1966 Barracuda Right Side Body Panel Repairs

(Work actually done 7/20/2021) From a distance, the car didn't look that bad on the right side. Upon closer inspection, there were several areas that needed significant attention. The first being the right rear quarter panel and fender.

Ooh, an old marble. Wonder if it's worth anything. Probably not.

I broke down and bought a quarter panel from Classic Industries. It has a "Laysons" sticker on the back. Not sure where these things are made but they are not the best of quality. Even on their website they say something about the bottom rear portion of the panels may require a little hand work to smooth the panel out. Unfortunately mine also had ripples along the top of the fender lip that need smoothing. It was better than the alternative though.

Below is the first patch. It is part of the inner fender. I repurposed a piece of rear fender sheet metal that I had cut out to make the piece.

This next photo shows a large part of the outer fender cut out, and part of the inner fender removed. Cutting a large chunk from a classic car isn't for the timid, especially when they don't know what they're doing. All I need to do is remember to measure twice (or three or four times), cut once.

Three areas on the inner fender needed patches.

The inner fender is now repaired.

The outer fender is tacked in place. Time to put about 2000 more (give or take) weld tacks around it.

Next I started on the passenger side door. It had been hit and repaired at one point many years ago. How bad can it be? Seems fairly benign........ Right?

Holy Pin Cushions, Batman!!! Someone should have been told to put down the slide hammer..... Or maybe it was a double-aught buckshot. Nah, slide hammer for sure.

I welded up the 32 holes and ground down the weld lumps.

Now I jumped to the passenger front fender to repair a hole. Not sure what happened here, but for some reason someone cut out a chunk using tin snips, then filled it in with a Bondo patch and some fiberglass.

 

A cleanly cut triangle - sort of.

Here's a new patch welded in, plus some hammer and dolly work.

Quite a few areas needed work on this side of the car.

And just for good measure, a couple of dents below the trunk lid needed help.

And now for the trunk lid.... The lower lip is rusted through 3/4 the way across. Fortunately (ominous foreboding alert), I found a replacement trunk lid 30 miles away that doesn't have nearly this much rust-through.