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For cutting out the rusted panel, I needed a more shallow metal cutting jigsaw blade, so I broke off the tang of a blade and ground it down to duplicate the width for inserting in the jigsaw blade clamp to shorten the depth of the blade. I still needed to tilt the jigsaw to cutoff the outer rear quarter without having the blade hit the inner quarter. I removed the rusted portion of the outer rear quarter all the way to the bottom and had to grind out the factory resistance welds holding it to the inner quarter at the bottom. They had spot welds EVERY 1-1/2 inch. But the bottom flange of the inner quarter panel was still pretty stout so I salvaged it.
Rqtrcut1.JPG Rinnerqtr2.JPG
Once the rust was cutout, I made cardboard templates for cutting new metal pieces from a flat sheet. The inner corner metal patch pieces were held on with magnets for tack welding on.
Rqtrcut2.JPG Rqtr-corner.JPG
The outer quarter patch panel was cut then bent around a length of 4 inch PVC pipe laying on the garage floor. I bent the flat sheet by hand around the pipe until I got the radius I wanted. I made strips of metal, tack-welded them on the backside of the patch, then the patch piece was inserted down into the quarter recess via the trunk. (the tack strips were designed to prevent the patch panel from falling through the cutout hole as it would be welded flush with the existing portion of the remaining quarter panel.) I placed some wooden wedges behind it to hold it in place for welding. Un-beknownst to me, I had the wedges a little too tight at the top, so the new panel was welded in slightly bowed out at the top. There will need to be some bondo magic done on this to attempt to smooth it out a little. However the panel welded on flush nicely and the metal strips on the backside prevented any burn-thru at the seams.
Rrqtrpatch1.JPG