Making Rear Quarters: If a fabricator can do it, how hard can it be? (1 Viewer)

[duffontap]

Making Rear Quarters: How Hard Can it Be? A 9/76 Sweat Equity Resto

I'm in serious need of some new quarter panels. Mine were badly molested by the PO with a jigsaw, they have serious creases in both corners from being backed into things, and they have rust-throughs where the wheel wells are spot-welded on. I have a nearly new complete rear sill from CCOT, a great set of used wheel wells, a decent rear floor, and my top rails are sound. So, as soon as I have quarter panels I'm ready to begin rebuilding my 1/2 tub.

My question is, I'm pretty ambitious but I have very little fabrication experience (read: none), would it be crazy to try fabricating my own rear quarters from 18 gauge steel (9/76 production date)? The ones from CCOT only cost about $330 shipped, but that's almost a year's worth of preschool and it would need to be a necessity.

Has anyone had any luck making their own, complete quarters that look stock?

Here's a pic of mine:

 

[JohnnyC]

Many of us have gone that rout...had a friend fab some up for me rolled the radius at a local shop...used 3/16" steel...no more rust thru's or bends from bashing into stuff

if anybody is in the VT area he can do yours too ( Poor Wally's Land Cruiser Emporium )

There's another guy...I think its 'Bud Built' ? that also sells 3/16" rolled steel

they look very stock

 

[Jacket]

3/16" body parts - wow! cool.

 

[Bull22]

I made both of mine along with new wheel wells and floors

 

[cjgoode]

Here is a good thread incase you want to do it and do not have all the fab tools a shop would. Pretty cool way to do it.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/209162-1-4-panel-patch-limited-tools.html

 

[Splangy]

If your time is worth anything to you, it will be way cheaper to buy some aftermarket panels. Aftermarket panels will also probably be of way better quality than what a beginner can produce in his garage with limited tooling.

 

[duffontap]

Wow, thanks guys! I'm fairly tempted to try. I priced steel a few weeks ago and a local shop said I could go through their rems and pay $2 per sq. foot for 16 gauge.

Is it easier to make them in smaller pieces (minimal patches) than making up full replacement quarters?

JohnnyC--your rig is LEGIT!

 

[Sharp38]

If your time is worth anything to you, it will be way cheaper to buy some aftermarket panels. Aftermarket panels will also probably be of way better quality than what a beginner can produce in his garage with limited tooling.

I wholeheartedly concur.

Don

 

[Trollhole]

https://forum.ih8mud.com/40-55-series-tech/278950-i-got-tired-mold.html

 

[77TPIFJ]

it could be done. Just depends on what you want. I am sure you know the first time you do it is not going to come out looking perfect. If you can deal with that than do it yourself. If your trying for a full resto than you know you should buy them. That being said i bent some 3/16 with a little heat and 2 35 or 45lb weights . i bolted mine in but could have been welded in just the same. good luck

 

[71FJ40]

I wholeheartedly concur.

Don

x2

Fabbing the panels isn't that hard - welding sheet metal with no experience is a bugger

 

[Bull22]

When welding stitch in the panels little by little. Try to keep down excessive heat otherwise you will get warpage.

 

[chevyfj40lc]

I fab mine of 18 gage.Flickr: Chevyfj40lc's Photostream

 

[chicago]

I'm a big advocate for DIY, but this is a bitch depending on how well you want it to come out.
Sheet metal sucks to weld on. Plain and simple. I've done quite a bit of it over the last two years on my build, so it not as if I'm saying this from what I've heard or read.
You'll be much better off if you have a 110v machine and solid wire and gas.
Welding will be a series of hundreds of spot welds and you want to move around a lot. Keep a bucket of water next to you and cool you sections you just welded. Then go to the next spot and so on.
It's all time. You'll save a lot of cash, but you loose it in time a mentioned above.
Here are a few of mine. Yes, I did jump pics to the other side, but you get the basic idea. I had to also rebuild the fender wells too, so I used some angle iron to make a frame. I drilled a series of holes in the panels and did plug weld for additional strength.

 

[cjgoode]

welding does not matter, either you will weld in your panels or someone elses, but you still have to weld them in. I priced out the patch panels and was shocked at the price for some bent steel with no real complexity at all, it is cut to a shape and curved. If you are doing a full restore buy them, but if not I would try and to them yourself, unless you have money to spend. I do not. When I do my 1980 I will do them myself since financially the other option is not to do it at all.

 

[duffontap]

Thanks everyone. You've offered a lot of good advice from different angles and it's a huge help.

Of course the title for this thread is tongue-in-cheek; I expect it to be difficult and I'm sure I will not get professional results. Like many of you, my 'issue' is that I have higher standards than what I can reasonably accomplish with my time and every year I refuse to compromise is another year my truck goes without much-needed body work. Thinking about the money, saving $250+ is a huge incentive to put in some time trying to fabricate my own--SO I'M GOING TO TRY!!!! If I get in over my head, I can throw some diamond plate corners on and say !

I'll post my progress on this thread along with the occasional question of the day (eg. 'how do you weld?' ). JD

 

[duffontap]

Finished

Well, I did it. Finally got some time while on vacation to fabricate new rear quarter panels for the 9/76 that I drive to work every day.

After considering the good advice of some here, I nearly bugged out and ordered them from CCOT, but couldn’t really afford them. Besides, I only had to improve on this:



And this,



So I headed out for some 16 gauge cold rolled steel. It turned out I would have to pay $65 for the steel, and $20 for the shear work, or I could take the whole 4’x8’ sheet for $3 more, which of course was a no-brainer.



I have basically zero metal fabrication experience and a set of Harbor Freight body tools, so I had to plan carefully and did a lot of research on how other guys have approached this project. It seems like most people do a lot of the fab work while they’re installing the panel (e.g., bending the panel, using the tub itself as the form). My truck is not pretty and will continue to be a work truck so it will likely have a satin finish and perfection is not the goal, but I would not be able to live with it if I knew it was skimmed with body filler. So, I opted to cut them out, try to pre-bend them, and roll the edges before installing.

Started by tracing an otherwise worthless donor tub I’ve been saving just for this purpose. The only thing intact on it are almost perfect, uncut rolled edges.



I added a 5/8” margin to the tracing for the rolled lip, and a little more for the front lip that’s bolted on, and a little less for the back lip that spot welds to the rear corner channels.



And then transferred that to the steel:



I cut everything out with a jigsaw. As an example of how tight the budget on this project was, I cut down all the dull jigsaw blades an inch or so, and reground the shanks (takes about 30 seconds, honestly) to get a second life out of them!

The marker cut-outs were easy to match. Trace, transfer, drill four 3/8” holes at the corners and connect the dots with the jigsaw.



I created two simple wooden jigs for working the curved sections. They had separate functions, but the method of construction was the same. One was a wooden match to the rear corner of the truck that would be used as a form to roll the lip over, and the other was a tighter radius, and was used to pre-bend the panel to account for spring-back. They were made of construction grade lumber I had laying around and both worked great. Method of construction should be fairly obvious from the photos. They both took an hour or two to build and fair out.

There was careful figuring prior to cutting the angles on the wedges:



Glue and screw:



I eventually faired these curves out on a sander:



Here is the bending jig in action. It works kinda like a conduit bender and lots of careful downward pressure is required to keep from kinking the steel. I provided the careful downward pressure while my wife was kind enough to lever the bender back:



It created a very nice radius:



All the edges were rolled over wooden or steel forms with a Harbor Freight body hammer. It is imperative that the hammering be done right around the clamps to keep from driving the bend up into the side of the panel itself.



This whole process took about 1.5-2 hours per panel and the results were very satisfying. I didn’t have to weld, grind or cut anything. I think you could produce a perfect rolled lip in this fashion, but I only really cared that it looked good from the outside, so there are lots of hammer marks visible from the inside:



And imperfections visible from underneath. I sprayed some black gloss on this part so you could see the imperfections better, but still see how the visible part of the panel looks ok.



Finished panels:





I am not a perfectionist, and to be honest, I am stunned at how well these turned out. The final assessment will have to wait for final fitment and installation, but I really expected the project to be much more difficult than it was. The most difficult part was the rolled lip around where the gas tank filler neck is and I am more or less satisfied with how it turned out. In total, I think I had about two days into this project and saved about $265.

I know they wouldn’t be good enough for many of the fine restorations I see here on Mud, but they are a huge improvement over what I had and a manageable first fabrication project. Also, I have enough sheet left over to fabricate a rear floor, which I’m off to get started on. Again, the bar is set pretty low by what I’m trying to improve upon:

 

[Eshu Elegua]

good job....way to go....as many things you learn...you save the $..tools never expire.

 

[LSUfj]

Thats awesome. I got to see how Real Steel made their quarter panels. They had a metal jig that pulled the panel around the radius. They used a plasma with a roller guide to cut the edges and then just hammered them around the jig, very similar to how you made the edges. Great work man!

 

[twoyotas]

fantastic job. definitely works for what you needed! now trust the advice others posted about taking time to do the welds so as not to warp your creation, or the tub you are welding to, and you'll be lookin good.