Hi Everyone – I hope some of you are still following along with this seemingly never-ending restoration. Progress is achingly slow – but progress is being made. I’m choosing to look on the bright side.
Some of you may remember the driver’s side quarter had some damage from a previous accident (or two) and we had decided to save that quarter aside from a patch panel in the lower portion of the back. (Pages 5 and 6 of this thread).
It took a lot of work including a lot of shrinking of the metal to get the damage worked out. But it seemed to have come out OK. (You can already hear the “however” can’t you?).
However, one day looking at the car from one side to the other it became clear that something wasn’t quite right. And when we compared the shape of the quarter panel on one side of the car to the other…well…they weren’t the same shape.
To cut to the chase – a big part of the driver’s quarter really isn’t practically repairable. There is just too much stretch in the metal.
Here is the solution…In classic Cam fashion – you just make half a quarter panel out of a flat sheet of steel. These are Cam’s photos illustrating part of the process. The panel is a single piece…
Begin with a template and a metal with a little shape in it…
Move on to building the lower body line/detail…
Next is the wheel arch flare…
After a lot of work you end up with a “roughed-in” panel that will replace about half the quarter.
I have my fingers-crossed that it will soon be on the car and we can wrap up the remaining metal repair and metal finishing.
Thanks everyone for staying interested and following along.