Convertible quarter panel replacement?
 

I've read over a lot of threads on this issue and am still confused (my usual state). My 68 LeMans convertible quarter panels were skinned years ago by a previous owner. The seam at the top of the quarter is cracked out and they are rusted in several places again. I'd like to replace the whole quarter rather than skin a skin, is it really practical to modify a HT quarter or should I just try to save enough metal to replace the old skin with a new skin?

Question #2; The edge of the trunk lid sits about 3/16 lower than the quarter panel in the center of that seam, on both sides of the car. It's flush at the top and bottom of the trunk lid but the quarter rises up in the center and they are not level with each other in the center of the seam. It looks like the trunk lid should bow up between the glass and bumper to match the quarter panel. Is this normal for the 68 or the result of a bad previous repair?

My car was done with skins, both sides. The only benefit (from what I know) with the full quarter is, you get the door jamb with it. You will be cutting off most of the upper section tail area extra.. Was not do to the skin that it failed, bad prep and install. When I did mine in 04 the fulls have not come out yet. I needed them I had to use a piece form a donor car.

You may even be able to fix what is there. Grind it done on the see and see what is there. May have just been welds that were not cleaned. I think you should be able to save it, if it us just the upper joint.

Thanks, nice looking ride! It's kind of become a patch-work quilt. There is a crack at the top of the fender where the skin was attached and then there is a patch panel attached to the skin, lots of seams you can see inside the trunk. I also happen to have a lot of filler in the door jamb on one side so I was just hoping blindly that someone may have offered a full quarter by now. No one offers the door jamb do they?

There IS now a full quarter available. Wasn't when I did my car. If the car has multiple patches that are failing, then maybe you should do a skin or full quarter. Like I said the benefit of the full quarter is the door jamb, but if you are not going to use it then I think the skin is a better choice and will save you a bunch of money. Think the fulls are double the price of the skins.

Thank you for the compliment.

Agree w/Dominick,unless you need the door jam you'll be left with a skin by the time you trim off the metal that is differant from the hdtp quarter.
As far as the trunklid,I've seen the same thing as you described. If you made a template of a hdtp quarter from the hinge area to tail and did the same on a vert you'd see the hdtp's are flatter in that area(actually just slopes higher) as well as left to right accross rear window/well panel. Only one trunk lid for both and if your not in paint yet that lid can be tweaked some.

Awesome, thanks for the suggestions. A friend of mine that works for a dealership doing collision repair and has his own custom shop on the side is going to help me with it (i.e. do all the hard stuff). I'll strip the door jamb down and make sure it's solid and if it is go with new skins and tweak the trunk lid a little. It will be two or three weeks until we can get started on that part but I'll let you know how it works out.

Just wanted to wiegh in here... clarify a few points that have been made.

The full quarter and the skin that is available are both made for hardtops. The convert uses a completely different panel. Unfortunately there is no panel available for a convertible at all. The skin can be installed low onto the factory vert quarters to retain the propper lines. If the skin is installed at the top of the quarter, the original contour will be lost, but the outcome will be acceptable to most.

There is NO benefit to using one of the full ht quarters on a convertible other than the door jamb. Personally I'd install a used jamb section and then procede with the skinning.

Good Luck.

Thanks Paul. I've read about that contour difference in some of the older posts I searched. On my car the passenger side has a full skin installed already, probably from 25 years ago. I assume it is a junk yard skin or OEM skin because the contours match the side that was just patched low. I'd love to keep it exactly the same but I'm afraid I'm just going to have to live with the hard top profile since there are no other parts available. I wish it were summer where I might actually be able to find an example of both to compare at a car show or something.