Any Tips for Removing Full Quarter?

[fenderman33]

Does anyone here who's replaced a full quarter on a duster have any tips for the job? Will the flange on the sail panel slide out from underneath the roof seam once the welds are drilled? Is it also spot welded under the drip rail? Did you peel the upper trunk gutter up just enough to get the quarter off?
Any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Jon

 

[67Dart440GT]

If you have a good quarter that you can replace with it's easiest to cut the center of the quarter out and remove it. Then you can work on drilling and cutting out the spot welds. Trying to take the complete quarter off just but cutting and drilling the spot welds is really hard. I use a cutting bit in an air hammer to trim the entire quarter off first.

 

[mopardrt]

good luck when I started a full quarter job on my RUST FREE CALI 1973 dart sport it went from resto project to Parts car pretty quick.........

 

[greenmonsta79]

Not too bad when you take your time, DON'T RUSH IT!!! Or it will turn to crap quick, spotweld cutter and the easiest way to see the welds are removing the paint with a wire wheel, If you are putting a full quarter on, one that goes to the roof seam you will need a torch to melt the lead and use gloves a very good respirator and don't get it on your skin!!! Once all the spotwelds are cut you can use a panel separating tool and I like to heat the panel with a torch directly above the spotwelds to further assist the separation with the panel separator tool, give the tool some whacks with the hammer after the panel has been heated and you should easily separate the two panels, and if you get suck just be patient heat and redrill, and you should be good, I have had very good luck with this procedure! Remember slow and steady progress will yield better results than hurrying the job along!! Good luck!

 

[fenderman33]

I had already cut out the quarter last night and left just the flanges like 67Dart440GT had said. I made it back out tonight and cut out all of the flanges except the wheelwell so far.
Maybe some day I'll start putting the car back together instead of cutting it apart.
-Jon

 

[67Dart440GT]

Just remember, with body work it has to look terrible before it looks better

 

[crackedback]

Use a grinder to take out the spots on the panel you are removing, it's trash anyways, right? There's a crapload of them Be careful not to damage the sub level panel.

An Air chisel, spotweld cutter , stainless gasket scraper/hammer/chisel are all handy.

You'll need a torch to get the lead out of the areas where the roof/quarter if non vinyl top and 1/4/tail panel join

 

[67Dart440GT]

Good point crackedback. The spot welds take forever to drill out. They make a cut off wheel that is much thicker than the thin wheels that works great for grinding down welds and cutting spot welds. Also good point on the lead. It can also be removed by grinding but you don't want that lead dust flying around your garage.