Good evening, everyone.

I will soon be patching quarters in preparation for paint down the line and I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on these Goodmark GMK432260082L Goodmark Quarter Panels | Summit Racing (or any other) replacement quarters. I am opting for the entire quarters on each side because of the sheer number of small patches I need to do (death by 1000 papercuts) so instead of buying 7/8 patches I just wanted to buy them all in one go and cut off what I need. I also live in the salt belt so finding decent donor cars these days is hard.
I would also like opinions on aftermarket fenders as I need a new one due to the previous owner's poor attempt at hiding of a light pole being smacked. I was thinking of this one 1992 Pontiac Firebird Front, Passenger Side Fender 8303-1 by Replacement® . (don't worry the car itself is straight. The fender, however, isn't)
The carpet is also just trashed from being a T-top car with leaks (floor patch thread coming soon lol) and is faded beyond belief, I want to go new as the newest any of these carpets can be(used) is 33 years old. I want to go with this carpet 85-92 Pontiac Firebird Carpet Complete Kit, With Console 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 as I've heard good things from it. Should I get the "mass backing" on it? Apparently, it's 40mm of ethylene vinyl that helps with road noise but its 118 extra dollars.
This is the first post in many that I will be making as I am new to the whole side of body work and sheet metal replacement, and I need to do quite a bit of both. Thank you all for any help. I am sorry if anything is unclear, I will try my best to clarify if I can.

Thank you,
ShoudOfEncryption.

 

For body panels, I think you will find the general advice to be that nothing fits like a factory panel. Good used parts will give you less trouble than aftermarket ones.

I would assume that advice to be similar for patches, though perhaps less critical as you are not (likely) expecting a patch to just "bolt" on....it will always require some trimming, shaping, etc. They get you close, but you'll have to finish the job of fitting them to your car. I would suspect a patch cut from a factory panel would require less work, but will still need work.

 

Totally agree with DynoDave. All of the aftermarket panels fit terrible. You either just live with the poor fitment, or spend a serious amount of time and/or money (if paying a bodyshop) to cut/weld/reshape panels to fit, and even then it may not be 100% successful. For example, I had an aftermarket hood on my GTA that was just a little bit flatter than the curvature of the fenders. That would be pretty tough to correct.

I had an aftermarket nose, left fender and the hood I mentioned on my car for many years following an accident I had in 2000. I was a broke college kid and this car was my only transportation. I repaired it on a very tight budget and could not afford the GM replacement panels that were still available back then. Aftermarket it had to be, had a body shop spray the front clip and blend into the driver's door and passenger fender and I cut/buffed it. Came out good enough for a driver and got me back and forth to class. Now 25 years later, I'm restoring the car and spending a significant amount of money at a high end shop to do the paint and body work. I sourced good used OEM panels to replace all of the aftermarket stuff I put on it years ago. It's the right move for the end product I'm looking for.

Aftermarket has it's place, but it sounds like you're putting a lot of time/effort into this project and you may be very unhappy with the fitment and resulting frustration of the aftermarket panels.

Also, just some additional unsolicited friendly advice from my own experience. If you're quarter panels are that bad that they need replacement, how is the rest of the car for rust/rot? Have you really looked at all of the nooks and crannies where these cars rust out? I ask because there are a bunch of other common spots that rot before the quarters start to go. My quarters were just starting to rust behind the ground effects, but not rotted and no patches required. I did partial floors, front rocker corners, patched the front wheelhouses, passenger side firewall/cowl patch, battery tray, rear inner wheelhouse patches and some various small holes and rust spots. The car looked really good before I took it apart and these areas weren't apparent when I started. I kept finding more along the way until I eventually took the whole car apart. I would suggest you really evaluate this car as a restoration candidate and find all of the rust/rot before you get too far in.

 

Oops! Sorry I didn't see this. My car isn't really "rusty" pre-se. The quarters are just bubbling up a small amount. It's a T-top car so I need to do a small, maybe 3"x3" patch under the driver rear seat and a small patch in the footwell. The fender I want to replace simply because it has a very weird vertical dent I can imagine happened when it got very familiar with a vertical obstacle and has obvious body filler in an area near the top. I imagine buying a new fender would be easier than trying to hammer out and straighten out the metal, but I am inexperienced and may be wrong. I do suspect my car isn't as solid as I would like to believe because the left frame rail has been rewelded but after essentially taking my entire car apart inside and out 2 times at this point (shoutout crap wiring jobs by the PO) I am hard pressed to find anything but dust on mostly everything that can rust apart from the doors. The driver side door is shot at the bottom (just going to buy a door off of a different car). My genuine main concern is the front bumper, I am unsure how, but it looks like it went through hell lol. To be clear, I don't want the car to be perfect, it never will be. I just want sometime that doesn't look like total garbage and is slowly dying of rust.

 

This is one of the smartest statements I have seen on these forums lately. You will find yourself much happier with your car and life in general than the perpetually unhappy perfectionists who love to offer free advice on the internet.

And just to be clear, the above advice was good. It just sounds like you are approaching this with a very realistic attitude.

 

Pictures? If using patch panels, those AM units may be okay to cut from. The curves will be close enough a good body shop can move them around to fit while welding them in place. That's what they did with our SVO. BOTH rear quarter panels were beat in, one side twice. While I provided take-off rear quarter panels, they only used one, and got an AM patch panel for the other side that they worked onto the car for a perfect fit. Your favorite body shop will probably need to be consulted on which direction to go. Same with floor pans. The aftermarket will be close, and good enough to cut small patches from to weld into place, but large areas are best done from a rust-free donor, or doing completely new fabrication from sheet steel.

Fit of front fenders is usually questionable, and the gauge of metal is notably lighter. They're great to use on a race car where weight savings is paramount, but 100% fit and finish.... maybe not. Again, a good body shop may be able to dolly out the crease, or cut in a patch, but w/o seeing how bad it is, no one here will know.

Carpet? EXPECT anything you get to merely look like it'll fit a 2-door car, but also expect to have to push and pull every corner and slowly remove small strips from every dimension until you have something that's closer to fitting a 3rd Gen F-body car. My expectations were pre-set kind of low after doing the interior on said SVO, but h0ly Cr@p is the fit bad for F-bodys!!!

 

Here are the pictures. The bubbling is one sided, the other side of the metal is pure and clean (I don't feel like taking me entire interior apart again right now to prove it lol). Not entirely sure what's going on with the back side of the quarters (the bubbling), but it has the same thing of sheet metal on the other side is perfect and it passed the magnet and screwdriver test (hard) on both sides. And before anyone points it out, this car has been repainted (obviously) and the original paint wasn't removed so the paint is thick as hell everywhere.
For the floor pics, both are on drivers' side, on the is the footwell and the other is the rear seat area. Not sure why the rear seat hole going up looks so bad, it isn't that bad in person.
From what I am getting from this thread is that I should get as many factory parts and panels as I can. Except the carpets, the newest original is 14 years older than me and I'm just gonna bite the bullet. I appreciate all the help so far in the thread, here's the pictures (passenger, driver, passenger, drivers)
-Shroud







And for the fllors, here ya go too

 

No expert, but it kind of looks to me. like you're going to need a body guy who can do metal fab. The outer panels may be done with patch panels, but I'm thinking that floor work is going to need some work you won't be able to replicate with patch panels.

 

Very interesting. Why do you think the floor needs custom metal work over the body? I do have the exact pieces of metal for the floors from another car, but I could be missing something her.

 

I looked at several vendors who sold body panels and patch panels, and the online images were horrible, to be kind. It didn't look to me like they got that far back and up, but if your panels include what you need to replace, you may be golden. You'll still be expecting to have to play with a hammer and dolly, though. That can be fun, though. Just take your time.

If you have good pieces from another car, that's great. The metal will be shaped better and of the same thickness and metallurgy as OEM, which reduce the work some, vs. aftermarket. Getting hard to do these days, though.