I’m caught in a decsion between fixing this S13 or beating on it through the winter months. I need a rear quarter (pass side) cut and welded. I was going to likely do the patch myself but painting in my garage is less than optimal and I’m not the greatest with a gun. I also have a 95 Jimmy that could use some touching up. Both vehicles are white - I could almost get away with the same paint… lol.
Access to a plasma cutter wouldn’t hurt either. I have oxy/acet but cutting on-car quarters with 6000d C might be a litttle bendy…
I’d recommend a dremel or zipcut blade on a grinder over a torch for cutting your fenders. It won’t warp, it’s a much cleaner cut, and it’s more precise.
Thanks! I will definitely be cutting off a donor vehicle rather than fabing sheet metal to match. I just heard to day that using an air hammer with a panel cutter works very well. Apparently many shops use them for sunroof installations, etc. Anyone have experience with this?
I should post a pic of the smashed rear quarter so that we can go from there. I noticed that it’s a double-lined piece (maybe it’s a form of crumple zone or something). Anyway, is it best to cut the seam between the inside and outside layer and replace the outter panel or leave it in place and cut the outside layer? I think that from an accessibility standpoint, it might be easier to cut the seam - however - ease of completion would dictate leaving the seam alone. Any thoughts on this? Yes, I have done a search and it seem opinions vary on this. I was going to cut right down the pinstripe from the rear bumper so that after the welds are ground flat, the striping goes right over the patch.
^^^ agreed go that way and yeah it would be nice to use a rear 1/4 from another car but its hard to find a mint one and mucho denario front fenders are like the same… thats what i used. and yeah just make sure u patern tac them in not to warp it and always try to work with a curve. trying to hide lines in flat metal is a bitch
Did you run into any difficulty with the ‘double walled’ rear quarter when you did your repair?? Did you just cut the outside layer or did you go through both? I assume you left the seam that joins the inner/outter layers in place? Any hints are always great. I appreciate the direction thus far.
well what i did is cut a front fender and welded it in place, did some fiber glass and bondo work and here i am today… the rear piece there is just to seal it cause if you look that pannel goes right into your trunk… if you knwo what i mean… so i just left it alone then relised that smoke from the tires and other interesting smells were coming in so i just taced on a piece of metal, spray foamed in between and undercoating and i was golden… heres some pics…
