Removing crease in top quarter panel

[Vinnie]

Hey folks,

Being new to working with sheet metal I’d like to hear your thoughts on my recent findings. This is my closed deck lid:

On the left the lid touches the quarter but overall the lid seems to be in place pretty OK.

So upon taking a closer look l noticed a crease in the inside side of the panel:

Looking from above you can see a dent, like something bumped the tip of the quarter towards the inside:

What is the best way to fix this? If it can be fixed...

Cheers,

Vincent.

 

[Fabrice]

Fixing this corner is later worry.

question is more what has been done exactly.

I see a correction on the original line of the deck lid too. So I'd say remove paint to find out first.

On my 73 original flat hood and front fender on driver side, there was a similar fix for an ancient dent made. It was made with melted tin.

I sold the flat hood back then, and just melted the extra tin added on the fender to regain the straight line.

 

[Vinnie]

Also I think the "fold" on top of the fender on the left is flatter towards the rear than it should be, compared to the pass. side. This can push the tip inwards as well as there's less metal in the middle of the fold...

 

[Vinnie]

Here is another photo showing the crease (or fold).

Anybody have a good idea of how to straighten the rear tip out?

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Are you going to have the tail light panel out to replace. If so you can push the LH rear corner out some. It is common for people to split the panel hammer it over and then weld up the slit. You can adjust both areas that way if needed. Either use a zip wheel and cut a slit or air saw. When welding always go slow an do spots not the whole seam. Also hammer the weld some with dolly under it to keep warping down. If you have a scrap panel to practice on would help also.

 

[Vinnie]

The tail light panel is coming out, that’s actually the main goal.

Fabrice also actually mentioned making a cut. But where would that be? Like the horizontal line or the vertical one?

To bend the tip outwards, is that a simple matter of aplying pressure from the inside?

Thanks!

 

[Fabrice]

If metal needs to crimp and acts as a spring, hammering can make it pop the other way, you could cut a small vertical line, and weld as David wrote.

Looking at this paint free pict, I think, Mr Hammer and miss Dolly will do just fine.

 

[Don C]

It looks to me like the gap gets smaller for the entire length, so I would say the entire panel from the upper corner of the trunk lid needs to go out. Because you just need to go out 3 or 4 mm at the rear of the car I would try it first without any cutting. All you need is one or two millimeters on each side to get a better gap on both sides.

It also looks like they concentrated on the gap across the top. If the trunk lid were rotated slightly counterclockwise it would improve the gaps on both sides, at the expense of the top gap. Sometimes the gap has to be improved by grinding and/or welding on the edges of the trunk lid, door, or hood.

 

[Vinnie]

Thanks for your ideas.

To push it out, should I put a block of wood against it and let my hammer speak?

 

[Don C]

I would want a little better control than that. I would use a length of wood, slightly shorter than the width, and then a wedge gently tapped in, a little at a time, to see what happens.

 

[Fabrice]

Before you slam, on top pict with paint, the gap is near zero, what is the gap now?

If you have the deck lid still on, I'd stick a piece of board and mark the missing 3-5 mm space. Then when you start massage, you can actually see if you just make noise or actually do something and stop on time, by just closing the lid every now and then checking that mark.

 

[Vinnie]

The lid is still on, I'm using that as a reference. It doesn't need to go until the car is being dipped. Haven't checked the LH tip with paint off but there was not much paint on there to widen the gap really.

The wedge is a good idea. I'm guessing the piece of wood sits in the trunk opening? I do risk pushing the other side outwards as well then but that might not be too bad considering the gap is not perfect on that side either.

OK, great tips guys, thanks!

V.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Since the tail light panel is coming out you should be able to spread the quarter panel out in the rear and get the gap much better. You can put in sheet metal screws to secure the tail light panel and then weld up the holes. Use a piece of copper behind the hole and the weld will not stick and much easier to close the hole up.

Get all the gaps right before welding anything.

The split I would make would be parallel to the gap just inside the bend down to the channel in the trunk. I think you will be ok when you put tail light panel in.

Just go slow and take your time and it will all work out.