The other night, adverse road conditions led to my car colliding with a mailbox. It tore up my left rear quarter panel pretty bad (3 huge dents, a spot of missing paint, and a lil crack in the sheetmetal). Ive been looking at it and there is no way I can pop them out from inside the trunk (the wheel well is in the way of the worst dent). I'm looking for any advice as to what will be the easiest and most cost effective way to fix this. I'm not exactly sure how to remove the panel (and yes i did google it and read the mr. goodwrench approach to it) or if replacing it would be the right right thing to do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, many thanks in advance!

~Jake

Take it to a body repair shop and let them quote you a price.

BTW the vehicle is a 96 sunfire. And that was my first thought, but i have no coverage for this on my insurance and very little $ (being a teenager sux). I have the time and a place to do the labor so I am really hopeing to find a junkyard quarter panel and swap it onto my car. Assuming I can figure out how to remove the panel without damaging nething else.

Honestly i wouldnt even try to replace a quarter panel my self if i was a teenager with no Auto body repair experience. Replaceing a quarter panel involves drilling out every spot weld that holds the panel to the car and then replaceing, alighning, and triming then welding the new panel on. It takes alot of skill and time to do it right. So you options are have a professional fix it or bump it out the best you can and then use body filler.

Jeremy

I recommend just taking it to a shop. and let someone with experience take care of it. Though you are looking at spending a pretty penny. When i got mine replaced i was quoted at $1,700.




Hedly Lemar-"What are your qualifications?" Outlaw-"Rape, murder aresen and Rape" Hedly Lemar-"You said rape twice" Outlaw-"I like rape"

From Blazing Saddles

So the quarter isn't a bolt on part, and it sounds a lot more difficult now. I thought of bumpin it out and using body filler. But i dont have a place to paint in the winter. My mother is going nuts and want it fixed right away. I guess I'll get an estimate on having it done, even thou im almost positive it'll be more than is worth puttin into the car (I only paid $1400 for the whole car). Another question, is there a way to get behind the wheel well thing in the trunk so i can try n pop the sheetmetal out? Thanks again!

I didn't try, seemed to hard if there is a way, so i just took it to the shop. yea i thought it was a bolt on at 1st then my friend who does body work told me that it welded. So there went that idea. But good luck man.




Hedly Lemar-"What are your qualifications?" Outlaw-"Rape, murder aresen and Rape" Hedly Lemar-"You said rape twice" Outlaw-"I like rape"

From Blazing Saddles

Thanks, i'll be needing the luck.

Siegel1719 wrote:Honestly i wouldnt even try to replace a quarter panel my self if i was a teenager with no Auto body repair experience. Replaceing a quarter panel involves drilling out every spot weld that holds the panel to the car and then replaceing, alighning, and triming then welding the new panel on. It takes alot of skill and time to do it right. So you options are have a professional fix it or bump it out the best you can and then use body filler.

Jeremy

What he said - If you get a quarter panel from a junkyard they will most likely cut it out so the spot welds are still there. You'll have to drill all the spot welds out on that quarter panel and the one on your car. Then put the one from the junkyard on your car, weld it on straight and aligned.

One thing that might work, is if you know how to weld really good or know someone that can weld really good and can find a nice junkyard, go and cut out the places of the panel on ur car and the junkyard car. Put the pieces on ur car from the one from the junkyard and spot weld them in slowly but surely. Then grind the welds down, body filler, paint..yada yada yada. It would be like if you were trying to shave a door handle or something.

If that didn't make sense just post what didn't make sense.

-Seth

When I had my old car, I got hit in the quarter panel. The insurance (from the 16 yr-old that hit me) paid me to have a brand new quarter panel installed by a shop and have the entire car repainted. A lot of money...cause I got like 3 quotes and they were all around $3300. Keep in mind that that quote also included a new paint job just like the one I had (custom).

Fortunately, we could just kick the dent out from the inside...which is what we did. And I used the extra money for paint, body kit, and a hood.

It's a lot of body work and welding for the quarter panel...

I wish you good luck.

Junk the car and get another. You paid 1400.00 for the car. I am sure you can find another. Not worth fixing it. Would you even have the tools to do this?

Well I just talked to my friend who does some bodywork for his dads shop, tomorrow morning were gunna pop out as much of the dents as we can and then fill the rest in. No place to paint untill spring but i can get a coat of primer n then spraybomb the spots so there aint a huge color difference. Thank you guys!!! Have a great night!!!

Spray bomb is the devil!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yeah i know it aint the rite way to do it but, with patches of filler or primer it'll be a cop catcher. And I dont need any unwanted attention. Once we get some nicer weather I can paint it n make it all better LOL.

lol
ok first off if the 1/4 is that damaged by a mail box it must have been built like a tank
ok so FYI on the junk yard parts
a used 1/4 DOES NOT come to the shop already cut off you, it comes in a section of the car trim panles everything is just cut with a saw, you have to strip it down, you have to drill out every spot weld and the use a torch to heat up the panle bond on the outer wheel house
and then it still gets damaged tryin to remove it from the doner piece, you need to know how and where to cut both 1/4 panles, it takes me a good 2 days worth of work of doin the junk yard 1/4
i highly doubt that the 1/4 is beyond repair, you will be surprised what we can fix
my suggestion to you is not to use a google search to try to fix the dents but to have a shop fix them for you



can i haz bondo