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Rust Repair Part 25: Rebuilding the Driver Quarter Panel

LS XJ Build Unibody Rust Repair

One of the last big TODOs left on the driver side was to rebuild the quarter panel. Welding a panel in is moderately easy but ensuring it’s properly aligned is hard. Since the driver side was also missing the inner wheel well / lower structure of the quarter I had less reference points to work with which made me slightly nervous.

As a precautionary measure I opted to re-install the hatch and taillights so I could double check how everything was lining up prior to welding in the panel.

Lots of structure missing but overall the body lines look good.

Welding In The Panel

After triple checking everything I went ahead and welded in the quarter panel.

I focused on tacking it in to start that way I could work the seams and try and make them as smooth as possible.

Then the front and rear edges were welded.

Gas door was mounted up as one final check before welding the panel to the filler neck.

Welded. I put two welds on the top, and two on the bottom. This is different than how the factory did it because they used body adhesive but I think it should be fine.

Lots of careful welding and grinding later.

A Touch Of Epoxy Primer To Finish It Up

With the outside of the quarter panel looking good all that was left was to give it a nice coat of epoxy to protect it. To prep it, the panel was DA’ed with 80 grit.

Two coats of epoxy later.

Rebuilding the Inner Structure

My Jeep was missing the lower quarter panel structure because I had cut n folded it several years ago which means I’d need to rebuild the lower part from scratch.

I also need to make the outer half of the inner wheel well but I plan on addressing that later on.

Fortunately I was smart and saved the template I used to make the inner structure on the passenger side so I was able to make a driver side one in just an hour of work.

Test fit went smooth enough.

Prior to welding in the patch it was given two coats of epoxy because I wouldn’t be able to paint the inside once it’s installed.

Final prep.

All done. The quarter panel feels a little stronger with it installed. I also popped the fender flare on to see how it looked.

From there I just needed to make a small patch in the rear. I didn’t get too fancy with this.

With the rear patch install I discovered a mistake in the new inner bracing I made. My template was too short and left a large gap in the back. Oops.

Not wanting to redo the entire patch I came up with an alternative solution.

Welded in.

Alternative solution was then replicated on the passenger side even though it didn’t need it. I did this to keep things symmetric.

And last but not least the inner brace that goes around the lower taillight mount was welded in. I made this patch a couple years ago when I was doing the passenger side so all I had to do was plug weld it into place.