Flared Quarter Panel Fitment

[1buckeyefan1]

So I finally took the plunge to replace my rear quarters with the 'new' Dennis Carpenter flared quarters. They look just the way I want, but the fit about 1/4" too long at the bottoms vs. the aftermarket uncut quarters I originally welded in. Pictures attached of the passenger side.. going to fit the driver side tonight.

I think I only have a few options to make them fit?

1.) pie cut a little out of the lower quarter, weld it back up to align with the rocker?
2.) remove the rocker to bring it down to match. I don't think this is good idea.. I replaced the rockers and they're welded in pretty good. Plus the door gaps and floors line up nice.. so I think they're correct
3.) try to 'persuade' the quarter panel to come up 1/4" and screw/weld it in place. I've read some threads though that others wrinkled their quarters attempting this, so i'm not too keen on this idea

Any other thoughts before I go hacking into a perfectly good new quarter panel? I'm sure the previous aftermarket quarters were made 1/4" shorter and these new DC ones are slightly longer.

 

[Speedrdr]

Just looking at the pictures, I’m a little confused. Appears to me that it’s standing proud of the rocker panel but short at the rear. Can you not just rotate the new quarter panel up in the front and down in the rear to line things up? Or am I missing something here? Can’t see the entire quarter panel, so my plan may not be good.

Randy

 

[71 CA Bronco]

I agree with Speedrdr. I would try placing a wood block under the front section and bottle jack it up a bit. Maybe put a ratchet strap on the top of the tail section if needed. Those tabs that the spot welds go throug will bend out a bit. Check rear door fitment, B pillar, as you go. Sheet metal screws then seam sealer will clean up the gaps nicely, if they are not too bad. Just don't put too much stress on the panel but should flex a bit with no problem. If that doesn't work I would go with option #1. Cut/weld along the seam to avoid warping the panel.

 

[hsach]

I can see what you are saying. It is 1/4" long both front and rear where it hits the tailight housing and rocker. If you look closer at the 3rd picture, the new panel is lower by 1/4", not shorter. The body lines look close to being lined up, is this the case? That will complicate things if the body lines are good, but the panel sits low. I was going to suggest working the top of the panel to move the entire thing up, but if the body lines look good, it will have to be fixed another way. Could you post a wider shot of the entire side to see how it lines up?

 

[Speedrdr]

I see what you’re saying about the back where it joins at the taillight bucket. When I enlarged the photo #3, it JUMPED out at me. Mea Culpa. I’ll have to think about a solution, but I’m kinda stumped right now.

Randy

 

[Speedrdr]

I’m sure I’ll have a similar experience when I change out my taillight buckets. How much of a problem would you have in crimping the bottom rear sheet metal up for about 4” to blend in? in the same vein, crimping the bottom front sheet metal to blend in with the rocker?
That may be what you’re trying to avoid, but…that’s a thought.

Randy

 

[1buckeyefan1]

I’m sure I’ll have a similar experience when I change out my taillight buckets. How much of a problem would you have in crimping the bottom rear sheet metal up for about 4” to blend in? in the same vein, crimping the bottom front sheet metal to blend in with the rocker?
That may be what you’re trying to avoid, but…that’s a thought.

Randy

Yeah, i remember doing the taillight buckets.. they would not fit at the bottoms. to the point where I welded on a small bead to the bottom and thought Metal2Metal would be the best solution to blend the rest of the bucket edge line. It fell off while I was wrenching the old panel out. I'll use rage/bondo this time around to blend that line. But be prepared to really work aftermarket buckets at the bottom.

So I tried a few new things tonight. First, I got the driver side to fit pretty well. No surprise, since I kept the original inner quarter on that side. As for the passenger side, my best guess is that I fit everything from the inner quarter, then the rocker and the outer/lower quarter together. It looked really nice, but it was 1/4 shorter than the driver side.

Now that I've got good DC outer/lower quarters, i'm a little low. I took a little more off the top and got it to about 1/8", but it's still noticeable. I even put a block and a jack under and couldn't make up anymore w/out some damage.

I'm fitting my fenders next and I drilled out the spot welds to raise them to match the hood.. which of course screwed up my upper door gap from fender to door on both sides. This may present me another option:

1.) do I add a 1/16" shim on the upper driver door hinge, which makes the top gap on my b pillar pretty nice.. but leaves the bottom gap on my rocker really tight near the back. To fix my quarter issue, do I drill out the rear of the rocker and drop it to match the quarter? I'm sorta liking this better than cutting a pie slice out of the quarter.. but I'm really not sure I want to put a 1/16" shim into the door to make all of this work? It does make the upper door gap pretty nice.. but everything i've been told is don't worry about the fenders/gaps until the rear is done?

2.) do I work the lower quarter.. either pie slice it or re-roll the flange? I'm not very good at pounding/working metal, marginally better at cutting/welding it.

I'm not sure I've exhausted everything with the body mount shims yet. I know.. most guys would probably take the short route and slice right into the quarter and have it re-welded in the time it took me to type this. Just trying to avoid doing something i'll regret later.

More pics attached for your viewing pleasure..

 

[1buckeyefan1]

So one thing that has been really puzzling me is that my door gaps are wider at the bottom front (both driver and passenger). I can shim the tops to adjust, but that screws up the gap with the bottoms. My gut is telling me that i'm missing a body shim somewhere.. I had some in the far rear which pulled the upper rear b-pillar nice and tight.. but took those out when I started messing with the quarters to start over.

Any thoughts on how to tighten up the front/bottom lower door gaps? I'd like to figure this out before I make up my mind on the quarter panels.

I'm thinking I almost need shims under everything (6) but the radiator core support in order to bring the front nose down?

 

[Speedrdr]

I’m sure you have already checked them, but if you haven’t checked them yet, look at your body mounts and make sure all of them are the same thickness. Look at the cup(???) they sit in on the frame and see that one side isn’t/hasn’t bent. If all that’s good, my limited knowledge is at its end. Lol. Hope you find that it’s something simple and fast.

Randy

 

[1buckeyefan1]

I’m sure I’ll have a similar experience when I change out my taillight buckets. How much of a problem would you have in crimping the bottom rear sheet metal up for about 4” to blend in? in the same vein, crimping the bottom front sheet metal to blend in with the rocker?
That may be what you’re trying to avoid, but…that’s a thought.

Randy

Hey Randy.. thanks for the tip.. this is what i ended up doing. after i took about 1/4" pie cut out of the side flange, I was able to finesse it into place. Once I get it tacked up i'll take some pictures of the 'after' progress. thanks for the idea.. this was the least invasive option!

 

[Speedrdr]

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing how it all fits. If you have time, take some shots of how much you take out and all. In my “delusional state” I’m trying to decide if I’ve got the patience to form sheet metal to make the rear quarters match the front but without replacing the entire rear quarters.

Randy

 

[1buckeyefan1]

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing how it all fits. If you have time, take some shots of how much you take out and all. In my “delusional state” I’m trying to decide if I’ve got the patience to form sheet metal to make the rear quarters match the front but without replacing the entire rear quarters.

Randy

Yep, I was in the same place, staring at it for the last 3+ years since the flared quarters finally came out and lamenting that I didn't wait around for them. After consulting with a local metal guy, he convinced me that it'd be less body work to simply replace the lower quarter (again) now that you can buy a full panel.

I retraced my steps and cut out about 1-2" from the seams. I honestly forgot that I used the 3m panel glue at the top seam. It held a lot better than I thought it would. I had to wrench it off with vise grips. I bought some more and will be using it on the upper seams. I'd really like to use it on the front door seal too, as I found some surface rust where the welds were. It's been in my semi climate controlled shop for 5yrs, so that was surprising. I really don't want any rust paint bubbles many years down the road. This was despite using weld thru primer.

 

[Speedrdr]

Yeah, I found out the hard way that the panel adhesive is really really good. Messed up the tailgate on my 2013 F-150 to where the right side would not close. Took an 8# sledgehammer to beat it into submission, but the adhesive still held. Tough as nails, it is. Lol

Randy