hey guys, i have a question about my 67 firebird coupe. It has new quarters, although the tail panel is original. The tail panel has alot of bondo in it. its kind of sad, the whole car is bondo/rust free except for the stupid tail panel.
i could buy the tail panel for around 300bucks. but i was wondering about the labor of instaling it? Is it hard to install a new tail panel with the quarters in place? How much would it cost to have a pro do it? like i said the car has beautiful new quarters that i dont want to ruin.
I don't know about the 67, but I changed the tail panel on my 69. I had to cut the welds at the quarters, across the bottom where it attaches to the rear valance and to the lip of the trunk floor, and disconnect the trunk latch plate. There were a lot of welds and prying to get it disconnected. Both of my quarters were in bad shape already at the back corners, so I wasn't too concerned with a little damage, and I put in a new rear valance, quarter drops and trunk floor. It still took about six hours of labor. It might be easier for you to cut out the old tail panel leaving enough metal at the quarters to attach to and cutting the welds across the top and bottom. Make sure the trunk channel lines up well. I did my own labor, so I couldn't tell you the cost. Good luck.
It may be a LOT easier to remove the bondo and try to staighten the tail panel as best you can. Then you would add as little bondo as you can get away with. The guy that installed the 'beautiful new quarters' thought that the tail panel should stay, right?
On the subject of tail panels, the shop that did the "rotisserie" work on the shell clamped the rotisserie thru the taillight area and the buggers flattened slightly about 3" of the lip around the tailight openings. The panel other than that is mint no bondo, no dents. I've been wondering the best way to fix the area but as you all know it is a pretty sensitive area to any type of hammering.
I was thinking of getting one of those dent guys over to do his thing and try and do the best he can, then grind and bondo as necessary to get it perfect. Any problem with straigtness in the tailight area can really show once the lights are in.
The other idea was to cut out the area and replace only the tailight openings but that may cause more trouble than it's worth.
Option 3 is replace the whole tail panel which I do not want to get in to.
dave i would repair it dont patch. take your time pound and then dolly it out. 455bird, replacing a rear tail is not hard just a lot of spot welds and finding them is a pain. i would go slowly cutting it out in small parts grinding and drilling the welds. once its gone, its easy to replace it with a new one. you can do it yourself and save $$$$$. but its your coin and confidence. you'll have to make the choice. good luck mark
Yes, there are these outfits that will tap out parking lot dings and the like without painting or anythind and they do a great job and have the skill. I once slid in to a tree in my F150 on ice and created a large 18" crease in the rear supercab suicide door. The guy worked it out flawlessly for $150. The body shop would have charged $750+ to horse it out, likely apply bondo and repaint.
