sportykev

What happens when someone gets into an accident at the rear 1/4 panel? It's not like its something they can just replace since its pretty much part of the WHOLE body. What do you FD guys do when the rear body is damaged?? BondO? EcK

black99

Usually if you dent up the rear quarter panel severely it has to either be replaced with a new panel or be pulled out using a dent puller/body hammers and then bondo'd. If it's a good bondo job/body man then you won't be able to tell it was bondo'd unless you do the magnet trick.

Or you can have them replace the whole quarter panel which requires them to cut your old one off, and they pretty much tack weld it on, it still involves using a little bondo to cover up the welds after you grind them down but not as much as just pulling out a dent and filling what you couldn't pull out in. There are probably a couple ways of putting new quarter panels on though. So some of this may vary.

R Xplicit

cutting the factory welds is not smart, as it can compromise the integrity of the the structural rigidity. just take it to a reputable body shop, most good shops use a minimal amount of body filler....

kundo

Yeah, my car was hit in the passenger side before I bought the car. When I bought the car it looked fine you really couldn't tell they put bondo in the rear quarter, but over time it has gotten really wavy and ugly. I've been thinking about getting that rear quarter replacement because I'm going to paint the car anyways.

turbojeff

iTrader: (30)

People crack me up. Obviously you have no idea what your talking about...

Cutting off the skin of the 1/4 is a totally legit repair and a good idea IMHO if the quarter gets bumped very hard. It isn't really a hard job but if the shop doing it is careless it can turn out bad. The spot welds are drilled out and the new panel is fitted and welded back on. Very minimal bondo with this sort of repair, just a skin of it on the outer body seam to smooth over the weld.

BTW, the Mazda list price on the 1/4 panel is about $340, pretty reasonable in the scheme of things.

Jeff

NickSimcheck

Somebody who acually knows something about 1/4 panel repair. I would throw in my 2 cents since I just replaced both left and right quarters on my '67 Camaro, but since I think you basicly covered everything...

sportykev

hmm so I guess they have to paint it very well to match the rest of the car since there isnt a seam to that separates the 1/4 panel from the rest of the car like other cars. Painting process has to be excellent i presume.

turbojeff

iTrader: (30)

Typically they will blend the paint on to the door and up on the c pillar. Shops should always blend the paint, even if they were just doing a fender (seam all around) they would probably blend the paint.

Blending paint is something EVERY shop that does any insurance work does several times a day. They can get it wrong but if your polite and firm about your expectations before they do the work they it should come out just fine.

Don't pay them until the job is finished, this gives them motivation to fix any mistakes.

Jeff

dclin

iTrader: (4)

It's almost impossible to match one painted panel with another painted at a later date. As was said, shops fade the new paint into the old paint. All shops do this. If they say they don't, they are lying to try to 'set' themselves apart from other shops.

There are so many factors that effect the way paint comes out - temperature, humidity, metallic flake content and flake size (if metallic paint), the age of the paint (fading - red typically fades fastest is my understanding), manufacturer of the paint (you may have several companies making a formulation of Vintage Red paint) how the painter applies the paint, and I'm sure other factors a pro painter can point out.

Repainting - whether a panel or the whole car - is no big deal, assuming you have a capable shop to the work.

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

i can ALWAYS spot blends, but anytime you dont paint the whole car its noticeable. btw the outer skin of the car is not structural so its no big deal to replace the outer skin, as long as you get it lined up right.

mike
running 20b fc

turbojeff

iTrader: (30)

I can always spot repaints too. Sometimes you have to spend a lot of time finding them, sometimes they stand out from the other side of the freeway.

My VR R1 had the door and 1/4 panel painted before I bought it (in '98), can't really see any color change/difference but if you look in the right light (flouresent light is the hardest on any car) you can see the blend line on the c-pillar. The color seems to be a perfect match, but it was blended when it was relatively new.

I'd rather have all original paint, but it is getting harder and harder to find a car like that.

Jeff

j9fd3s

iTrader: (3)

its impossible to find an fd with original paint nowadays.
mine was painted on the driverside http://www.2751engineering.com/mikej9.html
and i can spot the blend too, i guess it better than the dent though

mike

Badog

I had both rear quarters changed out. Then I had the whole car painted, along with a new Apex'i front end. That was in '98. I'm on my 2nd front end, possibly going for a 3rd (back to '99 J-spec) but the quarters are tight.