[fbrown]

The Dynacorn quarter is 1/8" to 3/16” shorter from the wheel opening to the door jam area. This is giving me a space between the door and the quarter of about 1/2" which just looks bad. This is with the front of the door perfectly aligned with the rocker panel and the quarter panel perfectly aligned with the rear of the rocker panel. For those of you who installed Dynacorn quarters, how did you deal with the extra door gap?

[n20ta2]

Unless the door jamb is rotton I usually cut the old panel back 1/4 1/2 from the jamb so I have never had an issue,do you need to replace the panel that far forward?If you do then you may need to add steel to the panel.

[JOE DEYTON]

Is this the full quarters or quarter skins?

[fbrown]

It's the full quarter panel. When the panel is placed so that it aligns with the rocker panel and mates with the inner panel that holds the striker, the door opening is 3/16" farther back compared with the OEM qaurter. Measuring the distance from the wheel opening to the door opening gives me a difference of 1/8" to 3/16". I now have a gap of 7/16" between to door and quarter. I have not adjusted the door since its alignment with the OEM quarter was OK. The door gap between the OEM quarter and the door was 3/16". The OEM quarter measures almost 1/4" longer along the bottom where the quarter sits on the rocker. In any event my door gap grew by 1/4" and I not really sure as how to deal with this. I don't think this could or should be solved by shifting the door back by 1/4". IF the quarter panel was to be shifted forward, (I'm not sure this would even be possible) there would be a gap between the door jam area between the inner panel that holds the nut for the striker. Maybe I need to split the difference, shift the quarter panel forward 1/8" and bring the door back 1/8".

[fbrown]

Pictures of my Nightmare.



Alignment of Door with Rocker



Door Gap



And I have not even started on the driver side Quarter

[PaulatFast]

For starters, get your car off of the jackstands when fitting metal panels. This is not helping you. If you must use the stands, the ONLY correct place would be under the rearend itself. Once that is taken care of see where you are at. Having installed at least six pair of full reproduction quarters on 69's I can tell you for certain, the problem you are having is not a recurring issue. Have you checked the decklid fit yet? If the decklid fits good and your gaps are straight, your 1/8" forward with the quarter sounds like the propper procedure to me.

[fbrown]

My fitting was with the car on the ground. I placed it on a jack stand while doing prep work to the outer wheel well. I didn't put the car back on the ground to take photos. I have not checked the deck lid fit yet. I still have the driver side quarter to replace as well as the rear window filler. So i'm still a long way away from being able to check decklid gaps.

[n20ta2]

Wow,I have never seen that.I see you already cut the full quarter out including the door jamb erea so you are stuck at this point.If you move it forward this leaves it short of the rocker? and short at the rear deck?If thats the case you may want to add some ssteel to the front of the quarter.

[fbrown]

Actually since everything is loose, deck filler panel, quarter panel, outer wheel well, I probably could shift the quarter slightly forward, maybe 1/8", rework the rocker edge so it would be even with the quarter and then shift the door back by 1/8". The trunk lid and rear deck filler could shift as needed. The down side of this would be to increase the door gap at the front edge from 1/16" to 3/16". I guess I could also shorten the front edge of the rocker by 1/8". This would seem to be easier than spicing a 1/4" vertical strip of metal in the quarter in order to lengthen it. My welding skill with thin metal is not up to show car standards, and this would be a difficult modification. I would be extremely lucky to not end up with a distorted quarter. My welding skill with 22 gauge metal still needs improving.

Since I'm stuck with the problem, I might as well go ahead and remove the other quarter since I will need to match whatever I do on both sides, otherwise I might have alignment problems with the hood and fenders.

[PaulatFast]

Originally Posted by n20ta2

Wow,I have never seen that.I see you already cut the full quarter out including the door jamb erea so you are stuck at this point.If you move it forward this leaves it short of the rocker? and short at the rear deck?If thats the case you may want to add some ssteel to the front of the quarter.

Just a note on your comments, he is not "stuck", he is doing it the right way. You do not cut up a full quarter into patches and make it work.

For the record, if you are doing all of that metal, I suggest you fit all of it at the same time, INCLUDING WHEEL HOUSES. Assuming you are replacing the outer wheelhouses as well. I screw everything together and make sure my trunk lid and door gaps can be adjusted to perfect befor anything is welded in place. Remember the rear window opening and molding fit will be hugely affected by the quarter position. I have seen alot of guys get in trouble by welding the outer wheelhouse on then trying to install the quarter... not that I am inferring you have done this... just an observation I have made over the years.

Glad to hear you fit the panel on the ground. The picture was taken on stands which will cause the gap to appear worse than it is most of the time.

Don't worry about your gap until you get the rear window filler panel in place along with the other quarter. This puzzle can't be locked in place one peice at a time if everything has been removed.

In other words... it's way too early to worry at this point.

The quarter is not too short as manufactured. At least the several dozen I have had a hand in haven't been.

[n20ta2]

Im not talking about cutting the quarter into "patches" Paul but in my experience its easier to save the door jamb area if its good shape and but weld the full quarter to this.Also you are right that its to early to worry about the joint at this point but if everything else lines up as it should and he is still short at least 1/4 of an inch then what else can he do?

[n20ta2]

Also not being derogatory in the question I just want to know for future reference myself.

[PaulatFast]

I'm not sure how it would be easier to cut the quarter at the jamb than to replace the jamb. It is only about twenty extra spot welds to drill out. But that's not the issue at hand.

You align a car from the rear forward. You get the rear window opening and filler panel set, make sure the decklid will fit propperly at this time. If one or both rockers needs shortened or lengthened slightly... so be it. The doors are then fit to the quarters, the fenders and hood are fit to the doors. I don't know why there would be an issue. I think he is worried about nothing.

[steve v]

If you have wheel opening moldings you may want to trial fit them on the 1/4. If that's way off check the wheel house to 1/4 fit. Once you've drilled, cut & welded on them their yours/non-returnable. Possibly you have a mis-stamped part?

[n20ta2]

Yeah,thats what I did on a 64 nova I did quarters on recently. I worked forward from the tail panel and ended up with a gap that was a bunch big on the door so I left the door jamb in place, although in my case the quality of the panel left MUCh to be desired.Same with a 70 cuda quarter and 68 GTX quarter they were not so much short as the profile to the door was not where I liked it.

[fbrown]

Updates - Spent the evening attempting to adjust all the panels.

There are still problems; I must have gotten at least one quarter that was badly made.

General shot of the quarters



Back Right side Trunk shot - Looks pretty good



Back Left Side trunk shot - quarter is 3/16" too short, looks like the fold was made in the wrong spot.



Back of Trunk Lid - Driver side - Gap is rather large.



Back of Trunk Lid - Passenger Side - Gap is Fine, but more problems in later picture



I didn't think to try laying the window molding in place until Paul at Fast suggested it. Not to good of a photo but overall view.



Passenger Top Side - looks OK



Passenger Bottom side - Not so Good



Driver Top Side - Looks like it needs a little metal filler, but not too bad



Driver Side bottom



Since the gap at the back of the trunk lid is more on the driver side than the passenger, I adjusted the deck filler panel so that the gap was consistent. It appears that the opening is not formed very well; the the gap at the back of the trunk lid is was consistant from side to side measuring about 1/2". In any event the molding does not fit the passenger quarter opening.




Door gap on the driver quarter - about 3/16" this is what the OEM panel was. I have the door gap on the passenger side down to 5/16", it used to be almost 1/2" (The OEM GAP was about 1/4"). This is with the doors untouched from the way GM built the car.



Please feel free to make suggestions on how to correct these problems, this is turning out to be much harder than I ever thought it would be.

[PaulatFast]

Your gaps look like about every car we work on. Tweak, cut, weld, fill, hammer... whatever it takes to get things close. I have never had a car where everything fell into place. The good thing is your are going about it the right way, too often, panels are replaced and cars are painted before these issues are found.

A few notes on specific issues. The pass. lower rear corner of the back glass opening is never right on these reproduction quarters. We cut a little wedge of metal out, dolly the opening into shape and weld the seam. My buddy has installed two of these panels and he taped the moldings, clipped them into place and filled the gaps with filler. of course he removed the moldings and finished filling the channel until it looked factory. Another option is setting the window really low allowing the moldings to be installed at an angle inwards, this allows the molding to be bent into the shape of the opening a little easier.
The rear of your drivers quarter near the decklid... seen that on most of these cars too. Sometimes both sides. We cut the rear of the quarter, open the gap until the line on the bottom of the decklid and the quarters is perfect. Weld it up.

These two areas are part of what I consider "finish work" and we perform these procedures on cars with factory metal as well.

It's only metal! Nothing a cut-off wheel, a hammer and a welder can't shape however you need it!

[Rob B]

Originally Posted by PaulatFast

Y
A few notes on specific issues. The pass. lower rear corner of the back glass opening is never right on these reproduction quarters. We cut a little wedge of metal out, dolly the opening into shape and weld the seam. My buddy has installed two of these panels and he taped the moldings, clipped them into place and filled the gaps with filler. of course he removed the moldings and finished filling the channel until it looked factory. Another option is setting the window really low allowing the moldings to be installed at an angle inwards, this allows the molding to be bent into the shape of the opening a little easier.
The rear of your drivers quarter near the decklid... seen that on most of these cars too. Sometimes both sides. We cut the rear of the quarter, open the gap until the line on the bottom of the decklid and the quarters is perfect. Weld it up.

These two areas are part of what I consider "finish work" and we perform these procedures on cars with factory metal as well.

It's only metal! Nothing a cut-off wheel, a hammer and a welder can't shape however you need it!

I had the unfortunate task of encountering this issue on my 70 in the same spot. I bought the car already painted and in the assembly stage, rolling chasis, bolted back down on the frame with the front and back glass in and that's it. After I put the vinyl top on, I was installing the back window trim (ironically the last piece of trim involved with installing a vinyl top) only to discover that no one test fitted the molding. Luckily my car was a cordova top car so i was able to remove the back glass, carefully peal the new top back without damaging it, and then cut, grind, weld, hammer, and shape the area correctly. Also discovered they didn't test fit the wheel well moldings either!
Good luck with your venture!

Damn Paul, Don't you sleep like normal people??? 2:54am????

[2manyponchos]

Might just be my memory, but isn't there an inner brace welded on the repop 1/4's that is misaligned on the passenger side? Seems I have heard of that being in the wrong location causing the 1/4 to not fit exact. I've slept since then...

[PaulatFast]

Originally Posted by 2manyponchos

Might just be my memory, but isn't there an inner brace welded on the repop 1/4's that is misaligned on the passenger side? Seems I have heard of that being in the wrong location causing the 1/4 to not fit exact. I've slept since then...

That brace actually held the quarter too far forward. At some point it was corrected. The last few we have done had the brace in the right place.