Massive rear quarter panel damage... hit and run

[2.4Loflove]

Because the damage goes so far up (must have been smacked by a big vehicle) it does look like way too much effort to fix unless you are a very skilled auto body worker. Unless this coupe has serious sentimental value it is your best bet to get something in better shape. You have my remorse, and as for the f*** that did this:

[Soravia]

It all depends on the damage. According to the OP, his is only outside and there shouldn't be any frame damage. This is no where near needing to cut up a rear end and weld on.

Doing ANYTHING at a body shop cost a crap load of money. Do you know that I was quoted $500 for part to replacing a trunk lid that has 1" rust holes under the spoiler.Things can be a lot more work if there is damage involving sub frame. Then you need to take out the fuel lines, fuel tank, subframe, suspension, etc.Luckly OP's damage is only outside, even the wheel well is left untouched.

I don't have pics but one of my 240sx have that same damage fixed. Most people can't tell the fix at all.


Modified by Soravia at 12:25 PM 5/28/2008

[Bumnah]

the 1/4 panels in the rear are welded to the chassis frame. if you were to replace the fender you will have to cut in that frame.

you aren't dealing with straight lines the metal curves and bends back there. simply stating "cut and weld" means nothing because there is a lot of work involved to simply cut and weld.

the issue is the curve near the end of the fender near the lights. it's crushed. it is hard to replace that section. and over fenders will require a nice smooth lines around the edges to attach to the old fender.

the metal is not that thick. welding can cause them to warp if you dont' know what you're doing.

you're a fool to think this is an easy repair by any means. ditch the shell and buy another.

[dickie]

dude, you cant be serious. if you were replacing the rear quarter with a donor piece you would also be replacing that part of the c-pillar if you were going to do it right, which would mean removing the glass and replacing it when you were done. move the red line about halfway up the pillar and that is what you should actually be replacing.

do you understand what you are suggesting that the op should do is not only impractical for anyone but an expert (keep in mind where a unibody gets its strength and rigidity from) and that if he does something wrong or half-*** like in the diagram, he would be affecting the car's driveability and his survivability in an accident too?

of course a shop would charge you out the *** for this type of work, they are professionals and can be held accountable if they screw up.

if someone without that skill level or access to teh proper tools and materials attempted this on their own time, it would STILL be so expensive that it would end up being totally impractical.

can it be done? sure. how much time/money you got?

should it be done? not with the abundance of cheap, clean shells out there. i'd wager that even a novice could have an entire drivetrain swapped over the course of a weekend with minor guidance and help, speaking from experience.

for your next post, please tell me that cutting the panel out, straightening the frame correctly, welding in new panels where necessary and adding widebody fenders and aligning all the body parts and finally painting everything would be a more cost-effective solution.

[Flicktitty]

i say it is fixible. Just get startted on it. the car seems to be a clean start so why not keep going witth it.

i would think just alot of time and effort and it will look fine.

[Soravia]

My suggestion is based on the idea that there is no frame damage. And the pictures here seem to back it up very well.The C pillar is not damaged, just dented. All it needs is bondo.The rear of the quarter panel needs replacing. But the welding points will be hidden by the over fender and the trunk lid so they don't need to worry about warping from welding heat.According to my experience, even the 16GA can handling welding without warping so long as it is taken slowly little by little.

With all the tools and parts. Estimated time to cut and weld is maximum 3 hours. The fact that the trunk lid is left undamaged makes it easy to line up and weld in the trunk lip. Bondo and paint will cost more time.

[dickie]

okay dude, whatever you say! i can see there's no point in continuing this debate.

why dont you go out there and get it done for him if it only takes you 3 hours from start to finish. im sure he would appreciate your obvious high level of skill.

im going to share this thread with some of the friends i have at the body shop, guaranteed they will love it.

[xx240Fox21xx]

Hey if anyone wants to do this for me, by all means go ahead

I will take into consideration getting a new shell and swapping everything over, but this car was near perfect until the accident. So I kind of want to try and fix this up. If Sor says 3 hours to fix everything, sheet metal isn't that expensive. MY friends dad is a professional welder so I could take it to him. If I'm going to get a new shell, I might as well see what I can do with this.

There is no frame damage or sub frame damage at all. The inside wheel well doesn't have any damage. It's just the quarter panel that was crushed. If I could get the piece of the trunk and cut out and weld on just that piece it would help a lot.

I don't really have much experience other then with bondo and taking out dents, I was in school for autobody, but I never faces anything like this before, so I came to you guys nico for some help and support.

[Soravia]

okay dude, whatever you say! i can see there's no point in continuing this debate.

why dont you go out there and get it done for him if it only takes you 3 hours from start to finish. im sure he would appreciate your obvious high level of skill.

im going to share this thread with some of the friends i have at the body shop, guaranteed they will love it.

The thing is, the method I'm suggesting is totally different from what all body shops do. Body shops function on money from the insurance company and none of the cars are theirs. There is no incentive to try and save cost.The OP has to run on his own money and function serves him more than form. If this car currently runs straight, all he needs is making the panel less ugly. Not a perfect cure but something that works.I recommend getting advise from people on this forum who did S15 front end swaps for welding in the fenders. They have a black S13.5 hatch that had it done.

Look at my VQ swap thread. I have this manifold I'm fabbing in same manner. A lot of people say I must have a $1K custom manifold. But I'm making it work on a $99 manifold. Almost done and results should show it works pretty well. Not as great as an HR manifold but it still works just as good as stock Maxima or better.

[assassin7420]

Rofl! Go ahead and cut apart the quarter panel and weld in some little *** 12 gauge. Not only will it look like ***, But you will be driving a death trap. That and it will ALWAYS handle like crap. You have NO idea what your talking about to suggest that.

Also, No professional is going to call a botched dent pull and bondo job "good as new". IMO, If you need bondo you didnt do the job right.

[Soravia]

But the OP is NOT a pro and he can save money by not letting a Pro do it.

You have a basis for saying handling will suffer from welding in 12GA steel plates and covering that with a wide body panel?

I don't see any issue on handling with having my tool box in the corner of the trunk.As far as strength goes, the 12GA steel will be much stronger than the steel used in trunk panel. But take notice that I don't recommend cuting the C Piller.

[ken240sx]

I didn't read the whole thread, but I looked at the pictures and it looks like a freaking wrecking ball hit it lol.

[snwbrdr435]

or a wall or telephone pole

[xx240Fox21xx]

Yeah I don't know what hit it, nor do I want to know what hit it. I started on ripping off the back end and I tried my best not to break anything else (not that it would really show) but here are some pictures. I guess I'll turn this into a build thread, once I get some money. I'm going to let my girlfriend pound away at it with a hammer, she wanted to hit it really hard to see if it would bend something into place. But here are pictures.This is inside view of the damage, it didn't mess up any of the frame or the trunk at all, its just the quarter paneljust another view of the inside I took a lot of picturesone more view of the inside... look I can see outside through my trunkThis piece is what goes under the light and comes up inbetween the lights, I can save it!the bumper is pretty messed upbut some boiling water can fix that

And now it sits waiting for me to get some more motivation. I'm going to be tinkering with it some in the next couple weeks, but my funds are at about $5 left. So I won;t be doing much, unless I can start hammering away to get things un bent some. I'm going to focus on the trunk area, and see if some hammering and or bending can fix it some. I'm in the process of getting a new exhaust as well, and I need to work atleast a month and a half to be able to afford the exhaust and the wide body kit.

[Soravia]

If you can still drive the car, it's good enough for a DIY.

Beause DIY mean Drive It to the part store Yourself.

[xx240Fox21xx]

I drive it everywhere, it will currently sit and wait for me to get money to order parts As I have said before, the damage doesn't effect driveability at all. It just looks fugly... and I figured sense I'm back from college and I now have a damaged quarter panel I can get going on fixing it. I will make sure to keep this updated, even if its just updated to update you on my update

[silpena]

dude i would buy a new shell. YOu can't possibly be thinking of pulling it out and welding some 12 gauge steel will fix it? I would not use such a thick strong steel. This car is gonna mash up from the rear end the next little rear hit u get. YOu have to under stand the frame may not be bent but unibody structure has been tampered. By compressing all the metal its been heated up and now has become more brittle. Also by pulling and hammering you ur just gonna make it worse. Slapping on a bunch of mud isn ot helping either. OH and btw body shop aren't charging alot becuase insurance company's and to make profit. IF u really do bodywork and are in the body shop environment like me you will know what real work is. Just setting up and anchoring a car to frame rack to see if the frame is bent or the unibody has been screwed up takes a long time. DOing it the real proper way would take at least 9-15 full days in a body shop depending on skill/time/ money. Body shops get screwed by insurance company's. I just saw the inside and man it is ****ed up! Theres no way ur gonna fix it by that i mean thinking " making like nothing ever happen". I'm sorry to rant but i just had to tell you for ur safety. i hate to see u and ur girl friend in this and one a little accident can become a huge wreck.

[Soravia]

Or, the OP could just get himself a G37, because the S13 is supposedly an old frame that is really weak and in any accident that he gets into, OP will die along with his girlfriend. [/sarcasm]

I've been in accidents with the S13 chassis and I came out without a scratch. The car's protection is just fine so long as you don't get hit by a semi or an SUV doing 80MPH while you're stand still side ways. Rear quarter panels don't have to be calculated by a computer to protect the driver and passenger. If anything, the new 12GA will offer better protection compated to the original thin sheet metal. Which is thin enough to be dented by pushing down with my hand.

[xx240Fox21xx]

I'm actually not thinking of pulling out the entire thing. I know I need to get a new trunk piece, so I find one in a junk yard and weld it on. So that leaves me with the rest of the fubar'd quarter panel. So instead of trying to cut out more, I can weld the new sheet metal over it. Put my wide body on it will look good from the outside but the wide body panel and the sheet metal will be covering the ugly looking thing. The inside if I could pound out well enough to have my trunk pieces fit in evenly, I'd be happy. I'm not looking to make this look "good as new" I'm just looking to make this less of an eye sore. If I were to get in an accident now, I would think I would be more in trouble then if I were to put more metal over it.

I've never been in an acident while driving (knock on wood) This happened in a parking lot. Not that it makes any difference it was still a lot of damage. But to Silpena and everyone else who think I'm trying to make it look good as new I'm not, I'm just trying to make it less of an eye sore.

[Soravia]

When you buy a reciprocating saw, be sure to get a metal saw with tiny teeth, oil to lube the saw and goggles to protect your eyes. It is also a good idea to buy measure tape, marker pens and a tiny hand saw to mark the spot accurately.

[silpena]

ok then... just letting u the structural strength being gone now but if tats how you go on doing it then be m,y guest and do it.

[Soravia]

What he's doing now is way better than what people do to put on 50mm rear wide fenders. In fact, this doesn't involve cuttin anywhere near the wheel well or the C Piller.

What ACUTUALLY would happen next time IF he gets hit in the same area is that instead of the trunk area crumpling, the tunk area AND the zone behind the metal sheets would BOTH SHARE impact at the same time.

Crumple zones are made to absorb energy as much as possible before the main chassis frame does. So that in minor damage, only the crumple zone takes 100% damage instead of 80% etc.

[silpena]

yes these crush zones are made to protect drivers and passengers. They collapse before making the car crumble like soda can. If one of the crush zones are hit the car will will push down from the rear and push the front frame up. Those c pillers add some strength and structure to protect the passengers also. If it was me i do a quick measuremt of points in the unbody to make sure nothing has been "damaged" for safety reasons.

[Soravia]

But he still needs to get hit REALLY hard from that corner for the issue to come up. C-Pillar seems to be intact so that's no issue.

[Bumnah]

blind leading the blind.

i'd argue but i already know the guy is going to look at the car when he gets serious about fixing it, and he'll go "f this."

repairing that kind of damage is not for the average joe.

[gregfarz78]

I wouldnt even waste time hammering or trying to pull that out, try and find on in a junkyard cut out the part you need and weld it in

[240pav]

dude bondo is a joke, get a new shell please god...overfenders are ugly ( to me ) and rivets are ugly ( to me ). PLEASE dont do a bondo job.

[jeff420]

that car is salvagable. ive fixed worse in my driveway with a sawzall and welder. and that car never pulled or ate tires and its still on the road today.

[sebazztard]

wonder what happened to this car anyway...

[240lookis]

damn, that damage looks terrible. i would definitely consider buying a new shell.