Whether it's rotted metal or a blonde on a cell phone plowing into your car, bad things do happen to vehicles. In this case, our '66 Nova SS had rot in the lower quarter-panels, not to mention the poor bodywork done decades ago was starting to fall apart. It was time for some serious restoration work to be done to this Nova. Part of the work we are specifically focusing on is replacing of the rear driver's side quarter panel.
After a phone call to Goodmark Industries, a replacement quarter-panel and rocker was ordered and shipped. When it arrived five days later our fun began. Let's go over a few points before we start cutting and grinding on the Nova. Properly fitting a new panel to your vehicle is not like slipping on a set of tube socks. Yeah, we wish it was that easy, but it's not. Lots of trimming of the panel, grinding, and test fitting is involved. Let's not forget to mention the right tools you'll need to get the job done. Of course, this may be the best excuse in the world to justify getting the latest gizmo and widget combo set.
Should you decide to skip the whole home improvement experience, a job like this at an experienced shop would require anywhere from 10-16 man hours. That translates to roughly $1,200-1,500 in labor costs; keep in mind this is just one panel on the vehicle and we are guestimating on the low side.
It's very likely that many reading this are the do-it yourself type. It's also likely that many are on a budget tighter than a wrestler's outfit, so installing the panel yourself is the only option. We found ourselves at Harrison's Restorations and watched them do all the work. Let's condense 16 hours of work into a few pages and watch how they did it.
 | 
The panel being replaced was sanded along the edges to check the metal and see what shape it's in. If we are lucky, some parts will not need replacing and we'll simply trim to fit. | 
Now, it's time for the fun stuff to begin. Using an air chisel that is designed to cut sheetmetal, the old panel gets sliced off. If you had any doubts before this, it's too late now-you're committed! While cutting, body technician Roy Landgrave deliberately left more metal than necessary. You can always go back and cut more off, but if you cut too much off, a time machine is your only hope at correcting that mistake. Also be careful you don't accidentally trim other panels behind this or where they are double joined. |
This is how it should look when you are done. As we mentioned earlier, don't trim it all off. In some cases it may be better to trim down the new panel and fit to size. | 
Also we included a photo of the tip of the chisel. | 
Now that the panel is gone, finding the spot welds that held it in is next. We sanded away all remaining paint and primer in order to locate the spot welds and either drill them or grind them out. |
Ugh-after everything was ground away, we discovered that whoever replaced this panel years ago filled it with brass brazing. Instead of easily drilling out factory spot welds our technician had to deal with rivers of brass brazing. Simply put, it took a lot more work to remove the brass and ultimately the panel. |  | 
Now that the brass has been ground out, the panel can be separated and removed. This took some time to accomplish. |
Up on top of the quarter panel, more rivers of brass were found. We also discovered that more of the original quarter panel existed than we had thought. It had been folded under and the new panel lapped over top of it. This actually worked to our advantage. |  | 
After discovering we had more original material to work with, we ground out all the old brass brazing. It's now time for another test fit. Now we can trim down the new Goodmark panel for a perfect butted joint. |