Rescuing Ruby, Extensive Quarter Panel Rust Repair

[Fleetw00d]

The first picture above is looking up into the right rear wheel well/spring-shock tower. The second picture is looking down on that same body section from above with the rear shelf portion removed (base of the C pillar is at the top of the picture). Everywhere I can, I intend to cut the spot welds and split existing seams. Similar to what I did the first time, I cut through just one surface of the joint; on the car I work from the outside to remove the bad pieces and on the donor pieces I work from the inside to get the pieces I need leaving the flange that was originally spot welded intact so that I can re-spot weld them.

[Raf99]

Right and what are you going to do for the C-pillar? I believe you need to weld an inside and outside layer?

[Fleetw00d]

That's why I said that's the tricky part. I should have cut the pillar higher up on this trial section to see how it is put together. Might require taking the outer layer off to allow the inner layer to be spliced, then replace the outer layer.

4/25/2021: Working to split the wheel housing from the frame section.

20210424_132917 by Paul Kemme, on Flickr

[Fleetw00d]

Did some more dissecting. Removed the cross brace section. If I'm going to go forward with this repair, I'm going to need a rust free shell to get these large sections from - any help in locating one would be appreciated.

20210828_174106_HDR by Paul Kemme, on Flickr

20210828_174117 by Paul Kemme, on Flickr

[Straight Success]

Are you going to coat/protect the new sections prior to installation or directly after?

[Fleetw00d]

If I ever get to it. This piece is a trial part to figure out how to take it apart and put it back together. The more structurally parts underneath I can coat them generously inside and put.

[HenRoc]

I had to bump this post, because I wanted to know, what did you use to sand down the spot welds? I have two whole panels for my wagon and after reading this post, I definitely want to start to work on the replacement panels and do the same to my wagon. Any means to cut down the costs of extra work by a body shop is worth it to me.

[SSMAccord]

I’m not sure what Fleetwood used, but drilling the welds out or grinding the welds out with a mini belt sander seem to be the most common techniques.