Fox A Question For You Auto Body Guys...

[Noobz347]

In my neck of the woods, there's a 1979 notch with a For Sale sign in the back window. It looks like you would expect it look for something that old that's not been in the hands of an enthusiast its whole life.

I looked it over briefly and it's straight... Not too many issues with the exception of the rear wheel wells.

Now to me, quarter panels are the devil. Hard to replace for someone who's not a body guy (expensive too).

There's cancer throughout the lower portions of the wheel wells where these normally develop rust.

The question is: How hard is this kind of damage to repair without replacing the quarter? What would this kind of repair generally cost me if I were to have this work done?

Thanks,
Noobz

 

[Mintsick]

I'm not sure if this is universal across the board for wheel well arches or not, but I had a wheel well arch replaced twice on a Maxima I had that I bought with some minor cancer on the lip and both times it ended up coming back through...I went back to the guy that did the work the 2nd time and he suggested that I would never get rid of it completely unless the entire quarter panel was replaced. He could have been a hack, the repair looked great for a few months though.

 

[hoopty5.0]

You can treat the surrounding areas with a rust killer that works really well. It'll give you a better chance of the rust not coming back.

I texted my buddy who runs a body shop about replacing panels, but havent heard back. We've always used patch panels when not replacing the whole quarter. I'm not sure they make them for a fox body, but I have also never looked. I don't see why you couldn't cut out the section you need from a shell in a salvage yard and weld it in. The hardest part is fixing the high/low spots once it's welded in - that's where the black magic of body work comes into play.

 

[90lxwhite]

At work today I was actually thinking of the '79s and how I don't know jack about em. Oh and yo noobz I wanna see a pic of your ride.

 

[Noobz347]

At work today I was actually thinking of the '79s and how I don't know jack about em. Oh and yo noobz I wanna see a pic of your ride.

Think of it like you would an 85, only not as well built.

 

[90lxwhite]

Got ya

 

[Noobz347]

The one that I looked at was a brown notch... You know, the secretary car that's talked about so much when referring to Mustangs.

It could definitely use someone to save it before it decays further. Honestly, I've got enough projects going on right now.

The only thing that made me stop and look was the fact that it's a notch. It's probably got a 4 or 6 banger in it, I'm sure so everything under the hood would be scrap.

 

[madspeed]

aw come on, do something crazy like a stock 4 banger notch build