Chopped Rear Quarter Panels
So I went wheeling one day with my buddies at Little Moab (located on the west-south of Utah Lake). We went down a skinny section with a rock wall on one side and a drop with a shark-fin rock sticking up on the other side. I didn't think I had nearly enough clearance, but I walked the Blue Box down it without a scratch. Then we decided to go up it. Well it was pretty steep and pretty loose, and I had stock drive-train with open-diffs--but I tried it anyway. BOOM!!! SCRAPE!!! BAM!!! I made it up, but not after crunching my rear quarter section on the rock wall and my rocker panel on the shark-fin rock. Not just the lower section, but all the way up to the window. The lower section was smashed and dented, but the upper section was just kind of "pushed in", and the driver's side bumper end cap got ripped off and the bumper was a little smashed up.
We went directly to my buddies shop and his brother pulled out a suction cup and pulled the dents right out!!! The only real damage left was to the lower section. Well, I had seen some nice rigs before that had had their quarters chopped and capped and I liked the look and the clearance, so there was only one choice: cut 'em off.
It took me a few weeks to work up the courage to do it (a cruiser with no rust in the quarters or wheel wells is hard to come by and does not usually need a trim...) But one day, I went out, pulled off the rear bumper, drew a straight line with a sharpie across the quarter panel, pulled out the sawzall and started into it.
I pulled the inside panel off and checked for clearance and pulled up any wires that were hanging down. I drew the cut-line to match the natural straight line that comes around the corner from the tailgate. This would allow a straight look and seemed would not interfere with body mounts, gas filler neck, or anything else. I drew pictures and ideas of it straight and angled, but with my bumper project already in my mind, I decided it could only be straight.
Passenger side: First cut with the sawzall was a PITA!!! The sawzall was jumping around a lot. It would've took a real strong-arm to keep it straight. But, as that was the only saw I had at my place, I kept at it. Finally got the whole outward cut done. I then cut down the sides where the inward and outward body sections are mashed (or welded or sealed or whatever) together and then bent the outward portion out and down and cut it off. The inward portion is not straight sheet metal--it is kind of "ribbed"--so it was harder to make a straight line--and even harder to cut. As I looked closer, the fuel filler neck actually hung down a little farther than where the outward cut I just made did. A quick measurement showed it was only about a 1/2 inch to 1 inch difference. I decided to go about a 1/2 inch below the hole where the fuel filler neck passes through the inward portion. So I drew the line as straight as I could across the section and started cutting. Finished the cut and stood back and had a look. Man it looked good.
With the panel uncapped and open, the sheet metal seemed kind of wimpy and flimsy. I wondered if just capping it off with sheet metal would hold up very well if anything ever bumper it... So the wheels started turning and I decided I would make a support inside of the panel--a sort of skeleton. I used one inch by one inch square tubing that we had sitting around. We welded a section of the tubing in on the front end of the panel, running from the inside of the inward side to the inside of the outward side. Then welded another which ran diagonally from the inside of the rear corner of the outward side to the inside of the inward side, right near the body mount. Then ran a section along the inside of the outward side from the front one to the rear one. This created a "C" shaped support inside of the panel about to be capped. After this was completed, the panel would not budge when we tried to push in on it. Definitely strong and definitely worth it. (On a side note, I took this rig to Moab after the panels were completed, but before the rear bumper was on and while crossing the golden crack, my passenger side panel got bonked. Needless to say, there was only slight scrape-age--no real damage--which I attribute to the brace.)
I had already sought out the sheet metal for the caps. I used 18 gauge black iron sheet metal that I got from a Heating and Air Conditioning shop that my brother worked at. I am no metal buff or welding buff, so I am not sure if we used the best stuff or not, but it welded great and worked great. So to get the shape of the metal cap we would need, we took a piece of cardboard and held it up to where the section would go and then traced the outline with a sharpie. We then cut the shape out of the cardboard and traced it onto the metal. At this point, we went to my buddies shop and pulled out his small acetylene torch and tried to torch the shape out. His torch didn't work out too well so we went to using the sawzall and a hand held grinder to get the nice "ribbed" shape. It worked out well, but took a while.
Welding to the body: This part sucks. None of us had ever done any real body work before. I am sure there are body-work experts out there, but we were not. We did manage to talk to one body-work guy and got a few pointers. I would recommend that you definitely know how to weld and a few other welding basics and know a little bit about body work if you attempt to do this on your own. So we welded and grinded and welded and grinded and welded and grinded some more Finally it was satisfactory on the outward portion. Welding the inward portion was a million times harder. If you have access to a lift--you may want to use it hear. We had a very hard time positioning ourselves where we could comfortably weld the line. One afterthought on the inward section would be to have left a little overhang the inward side on the cutout used for the cap, which would allow for an easier weld. It may not be smooth or pretty, but that won't matter on the underneath. Just be sure it is sealed so no water can get up on in there. I would also recommend a drain-plug hole or two in the caps that way if water ever does make it's way in there, you can just pull the plugs and drain it on out (another advantage of the outward to inward slope that was created).
Clean, treat, primer, paint and whatever else you want and you're done!!! (lucky for me the P.O. of my rig had 8 spray cans of matching paint that he through in with the deal when I bought it!!!)
Drivers side: This side was much easier. We already one cut-and-cap under our belts and this side has no fuel filler neck in the way. We did the exact same steps except this time for the main first cuts we decided to try a circular saw with a metal cutting blade. This worked exceptionally well. Nice straight cut and no jumping around. Turned out better than the first side.
Here's a few pics taken after the panels were primered (didn't have time to paint them before I left for Moab...). For more pics of the chopped panels, see my bumper page.
DISCLAIMER: By no means is this a "How To" it's just documentation of what I did. Any attempt to do anything like what I did, you do at YOUR OWN risk.