This is the quarter panel as I bought the car. It was a mess, and one of the most prominent damaged areas to the car. I knew from the day it was purchased, it would have to be replaced.

So, out came the cutting tools and in a short while, that old quarter panel was off. The longest items were (as always) the spot welds. The high speed body saw actually took care of the sheetmetal

There was a little bit of rust in the lower portion of the vertical trunk panel, which carried into the lower tip of the wheel house... not a big deal to cut out and replace before the quarter goes on.

With the new metal welded on and ground down, I am ready to start the body work to smooth everything out. It will take a bit of dolly and hammering to get everything a bit smoother, but that is not too hard either.

This is with a thin layer of bondo covering the weld site. The quarter was very easy in my book, and I am glad I cut it out. With the previous damage (especially in the wheel well area), I was able to straighten the wheel well and the aftermarket quarter fit like a glove. Now, no damage and no rust.

Now, I was warned when I purchased the quarter end caps that they would not fit very well out of the box and require some work. That was an understatement! They said you can tell an original California Special because it looks like an 8 year old assembled it... but man those caps were bad. I had to cut the drivers side into three places to get it to lineup as well as it did. The only good thing about fiberglass is that it is much easier to work than steel.

Here are a few pictures of the passenger side. I had to build up the inside to get ready to grind it down. You can see I have cut off the lower section and I will reattach it, and make it fit much better. I am using a fiberglass jelly with at least 3 layers of matt in there. I probably tripled the weight and strength of the end caps... but how much strength do you really need in an endcap?

This is the passenger quarter. There was quite a bit of inside dimples from something moving around inside of the trunk. That is why the entire section was needed to be worked. There was also a rather large dent right above the wheel well (if you remember that far back in the story of this car). I did also find a section that was 'pushed' in (not severly dented) under the vents. This was a very complex section where it went from convex to concave and smoothed into the wheel well... not a very friendly section to repair, but the outcome was good.

The next pictures will be of it primed. I have some more sanding to do in the roof/quarter area. This is also an area that was worked from the factory (in LEAD, Yuck!!) and has some filler putty in it. All that will be removed, sans the lead, and a skim coat of filler to smooth everything out. The next pictures should have everything in primer.

The following are right before primer. I had some small dings show up in the area behind the rear window and an awful lot of hand sanding around the trunk lip and tail light panel.

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