my flux capacitor hath died. I guess core destabilization has occured, and millions of metallic particles have accumulated on the mechanism itself....therefore it had to be replaced. (see photo.)



when i tried to just go ahead and replace another component , it just turned into a big mess....i've never made contact with a stickier substance in all of my 22 years. how come nobody warned me about this?





on a more serious note, my repairs are coming along quite nicely......my part car is quickly becoming just some scraps of metal, rather than a car....so far i have replaced the front fenders (both sides) the hood, the fuel door, a taillight and the center piece (would have done both taillights but the donor car has the driver's side busted,) my trunk lock mechanism, and the trunk latch mechanism.

gonna start cutting quarter panels when i return from fort bragg in a week or two....then i'm gonna need to do a few more part searches for parts not on my donor car, plus q45 spoiler should be here, along with q45 trunk finisher piece. Will keep you guys posted on how this stuff goes.

i should only be 1 - 2 months away from new paint!





and i know, i know, the gxe grille is coming off, just haven't pulled it yet

 

have already popped out a tiny bit of the damage to hold me over until i replace it .....huge gap between taillight and QP.



i think i'm gonna switch over completely to the gxe lights...i kinda like the white 'strip' across the back, under the red. and even the little 'pinstriping' type stuff on the upper portion of the tails.

rear window decal:


edit: i know the rear end looks like crap, but i'm not putting on good parts until the body repairs are done. the trunk's old body work has degraded a bit over the past couple years, the taillights seals are messed up and the bumper needs paint....and it's dirty as hell.

PLUS: temporary exhaust set-up.

 

get a spot weld cutter for your drill and you will thank me later. Easiest way to cut out a quarter.

Oh yeah you dont have to cut anything but the C pillar if you do it right...just follow all the spot welds and you will be good to go.

 

hmm...i was actually thinking about cutting in a vertical line from where the rear glass meets the trunk lid, other than curring the pillar and everything.

if you look at the taillight, you can see how out of whack my trunk actually is....gonna take some work to get that back in line....it's actually pushed out under the trunklid, and pulled in on the corner....

hey micheal....do you think it would be easier to just go ahead and cut above the pillar, or like i was saying?

 

I dont understand what you are talking about but I would go up into the C pillar (you need to take the glass out) because the least you have to cut the better. Our metal warps very easy so you dont wnat to get too close to the roof or into the quarter.

I think you probably need to research it a little more before you go to cutting.

its actually easy though...just follow all the spot welds and cut the C pillar with a saw (be sure to just get the outer skin and not the inner support).

look here on my old 93 site and you will see how it should look after cutting out the quarter...you are lucky the passenger side is easier because of no gas filler.

 

so you used a body saw, and not an air chisel? if so, any reason why you didn't use a chisel? I've been wanting to use the body saw, but my dad's familiar with the air chisel, i guess he's used them on older model cars and prefers it.....plus the saw is 3x the cost of the air chisel.

 

I didnt use any of that...not sure what a
'body saw" is and an air chisel will destroy the metal.

I used a spot weld drill bit for all the spot welds and a sawzall for that one spot on the C pillar...thats all that is required.

Just be sure to keep the drill bit lubricated as you cut out the spot welds because there are a ton of them and you want it to last.

here is the spot weld drill bit I used

but there are other types as well listed here

not saying to buy from there but just showing you what to use.


Just trust me on this OK and quit trying to make it harder by trying to make it easier.

Cut the replacement panel higher than you will the bad panel. Drill out all the spot welds and pull the panels off, then place the new panel on with the C pillar over lapping, make sure everything is straight and clamp it in place at several places, cut the C pillar again where they are overlapping so that the cut will but up against each other perfectly, weld up the spots welds and where the C pillar connect (careful not to warp it), gind down the welds, use seam sealer in the places you need to (you will know because there will be seam sealer already there) and you are finished.

Be sure and cover the interior pieces with a welders blanket or remove everything you dont want burned because you will splatter some.

I have done 3 quarter panels on 3rd gens and I did them all the same way. It just makes it so easy to match up.

its the professional way and will yield great results...no one knew my cars ever had the quarters replaced because it was all done right.

 

that's an SE grille you have. a 89-91 SE grille... it's body-color. GXE grilles are chrome. http://btp.mine.nu/Jared/NewCam/IMG_0006.jpg

your left taillight is a 92-94 SE tail, the one on the right is a 89-91 SE tail.

 

Thanks for bringing up the quarter panel discussion, I think Im gonna be cutting the quarter from my parts car sometime soon as well

One Q?, instead of a sawzall, can a hacksaw be used? Hate to spend the $$ on a sawzall and then only use it once..

 

of course it can...just more work. Any cutting device can be used...hacksaw, sawzall, cutoff wheel, grinder, etc etc.

Just be careful and dont cut the inner support.

 

I would recmomend a grinder with a cut off wheel. It makes a real clean cut with a steady hand, where as a saw zall would tend to warp the metal.

Hack saw would take alot of time nor do I see it possible???
Cheap grinder 14-20 bucks, a couple grinding wheals at 1-2 bucks a piece. It should take a hour to carefully remvoe a rear quarter.

 

a cut off wheel will warp the metal faster than a sawzall will. THe cut off wheel gets hot while the sawzall cuts right through (I had a long blade so I just put the saw on one side and cut straight down...took a couple seconds at the most and it was a perfect cut and perfect match up since I overlapped the panels to cut them). We are not talking about cutting it in a big open part like the side of the panel but the stiff pillar.

I did all three of mine with a sawzall and they were all nice clean cuts with no warping or excess heat.

it will take more than an hour to remove a quarter the right way. Heck it will take longer than that to get the back window out and then you have to find all the spot welds. I have done three...know where every spot weld is and no way I could do it in an hour...maybe after the window is out (still have my doubts there) but not from start to finish.

Sure you could just go to cutting big chunks off and weld it up that way but thats not the correct way to do it...go by spot welds and do it right...take your time and its easy.

BUT like I said it will all work. BTW I do think a hack saw will work just fine and will not take THAT long to cut the little slot in the C pillar...again we are not talking about cutting the side of the quarter.

 

OOok Hack saw for just the c pillar. Sorry.

I was thinking the saw-zal was for the majority. My bad, carry on

 

I've been meaning to do some body restoration on my car and this thread inspires me. Although I want it done professionally...I'm really inspired to do it myself.

Michael, I'm probably gonna do mine but I'm gonna practice on a decent amount of maximas at the junk yard before I go and screw mine up...will hand tools cause a BIG headache during pratice? If not, can I just use like a regular hacksaw?

 

well there is really no practicing. please read what I wrote about how to cut the panel off and replace it. Basically your practice will be when you cut the old panel off because a junk yard isnt going to do the spot weld cutting but will cut a large portion of the car off (faster and easier for them that way...they will just use a torch and cut into the floor board, rear shelf and trunk).

If you over lap the panels and then cut them at the same time like I mentioned (after you have the panel in place and clamped down with vise grips etc.) then there is really no way of messing the C pillar cut up and if you do then you can just weld it back up (being careful not to warp it)

 

John, your talking about replacing your drivers side quarter panel right?

~Alex

 

capedcadaver: thanks man, i have had no idea what my parts were lately.....so much confusion lol.

 

yup 10 meows