Smoothing metal?

[Two Fowty]

and what would you recommend if i couldnt get ahold of oem qps..? there arent any junk yards near me that have 240's.. i have checked, and there arent any shells that i could buy to use the parts.

i use craigslist, and i have called the junk yards near my area.

[livinglegend2100]

idk man that parts up to you. worst comes to worst buy one and ship it. im sure theres a few hatch owners here lookin to scrap and part out the janky shell sittin in their backyard

[Tsukiko]

why not just bond the entire new qp after drilling out the spot welds on the FUBAR'd one? seems the easiest and cleanest thing to me. Just gotta make sure everything lines up, no bondo needed.edit: look in craigslist for cars being parted out. talk to your local 240 guys. If there are any out there, chances are someone will know of something.

[Two Fowty]

are you saying pulling out the dents and bondo'ing is a bad idea?

[Tsukiko]

in this case, the amount of hammering just to be able to put even a reasonable amount of bondo on that QP is staggering. It's DOA man.

it would take you more effort (most likely followed by disappointment) to try to get that bondo'd instead of take your time, find a QP, get the spot welds drilled, you can even do that yourself. shouldnt be too hard to get at them and take a drill to em. after that get your hands on some of that miracle epoxy and remove the QP thats on your car with a drill. epoxy the replacement in. done.

[livinglegend2100]

in this case, the amount of hammering just to be able to put even a reasonable amount of bondo on that QP is staggering. It's DOA man.

it would take you more effort (most likely followed by disappointment) to try to get that bondo'd instead of take your time, find a QP, get the spot welds drilled, you can even do that yourself. shouldnt be too hard to get at them and take a drill to em. after that get your hands on some of that miracle epoxy and remove the QP thats on your car with a drill. epoxy the replacement in. done.

ya that qp's pretty far gone. as much as i hate to reccommend body filler like bondo, sometimes its just gotta be done to get it looking just right.. even if you can get the entire qp off, and the new one on, odds are there are gonna be a couple imperfections here and here

[Two Fowty]

in this case, the amount of hammering just to be able to put even a reasonable amount of bondo on that QP is staggering. It's DOA man.

it would take you more effort (most likely followed by disappointment) to try to get that bondo'd instead of take your time, find a QP, get the spot welds drilled, you can even do that yourself. shouldnt be too hard to get at them and take a drill to em. after that get your hands on some of that miracle epoxy and remove the QP thats on your car with a drill. epoxy the replacement in. done.

i originally wanted to do this, but no one ever told me where the spot welds are. i searched, and could not find. i dont even know what a spot weld looks like. if i knew what they looked like, where they ALL are i would take a shot at it.

[Tsukiko]

oh if you've never done body work and you dont do your homework at least, for sure. it would especially depend on how fast that panel bonder sets. slower would actually be a good thing. just figure out how to keep the panel in place while it sets. probably just duct it and f*** it. Goof Off for taking off the residue post-bonder set.edit: just a guess though.
Modified by Tsukiko at 12:40 PM 2/8/2009

[livinglegend2100]

ya its a learning experience. you really need to just play around with it. remember, nothing is permanent.

[ZX88]

wow that thing is fuc ked

[Two Fowty]

if i were to somehow get ahold of a qp and manage this would you recommend epoxy over welding?

[Bstrd240SX]

spot welds are along the edge of the 1/4 panel all the way around, in the door jam they are under the weatherstrip, they continue under the 1/4 window, down the trunk lid jam around behind the tail light ect

they make a spot weld driller specificly for drilling them out, and you ONLY drill thru the 1/4 panel itself, NOT the layers of steel its attached to

in this pic you can see the spot welds having been drilled out, youll also notice they are drilled out WRONG because the holes go all the way through all layers of metal

http://i3.photobucket.com/albu...6.jpg

replacing the 1/4 obviously requires removing glass / taillights / bumper and some other misc stuff

the spot welds look like little round divits in the edge of the panel, look close and youll see them. any that arent visable are found while you use a thin chisel to seperate the panels, you work your way around the panel and when you get to an undrilled spot weld the metl deforms some and the spotweld becomes visable

[Two Fowty]

thank you very much.. i was told to drill out a qp from another 240, but drill all the way through the metal, and then on my car.. drill out just the spot welds and then put the salvaged qp on and weld where the holes are. then bondo and smooth .. sound good?

or

would it be recommended to replace the whole qp on, or just cut out section that is damaged and weld that in..??

[Hcraig13]

This thread has failed. The owner obviously doesnt have the skill to fix it. If you take it to a bodyshop they will either fix the metal by reshaping it or section in a new panel. Either one is gonna be pointless seeing as the car is scrap. Send it to a yard, cut your losses and think a little more before you buy the next one.

[Bstrd240SX]

yep, all the way through on the car your getting the 1/4 from, but only thru the bad 1/4 panel on your car

it also helps if you trim your old panel back as fas as possible with an air chisel, that way your not fighting an entire panel, your just peeling off some leftover scraps around the edge

you can either weld or bond the new one on, either way the spot weld holes will be filled, but bonding it on automaticly seals the panel in the process, so you wont have any leaks in the end

but either way you do it, hang the replacement panel with sheet metal screws first and check the alignment of the other panels. by installing screws along the window opening first you can easily move the panel around while the door and trunk are still closed. just make sure that when its position is finalized you install some more screws using new holes, that way it only gets bonded on in the spot you actually want it to be

and replacing the full panel is the way to go, WAY less filler work is needed to finish off the panel, because the formed edges of the panel wont let NEARLY as much distortion get to the exterior part of the panel

and once your window / bumper / taillight are back on, the work in those areas is covered

heres a guy who did the work to a prelude:

http://www.honda-tech.com/show...=rust

[Two Fowty]

This thread has failed. The owner obviously doesnt have the skill to fix it. If you take it to a bodyshop they will either fix the metal by reshaping it or section in a new panel. Either one is gonna be pointless seeing as the car is scrap. Send it to a yard, cut your losses and think a little more before you buy the next one.

not really.. this car has over 4500 in mods, it's well worth it to me to fix the panels.. i dont want people telling me my car is ****, or i should not even deal with it.. im a noob.. so what.. i dont have they money to shell out and totally do what i want.. i cant afford to buy a new car, and i cant afford to do what most recommend. im just taking this as it goes.. so yea i dont have experience to do this, but im going to try to do it anyways and make it what i can. just cause i cant do what everyone else can on these forums i can do something.

[Two Fowty]

thanks bstrd240SX, you are one of the few that actually helps me. any estimations on what i should pay for a qp?

[Bstrd240SX]

This thread has failed. The owner obviously doesnt have the skill to fix it. If you take it to a bodyshop they will either fix the metal by reshaping it or section in a new panel. Either one is gonna be pointless seeing as the car is scrap. Send it to a yard, cut your losses and think a little more before you buy the next one.

none of were born with the skill to fix ANYTHING, we were born with the ability to breast feed and cry, thats about it.

i did my very first 1/4 panel job BY MY SELF with only a book from the school library and a borrowed welder

and if you think THIS car is scrap, maybe you should check out my car in my "new to nico" thread ... THAT CAR is scrap ... zer...04244

it will however rise again due to the things ive LEARNED over the years by biting off more then i SHOULD have been able to chew in the past

[Two Fowty]

very true, agreed. people here on these forums seem to assume i should automatically know everyting about a car and be able to do anything, and wow. i dont ..

the reason i come here is for help

[Bstrd240SX]

junkyards usually start at about $200 for a quarter panel like this, but thats because they are a business with overhead and they price it accordingly.

however if you can find someone local thats totally parting out their car, and take a sawzall over, you should be able to get one much cheaper.

[Two Fowty]

alright thanks alot

[Bstrd240SX]

no prob

[Hcraig13]

Haha. I did not issume you knew how to do this. Trust me very few do. I know the very basics but would not attempt it. That is why i started out trying to help you. But like i said its cool your car has 4500$ in mods but was it really smart at all for you to buy it in that condition if you didnt have the funds and that is why i say sell it to someone who does and buy another one with a little more thought. im not trying to rag you at all so please dont take it that way. and to bstrd240sx its very cool that you have the money and time to do that. We would all have amazing cars if we didnt work 50 hours a week on other peoples cars. but i look forward to seeing it done.

[S13Joe]

I considered overfenders but then i'd have to get some new wider wheels so my car wouldnt look stupid with the ones it has now.

your car already looks stupid enough, why would you even buy something so beat up knowing how broke and stupid you are? if you dont want to do the work then dont ask these questions.

[Bstrd240SX]

actually im pretty sure he wants to do the work, hence the questions. or did that lil fact thats typed ALL OVER THIS THREAD slip past your feeble mind ?

[S13Joe]

if you look at his other threads he doesnt even want to bondo. fail.

[24j0hn]

try taking out the interior panel so that you could get to it... and have one guy on the outside with a flat metal hammer, and another inside with a flat/curved metal dolly and use some team work to work it as flat as you can!...

BTW some parts you may hve to get a welder to put some strips in!

[UndftdSole]

buy a new car

[Bstrd240SX]

ah, so many people not willing to try some hard work... fun

[hbpignosePA]

well if u can save a hundred a month

wait 5 months

buy a shell

seriously man why go through all that trouble?

shells arent that expensive if the car is as mechanically sound as you say it is... getting a clean car and moving everying to it would be far easier and look better than any first time body job

thats just my opinion