MarcR94v6

I was wondering something about the back side wall of the interior, the large plastic piece where the passenger speaker (inner sail panel speaker) sits.... For those who have taken this piece out, what does it look like behind the plastic? The reason I'm asking is because I am repairing my 1/4 panel and was wondering if the exterior is accessible from there with the plastic out. It would make it a lot easier if I could push it out from there in addition to the other methods I will be using.

chet

they just snap out i beleave

Heatmaker

THe reccomended repair for that damage is to cut out the panel and weld on a new one. There's a GM guide for it floating around on the net.

MarcR94v6

I'm not paying for a new panel, I've repaired two 1/4 panels, one which was worse than mine. I've also replaced a full 1/4 panel and rocker section (not just the skin) on a totaled car. I am just trying to see if I could make it easier on myself, I have a lot of projects going on and it's not convenient for me to remove the 1/4 on my daily driver anyways.

The recommended repair procedure is for time savings at an actual shop. You can't charge the customer the amount in labor that it costs to repair, and you can't spend all that time on it either because it takes away from other cars that need work. For me to repair my 1/4 it costs next to nothing, and I can drive it every day.

Crows89RS

You can get to it, but not all of it I believe. If you CAN get to all of it, it'll be sorta tight going towards the door.

shock6906

There's a panel made out of SMC or metal I believe that's behind that plastic sail panel. It's not direct access to the 1/4. However, it only takes a minute to get that panel out of there so it's not hard to take a peek. Just pull the plastic hanger tab off (there's a screw behind the little square on it) and then it basically just snaps into place with plastic velcro everywhere else.

MarcR94v6

ok, thanks guys, I assumed it was a hard panel to remove and thought I'd ask before taking it out and finding it wouldn't help. I'll try to get to it today.

Snoman73

i had VERY similar damage to my car on the opposite side after a wreck. The shop told me they were going to do the standard 'cut off the 1/4 panel and weld on a new one'. Well, long story short, they had my car 3 months!
ya know what they did? freaking Bondo'd over it and that was it! not only that i had to take the car back to them 3 times to get stuff fixed, they had forgot to reconnect the float sensor thing in the gas tank telling me how much gas i have, as well as many other things. They also took off my 1pc drive shaft and replaced it with a 2pc, yea, im still mad about all that and it was 4 years ago.

lesson learned: never take your car to a shop just because its 'gold star recommended by your insurance company for great service etc'...take it to a good shop you know and trust

lethal93ta

you can get to the back of the 1/4 but from the seat belt front theres another layer of sheet metal there that the speaker and stuff sits in beside the seat, did it push in the inner fender well at all?

transAMdriv3r

It is increadably difficult, believe me I tried.. all there is, is a small hole where the speaker sits into and there isn't enough room to get any kind of swing of the hammer or dolly. now the back side of your damage is a brezze.

Blue89Bird

you cant get to all that from inside...for one you have the wheel house in the way, for the "front" you have the b pillar in the way

MarcR94v6

That's fine, I'll just pull it from the front (damaged side) like anything else. Thanks for the help.

Heatmaker

I'd like to see how much a slide hammer can get out of that. That area is hell to work on. I had 2 dents the side of a cantalop in the exact area. I couldn't find anything to get behing there, and when I did there was no room. My slide hammer made light work of it though

MarcR94v6

The slide hammer is for the lip of the quarter (outer wheel housing), when that is close as can possibly be, the rest is done by welding nails, and in some cases metal tabs about 1-2 inches long and a slide hammer that attaches itself to the nails.

Heatmaker

That is what I'm talking about.