Passenger Quarter Panel

Last Updated 10-21-2006

Fugly! Fugly! Fugly!

Fuel Filler Panel Removal

While I was waiting for the bed panel to be made by my local sheet metal shop and the wheel well tops to arrive I removed the fuel filler panel for use on the new panel.

1. Fig. 1 shows the panel before I started. You can see a couple of the spot weld 'dimples' that need to be drilled out.
2. I used a sharp 1/8" drill bit and drilled out the center of the spot weld all the way through the fuel filler panel and the quarter panel. You will need to drill some from the inside and some from the outside depending on how visible they are. Next I used a 1/4" drill from the outside and drilled until the panel popped apart. See Fig. 2.
3. Sometimes I had to drill all the way through and use a sharpened putty knife to finish cutting the rest of the weld. The sharpened blade also helped to cut through the body putty that seals the seam. See Fig. 3-4. . Note: There is one spot weld for the filler panel under the lip where the quarter panel bolts to the door jamb. You will need to remove all the bolts from the quarter panel lip so the fuel filler panel will slip out. See Fig. 5.
4. Fig. 6 shows the hole where the panel was. Once the old quarter is removed I will use this hole as a template to mark the new panel.
5. Once I had the fuel filler panel removed I took a couple of pics (See Fig. 7-8) then placed it in the de-rust tank. Once out of the tank it will be repaired, primed, and welded back into the new quarter panel.

I drilled out the spot welds holding the wheel well in place and set it aside for further disassembly. I will be reusing the side of the wheel well but not the top. Fig. 9,10 show what's left of the quarter.

Since this panel was the last panel to be removed/installed I realized I needed to make sure all my body panels and doors were going to line up properly. I put the tailgate back on and closed the rear hatch. See Fig. 11. Hmmm... A perfect gap on the left hatch/tailgate! Hmmmm a LARGE gap on the right. I looked and looked at how everything was put together and realized that the entire passenger side quarter and hardtop section were tilted. The quarter was tipped down, and the hard top side; out at the bottom. I used a ratchet strap to pull them back into alignment. See Fig. 12. I then welded on a brace to hold the alignment while I installed the new quarter panel.

Next up is drilling out all the spot welds holding the old quarter panel to the tub. Like we did on the drivers side use a 1/8" drill first then come back with the 1/4" drill. See Fig. 13.

I thought that the spare tire carrier backing plate was covering up some spot welds but it turns out it is spot welded ONLY to the quarter panel not the tub rail. There are three spot welds that must be removed then it just falls off. Before you remove it however make sure to mark it's location on the tub rail! Otherwise it will be hard to get it aligned back up! See Fig. 14 for the marks and spot welds.

Now use an aggressive grinding wheel and where the quarter attaches to the corner support (where tailgate or door frame is) grind till the edge is loose. See Fig. 15. Ok now we have the front edge loose by removing the bolts (See Fig. 5 above) and the rear edge loose by grinding it off. Now we need to mark for the long cut to separate the panel from the tub rail.

Get a carpenters square and set it for 1". Lay the square against the tub rail. Use a Sharpie pen and starting at the front draw a line along the quarter and around the curve until you run out of ledge. Now you will need to transfer the line on around the curve. I used a flexible metal ruler but any flexible material with a square edge and about 14" long will work. Lay it along the existing line then bend it around the curve. Now have a helper transfer the line on around to the edge.

Get your cut off tool and mount a 1/8" or .40mm wheel in it. Get your ear plugs, face shield and particle mask on. Wear gloves. Start at the front and while keeping the wheel level with the line start a plunge cut. Once you have penetrated the metal then start moving the tool forward and backward a bit all while keeping it level with the line! This takes a bit of practice but once you get the rhythm of the tool you will be amazed at how fast this will cut sheet metal! See Fig. 16 for my cut. (Note that I screwed up and had my square set at 1/2" and exposed the tub channel. This means that I will not have the channel lip acting as a heat sink but instead will have the edges of both panels to weld together in open air. This is going to result in a lot of edge burn off. :-( I may tack weld a backer plate in.)

Ok the old panel is off in one piece so lets make a new one!

1. Lay the new 16 ga sheet on the floor on top of some spacers and clamp the old panel to the new sheet. See Fig. 16. Make sure to use an edge that was machine cut so you KNOW it is a square edge!
2. After making sure it is aligned properly use a Sharpie and mark along the edges till you get to the curved section. If your panel is rusted badly like mine then where you have no metal to act as a guide just leave it blank. We will fill in the lines later.
3. Ok remove the old panel and set the new panel up on a flat surface where you can work on it. (Saw horses and a piece of thick plywood work great.) Use a straight edge to connect all the lines so you have a continuous guide line to follow while cutting. On the rear section where it curves you want to extend the line all the way to the edge. We will cut out the area for the bumper by hand after getting in tacked in place.
4. Use whatever method you prefer to cut out the new panel. I recently bought a new jig saw from Northern Tools with the orbital function. It is a great improvement over my old one for cutting metal! If you use this method use a bi-metal blade at 24 TPI. Wear earplugs!
5. Fig. 18 shows the panel after cutting it out. I then drilled some 5/16" pilot holes and cut out the fuel filler hole ( See Fig. 19) and the marker light hole.

6. Next I used the jig saw and cut out a 1/2" wide x 52" long 16ga strip from the scrap material.
7. Make sure the new panel is perfectly flat (I laid mine back on the floor) and start tack welding this strip to the BACK edge of the panel. Make sure you have the strip placed so that when mounted on the truck the strip is INSIDE the wheel well not outside! The strip is very flexible enabling you to conform it to the curves of the panel easily. Make a tack weld, bend the strip against the edge, make another tack weld. Keep doing this while allowing the panel to cool completely after about 3 tacks. You WILL warp the edge if you try to weld too many tacks at once! What this strip does is strengthen the panel just like the OEM stamped panel. We will fill in the edge gap with weld once the panel is mounted to the truck.
8. Now use a drill mounted wire brush and remove the rust from the tub rail and prime it thoroughly with a weld thru primer. See Fig. 21.
9. Now with a helper clamp the new panel to the tub to see how it all aligns up. I had a bit of work to do it this area! See Fig. 22.
10. Well it did not line up cleanly. At first I thought the tub had settled. Remember I warned you to make sure you used a good factory cut edge for the part of the panel that butts against the door post? Well I did not and the edge was not square! Anyway Fig. 23 shows how much I had to trim off to make it square.

11. Make sure to prime all the metal that will be hidden when you weld the panel in place. I primed about 2" down on the front and back for good measure using a weld thru primer. I was able to clamp the panel in place using welding clamps placed through the gas filler hole and side marker hole. See Fig. 24.
12. Start tack welding the panel in place. Use smaller wire (.021 - .024) and turn your heat down so the edges of the panels don't erode away. Check the panel EVERY WHERE for proper fit before you get too far with the welding. Once you are happy with the fit then start tacking for real. Using the holes drilled in the top rail lip, plug weld the panel to the rail. Do one, then move to the other end and do another. Stop for now, you need just enough to hold it. Now starting with the panel to door post place 3 tacks about 1" apart. Move to the other end just before where the tub rail starts to curve and make three tacks also 1 " apart then go to the middle and make three tacks. This keeps anyone section of the panel from getting too hot. Continue tacking in the panel until you have the gap completely filled. It will take forever but be patient, you don't want it to warp! See Fig. 25.
13. Once you have the panel tacked in place we can start the bending process. First make sure to tack the top edge all the way to where the tub starts to curve. Also make sure to clamp the bottom of the panel to the rear sill curved 'horn'.
14. Attach a ratchet strap to the curved area of the panel as shown in Fig. 26 and 27 and attach the other end to something solid that is behind the panel. See Fig. 27. I used the drivers side seat belt anchor.

16. Slowly start tightening up the strap. As the panel starts bending check the alignment with the tub edge. I had a problem here. Something was not lined up correctly and the panel was overlapping the edge. Since I could not move the panel or the tub I had to use a cutoff wheel a couple of times to make them even. See Fig 28.
17. As the panel gets around the cuve and more tension is required to move it the panel edge will have a tendency to warp where the strap goes over the edge. Clamp a stiff piece of metal to the edge of the panel. This helps keep the edge from bowing when the strap is tightned. See Fig 29. If your piece is long enough for the clamps to clear you can continue to ratchet until the edge is close then use additional clamps to clamp it to the vertical support. Mine was not and I had to take the clamps off to finish.
18. Fig. 30 shows the other issue I had. When I made my sill I must have made the horn stick out just a tad too far on the passenger side. This caused the panel to be tipped down about 1/8" at the edge. I had to use some very small filler pieces to fill this in. I turned the voltage way down and carefully filled in the large gap. It will add a few more minutes with the grinder :-(.
19. Next I used a jig saw with a good bi-metal blade and trimmed off the excess panel as close to the vertical support as possble. Then a grinder with a 24 grit flap wheel to make the panel even with the support. Then fully welded the panel to the support.
20. Now put on your ear plugs, and face shield, start your fan blowing to blow all the dust out of the garage and spend the next two hours grinding down all your welds! See Fig. 31 and 32. I'll have a few pin holes to weld up then the final grinding with a 120 grit flap wheel.

Mounting all the other stuff to the Panel

1. Now that the panel is welded in you can replace the gas tank filler panel. Clean it up and give the edges a good coat of weld through primer like in Fig. 33.

Gas Filler Support

2. If you have a few rough edges from cutting out your gas filler hole then now is the time to clean it up. Mine were a bit rough so I used a file to smooth it out a bit. Don't spend too much time trying to get it perfect. You will be running a bead of sealant around the gap between the gas filler and the quarter panel. That will hide any minor imperfections.
3. Line the panel up until all the edges look correct then clamp it in place.See Fig. 34.
4. Using the holes you drilled to remove it, plug weld it in place from the back. See Fig. 35.

Tail Gate Hook Support

1. I removed the old tail gate hook backing plate from the old quarter, de-rusted it then primed it with the weld through primer and set it aside to dry.
2. I got my sorry excuse for a tail gate and attached the drivers side latch then held it in place to see how everything was lining up. It looked pretty good so I clamped the tailgate into position, placed the hook into the latch, (See Fig. 37) centered the latch, then used a transfer punch to mark the holes. I drilled these out and bolted the hook to the backing plate and tack welded it in place with a couple of tack welds. Now my tail gate will hang!

Side Marker Light Screw Support

1. Now we can add the side marker light supports. I used the ones I removed from the old panel. After I de-rusted them and re-tapped the thread I welded on a 6mm x 1.0 stud to use for a ground. This way when I Duraback the tub I won't have to scrape it off to find a ground.

Tire Carrier Supports

The tire carrier presents some special challanges. It is attached to the body with 8 bolts. Four of them go through the rear sill horn and four go through a backing plate on the inside. A long time ago, when I did the sill, I had drilled the holes in the horn while the tire carrier was still attached so I would not have to spend a lot of  time measuring. So the next step was to get the top holes drilled. The top backing plate was marked before removing it so I could put it back exactly where is was (See Fig. 14) I clamped it into position using a large welding clamp then used a transfer punch to mark the holes on the inside of the quarter. I drilled them out using a 19/32 drill bit then lifted the carrier in place and bolted it loosely. See Fig. 41. Next I used the transfer punch to mark the bottom holes and drilled them out. Now comes the moment when you see if all the cutting, bending, and welding has distorted the body to the point that nothing lines up correctly...

Close! After putting a level on the top of the carrier I determined I would have to raise it about 3/8" to be level. See Fig. 42. This was easily acomplished by moving the bottom hinge left and the top hinge right. I tightened down the bolts top and bottom then checked the swing of the gate. Besides groaning from lack of lube it swung pretty good! Next I welded the nuts for the bottom hinge to the sill horn so that I can remove the carrier with only one wrench.

Ok, I had it mounted, level and swinging. Now to get it latching! I got the stock latch and held it in position on the rear sill with a couple of welding magnets. See Fig. 44. When I closed the carrier it became apparent that something was not quite right.  The latch was about 1/4" back too far and would not engage. After thinking about this I came to the conclusion that several things conspired to make this off. First was the sill was not exactly flush with the rear bumper and second the quarter panel was not an exact replacement of the stock one so that was throwing it off. Anyway I needed a 1/4" spacer for the latch. I cut one from some 1/4 x 2" strap I had, used the transfer punch to transfer the holes, drilled them out then tapped them to 8mm x 1.25. See Fig. 45.

I used some bolts spaced out with washers and bolted the latch to my spacer then clamped it to the sill to determine where it was to be welded. See Fig. 46. I will have to get some short bolts or grind down some to make it fit. I did not want to drill into the sill as I have it water tight currently and don't want a water trap!

After quite a bit of cyphering out where the latch needed to be I finally tacked it into place, tested that it closed firmly against the tail gate (make sure the rubber bumpers are in place), then burned it in. After I ground down my welds it looked pretty good! See Fig. 47.

Before I could repair the top spare tire carrier backing support I had to actually finish the wheel wells so this is a bit out of sequence!

I started by cutting the bad part off. See Fig. 48. I then placed the bad piece between two blocks of steel and used my hydraulic press to flatten the piece completely. This was used as a template. I laid it on a piece of good 16ga and traced around it. After cutting it out I used the press to make the slight offset on the bottom. See Fig. 49. I used the outside of the quarter panel to hand bend the piece to the proper curve. See Fig. 50. Then clamped it in a vice and bent the edges to match the top piece. Next I tack welded the pieces together and ground down the welds as best I could. See Fig. 51-52. This piece will be installed when I do the wheel wells.

Finally I stripped everything off, used a 3M pad to smooth everything down and rattle canned a self etching primer on it. This will hold it until I top coat.

Well that completes the quarter panels!

Up Next: Wheel wells.

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