Advice for cutting donor panels?

[Ninereeds]

Hello everyone,

I'm starting to gather parts to begin the restoration on my '83 X, which has some accident damage. I have a local junkyard with a '77 X that will let me cut panels off of it, but I'm wondering if anyone had some sage advice for things to avoid, or ways to make this easier. I've attached some pics of the damage in question. I already have a very clean donor door, but I have to cut off a rear quarter panel and a front fender. Has anyone done this before who can give some tips? The current plan is to use a drill + reciprocating saw to make some rough cuts (with lots of extra material to work with), then grind them clean at home, but I expect to run into some clearance problems with the reciprocating saw, as I've never cut up one of these cars before.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Bonus question--

Has anyone done an interior color conversion that has some feedback on that? My red carpeting has seen better days.

Thanks!

 

[dragonsgate]

You will have to take the fenders off to change them so you can't mess them up any worse so I would first try to pull the original fenders into shape.
Does the hood close tight?
Was it hit hard enough to move the strut towers?
If you take panels off the donor, drill out the spot welds and try to get the whole side of the car.
Might just want to replace the whole door rather than mess with the skin.

 

[Ninereeds]

That's good wisdom.

The main reason I was looking for a donor is that I wouldn't have to care about damaging the fenders during removal as long as the points I was going to weld to were clean. Is there any trick to removing the fenders safely? It seems like the big seam weld at the top of the fronts would be tough to remove without damaging the fender.

I have limited confidence in my ability to fix either the fender or the rear quarter given limited metal shaping tools/experience, but I suppose it might be worth a shot. It's a little hard to see in the pictures, but the front fender arch is completely bent out of shape. Rear isn't so bad, but the air intake is bent so it won't accept the plastic cover, and the panel has shifted so that the door doesn't want to latch properly.

The hood closes flush to the body, but doesn't quite latch all the way at the moment. Strut tower is fine, but needs a new strut, already got some coilovers in the works for it. I have a full door assembly w/ the window and everything, so I was just going to put that on.

 

[Steve Hoelscher]

Agree with Dragonsgate. Those panels aren't that bad and are fixable. I say that because cutting, welding and finishing panels is no small job. I have done both.

If you are going to cut the panels off the donor car get a sawzall and a die grinder with a cutoff wheel. Cut the donor panels a short distance in from the factory seams. That will give you plenty of material to work with and let you make the final cuts at home in better working conditions.

Also, for the job of replacing panels, cut the original panel off the car first. You then know how much material you need to leave on the donor panel for fit.

 

[Ernie]

I’ve made similar repairs on a variety of cars using a harbor freight stud welder. I bought one about ten years ago for $99.99. I just looked on their website and it’s still $99.99. Seems to me the 250 pack studs used to be around six bucks. Now they’re up to $15.99.

Your job is going to be a lot of work no matter which approach you take. I’m not suggesting the stud welder is best. I’m just tossing it out there as an idea to consider.

 

[dragonsgate]

If you can repair the fenders on the car then you are cutting a lot of labor time, extra problems and possibly money.

Buy some good body tools and a porta power.
These might cost a bit of money up front but you will always have them on hand for other projects.

I still have tools I got in the mid 70's that have come in handy not just for body work.
Used the porta power a month ago to help break loose a rusty union on my well.

There are tons of books and video info on body repair.

The main ingredient to body work is patience and taking time to think things out.
The later can save mistakes.
But don't over think.

In my early twenties I was working on my first body and paint job on someone else's vehicle.
It was an old 65 Ford Econovan.
It had a big dent on the drivers side of the box and I was in the van kicking the crap out of it trying to get it to pop out.
I tought, if I am going to pursue this kind of work maybe I should learn some proper techniques so went down to a car dealership and talked my way into a job as an apprentice bodyman.

I went to work that day and what should be my first assignment but pick up with a big dent in the side of the bed.
I asked my new boss how I would go about starting this project and he gave me a disgusted look as he climbed in the back of the truck and proceeded to kick the crap out of it.

Upon seeing that I figured I had learned enough and said I really didn't need a job and you don't owe me anything so I will be on my way.
I have condensed the story way down but what I am trying to get across is body work is not that hard if you take your time and think things out.

 

[Ninereeds]

Alright, ya sold me. That's a pretty great story.

I have a mig welder, a couple angle grinders, and a sawzall, I figure if I can pick up a deadblow hammer and a shot bag I should be pretty well on the way to doing some serious metal shaping. I've already had a fair bit of experience using auto paint to refinish guitars, so spray gun basics shouldn't be an issue.

From a practical side, neither of the panels I'm tinkering with are damaged throughout-- should I cut off only the damaged pieces and reshape those separately, then weld it all back together? That seems the easiest way to get the shape right from my perspective, but it would probably also be the most work. Would adding welds on that side damage the structural integrity of the car? Is there a smarter way to approach this? I've done some small body patching before but never actually done accident repair to this degree, so I don't want to go off half cocked. I have some (period correct!) bodywork manuals lying around the shop, so I will dust those off as well.

Thanks for the inspiration/motivation, and thanks in advance for any more tips.

 

[MikeHynes]

Hello everyone,

I'm starting to gather parts to begin the restoration on my '83 X, which has some accident damage. I have a local junkyard with a '77 X that will let me cut panels off of it, but I'm wondering if anyone had some sage advice for things to avoid, or ways to make this easier. I've attached some pics of the damage in question. I already have a very clean donor door, but I have to cut off a rear quarter panel and a front fender. Has anyone done this before who can give some tips? The current plan is to use a drill + reciprocating saw to make some rough cuts (with lots of extra material to work with), then grind them clean at home, but I expect to run into some clearance problems with the reciprocating saw, as I've never cut up one of these cars before.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Bonus question--

Has anyone done an interior color conversion that has some feedback on that? My red carpeting has seen better days.

Thanks!

Kinda late to the party, but I had a thought.
Your car might be a good candidate for a Dallara fendered car build? Just cut the damaged fenders off, bond the Dallara fenders on, slap the good door on, and you're good to go. OK, I know it's not that easy, but neither is getting what you have now into shape. Of course if you go the Dallara fender route you have to do both sides, well it's highly recommended that you do both sides anyway!
As far as the interior color change, my advice is to get good interior paint. The older stuff didn't stick very well and looks bad quickly. I've seen some testimonials for the modern stuff that are pretty convincing though.

 

[Dr.Jeff]

If I've misunderstood this then accept my apology. But I do not recommend cutting off the panels to repair them, then reattach them (I believe that is what you described doing). Instead do all the repairs with the panels on the car. Anytime you cut a panel you distort it. Anytime you weld a panel you distort it. Both of those increases your workload exponentially. Bodywork is almost always done on the car. I suggest you start by reading up on doing bodywork basics. One of the best all time references to begin with is a very old and very short book by Frank Sargent, called "The key to Metal Bumping". The Martin Tool company has been keeping it in publication (on its fourth edition I believe). And naturally there are a multitude of online sources.

In addition to a couple of basic hammers and dollies, a stud gun like @Ernie described and slide hammer is about all you need.

 

[dragonsgate]

Definitely do the repairs with fenders attached. When prying or using porta power make sure what ever you are using for leverage is braced so you don't bend something you don't want bent. I gave a list of tools that are nice to have but I started out with a couple balpeans a repurposed claw hammer and some short lengths of various sized heavy wall steel pipe also a crowbar. Didn't have videos back then but did have a library.