I was recently asked why I gave up on trying to use the quarter skin and used the full quarter instead. There were a few reasons but they all had something to do with the fit of the replacement part and the amount of work it would take to make a skin work.
The primary reason was the radius of the skin did not match the stock radius and it did not fit the wheelhouse very well at all. If you look at the photos above you can see where I’ve clamped the outer wheel house to the skin. The radius of the skin was almost 2 full inches greater in diameter. A 1/4 inch difference is easy enough to work with but there was no way to make this fit. I’d have to cut the wheelhouse and reshape it to match the skin. (The skin is wrong not the wheelhouse half)
Additionally, there is far more welding involved in replacing the skin. On top of that, it is a butt weld from the front of the quarter to the rear. I’ve done enough welding on this project that my skills have improved enough to accomplish welding the skin. Even so, that’s still 2 million small welds to fill in all the metal, a ton of grinding to make the welded surface smooth enough to finish the job with body filler before paint. Pray or hope you dont warp the metal when welding it up.
I think it’s just easier to replace the whole quarter. Sure, it costs more. It’s about $150 more after the extra money for the part and the extra cost in shipping motor freight because of the size. In the end however. The biggest task in replacing the full quarter, in my opinion is removing the lead from the sail panel. You have to drill out the spot welds under the lead but at this point in the rebuild I’m very comfortable at drilling out spot welds. All that remains is prep work to fit the parts. Clamp all the parts togather. Make sure the panel gaps are good. Make sure the deck lid will fit corectly and taillight panel lines up. Once your satisfied with the fit weld it.