Expert: William Forster - 3/30/2007

Question
Hi my name is Dustin I have a 1994 pontiac firebird that had the drivers side rear quarter panel damaged a few months back. I have been manualy trying to pound and pull the dent out but it was extensive, (as it was basically a hit and run in a grocery store parking lot where another vehicle pulled into the spot next to my car scraping there front end on the side of mine),I have now found a junker car with an intact panel that i can purchase and I would like to know how hard it would be to remove he old panel and put the new one in,as I've heard from a few people that it might take some welding to do.  I have been searching for instruction guides and have failed to pick anything up and the online chilton guide only has directions for the front panel.

Answer
Go to year one, and go to the Firebird books. Look in the literature section, and there is a book called how to repair and restore body work. In a nut shell, you need to drill out the spot welds with a spot weld drill bit, try not to go through both panels. Then, after carefully fitting the new panel on the car, plug weld the panel on through the spot weld holes you drilled  to liberate the panel from the junker. That's why you don't want to drill all  the way through, the spot welds will be in nearly the exact location on the existing car. It's hard to weld when the hole is all the way through. Get the book, you need it. bill