Panel repair help required

[Parm]

My father has had a run in with a bollard in a car park and the car has come off worse. Damage to the rear quarter panel and back door.

Car is 03 plate. Body shop wants £650 for a cash job, but he doesn't want to pay this. If he goes through insurance then there is a good chance it will be beyond economic repair resulting in the car being written off. Definitely don't want this.

So, this is where I get involved. I'm going to have a go at repairing this myself. I've got a set of planishing hammers and reasonably good with them but never tackled a job this big. I've ordered a slide hammer. The plan is strip the car to expose panels internally then slowly massage the door back into shape.

I don't have any panel beating dollys, so will a correctly shaped pice of hard wood do the trick.

Next for the quarter panel, I'm planning to push out as much as I can from the inside and then use a slide hammer with self tapping screw and small holes to pull the rest out.

Once it's looking reasonable it will be out with the body filler. Can this be applied over the paint or do I need to strip back to bare metal.

What ever happens I'm giving this a go.

Any help, hints, suggestions, pointers and advice from the more experienced than I muchly appreciated

Oh once done I think it will go to a body shop for the paint

Cheers

Parm

 

[Paul.]

Pictures Rotated

 

[steviec_lj]

Easiest, and cheapest would be to replace the rear door, and concentrate your efforts on the arch/quarter panel.

There's a reason its £650 cash, because it'll take a couple of days to get straight, and it'll still need painting.

 

[Parm]

Pictures Rotated

Thanks

 

[Parm]

Easiest, and cheapest would be to replace the rear door, and concentrate your efforts on the arch/quarter panel.

There's a reason its £650 cash, because it'll take a couple of days to get straight, and it'll still need painting.

Yep, chap said it would take around 4 days to complete.

A salvage door is available for £40 but will need fully painting as it's the wrong colour.

Despite the low cost door I'm still tempted to have a go

 

[steveo3002]

id go with the used door , the extra work painting the rear isnt really going to hurt too much

 

[Parm]

Sorted, just got a used door in exactly the same colour for £50, picking up in the morning.

I think this makes it easier for me to sort out quarter panel as the door gives me an edge and line to work too

 

[octo0072000]

best way to do it with a used door

 

[Parm]

Any help on how best to tackle the quarter panel?

 

[Mark_C]

I'm tempted to say find a donor quarter in a scrappy and use it as a patch panel, but thats maybe a bit old school.

You've got a big area to pull out there, problem with the slide hammer is you need to pull out a little over a wide area, rather than a lot in a small area. I'm guessing access to the rear of the quarter will be minimal because it'll be double skinned, so you may not get behind it much with a hammer. Wood isn't a substitute for a metal dolly.

I wonder if a slit parallel with the door shut would let you reshape the shut - this will be difficult because of the shape around the door jamb that stiffens the metal. Once you have it where you need, pull the other half out and then weld up - slowly! 'cause it'll warp like crazy I expect. Look what this guy does, very different project (and he's damm good at it too) but you can see how he uses relief cuts to get the right shape http://www.trifive.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8686

Tie up with the painter before you start chucking filler on it - some will knock out everything you put in because they'll want to know whats behind before they paint. You need to get some epoxy/sealer on the filler as soon you are done as it will absorb moisture, which could cause reactions in paint and/or corrosion long term.

I suspect that a bodyshop will use glue on pins and gently pull on many of them to pull it out, much subtler than drilling holes and a slide hammer as the pins can be put much closer together.

 

[steveo3002]

quarter wont be an easy repair, not really sure how i would tackle it at home

maybe weld a plate down the door gap edge and use a ratchet strap to try and pull it while hammering down the high spot , although i doubt a ratchet strap will have the grunt to move that . if not see if you can get a blunt chisel inside and get that edge close to where it should be

 

[Parm]

Welding isn't an option for me as I don't have a mig welder. I'll be opening up the inner trim panels tommorow to see how much access I've got and then report back

 

[steveo3002]

really dont hold much hope then , with good luck you might get at the upper door shut area but no way lower down the arch

 

[Mark_C]

To be honest I don't think you've got the tools you'll need. Now you have a door take it to a bodyshop and see what the quote for repair is, keep in mind it needs painting anyway.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Why not claim off insurance ? If dad has protected no claims then this is going to be best option. You can then buy the car back and use the proceeds to get garage to repair properly. Accepted it will then be a CAT D but if dad wants to keep car then it's a case of "so what" as an 03 will have low value and being on HPi register won't make much difference (unless it's something like an O3 Rolls, Bentley etc )

 

[Parm]

Guys I agree with you but it's a bit like a dog with a bone on this one and I'm determined to give it a go

 

[mike 109444]

Try watching some vids on "paint-less dent removal" very impressive what they can do (would cost thought) Will give you an ideal what and where you need to push and pull and how to check and monitor your progress (the striped panel reflector)

 

[Parm]

Been told it might be easier to cut an panel throu the inner wheel arch to provide acces to the rear of the lower section. Before I do anything drastic I will bring home the boroscope from work and make a small test hole to have a sneaky peak before I do anything drastic

 

[Mark_C]

If you cut an access whole in the arch how exactly will you repair that ? you're just asking for corrosion problems, imagine driving in the rain with the water splashing around the arch.
We're talking about a big hole if you want to swing a hammer through it.

In any case as someone above said you'll get very little access lower down as the door jamb, wheel well etc will be there.

Makes no sense at all to remove a good part of bodywork to fix the bad part. If anything cut the bad part out.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

I'd cut a repair section out of a scrap car rather than try to beat that back into shape.