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Your call. I cant see how much body filler you have in the rear quarters outside of the rust. If there is a ton of rust then there is likely more you cant see and might want to consider a new panel.

I'm going to finish removing the paint and filler, then start cutting before I order anything. I'll take a good look everywhere.

Some pics of how it sits right now. Despite best efforts, dust got EVERYWHERE.

Everything you see in white, will be replaced yet for the most part with new parts. Both rear quarters, both rear outer wheel wells, rear tail pan, drivers door. Have all new parts for those. Still need to remove more paint/bondo from the passenger door, strip down the bondo off the front fenders, and strip down more the quarters to see how much I am going to replace. Still also need to use my hand sanders to remove the paint around the edges. The surface conditioner is great for bigger parts. Not so much the small details. Wasn't much more for entire new panels vs just skins, so went with AMD parts. Generally regarded as one of the higher quality replacement companies. Might be able to get away with just replacing the lower half of the quarters. Might be able to reuse the powersteering pump in there as well. I did a full fluid swap and it no longer is making a ton of noise. But the angle is off still, and I think it is the brackets. Might look at new ones and see if that helps.

New bracket fixed the power steering angle. Also found a 4 amp draw on the battery. Haven't had a chance to track it down yet.

4 amps is huge. parasitic draw is anything over like 50ma

Yup. I'll dig into it tomorrow

on something that old the only thing that could be drawing that much is the alternator unless multiple lights are on.

I am thinking alternator personally as well. It is a new one. Need to recheck the ground and the connections on the back. We will see what happens.

if the radio isnt wired properly it could too but at that point youre getting into aftermarket stuff and just pull the plugs. no amps? they could be incorrectly wired also.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_068RRM1BB ... ttons.html

That is the radio in there. Only aftermarket thing in the car other than gauges and speakers as for as electronics outside of the wiring. But speakers are just ran to the radio and are standard ones.

Oh boy, she is hiding some scars.

Think I got it sorted. No more draw. Accidentally had the diode wires swapped. Rechecked the lines and saw I put them on backwards. Really need to stop working on it while on pain meds. Lol.

good find.


thats why i dont work on old shit. cant really do that on newer stuff unless you really try.

Pretty much at the point of only body work and exhaust left.

Going to spend some time with it this weekend sanding down the last bits I need to, then maybe start cutting. The drilling out of the spot welds is going to be a bitch. So many of them.

Progress is progress.

https://imgur.com/a/oplMifI

Oh snap!

I just have to point out that if you were gonna cut the quarters out and strip it this far….you way overpaid.


Coop

Wow. Do you have any concerns about the body sagging with that much material removed?

Jeff V. wrote: ↑Fri Mar 13, 2026 2:24 pm Wow. Do you have any concerns about the body sagging with that much material removed?

This, I didn't have the heart to say it.

Yes and no. It's all just thin panels. Right now what I removed I'm OK. Nothing overly structural. The lower half of the tail pan though, once I remove that, there is a concern. It supports the trunk pan. I'm going to take height measurements before I remove it and build something to support it in place until I get the tail on again. Will be using a ton of clamps and self taping screws to keep things in place before welding. Been chatting with a local professional restorer and he said I should be good. If I was doing anything more structural he recommended building a jig. But I have a huge local community that will help if I run into trouble.