Pinto Car Club of America

Has anyone here ever cut out and then fabricate a new section to a lower quarter panel? Not the entire lower section, just the bottom of the quarter panel that is flat and not seen when looking straight at the car.

I placed a towel in my rear quarter panels from the trunk area. Today it rained a lot and I did some driving around town. Just as I suspected, there is a good amount of water getting into the panels, and it IS rusting through.

So, has refabrication of this part of the quarter panel ever been attempted???

Hello Dave,
I do the repair pannels all the time...
R U working on a sedan or wagon??
From Pintony

My blue 78 Sedan. I'm thinking that water is getting in from the inner wheel wells. It is really hard to tell though.

So I found my leak sources! YAY....or no......

So I removed my marker lights to redo the gaskets and I could see a small amount of light coming in on each quarter panel.

So the driver's side quarter panel is leaking from the inner wheel well, as I suspected. I'm guessing it's the body plug. That and there is some under paint rust on the outside of the fender that is bubbled up and I can see the leak from the inside of the fender. Probably going to have to cut that out and refab.

The passenger's side quarter panel is leaking from the bottom, just as I suspected. The body plug and the seam that is originally sealed has deteriorated and was the primary source of leakage. After enough water had come in and sat for long enough, the bottom of the quarter panel had started to rust and now there is a nice 1/4" hole in the front of it (only viewable when underneath the car). The hole is probably THAT big because I jabbed at it with a screwdriver to see how bad it really was.

So....Can I just cut out these sections of my quarter panels, get some sheet metal and bend it accordingly, weld that in, then use fiberglass to fill in the seam and make the body uniform again?