Hi all,

Would anybody on here have any idea of cost s & how to remove & replace the RHR panel on a TF? Spewin when I saw this pic of my old baby.. car has no insurance now apparently and I want to try and get it fixed at a low cost.

http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l176/shamous69/magna.jpg?t=1291718415

Any thoughts/suggestions appreciated.. cheers

Forget the "low cost" part of your question.

It's part of the body and can't be replaced easily like a fender or door. The quarter panel may be available from Mitubishi but you would need a repairer experienced in the cut and replace task.

It could be repaired as is. You will need to remove the tail light and bumper bar and find replacements. Most of the body damage can be hammered out from inside the boot. You will need to remove the boot lining on that side. Lots of bog work, sanding back, priming and painting. Labour and time consuming if you do it yourself.

An insurance company would most likely have written the car off.

Check around crash repairers and get some written quotes, you may get a bit of a shock. Show them to your sister.

As MadMax points out, there is no easy way out.....unless you just concentrated on getting it legal with a new tail light and pushed as much of the body into shape from the inside, then sprayed the area with a can of touch-up up. Less than a hundred this way although the car won't look it's best.

i got a guy on the goldcoast which does really cheap good jobs if interested give me a pm and il lsend hs number i might have the tail light here for you if so 20.00 will cover the light can get a bumper for around 50.00
the panel is the harder bit the cheapest way panel it out and bog the expensive way cut a section out and replace a lot of money though
he is a good painter and panel beater eg i got my car resprayed and color codedfor 1000.00 drive in drive out and he fixed a couple of little dents too

Good luck with that job. Let us know how you get on.

That damage is very similar to the damage on my old TF when I brought it

The damage is actually not all that hard to repair if you have some time and patience

What I did was obviously remove all the bar, light etc, then I used and electronic dent puller system, these weld small rivets to the panel and allow you to pull the panel back out, I had a fair bit of shirnking to do as the panel was stretched but if you look at my old ride thread you will see where it was finished and looked 100% and the only patch where there was more than a scrape of filler was near the wheel arch as there was a hole cut and had to weld this up but still was only 1.5mm at the thickest point

the TF is getting a bit old now and that would be a $2000+ job , which would never look like new again cos of the panel stretching.

i'd just go with the " patch it up and drive as is " option.

A reminder guys, this thread is in the technical forums and is marked as "no spam", which means that no spam, off-topic or general conversation is allowed.

In other words, "no spam" means that unless you're addressing the topic starter's question, don't post. Comments about the sister and/or her inability to drive doesn't answer the question posed and hence is spam in this section.

I'm feeling nice and have just deleted the offending posts, but it is a timely reminder that spam and off-topic posts in forums marked as "no spam" can lead to a warning or infraction (http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74271).

Carry on....

the TF is getting a bit old now and that would be a $2000+ job , which would never look like new again cos of the panel stretching.

i'd just go with the " patch it up and drive as is " option.

depends who you know the guy i mentioned would do it for about 400 as a rough price

Thanks for the replies everyone. We got 2 quotes, both which exceeded $3k.. not cool.. u can just picture us tearing the quotes up on the spot! lol
So yeah just looking to make it legal now.. i'll have to look into time frames and who i know and go from there i guess.


i might have the tail light here for you if so 20.00 will cover the light can get a bumper for around 50.00
I might be very interested in the tail light if you do have it.. that would be great.. if you do have it can you send me a PM? Cheers

The quarter panel itself wont be an expenisve part (relatively speaking) to purchase.

To replace a rear quarter on a car - you have to pull the rear window out to get it all to line up and seat correctly and for it to be able to be painted etc.

Do the 3g rear windows come out without breaking? I thought I recalled reading somehere that its quite difficult to pull the rear window in a magna?

Has the boot floor warped / moved as well?

In our shop - when replacing a quarter panel on a car (sedan / wagon etc) its a BIG job - and we have all the corerct tools at hand too, we wouldnt try to pull that damage (but we aim for profit being a panel shop - not for cheap for the customer obviously)

We would join the new panel in up towards the very top of the C Pilllar.

We replaced a R/H Rear Quarter panel on a magne just over a year ago - and thats where we joined it all up, no weld marks or anything - ended up looking as flush as the day it rolled off the production line.

Also - be sure to get a 4wheel alignment too - incase some other structual metal *might* have shifted slightly (its possible)

The quarter panel - at least the official one - joins at the roof and at the bottom of the dog leg. Lots of welding needed, obviously. A lot of fitting, straightening of bent boot floor, welding, grinding, painting etc. Rear screen needs to come out, obviously, and a lot of interior trim. If you cut a panel from a wreckers, you can choose where to cut and join, obviously. Not a cheap job at all, $3K sounds about right. The hammer and bog approach is cheaper and looks the same if done carefully.