[drewm]

Hoping to get some real world experiences here. I have to replace the passenger quarter on my 66 gto convertible. I know that all the damaged area can be repaired with just a skin, but the Ames catalog and the gentleman I spoke to at Ames said that the skins are not the best quality. He also said the full quarters are much better quality. They do not make a full quarter for a 66 convertible, so if I sprung for the full 66 coupe quarter, I would be cutting it down anyway.

Anyone use the quarter skin and regret it? Or use the full panel and wish they just used the skin? Are the poor reviews of the skins true? Are the good reviews of the full skin true?

Also, I am not an auto body guy, nor am I going to take the car to a body shop. I'm just a guy trying to restore a great car in my garage.

Thanks
Drew

[VCho455]

Outside of any quality issues with the panels in question its generally considered better to do the full quarter. This is mostly due to your weld seams will be along the outside edges of the panel and not through the middle where it is harder to control the distortion caused by the welding process.

There is lots of information on the interweb about this but I recommend checking out SPI's forum. Full of knowledgeable people, both professionals and experienced folks doing it in their garage.

You may find the metalworking and restoration sections informational.

http://www.spiuserforum.com/index.php

Good luck with the project.

[HoovDaddy]

Skin quality is never as good as full, and even full quarters have fitment and stamping issues. Since they don't make full quarters on your car, there are ways around it.

Where are the bad areas on your quarters?

To do this project, you'll have to splice one area or another. Because of the roof and rear window panel differences between hardtop and convertible, it's easier to use a '67 convertible full quarter and splice the rear of the quarter where it meets the tail panel with your old '66 piece if it's in good condition, small splice area , easy to work with. A couple ways to use the entire '66 hardtop panel you can splice into the concave area above the quarter peak back to the trunk opening without destroying the rear window panel or quarter window area. With this method you take a chance for flex and lose a lot of strength, I don't like to do it that way. Any flex will create a crack. The concave area might be hard for you to replicate with all the weld in the way.

The problem with splicing the quarter lengthwise is the final metal finishing process. It's a long seam and tedious to weld without warping the panel. If you don't do a good job welding or finishing it will crack eventually. It will take a lot of work to make the quarter straight, or a lot of filler, not how I would do it. It will also be visible inside the trunk.

[Mike S]

I used the skins on my 67. They fit good but did need a lot of block sanding to get flat. The wheel well lip was not bent at a full 90 so needed some work there. I put them on the race car so don't know how the lower half would have fit to a trunk floor. Overall all am happy with how they turned out. You would never know they where replaced.

[drewm]

Originally Posted by HoovDaddy

Where are the bad areas on your quarters?

.

All the circled areas are previous damage areas that had been repaired many years ago. The rear corner was hit also and I welded a piece from a junkyard quarter to try to fix that. The squiggle marks are the patch panel that I welded in. It was probably the first thing I welded on the car and while I am no welding expert, I have gotten better.

The panel was oil canning badly, and I tried just about everything I could think of to fix it. Heat and quench, shrinking disk, hammer and dolly, planished the welds. Untold hours just working on this panel. I even cut the patch panel out to try to relieve stress in the metal and that didn't work. I finally tried heat and hit the hot spot (there were multiple areas of oil canning) with a pick hammer, and that actually did a nice job of removing the oil canning, but now the panel is so distorted from the heat that I don't think its possible to get it even close to straight.

[drewm]

Originally Posted by Mike S

I used the skins on my 67. They fit good but did need a lot of block sanding to get flat. The wheel well lip was not bent at a full 90 so needed some work there. I put them on the race car so don't know how the lower half would have fit to a trunk floor. Overall all am happy with how they turned out. You would never know they where replaced.

Did you butt weld the top joint, or lap weld? All the videos Ive watched show people lap welding the top, and butt welding the rest of the joints.

[Mike S]

I bought an air powered flange tool. So it is more or less a lap joint but the flange tool made the surfaces flush. I then ground the weld down and the panels came out level. I seam sealed the inside. I had to skim coat the whole panel to get it flat. The replacement skins are lower quality but nothing that can't be fixed with work.
I did both sides ant it sure was a lot of work.

[Formulajones]

I've done them both ways. I prefer full quarters but skins work fine if done properly (more time consuming). I generally take the time to finish inside as well so seams aren't found.

The decision for me the last couple years just comes down to availability on each car. Some full quarters I haven't been able to get for months when I can have skins in a few weeks. So choice is more of a supply thing for me.

[drewm]

I got the quarter skin and even though there were numerous warnings about fitment and the stamping, it is worse than I could have imagined. The bumper cutout isn't even close. The panel is about 1/2 inch too long in the rear. The contours around the wheel well is way off. The metal is much thinner than original. The bottom behind the rear wheel that welds to the trunk drop is a different shape and contour. Im sure there is more that I haven't seen yet. Unfortunately, Ive already cut the panel up to fit so it is basically useless to anyone else at this point. I dont see any other option at this point but getting the full quarter and cutting it to fit what I need. Seems ass-backwards that more 66 convertibles were made than any other year GTO, and they don't make a full quarter for a 66 convertible.

According to the Ames catalog, the full quarters seem to be a higher quality. I hope so.