Any experienced collission repair guys here?? I need advice.

First things first. When this thing got hit, it pushed the door to the rear a bit. About a 8" section of the b pillar was bent rearwards pretty good. As a result of this their was a pretty good size buldge in the panel just behind the door pillar.
I bought a stud welder for some of the other dents on the car along with some work I'm helping a buddy with. I tried it on the door pillar and quickly relized it wasn't going to work in this case. Although time consuming, I realized quickly the path of least resistance was to cut out the bad section, straighten it out and then weld it back in.
It came out pretty good. Not perfect but a far cry better than it was and the buldge it totally gone also. Next step I think is to make sure the door is straight and square. Thanks to all for thier help thus far. Todd

 

Looking good. Glad to see that you're building forward off the quarter panel. As far as cutting the panel off, repairing, and welding it back on,....no problem. Do what you can with what you have. Keep us posted. Stu

 

Stu taught me the lunch trick. Problem is I eat lunch all day.

 

Just cut the **** out and rebuild it, braces wont work that great because nothing is in the right place to start with.

Just wack it out and make everything fit perfect going back together.

This was my first attempt, started with braces, and quickly cut them out.

 

Hey Todd,

The quarter looks good! Another way to repair this area without having to cut open the panel would have been to get inside the quarter and bump the leading edge foward with a s**** or block of wood and a 3# BFH. Additionally, you could have springhammered the panel flush to close up the gap requireing very little filler be used to straighten the quarter. Both of these methods require the door be hung in the opening, and that it be straight, inorder to get a good gap @ the B Post.
The method of omiting bracing when repairing/rebuilding larger areas of a a body can carry a pretty heavy pricetag, timewise. If your first pieces replaced on the job arn't 100% deadnuts correct, and you build out from that point without correct measurements/alignment yer gonna piss away many hours jacking, pulling and drilling out welds to correct a problem that was easily avoided with a good repair plan, measurements and some minumal bracing.
It looks like you're off to a good start.


" Hypocrisy is the Vaseline of social *********** ''

 

Rule when repairing a damaged vehicle. Straighten it first then cut off the damaged parts. Don't cut and paste or you'll be in trouble. If the post is in also check the lenght of the rocker. It usually short. You may have to jack the lenght first and then push out the post. Send me your address and I'll send you one of my Sheet Metal repair books. The Old Tinbasher tinbasher@rogers.com

 

Looking at what you started with I don't feel so bad. I'm inspired. Todd

 

I would like to say that I am a highly skilled craftsman, but to tell the truth I just kind of did it because I HAD to, but I learned a lot in the process, so my skill level is better now.

The simple application of carefully fitting parts, common sense, and trying to look beyond what "I am doing now" went a long way to having a "good" outcome.

After having done this, (this was the first thing I did when I started reconstructing the car) I got better with a lot of the other stuff.

Sometimes you just have to get in there and do it (like I see you are doing), and if it doesn't work out like you want just do it again...

That is what I did, I cut out all of the work I did on this car as a kid back in the 80s... I had no teacher, and since Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet I had no HAMB to draw knowledge from so I did the best I could.

The knowledge here on the HAMB makes lots of things possible for me that I would have not had the confidence or ability to do otherwise. Now, if I could only get the HAMB to teach me to TIG weld....

 

***UPDATE*** I worked on the door problem today. I used a house jack to support the cowl from underneath, cut away what was left of the rocker and used a hammer and block of wood to move every thing forward about 1/4". I then installed a temporary rocker so I could hang the door. Once the door was hung I had a good gap all around except for the bottom 1/4 of the door. So I put another brace in about 12" from the bottom of the floor. I then used a bottle jack tom move just the lower part forward about 1/8" I installed another temporary inner rocker and then cut out the brace and re-hung the door. It fits real good now. I will be able to do some fine adjustments while installing the new lower cowl patch,

Thanks to all for threir insperation and guidence. I know the way I did it was a bit rough (hammer,block of wood and bottle jack) but it worked. Todd

 

BEFORE Anything else I think you need to insure the frame is straight/square,when they get hit hard the Frame often bends under the cowl.

 

I did check the frame. It is fine. I really thing this was a glancing blow. The cowl and door got tweeked real good and the A post was pretty messed up. but the floor was only pushed just a little bit. Todd