Making new rear quarter panels

[Mike C]

I've wanted a fuller set of rear quarter panels on my land cruiser for awhile. I am running smaller tires then the previous owner, and do not need the larger cutouts with the way I am wheeling right now.

But with this still being a trail truck, and far from a restoration rig I decided to make my own panels rather then buying them. I placed the order online at the local steel yard on Monday, and picked it up after work today. I hope to have them finished by the weekend.

Here is a before picture from the fall of 2006.

So after I cut the sheet in half, I clamped one piece onto the drivers side to mark out the rough cuts. After I decided where I wanted the cuts, I scribed some lines using a straight edge. You will also notice I scribed two sets of lines, the inner line is the cut line. The outter line is where I will be bending the lip.

Then I stacked both sides together, and clamped them onto my work surface (old picnic table benches) I used the sawzall to cut the longer straight lines, and a jigsaw to cut the corners, and a few shorter straight cuts.

Almost there...

And finished!

And clamped back in place, to see how it all looks.

Planning on cutting the old metal out on the drivers side tomorrow, and getting the new panel welded in.

 

[FF LC FREAK]

Looking good so far. Good luck!

 

[motoloco]

looks good, more pics

 

[2badfjs]

nice!
what gauge steel is that?
whats the plan to wrap it around the corners and attaching them?

 

[Coolerman]

Wow, that looks familiar...

Folks make a big deal out of bending the metal around the rear but it's very easy to do. First I highly recommend tack welding the front so you don't run the risk of a clamp slipping as you are bending.

Then just clamp a GOOD strong straight edge to the end that wraps around, anchor one end of a ratchet strap to the wheel well and the other to something inside the cargo area and start cranking it down. The strap will hold the metal firmly in place.

You can tack weld the top edge of the sheet metal as you slowly make the bend. This stops the metal from bowing away from the seam as you work your way around.

 

[Mike C]

Thanks guys, I'll try to keep taking pictures as I go. Using 16 gauge sheet metal, and going to try using the same method with straps as coolerman did with his. If that doesn't work, then I will form it around something round, by hand

I was going to remove the rear doors last night, but the upper screws on the top hinge were not coming out. So I am thinking I will just end the new metal before the hinges, rather then cutting notches around them.

 

[Mike C]

Coolerman, thanks for the tip on using the straight edge to aid in bending it I have a perfect chunk of 2x3 steel in the garage for that too. I was planning on tac welding from front to back, as I went.

 

[Mike C]

 

[Coolerman]

You're half way there! Keep'em coming...

 

[FJFOOL]

I like what I'm seein'! Good work !!

 

[Mike C]

I was on the phone when I posted those... So I didn't type anything up


Started working on it as soon as I got home today. First thing I did was cut along the top edge, about 1/4" below the edge, and along the door. After that I setup my drill and started on the spot welds. The first one hit half of the spot weld... After that I took a sharpie and marked all of the spot welds the best I could. Some didn't leave a dimple on the outer panel, so I had to guess the best I could on those. I ended up having to chisel a few of the spot welds that were half drilled, but eventually the panel came off

I used a couple C clamps to hold the new panel in place so I could get some solid tac welds in place, I was able to adjust the panel until the gaps looked good all around. When it came to the corner, I ended up just bending it a little at a time by hand, since I had to leave the hinges in place the strap didn't seem to work to well. I also had to trim the end down before I could wrap it around. The hardest part was doing the final trimming, and lining the metal up before welding.

On the other side I am going to take some masking tape to mark out my cutting lines before anything else. I had to trim a few areas with the angle grinding while welding the corner, as my cut line dropped in the back. Other then that, I plan on doing everything else the same.



Plan is to remove the passenger side panel and weld on the new one tomorrow. Then on Friday I will grind down all of the welds, and roll the edges back so they look factory. If time permits I will also lay some primer down, so I can paint them Saturday and enjoy a weekend cruise

 

[4x4 Station Wagon]

Nice work! But now you cant fit 44"s LOL

 

[BigRedFJ40]

so, how's that mig welder working outside for ya? I take it there is no breeze at at and it's a nice calm day where you are.

Good work though, I am very impressed by how clean the cuts are on the new panels

 

[FJ40zen]

x2 on people eating tasty animals (code word pee-e-tee-ay), er are you really a vegetarian?

Subscribed

 

[FARMAN33]

Going to have to change your avatar. I hope you don't though it is one of my favorites. Great work so far.

 

[Mike C]

Thanks guys

Once I am ready to go up in tire size, I'll just have to bust out the sawzall again....

Its been pretty calm lately, the MIG worked just fine outside.... Except for today when I forgot to turn the gas on.... Once I realized I was welding without gas, it was smooth welding again

I thought about the avatar deal... I'll leave it until I take a worthy avatar picture again.



Ok so I didn't update anything yesterday.... I thought about grabbing the camera a few times, but it was basicly the same thing over again. I did get the other side wrapped up last night though.


And today I got quite a bit done, it really helped that I took a day off work though. I found a local speedometer shop that did cables and full gauge restorations. And rather then shipping the cable off, I decided I would rather take a day off work to drive down there and have them modify my cable while I waited, then use the rest of the day to work on the Land Cruiser. The guy was pretty cool, and only charged me $20 for putting a new cable inside my housing, crimping on the tcase keyway, and the new speedometer coupler.

On my way home I stopped and picked up some LED tail lights and a better pair of channel locks for bending the lip on the panels. Then I went to work with the grinder and some flap wheels, grinding all of the welds down. After I finished that I was left with some pin holes, but didn't feel like welding just yet. So I moved on to the tail lights, I still needed to cutout the new panels to fit the lights. I found something that was very close to the 4.5 inches in diameter that I needed and traced my cut lines out with a sharpie. After that I decided to brake 3 or 4 jigsaw blades in the process of cutting the holes out... After a bit of grinding, I was able to get the lights in and wire them up.


Now that I had working brake lights again, it was time to start rolling the lip of the panels.... I've done this with my pickup, and I helped a club member extend the wheel wells on the back of his FJ40. So from my past experience I learned that its far easier to bend 22 gauge metal then it is 16 gauge.... And the last time I rolled the edge of 16 gauge steel, it wasn't the entire length of the quarter panels. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I did have some longer channel locks this time to do most of the work.

Finished up the day with some primer and paint, you can see that the panels are not perfectly straight after welding them in place. The inner fenders, door posts, and every thing else on this truck are tweaked. But its a trail truck, and it still looks good from 20 feet away

And now for some random pictures....

 

[byrd_hntr]

Not bad, I like it. Im not a fan of the tail lights but the quarter panels turned out really nice. Give me some ideas to mitigate the insane cost of shipping new body parts to AK.

 

[chicago]

What happened with that big dent behind the PS door?
Came out great otherwise. I actually LOVE how you bent the lip in the tire well. All the fancy tools there are out there...sometimes there is just NO SUBSTITUTE like the basics!

 

[hellbent40]

looks good... nicely done...

had a question off topic... are the springs flipped in the front???

cheers adam

 

[Trollhole]

OLd post but I found if you make the lip before you weld the panel on it will be a lot easier. Hammering that lip upside down on 16ga is a pain in the ass. Plus you can get a chisel on the bend and make it more square.

Also if you leave more on the lip than you need you can trim it even after it is bent.

Nice work.