I'm looking at buying another TC. 88, 65k miles, auto, ALL options besides moonroof (all the better). Everything works as new, paint is really good, original non snow state car. No cracks in the dash, leather, etc... PRC works, etc.
Anyway, there's this body damage. owner says frame is fine, but idk I can fix it on my own. Maybe I could read up and work on it, but I was wondering, could this be done without new metal? Also, anyone have a rough idea how much this would cost at a shop (including painting the repair)??
oh, and other pics... how much should I shoot for? He's asking $1500.00 and already said he knows he won't get that much...
It would be a pain in the butt!!! You need to replace the quarter pannel complete or cut it out under the body line, I would not go more then $1000. for the car and explain the work involved on replacing that pannel.
most of those dents could be popped out from the inside my car had some of the same damage in the same places and now its barely noticable any good body shop can do this rather easily or you could do it yourself with some patience. I am doing mine myself... not using new metal...
Yeah, I figured I'd get both answers. LOL I'm gonna go look in person, see how low I can get him.
well then there is the get it and part it! lol if you wanted to do that to a tc!
offer $800, worse comes to worse you can make that on parts
NO!! LOL. I want the shell so I can take my current 88 tc and swap everything into a non rusted, car and keep developing it from there. What no one knows about my car right now is, hidden under the nice paint is 2 bad doors, 2 bad fenders, rotted core support, deteriorating strut towers, rusted through floor panels, rusted rear fender lips, and hundreds of nuts and bolts ceased together with rust!!
But this car would give me a flawless blue leather interior with u cracked dash and a 65k motor to sell...
lol, so your car is like mine before it exploded with rust?
mine looked brand new 5 years ago
Theres probly about 1,500 in damage there if you took it to a body shop.
Id offer 500 tops.
yeah, well, you know how it is... The salt gets everywhere (first owner didn't store winters like I did - just undercoated everything). My k-member bolts/nuts look like a little mound of rust, I'd probably have to cut them to swap k's
that sucks, is it a California car?
or did you bring it with you when you moved?
My sheet metal was not quite that bad, and I KNOW I should have just welded on another quarter. I wouldn't attempt repairing that quarter, just get another.
On the plus side. It looks as if its just the skin that took all the damage. It would probably be pretty easy to just weld on another quarter.
This would be a good time to learn to weld.
finding a quarter to replace it might be the hard part of this project.
your at least located in a better area to find one closer to you.
A partial panel replacement like mine, could be the answer.
you probably would need to replace the inner vertical support in the trunk. by the look of the damage, that may have got bent also.
Doing it yourself would save you a lot of money. Why do all you guys live so far away from me and my welder. LOL
Ok, a few things:
1. $1500 sounds on the low end. I got some 20-25 hr quotes. What is a normal body shop rate?
2. Jerry, brought it with me... it was pure WI car until 2003. As for doing it myself: I'm not sure I'd be able to figure out how to get it in the right spot... what if I end up with a fender lip 1/4" lower on one side?!? LOL plus, I have my TINY mig, but idk if I'll be able to weld where I'm currently moving too (i may not be able to use the 1 car garage for car work). I so wish I was closer... it's crazy what you've been tackling!! you're the man!
3. What's the best place/way to know/check/measure to make sure the damage is just cosmetic and not structural?
There's nothing really structural behind the damage area other then the lower vertical brace inside the trunk well.
the entire panel itself is the structural part of the car, tying the roof to the frame so to speak (making it a short story)
Is that the only pic you got from him?
I would check the cross-brace behind the back seat and the trunk wells real good. if you really wanted to measure to check the frame, I have the specs on the frame rails and measuring points. but you would need to jack it up to get under it to measure
also check the outer inside wheel well for damage. if it's damaged, another panel won't line up without repairing it
also look down the other side of the car with a light, but not in bright outdoor light. it will be easier to see ripples or waves that might have occurred from the accident. Dusk would be the best time to check for dents and ripples. But I don't think there is any frame damage by looking at that pic. but you never know until you see the entire car up close
this is whats behind the quarter panel
there's a little support in the front. but its in the inside of the car
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee79/daminc/Rockers%20and%20quarters/IMG_3532.jpg)
here's the brace inside the trunk well
(http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee79/daminc/seam%20sealer/IMG_3619.jpg)
I think shop rate is $75 hr.
good tips, thanks! This is really tough. Could be a great car but I'm getting $3000+ quotes! I could take the to San diego city college auto body or learn myself somehow. I guess either way it will atleast be WAY better and ok to drive to shows and meets... Then i can have it redone all-out later on. I'd really like to learn this stuff just don't know if I could do it where I am... Guess maybe the auto shop on the local marine base where my buddy works...?
I would get it, pound it out as much as you can, and just drive it for now
u can get at the panel if u remove the back seat and sail panels, and u can pound the back part from inside the trunk.
i cant see spending 3k on a car your gonna pay much less then half of that on the car. 3k on one area is insane.
yeah, but when you figure it'd cost that much to fix the current car anyway, I'd rather start with one that is dry and nice on the bottom. I'll look into the school auto body shop too...
well for now it shouldnt be bad to just do that.
Its all how much work you wanna do!
Trust me I know the feeling, I would love to get another and replace my car, its so rotted, and filled with fiberglass patches!
I could never get a replacement for mine.
Although I wouldn't mind finding it a friend. :D
Yes, I already have my next project planned
Lol!! Nice. It's hard for me too... First car I bought. :(
Does anyone know a good source of tutorials on a job like this?
Mabe,
what's it worth to you?
That brace behind the drs 1/4 panel is just for the spare tire to mount to from the way it looks.
The pass side has no bracing like that at all,so why would it be structural on one side and not the other????
Also there would be no reason to install a structural brace in an are such as behind the rear tire,no stress is projected there that needs bracing.
If you don't need your spare just cut it out.
That explains why there nothing in the pass. side. I always had a full size spare
I didn't even think of that. I knew it wasn't attached to the panel for support.
how much is what worth to me?? The car or the tutorials??
LOL-
Check out the main home page of the link I sent you
oops, oh yeah, I should have known that one!!
I had about the same damage(same side) to mine when the lady at the bank hit me about 1 1/2 years ago.
new rear quarter skin, tail light and whole car painted --$2600.00--
after pic.......
http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc154/flipnbird/DSCF0185-1.jpg
Dude.........FIVE years is all it took for all that to happen? I'm speechless. Are your roads MADE of salt? LOL
I put my car away with no rust on it anywhere. (ok there was little spots around the wheel well) and found what i have now in it's place. All the door jambs were fine, I remember cleaning them all the time to get the grime out of them. my front fenders had absolutely no rust on them at all.
the pass. side door had no rust on it either. the rockers I knew had some rust. the floor was not missing at all. In fact I was looking at it on a lift for the last inspection, thinking it was in real nice shape for its age. it was all undercoated too. I've been seeing that on the rust that I've been getting rid of for the last couple months.
This last winter as I was working on the car. I realized that the water from the driveway was going back towards the garage. the pad inside the garage was always wet. all year around.
Seems my car was parked on a giant concrete sponge since 2003. (that problem has been fixed.)
Who knew.
And yes the roads are very heavily salted here. they'll salt every night even if they think it may snow by morning.
they also use 2 trucks at a time on most main roads here
Ive heard that before (concrete slabs exuding water in wet climates, even inside). I plan on putting the Rustolium garage floor epoxy down. I wonder if that would help you?
As soon as I get this side of the car put on, I'm pulling the car out and doing that, right now I'm making the driveway bigger to do all this. Plus I dug drains in along the front of the garage to get rid of the water. My problem is also the well that I have 20 feet before the garage. when it gets filled to the top it starts saturating the ground around the garage, because it's slightly lower grade then the well top
Hey flipnbird, car looks really good. Thanks for the pic, that helps a lot!
So I offered $600 a couple weeks ago and the guy JUST hit me back. He said he lost his phone and was wondering if I was still interested, I said maybe and gave him my $600 offer again. I'm thinking, if I can get it cheap enough I'll gut the passenger side and beat out the dents as much as possible for now. maybe drive it for a couple weeks until I figure out what to do with it...
Did Ford use shims under the fenders on these cars? I went and looked at it and under a couple of the fender bolts (under the hood line) there where rectangles of steel being used to shim the fenders up. There were no signs of structural damage and the shims were painted in place, same silver as the rest of the car...
Mine has a couple from the factory.
ok, good to know... the car is a little worse body wise than I thought but underneath... oh man, i could see METAL and PAINT!! I was beautiful, no rust!! :D
What's the problem you ask? oh yeah, it's the title that is conveniently in the name of the previous owner... another Marine who is supposedly deployed; Iraq. The current owner said he didn't retitle because he didn't know what he was going to do with it. Ugh. I can't buy a car and dump money into it wondering when someone is gonna show up and tell me it's stolen and being taken away. :(
Oh, but I did get to drive it. Extremely disappointing in the lower rpms (couldn't even spin the tires when starting on pavement with loose gravel on top) but boosted 11-12 psi no problem and threw NO codes when I checked. Also has fully working ride control (sweet!) and the ABS is great; i almost lost some teeth on the steering wheel!
I Had that happen to mine and it cost bout 850 min to get the quarter skin In my area.
850 just for the quarter?
850 for just the quarter panel?