Week #93

Further preparation for welding on the passenger side quarter panel includes punching all the holes for the "spot"welds. These welds span from the lowest rear edge across the bottom, around the radius of the wheel opening and along the vertical lip at the bottom front portion of the panel. The air tool I have to make the offset flanges doubles as a sheet metal punch. With the squeeze of the trigger this gizmo knocks out a clean little hole that is perfect for use as a spot weld hole.

I first mated the panel to all the parts on the car that will be "spotted" together to kinda measure out where the welds will go. Then with the quarter back on the saw horses I just followed my guide line and punched a hole every couple of inches... didn't take long at all.

There were a few other holes that needed to be drilled. These where the holes for the "scoop" insert and the "Road Runner" name plates just behind the scoop. I had kept the area of the original quarter panel that contained the scoop and holes. I thought they might be helpful as a template in locating these holes... I was right.

First I had to get all of that undercoating type stuff off the back. I used the torch method of doing this. My plan was to hold the template in position over the correct spot on the new panel and mark the holes for drilling. Holding this real scoop up to an over the re-pop scoop revealed just how off the re-pop quarters are in replicating the original. The lines, creases and contours of the re-pop are no where near as clean as the original. The template did eventually rest into a spot that felt about right but I knew that the holes for the insert would probably need some adjusting for a good fit.

With the holes drilled and the the spot weld holes punched I am just a few more tasks away from having this quarter panel on.