1967 Firebird Convertible - Project "LEGACY"

[Firebird-Geek]

I am currently working on fitting my quarter panels. This has been one of my biggest fears, for with the entire rear portion of my car being replaced other than the rails, reference points are not many! PLUS, these are the FIRST full quarters I have ever put onto a car.

I have a FULL write-up of my quarter panel troubles on a thread in a different forum...

So I will do a brief overview here....

First a little info:
- Both quarters are Tri-plus (AMD) I do believe AMD is merely a reseller of this brand and it is not "their tooling". BUT, I am NO expert on this matter.

It quickly became apparent that the drivers side quarter would be my biggest foe. For it started fighting me almost immediately during fitment. I was having a HECK of a time to get the quarter panel to sit far enough back (evenly). This was causing poor gap between drivers door and quarter panel. It also makes it hard to get the panel back far enough to meet the trunk fill panel and the tail panel. When I did PULL it hard enough to get it back, you will see that it pulled the top of the quarter panel back but not the bottom (this also causes the body line to be wrong.)



This was the door gap I was getting...



Well... after a boat load of hours, and pulling the quarter on... off... on... off more times than I could count. God must have been looking over my shoulder, for I ended up with this:



With my door gap becoming:

[Firebird-Geek]

My final tool I used to level everything out perfect was to use 2 bottle jacks in the trunk then loosen the outer wheelhouse from the inner and push the wheelhouses and convertible inner frame up to where they needed to be to line up perfectly.



I would then string my body lines again and look everything over 10 more times... then I clamped the SH!# out of the wheelhouses and braces to make sure NOTHING moves!

[KPC67]

Your gaps are coming together beautifully. I think most of us at this stage have the same problem with re-pop sheet metal, but as you found it seems like the more you take the panels off and put them back on the more tweaking you do and can end up getting them fairly close.
Keep at it.

[Sonar Chief]

Any updates on the quarters? I'm right behind you .... wondering how the battle goes? Nice writeup, keep the pixs coming!

[Firebird-Geek]

Originally Posted by Sonar Chief

Any updates on the quarters? I'm right behind you .... wondering how the battle goes? Nice writeup, keep the pixs coming!

I have them close... I just need to get out there to work on them! I have a few pictures of some problem areas I had... but havn't posted them yet, JUST to make sure the fixes I made actually work! Don't want to give out bad INFO!

Stay tuned! Will have status results soon! I HOPE!

[bdahlg68]

So you want to come to Detroit and hang my quarters next?

[Firebird-Geek]

Originally Posted by bdahlg68

So you want to come to Detroit and hang my quarters next?

Not sure you want me there... as slow of progress that I have made on mine... I might be there for a month or two! I would start to feel like a permanent house guest.

I am hoping to make some progress this weekend, if I can make it out to the car. I will report my progress SOON! I hope!

[Firebird-Geek]

Thought I would post a status report from the front line (Battle of the quarter panels).

After an absolutely absurd amount of hours... I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I have managed to get the quarters/Tail panel/Wheelhouses/drop offs/braces to all play nice together. The quarters are not welded yet, but I have them 99% located in there correct location. I will then take them off and prime/seal and reinstall them back on before finally welding them up.

My largest battle has been the inner structure... with so much of the car removed, I couldn't base ANYTHING on the fact of prior placement of panels. Every panel had to be slowly tightened up until the entire structure worked together. I moved my drop offs at-least 5-10 times. Wheelhouses 4-5 times... Trying to not let any one panel dictate where the quarters would sit. After HOURS and HOURS of working the panels, I did start to get a feel for what needed to be moved and how it would effect the surrounding panels.

I have never questioned my build more than I have working on these panels. There were MANY moments of concern and frustration! But there were also moments when the panels would actually cooperate and line up where they are meant to be!

This is FINAL MOCK-UP... before I take the panels back off to prime and seal the inner structure.

[Firebird-Geek]

To show my OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) in all of its glory... I never trusted my eyes, nor the panels to make sure alignment was true all the way around the car. Plus my floor has a slope in it due to a central drain in the shops floor (so a person can not take measurements from the floor up, due to its irregularity)

SO... I constantly checked everything with stringers.





In-fact, I even would take pictures and use my computer to make sure everything was aligning properly.

This would show me what needs to be tweaked, and what needs to stay put!

[Svegliato]

Hey, did you ever get that LQ installed in your Firebird? How well does that work? Much work, etc?