Help wanted for rear fender repair, What are measurement points for “s” Options

[seanpaulmc]

Greetings 914World !

I am seeking advice / guidance / instruction from you metal masters on how to approach and tackle this rear corner repair.

Panels involved include:
• Left rear quarter
• Taillight panel
• Trunk floor & cross brace
• Left side inner trunk fender

Some initial questions:
• Does the whole quarter panel need to be replaced, or just part?
• Does the whole tail panel need to be replaced, or just part?
• Can this repair be done well with partial panels spliced in? (Like what was done to the fender in the past but better executed with butt joints and less, a lot less, filler.)
• Should I start with cutting off what I think is bad or begin by striping the whole quarter panel of paint and bondo? Exposed metal rusts quickly in Florida.
• How and where to cut? What tools and wire size to use? How to finish, prep, and paint? -This is where I need your expertise to lead me.





This is my first go around at this.
Everything I do is a first-time attempt, and thinking about fixing this fender and taillight area while making it look presentable gives me a lot of apprehension.
So far, I have learned to MIG weld and do simple panel forming by working on this project – jack points, floor, hell hole, longs, firewall, and some tools and fixtures.
I can make solid welds in structural areas that are strong but don’t necessarily have to be pretty.
I do not (yet) have the metal finishing skills for this fender and am hoping I can get your guidance along the way to help me get through what I see to be a complicated, multi panel repair.

By making this fender repair its own topic thread, hopefully it encourages greater feedback from the community rather than if it stays buried in my long, slow build thread.
If interested in how it got here and the work done to the car thus far, then the thread is this one: here

I know I need to go take some measurements before cutting it apart just to get the baseline of where things are at. I hope to do that this coming weekend.

Thank you in advance for the feedback and support.

Gratefully,
Sean

[friethmiller]

Interesting... that previous fender weld looks like it was a lap welded (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon8.gif) . Probably salvageable but I would need to see it up close. I also believe that, based on the other rust, the top tip of that rear fender is going to have rust holes covered with filler.

If it were me, I'd completely strip the paint and filler from the rear fender and then remove the back part from the car. With this out of the way, I could fix/restore the inner fender end, trunk, and the back crossing panel (might want to consider a donor or the new RD part). Once all that was in good order, I'd fix any damage on the removed part of the fender, finishing with the large new butt welded seam/patch on the rear fender. Totally doable!