Cost to have quarters replaced ?

Hmmm. Well I am not totally sure how bad off the quarters are, but if the rest of the car is any indication, Im sure most, if not all will need replacing. I can tell there is fill in there. The quarters have the old tell tale signs like, bubbling at the bottoms, major cracking around the wheel well trim, and some minor cracking of the paint near the belt line.

I am in the middle of doing the interior floor pans now. Seems to be going good for my first time. But with quarter panels (if I do it myself) there is no carpet to hide any mistakes. But I may have no other choice.

A convert that needs ONLY quarters?
Take a look at the inner and outer wheelhouses, the trunk floor both floor extensions, the dutchman panel, the tail light panel, and the frame rails.
http://www.autometaldirect.com/content.php?page=119

That's not even getting into the passenger area.
I will be shocked if it only needs quarters. If it does, maybe it only needs patches.

$7000, ouch...

Full quarters would be aprox. 5-10 hours per panel @ $50/hour here to cut out, drill spot welds, prep, align and hang on a decent car with a decent panel. Any previous welding, old repairs or filler and fibreglass always slows down the process a bit. I'd rather work on original rust, than someone elses hack job! Like everyone else says... On top of that you will probably need to address other issues once the 1/4 is off. wheelhouses and trunk extensions are a peice of cake once the 1/4 is out of the way!

not looking in the book,average is about 12-16 hours to replace a quarter,as far as the difference between vert and hard top,I couldn't tell you much other than the obvious upper section where quarter glass goes and further where it wraps around towards the bottom corners of rear glass,so probably extra few hours there, in the end it shouldn't be more than 20 hours per side

The Whole quater panel does not need to be butt welded just the part down from where the roof would be. the rest is just like hanging a regular quater panel.
Stefan whats your hourly rate?

I would say the hard top one would just need butt welding from the door opening{back window area} back to the dutchman panel. this would leave the problematic window fitment with the old quater so it would be a lose and win at the same time. Maybe 2 hours more

I am assuming you are saying to trim around the quarter window to dutchman area, then butt weld in that area. Use the quarters available and trim to fit. Is there any templates for this out there or is this a sort of best guess? It would suck if this area was in bad shape and could not be saved.

I average about 40 hrs each side. In western New York you can bet on replacing the wheelhouses, trunk extensions and more likely than not inner rocker repair. I can't see it being done properly in any less time. OE style panels will take less time than the old junk skins that folks still seem to want to use. The 300 savings on the skins vs. the OE panels gets eaten up real fast at the shop in extra work required.

Book time to replace a factory quarter panel
on an old mopar is usually 16 hours on a vinyl
top car... 14-15 on a non-vinyl top car.

That would be for one perfect NOS factory
quarter panel on 1 car with no other issues and that does not take into consideration refinish time.

Even in a perfect world, that will almost
never happen..There are always other issues!

1) If the quarter needs to be replaced,
usually the the trunk extension and the
outer wheel house need to be replaced too...
That adds time... figure 8 hours for both
panels...each side... the actual book time
is less than that, but that estimate is with
NOS original factory parts NOT REPROS...

Your now at 24 hours per side...
not including the cost of the quarter panels
the wheel houses or the extensions..

2) If your replacing you trunk extensions the
trunk floor will have to be replaced as well..

Add 8 hours for the trunk floor plus the
cost of the floorpan...again they may want
more time due to repro floor pan...

3) The E-Bodies also have issues with the
rear window cowl (dutchman panel)
add 6-8 hours for that) plus $125.00 for
the panel. (if necessary)

4) the rear tail panel /
lower rear valance may also need to be
replaced. add for that as well...

5) Rear framerails may also be an issue..LOOK
first before having the bodyshop replace this
stuff

Now add additional cost for seam sealer,
epoxy primer, and undercoating...

When finished the body shop should finish off
the The inside (trunk floor) with at least 2 coats of epoxy primer, seam sealer and then paint..The factory did not use clearcoat on a trunk - you don't have to either... $$$$ most people do cuz it looks nice and shiny!
your paying for it! = it's up to you!

The outside (underneath the trunk floor,
the trunk extensions, and the inner wheel houses
should have this done as well

The outside of the quarter panels should have
the EDP still in place...so you can leave that alone for now...

Your easily looking at 80 hours * bodyshop rate
(80*50) = 4000 for labor

parts:

Quarter panels $1000 (500 per side)
outer wheel hous 500 (250 per side)
trunk exten 140 (70 per side)
trunk floor 300
plus shipping
plus materials (seam sealer, epoxy primer etc)..

Your in this for easily $6000
if the shop rate is 45 and hour
maybe $5000...

if you have to do the rear window cowl,
tailpanel or valence - the cost goes up too..


Nothing like an old mopar!
to help a man with a FAT wallet!

FWIW, most body shops will NOT sign up for
this job...(i.e repairing old cars most are
late model collision only)..

DO NOT SIGN UP FOR A TIME & MATERIALS quote
from a body shop...that's a recipe for the poor
house... Most will quote this knowing full well
your not going to sign up for it. This is
pleasant way of saying no thanks! Don't argue
with them, smile and take it somewhere else.

Regardless if this is a convertible or a hardtop, I would take it to a frame shop and make sure the
frame is straight before cutting off any
structural sheet metal.

And yes, quarter panels, and trunk floors are structural panels...

Hope this helps.

Best of luck to you!

I can't help but laugh when I read comments like "do it your self, they're easy" and 5 - 10 hours to replace a quarter panel! I guess if you just want your quarters hacked off and new ones put on over the rusty inner panels, then that shouldn't cost much. If you don't know the difference, why pay the difference. But keep in mind, if you plan on keeping the car, how much more work will be needed when all that crap starts showing up down the road. The fact is, it is very time consuming for a professional to replace quarters properly to where you can't tell they have been replaced and usually you open a can of worms once you've cut them off. I guess it all comes down to how nice do you want it and what's in your budget. By the way, I have replaced dozens of quarters in the past 30 years and I can't say any of them were "easy".

I have tackled this issue myself on a 70 GTX.
I have ended up replacing EVERY panel including both rockers and all 4 door posts!!!
I have NEVER done any body work before I started this project.
My mind set was that I needed a hobby so I have remained calm and I have the advantage of a great friend who builds cars for a living letting me do this in his shop under his tutelage.
I have been at it for 9 months and just yesterday finished plug welding drilled spot weld holes to reattach both 1/4's. I average 1 day per week 8 hours working on it. I have MANY more days to go ...more welding at dutchman, and probably a week of nothing but grinding those welds flush THEN getting into the body finish process.
What consumed lots of time was taking two cars apart so I could get one back together and I was lucky to find a donor with parts.
To me, if I had the $$$ 7000 would have been a frickin steal!!!
see my pain at
http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll40/DariusCRCKBR/Bodywork%20Pics/

We have straightened many Ford, GM and Mopar muscle car frames since my dad opened the shop in late 1970.

I am doing this also at this moment. So far I have worked about 8 hours in removing the quarter. One of my hang ups has been a hack repair job early in the cars life. Instead of spot welds, I am grinding "seams" that were brazed. I did the rear frame rail replacement along with trunk floor first. ( pics below)

All I can say that honestly, anyone that thinks this is a 5 to 10 hour job probably didn't get the car apart enough to even consider doing this job right. When was the last time anyone got a rusty bumper off in 10 minutes, the rear window trim removed in 15 minutes, I spent a couple hours getting the rear window out after getting the trim off. Oh, not to mention the Sunday afternoon I spent just scraping undercoating so I could prepare for the re install. I am all for a fair wage for a good job, but I am gaining some insight as to why a lot of body shops won't do this work. Myself, I am having the time of my life I am reasonably motivated and reasonably talented and this is a big job......

I guess I was lucky I didn't have rust. But that adds to the problem. All my inner stucture was clean. I just wire bruched off the dirt and had good metal.

I don't doubt this is a tough job. This is the reason I considered farming it out. I also understand the importance of doing a good job. However, I also have to weigh the cost of someone else doing the work. In the end, I just dont think I can swing someone else doing it. Maybe I could afford it somehow, but the likelihood of me making a decision and having it done is a stretch. I think I would rather spend a bit of money, get a welder, learn to do it myself and be proud. Will it be the best, maybe not. If it totally sucks I have the option of having a pro redo it. Hopefully not. I did not realize there was this such a huge price associated with this work. My thoughts were weigh off. But I think with time and patience a regular guy can do it. The car needs it and there really is no moral way I can get around it. If there was, I probably would skip the quarters for now, but they are surely toast.
There was a post a while back on the proper weigh to do this procedure, but I cant find it in the archive. Maybe someone will have it. I think from what I am hearing $5000 sounds like the average.

I'll replace all the quarters anyone wants for 5k a pair... much rather do that then sanding.

I keep waiting for Elite Custom Body to give a price he beat around the bush earler in the thread about how everyone else is charging to much.
I think most agree when quaters are needed the trunk extentions are shot as well and probery a trunk floor.
So Stephan like to hear you cost as compaired to others that have posted

Well, just an update. I decided to take a break from the floor pan install and went ahead and took off the rear valance and drop the gas tank and filler tube. Altough the extensions looked good from the top the bottoms were a different story. The driver side was pretty much toast and the other had a decent size whole in it. I pushed on it and sure enough a huge chunk of quarter panel & filler popped out the other side. Gez this car was doped up (filler everywhere). But I will get the last laugh..