My good friend Dan (whom I can never thank enough) came over and hung the replacement right rear quarter panel on the project 63 Wagonaire. Since I had Bob Peterson bring my the rear quarters off a parts car quite awhile ago I have wanted to get this done. I spent about 1 day cutting the quarter skin off the inner structure without screwing it up completely. I also had cut the quarter off the 63. The old guy who used to own it must have parked by ear because the rear corners on it are all caved in. The PO had someone sculpt the contours in bondo,and while it looked OK my grinder showed it to be almost 1/2 thick in places! Hence the replacements.
The replacement panel also had bondo it the rear corner (a giant blind spot on these wagons??) but not nearly as bad. And because it now had no inner structure in the way it could be hammered out. It will unfortunately need a patch behind the wheel well because of pin hole rust but it was still better than what was there so we used it. I have found 2 guys with NOS Wagonaire rear quarters hidden away but neither will talk about selling! I do have a NOS left rear for the Wagonaire already.
Dan chose to butt weld the panel instead of over lapping them. After welding the perimeter in place he started with a small air powered sawzall and a small blade .He likes the 1/16th's inch thick blade better than using a 1/8th's inch thick cut off wheel for the cut. he only cut about 4 inches at a time and spot welded behind the cut till it was fully cut and tacked into place. Then the tedious work of spotting it all in commenced with cooling of each spot weld with a 8 second blast of air rather than a wet rag which would induce rust. After it was all welded solidly (so it appeared) along the seam, the weld was ground down and then the garage lights were shut off and the weld seam was back lit with a bright light and all pin holes found were welded up and ground down. We will finish it up in a week or so. Next weekend its motor swap time for a 71 Brand X pickup . Here are some pictures of the progress:
The replacement panel also had bondo it the rear corner (a giant blind spot on these wagons??) but not nearly as bad. And because it now had no inner structure in the way it could be hammered out. It will unfortunately need a patch behind the wheel well because of pin hole rust but it was still better than what was there so we used it. I have found 2 guys with NOS Wagonaire rear quarters hidden away but neither will talk about selling! I do have a NOS left rear for the Wagonaire already.
Dan chose to butt weld the panel instead of over lapping them. After welding the perimeter in place he started with a small air powered sawzall and a small blade .He likes the 1/16th's inch thick blade better than using a 1/8th's inch thick cut off wheel for the cut. he only cut about 4 inches at a time and spot welded behind the cut till it was fully cut and tacked into place. Then the tedious work of spotting it all in commenced with cooling of each spot weld with a 8 second blast of air rather than a wet rag which would induce rust. After it was all welded solidly (so it appeared) along the seam, the weld was ground down and then the garage lights were shut off and the weld seam was back lit with a bright light and all pin holes found were welded up and ground down. We will finish it up in a week or so. Next weekend its motor swap time for a 71 Brand X pickup . Here are some pictures of the progress:
Attached Files
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