Thanks in Advance...

A couple of days ago, someone backing out of a driveway caved in my rear drivers side quarter panel. I wasnt there and noone will confess so I'm feeling screwed.

Can any of you that are experienced in body work take a look at the pictures and tell me if this is repairable or must be cut off and replaced. If repairable, can you please describe the method. It looks like it would be tough to get this looking back to normal. Thanks

 

It really doesn't look that bad. A shop will weld little pins to the caved in part and pull it out gradually. There may be a little stretched metal where you can see an actual crease but a good body man can deal with that. You'll be suprised what the metal will remember when it gets tugged on a little. The area around the tail light will come back OK and it doesn't look like the seam to the deck lid is messed up so thats good.

 

uh, a good body guy (ive worked in a body shop) will take that, throw it on a frame machine, make sure EVERYTHING is straight, cut out the section thats messed up, order a new part from mazda (or get a donor car depending on who the shop is) then weld it in. any GOOD body guy would NEVER try to pull that.

peace

 

go to junk yard and find a rx7 convertible and do some cutting will be ur best bet
it might cost u $1-2k just to order that rear quarter panel from mazda, if they sell that piece at all lol
cutting that piece from a junk yard car may run u $100 the most
i m amaze that the taillight didnt get damaged, that piece might be more expensive lol

 

maguss2222 probably has the inside track on what a shop would do with todays cars. With an older car the metal would probably be thicker and could handle being pulled. As for my experience, I guess I've hung around too many places that work on vintage race cars. You work with what you have because it might be the only one left! A collision/frame shop will go with the fastest way to get the job done and they're usually dealing with newer cars and insurance companys.

Oh, I have a vert laying outside my race shop. I'll take a look at the rear corner, it might work for you. If you go toa shop ask if they would want from the middle of the wheel back or the whole quarter from the door.

 

Excuse me?

That damage is light considering a)the cost ofa replacement b)the labour involved in changing it c)availbility

Next, why would you put that on theframe rack to change the quarter? There would be no pulling required for that repair if you were simply goign to dice the quarter off.

Don't post misinformation, I don't care what you think you learned prepping and masking cars in a body shop.

edit: I'd write that up at about 10hrs repair and 4hrs refinish with a blend on the rear cover. Nothing to sweat about there...

 

Ouch... I would be so pissed.

BTW: Buy over fenders and call it a day...lol.

 

i feel your pain man!!
thats what mine looks like...
i have a friend thats good at body work and is gonna fix this for $75 !! i got reall lucky!
i suck at body work.

 

good excuse to go widebody

 

I have to say it...

It'll buff out.

 

I've thought about the wide body and over fenders but I have some concerns.

The funny / not so funny thing is that when I noticed the rear end damage, I was on the way to the bank to deposit a check from the lady's insurance that caused the damage in the picture below over 60 days ago. and, bty, less than 2 years ago I had to replace that exact drivers front fender and bumper because of a hit and run with another scumbag lady withought insurance.

OK, so I was looking at the front and rear wider fenders on ebay...

Front...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/86-87...spagenameZWDVW

Rear...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/86-87...spagenameZWDVW

The fronts appear to look OK but the rears look pretty bad in those pictures. The upper deck around the trunk would still need some work.

-How hard would it be to install and mold the over fenders into the body so that the new paint would look good?
-How bad would the the gas cap door actually look being recessed into the body.
-Would I need to extend my original BBS wheels out a bit so they dont look sunken in? If so, How would I do that? I would prefer to continue to use the BBS's because I have powder coated them black and polished the lip.

Thanks for you guys help so far.

 

I should've left the wrecked door on it for you too .

Kidding .

 

Another Question...

If I happen to find a parts car with a good body, how hard would it be to cut the rear quarter panel from one and attach it to the other. What would the process be and where would I cut?

 

Define "look good"

Shaving that on wouldn't be hard. Shaving it and making it last longer then 2 months would be however. Any monkey can smear 3 gallons of bondo over the seam and make it "smooth" and "look good" but it won't last. The most difficult (and never recommended) operation in body work is to graft dissimialr materials together (FRP or fiberglass and steel)

Purely objective. Personally I think it would look like ****.

Yep.

New, longer ARP wheel studs and some giagantic wheel spacers. Or just run a rim with the proper offset and width. Of course, thats pricey.

Its not all that difficult, however I certainly wouldn't recomend doing it if you don't have the first clue about body repair. Drilling spot welds and fitting a quarter and not permanently altering any of the related gaps takes quite a bit of skill.

I'd say your best bet is pony up and have it repaired. Either way, no matter whether you try to fix it yourself or not, you ARE going to spend money. You can either spend it on tools for doing body work that you'll use perhaps once more in your lifetime or you can cough up the money to have it fixed well and look great again. I may sound negative here, but I see too much of this **** to ***** foot around the facts.

IF you as an inexperienced body man decide to try the repair I'd recomend simply cutting out 90% of the outer portion of the 1/4 off the good car, hold it up on the existing one and simply weld it in place. Cutting and butt welding it would certainly spell disaster for a novice and drilling the spot welds (ie. proper method) is a very involved process.....but its really quite simple.

To be honest though the fact that you're asking where to cut scares the **** out of me as a body man. Leave it to the pros.

 

Classicauto, I appreciate your input. I'm not a big fan of the wide body stuff unless it can be done correctly which I'm sure is more than I want to spend. I'm not really interested in buying new wheels and tires either. I would like to end up with more of a classy, timeless look rather than the NOPI look. The body shop that is going to paint the car(BC/CC) for $600 says they can fix the dent for under $300 so I'll probably do that after I find out whether this is covered under uninsured motorist and after I replace the front end again. Oh, and replace the hood(To many dings to be worth trying to fix).

Thanks again!

 

I have damage in my driver's quarter panel as well. It's my daily driver so I've never had time to fix it. I'm waiting till my TII is done first. Hopefully it will be fixed this summer.