1972 Monte Carlo

Rear Quarter Panel Replacement - Page 3

Latest update here

March 2019

Some beautiful new parts arrive!

These AMD parts are so nice, they come with the trim and Monte Carlo sail panel emblem holes already drilled.

Slowly the remainder of the old quarter panel is carefully removed, trying not to damage the metal beneath it.

This is a view of the inside of the drivers quarter panel.

As you can see someone put a piece of sheet metal over a rusted out area and pop riveted it to the rusty panel. They then coated it with body filler and painted it.

Unbelievable.

Nothing pretty here.

The rear and fender lip of the outer wheel housing is terribly rusted away.

Other than the obvious areas the remaining areas of the wheelhouse is extremely solid.

With the rear and sides loose I cut along the forward edge to remove it from the car.

I slipped the new quarter in place for an initial test fit and boy was I impressed!

It fit nearly perfectly, there is always some fitting needed even with factory panels, but this is surprisingly good!

I had initially thought that I'd be able to reuse the trunk drop on the drivers side.

After further cleaning and inspection rust through was found in the lower leading edge.

It will need to be replaced with a new piece.

The rotten area of the wheelhouse was cut out and a new wheelhouse was used to cut a patch to replace it. It is just sitting in place at the moment.

The new drop is exactly like the original, another quality AMD product.

Again the spot welds were carefully cut or ground down, there are many!

It finally comes free!

A comparison of the old and new part shows how virtually identical they are.

A thorough cleaning and wire wheeling of the trunk in that area and where the inner wheel house meets the trunk floor revealed some more trouble.

I found the edge of the trunk floor was rusted through.

The area was carefully cut leaving a healthy margin.

I used the removed part and formed a replacement patch for the area.

I fit the piece in place and carefully welded it in place.

After the weld is dressed the repair is invisible.

The new drop off fit perfectly without any modifications.

I then plug welded it in place to simulate the factory spot welds.

When I cleaned the undercoating from the inside of the inner wheelhouse and found it was rusted through and in some areas it was thin as paper.

I marked off the area to be removed.

I also uncovered that I had not removed enough when I repaired the trunk floor edge.

I made another small patch for that area.

As before I slowly welded it in place.

The weld is carefully dressed and looks terrific. Then a coat of weld through primer was applied over all the exposed metal.

I'm going to use a new inner wheelhouse to cut my patch from. The area that I cut out has some difficult bends and turns and would be difficult and time consuming to create.

I carefully trimmed the patch to fit.

It was clamped in position...

...and welded in place.

The welds are cleaned up and it's as good as new.

I'll finish this and the outer wheelhouse in the next update.