a new paint job.

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Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)

I have some pics on my webpage about doing a quarter panel job. I did both the 80% and just the skin. I found that doing the skin turns out much nicer and uses less filler. Anyway check out my site at http://www.geocities.com/jdcamaro68/quarter.htm

Your post didn't say first or second gen camaro.I would suggest getting as many articles on the subject of quarter replacement as possible and take time to read them,over and over.Super Chevy has had some great info in the last year from some of the top shops in the country.They give you very good direction on all the questions you asked.Sheet metal work is alot like drywall work.Any time you can avoid a patch in the middle of a panel do it.It takes alot of metal finishing to make it flat.Like a quarter panel skin that runs into the door jam.No edge to finish just spot weld.Same applys to the wheel openings,the quarter panel goes over the outer wheel lip and again only minor finishing is required.Any time you can but to a factory seam or joint you have saved your self alot of labor.So plan your cuts in that fashion.I'm no body man but a carpenter by trade, i can measure,use straight edges,plum and cut with the best of them.I replaced both rear quarters,both outer wheel wells,tail light panel,trunk floor,both floor boards and built the rear window channel out of sheet steel.It looks great.I bought a plasma cutter,small break,spot weld cutting tools and many cut off wheels etc.Take your time and you will be fine.Hope this helps.

Brian

Thanks for all the help. I am going to start on it next weekend. If I have problems, you will hear from me again.

Be sure to use a good weld thru primer if you are overlapping bare metal to be welded. you will need corosion protection between those panels, the wheel house lip is most important. I use a Spot welder that compresses the panels together with 500 PSI and makes the factory type welds. It is a scaled down version of the same welders used by G.M. This welder will weld two panels together with seam sealer in between them. That is the best corosion protection you can get. If you are using a Mig type welder you can still seal between the panels. Just before you do your final fit put a 3/8" bead of 3M Fast and Firm seam sealer in the bent eara of the wheel well lip just outside the eara to be welded. This type of sealer melts with heat and will flow into and fill any dead space between the panels after you do your spot welds. It is impossible to do this with the panel in place without making a mess. Depending on the number of spot welds you make you may not generate enuf heat to get the sealer to flow evenly into the intire opening. You can use a heat gun in this case. the trick is putting the sealer on the panel before you install it. Good luck guys. Jeremiah.

[This message has been edited by Jeremiah (edited 12-11-2001).]