Not good at all...

Well I went to Harbor Freight. I have a come-along, rope, suction cups, hammers and dollies. I have tonight before I need to start on the project I actually came here to do, so let's see how much damage I can (un)do... The tips I already have been given here will be invaluable, and I'll be looking around for tutorials before I get started. I guess the worst I can do is shave off a few billable body shop hours.

 

That's the spirit! And shaving hours is what I was thinking you will do at a minimum. Take pics!

 

Dennis, that one piece of advice is solid gold. That is the keystone piece of knowledge that I've been lacking in every poor attempt I've ever made at bodywork. Thank you sir. I have pounded the thing back into the vague shape of a car. Pics when I have daylight.

 

good to hear that your having progress.

 

I have it mostly pulled out and lined up decently now. When I get back home to my air compressor and DA sander, I'll try my hand at filling and smoothing after a little more massage. Right now I've just shot a little bit of primer to keep the weather off the bare metal. I think the quarter panel extension could be filled and I've made it look a lot better, but I will probably want to get another one anyway.

 

i think it looks pretty good myself.... good job

 

Definitely on the right track! Good job.

 

Wow! What a difference. Did the wrinkle in the quarter come out as you were pulling or did you pop it out from the backside?

 

that looks like a good start, when your home and have time to go forward i think you will find it not so hard and eventually may even enjoy doing a better job than whatever "body guy" worked on it before...

 

Been almost 12 hrs. Status report. :bananaman

 

Thanks for the encouraging words, everybody. I sure am feeling a lot better about this now. I will probably end up having done everything but the paint on this myself, and without your help I would have considered this far outside of what I could do.

A little of both. It partly came out on its own, then I finished it off with the suction cup. It still has a little dimple that I worked a bit with the hammer and dolly, just a little low spot to fill now...

Nothing new on the body work until I get back home. For the rest of the week, all of the action will be in this thread.

 

Well with the AC project finished, the time has come for body work. I've been at it all day, and here's what I've accomplished...

I drilled another (third) hole to put an eye bolt through, so I could hook up the come-a-long again and do just a little more hammering and straightening. The tail panel is straight. Finally satisfied with that, I turned the car around, backed into the garage and took off the bumper, quarter panel extension, marker light and tail light.

Did a little more hammer and dolly work on the quarter panel, then stood up and stared at it from every angle. It became apparent that I'd already got the metal straighter than it was before the accident, at least in some places. The old bondo that I hadn't already chipped away was now bulging up, making some major high spots.

Cranked up the compressor and got out the DA sander. Using 80 grit, I buzzed all the old bondo off. Hammer and dolly again. At this point I was satisfied that I'd made the metal as straight Is I reasonably could, and I knew I would be using much less filler than the car had to begin with.

Switched to 120 grit and sanded down the wrinkled spots where the quarter panel had creased. Found some high spots, knocked them down. I had two "bubbles" in my paint that happened to be in the area I was working on anyway, so I sanded those two. Finally I found out what they were... Grease spots. Some kind of oil had made it onto was on the original paint just before the new paint was put on. Took care of the bubbles, sanded them to the metal and feathered the edges out.

Over the course of all this sanding I discovered the bondo was actually under the original gold paint color. No telling how old this repair really was.

With all the high spots gone, I mixed and applied the filler. Skim coat over the bubble area, filled the low places in the formerly creased area, and put a couple of layers on the major part I was working on.

Worked on the tail panel. I put fiberglass patches behind all the holes I drilled, then filled them in with bondo. Filled some more, sanded smooth, filled, some more, sanded again, then primed it.

While waiting for that to dry, I worked on my quarter panel extension. I really didn't think I was going to get that straight, but I did. Like the sheet metal I just hammered on it, sanded the high spots, filled the low spots, sanded it, then primed it to sand again.

Moving on to the quarter panel again. I bolted on my now straighened quarter panel extension so I would have something to go by while I'm building up the edge of the quarter panel.

Fill, sand, fill, sand, fill, sand.... Well damned if the quarter panel don't look straight as an arrow! Sanded one more time with 150 grit, blew all the dust off again, wiped it clean again, and put some DupliColor sandable primer on it.

I have a can of touch-up paint that I used on my spoiler when I fixed a crack in it. It actually is a pretty good paint. A guy on Ebay fills and sells these cans with some kind of automotive enamel, and I think I have JUST enough left to spray what I'm repairing. Hopefully I can wet sand the edges (with 2000 grit maybe?) and it won't be very noticeable. Either way, it's temporary. I just want it to look decent until I can get a real paint job.

I sprayed that on the tail panel and the quarter panel extension. Looks good so far! While waiting on that to dry, I sanded the primer on the quarter panel with 150 grit, and sprayed it again.

Now that I've typed all this, the primer should be dry. Gotta go...

 

That was a very long post i only read a little bit so idk if you said anything about pictures. WHere are they??

 

Sorry, haven't taken any yet actually, but I will tomorrow. There's at least a thousand words there though, so that ought to be worth one...

 

Oh buddy i just read all this and saw the pictures, wow does that suck. My Comet looks like crap compared to your Maverick and i would freak out if that happened to me and my beater Comet. Fix it and down the road when some time passes you will at the very least have one hell of a story to tell about your Maverick. Good luck!