[Shiny]

Originally Posted by steve v

This is good advice here. If you don't get it pulled first you'll be chasing that oil can forever.
When PMD mounted the bumper to the rear body panel instead of the frame it made the 1/4 the crumple zone in an off center hit.

Originally Posted by 400 4spd.

It needs to be clamped onto and pulled back before hammering on it. Otherwise you are going to stretch everything and make it much harder to repair after you eventually have it pulled anyway.

Originally Posted by Big Bear

At the corner you have the X, I would be mig welding a plate with a hole on the edge of the panel. Use comealongs or chain falls hooked in the hole to put some constant tension and hammer and dolley the crease and dents. Think of pulling a bed sheet smooth. Try to pull at the same angle as the impact

I need to embrace all this and step up.

Here's what I'm thinking today, please comment freely:

The compression along the quarter panel appears isolated to the top half. The body line has no obvious deformation, nor does the panel below the body line, nor does the rear face. All this is good IMO. Above the body line there is a creased indentation that definitely oil-cans now... illustrating the need to apply tension and relieve the compression where it's oil-canning.



The challenge for me is how to do this...

One option is to pull from behind. The tear below the rear face makes it weak there and I don't want to risk destroying that face and radius into the quarter by trying to attach something to it and pulling. That's a strong visual element for me and it's not messed up...

So one option is to clamp onto the flange and pull with a come-along winch. It might work.

Another option is to pull at the upper bumper mount nut but I don't think the structure would transmit much force into the upper quarter panel.



This looks like a reasonable tool to grip the flange and it's cheap on Amazon. I can also buy a come-along for not much at Harbor Freight and tie the other end to the hitch on my pickup ???



The idea I like the most is to use a hydraulic ram or leveraged pole inside the trunk and push directly on the rear face in the corner. It is easy to access and I could probably find something fairly strong and rigid to push against in the trunk.

The downside is I don't have a porta-power or other hydraulic ram. I might be able to rig up something with a bottle or scissor jack.. maybe even some hinged 2x4s or some wooden wedges ?? I will call AutoZone tomorrow and see if they have something in their loan-a-tool stuff.



Hmmmm

Mike

[Shiny]

I expected this to be a challenge and so far, no disappointment.

I started on the upper panel (crease 2) by looking for obvious deformation along the "boundaries" or "anchors" (rigid folds that constrain the panel). The upper and rear edges and the body line had nothing obvious. But the edge of the bumper cut-out was clearly pushed inward a lot.





I decided to find out if pushing that edge out would be a magic answer. I struck out on finding a rental porta-power ram so I improvised. I used a couple 2x2s to get a lot of leverage outward. This worked pretty well, pushing to deflect the edge and hammering above it. The vertical post was about 4 ft long - more than enough to deflect the panel.



I didn't get the edge located great, nor did I get the creases flattened but it's a start. The buckle that oil cans (circled) was unfortunately still oil canning so I ran the shrinking disc around to see if that would help.

No magic.



I concluded I will need to try pulling to the rear so bit the bullet and ordered a clamp and come-along.

Can only get better if I don't over-pull it.

He said.

[JJDeville]

A lot of good information here. The way I always fixed them is to imagine how the damage happened and then reverse the impact. The key to fixing that panel is to tie the car down and pull on the quarter and bumper mount while taking a body hammer and lightly bumping the quarter panel all over the panel to release the tension. Put the panel under the most tension you can without damaging it and go all over the panel with a wide head body hammer and then go to the bent places and bump it out. Repeat until you see the panel relax.

[Shiny]

I finally got back to this and made what I think is progress.

I followed your advice and put some tension on the quarter using a cheap clamp and a come-a-long hooked to the hitch receiver on my truck. Put a good load on it which made me nervous about the heavy clamp letting go and taking out my truck but didn't happen!







First I worked to push the sharp line along the bottom edge pushed out. I pushed hard from the inside along the pink line and slapped the high areas and folds near the orange marks:



Then I noticed this stiffening rib in the trunk was slightly buckled so I straightened it out:

[Shiny]

Then the good part - This indentation would oil can.. which was my biggest motivator for pulling on the quarter:



The concave region right above the body line was pushed out some. After I straightened the rigid fold, I knocked this concave region (orange) in while pushing out along the convex upper section (red) and it held!



With much amazement, I found the buckled section that oil-canned had straightened out and was actually holding some shape!!

This is where I ended today. I plan to weld the tear next, then strip and start looking more objectively at the shape... but so far, it's better than where it started.