I'm kind of new to doing restorations so please bear with me. I've seen a few companys that make quarter pannels skins, but I have been told not to ever go with skins. Whats the difference and are there any alternatives if the quarter pannels need to be replaced. Thanks
You don't have the luxury of too many choices with these Buicks. In terms of the 70-72 Skylark/GS you have the following choices: 1)Repair panel on the car 2)Find an NOS factory quarter..no longer available from the factory but some individuals have them...not cheap and rightfully so as they are desirable pieces. 3)Find a good used quarter from a wreck/parts car..getting harder and harder to do as more and more cars get parted out for restorations and as other cars that might be salvage candidates sucuumb to the ravages of rust, etc. 4)Use a aftermarket skin. What is #4? These are non-GM manufactured (ie aftermarket) partial quarter panels. The main difference in these vs. factory quarter panels is the area that they cover. Where a factory quarter panel goes up and wraps around into the side-of-the-trunklid opening area and wraps around into the door jamb area these aftermarket skins only cover the face of the quarter panel area of the car. What I mean by the face is they cover the part of the quarter panel that you would see if you had the door closed and were looking at the quarter panel straight on from the side of the car. They do not wrap up around into the trunk and do not wrap into the door jamb....thus the term "skins". When you install these skins you typically cut your old quarter panel on the FACE of the panel --thus leaving the door jamb area and the horizontal area next to the trunklid intact. The panels are either butt welded or flange-seamed onto the old QP. People on this site have installed these (Tabco was the brand one owner used and he posted pics of his progress---the work appeared to be VERY NICE) with good results. You should move this thread to the "Color is Everything" section of "The Resto Shop" also as many people have questions similar to yours. Patton
