Quarter Panel Removal (1500 Project – 10)

Work continues on the 1500… The car is off the rotisserie and has been mounted onto the frame which has been welded to a body cart. This will keep everything square and happy when the quarter panel is cut off of the car and it will make sure that the panels fit correctly when the body is mounted on the frame after coming back from paint.

Guy Byrd, a local panel fitter and vintage sheet metal wiz, came over today to help make sure that everything fits correctly– we want to make sure that the new quarter panel fits correctly and the gaps are all correct– I can’t order a new one from Nissan if I screw this up!

We mounted the door, fender and trunk lid to make sure that the panel gaps were correct before cutting off the old quarter panel. Guy went to work, and soon the gaps were like they should be, and we were sure that the car was sitting square and straight on the frame.

Guy went to work with his die grinder and started cutting out spot welds:

The top edge then was lifted off:

I worked on the inner panel where the quarter panel is welded to the recess in the floor. You can see the previous brazing that was done to attach the old quarter panel during it’s previous repair who knows how long ago… all of that will be ground off and smoothed out with a hammer and dolly before the new quarter panel is installed:

And here is how the car looks tonight. A bit naked without the quarter panel!

And the NOS quarter panel after coming back from Metalworks all surface rust gone, everything clean and ready to install!