I've had my Trac for about 7 years now. I've driven her a lot and she's sat a lot. Its been a project, a toy, and and a DD. To celebrate her 25th birthday I just got historic plates. No more inspections, no more emissions testing. Lifetime registration. I'm finally in a position where I can really spend the time and money to make her as nice as I'd like and to do it properly.
Part one of this is to fix some quarter panel rust resulting from an accident early in the car's life that was repaired by laying bondo an inch thick instead of doing the job right.
To begin with I needed a parts car. It took me about 6 months but I finally found a GTS that was close by (well only a few hours away), cheap, and most importantly absolutely rust free. I've had the parts car for a few weeks now but the weather has been awful. With it finally warming up a bit here I've been able to get to work. The parts car will ultimately donate a drivers side quarter panel and door, but I'll be taking the passenger side quarter and the good front fender to keep as spares along with various other parts.
I started by removing the passenger side quarter panel. I wanted to figure things out on the passenger side before taking the drivers side I actually need. I removed the panel in its entirety by drilling out the factory spot welds and cutting the braze/weld to the roof skin. In case you're wondering there's approximately 155 spot welds holding the quarter panel on :twisted:
Also after seeing how the quarter panel wraps around under the roof skin I'm debating whether or not to find a non-sunroof roof skin to replace mine with when I do the quarter panel.
Next weekend the driver side quarter will come off and the motor will get pulled. Then the parts car will make its final journey to the junkyard, having given its life to save the all trac.
Here's a few pics of the quarter panel removal process
Part one of this is to fix some quarter panel rust resulting from an accident early in the car's life that was repaired by laying bondo an inch thick instead of doing the job right.
To begin with I needed a parts car. It took me about 6 months but I finally found a GTS that was close by (well only a few hours away), cheap, and most importantly absolutely rust free. I've had the parts car for a few weeks now but the weather has been awful. With it finally warming up a bit here I've been able to get to work. The parts car will ultimately donate a drivers side quarter panel and door, but I'll be taking the passenger side quarter and the good front fender to keep as spares along with various other parts.
I started by removing the passenger side quarter panel. I wanted to figure things out on the passenger side before taking the drivers side I actually need. I removed the panel in its entirety by drilling out the factory spot welds and cutting the braze/weld to the roof skin. In case you're wondering there's approximately 155 spot welds holding the quarter panel on :twisted:
Also after seeing how the quarter panel wraps around under the roof skin I'm debating whether or not to find a non-sunroof roof skin to replace mine with when I do the quarter panel.
Next weekend the driver side quarter will come off and the motor will get pulled. Then the parts car will make its final journey to the junkyard, having given its life to save the all trac.
Here's a few pics of the quarter panel removal process
