ChasNMe

I had new rims and tires put on my car while i was at work. my wife paid for it before they closed and we were coming later that night after i got off work to get it. when i get to the shop, my car is parked in a not so great spot and there is a nice BLAM! in the rear drivers quarter panel (and just a touch of the door).

naturally i am PO'd, but i call insurance and cops. left the car and was there when they opened up in the AM. they want to make me happy, blah blah blah. the owner of the shop says no problem, file it with his insurance company. they pretty much said FU. my insurance company said they would probably have said the same because i had the keys and therefore they are not liable (even though they parked it in that spot, and it was on their property). i could go to court but would probably lose they said. they didnt want to fight it because they would have felt the same. good news is they say it was parked so it falls under comprehensive and my rates wont go up. ok, now my deductible - owner said he would pay half and he did, now to get it fixed.........

"jamisons" is a corvette restoration place in town and know for good work. they are high dollar though so insurance companies dont like to use them (read - will only pay part of the labor cost). waiting for them to open after lunch, i dropped by a general type body shop and 10 minutes later had an estimate for about $1500. pull the panel, gas cap, door ****, replace, match paint, put parts back, all better, easy job. i go to jamisons and he comes out of the shop, looks at it, and says "sorry, you are gonna be yanking your hair out by the time this is all done." on the hardtop, the roof has to come off of the car to replace the panel. two screws holding it on cannot be gotten to. the panel can be fixed on the car, but in less than a year you will be able to tell where the cracks in the fiberglass are. he didnt want to fix it on the car for that reason (bad advertising - jamisons fixed my car, look here at the cracks). i didnt get one that day because he said the insurance company would not agree to fix it correctly so why spend an hour writing an estimate that they wouldnt pay for, made sense. he said probably closer to $5000.

so now my insurance people say just have him call us when he is about to pull the panel so we can see and we will just write another check for the difference. now they gave the sorta ok, so i leave the car at jamisons and he goes about writing and figuring the actual estimate. he calls me and says he thinks the top will get damaged pulling it off so cost would be closer to $8k or $9k. he is sure they will not pay that and cannot get in touch with them. he has 2 solutions. cut the panel off (as much as can) to get it gone, then work at getting the screws (and last small panel peice) out with a die grinder. this is how he thinks it should be done. option 2 is to drill a couple of holes above the screws and get at it that way. i told him i was thinking about that way after i first came to see him. he said he didnt want to do it that way either because in 3 months, i will be back there showing him the holes where he did the drilling. this fiberglass has teflon in it . . . . and some more explanation i didnt much follow about why it would be visible in a short period of time. we are waiting to get in touch with the insurance company now.

obviously i dont know jack about body work, metal or plastic, but with 5 years worth of hardtops out there, somebody has to have had this problem before. how did it get fixed? how does it look now? thanks,in advance, jake.

TOPGUN9

Get a second opinion from a shop that specializes in Corvettes, even if you have to get a quote from a dealership.

runamuk

The service manual says the top must be cut off in order to remove the quarter panel

I mounted a hardtop on my convertible and if I'm not mistaken I believe there are 4 screws under the roof panel, I've heard of people cutting as much of the fender away as they could and then slotting the replacement quarter panel where the unreachable screws are.

BTW - I'm getting ready to remove my hardtop and go back to a convertible, I believe the top can be removed without damaging it but it will be tough.

FRCTony

I'm finding it hard to believe these people have alot of experience with C5's. I would run away and find someone who does. I would try to avoid removing the roof panel.

Good Luck!

LoneStarFRC

Don't walk...RUN! from this place as quickly as possible. On the hardtops (this of course includes the Z06 since they too are hardtops), the top DOES NOT have to come off! Maybe they do good work on most things, but they obviously don't know jack about hardtops! The factory shop manual specifies exactly how a quarter panel is replaced and believe me it does not involve anything to do with the top.
The old panel has to be cut off in the area of the two screws you mentioned in order to gain enough room to access them. The screws themselves only have to be loosened enough to remove the final piece of the old fender. The screws themselves stay where they are. On the new fender, the same two holes in the new panel have to have a small "U' shaped cutout made in them at the edge, so they will slide back in under these two particular screws. It may take a bit of trial and error, but the two screws need to be just barely loose enough to allow the new fender to slide in under the washers that are underneath the screw heads, to try and get as snug a fit as possible. The remainder of all the screws are easily accessable and the rest of the repair is very straight forward.
This shop obviously does not have a shop manual or they would have known this. It sounds like this guy is trying to "wing it".
Go to a Chevrolet dealer that has the shop manual for the "Y" bodies (Corvettes) and look in either Volume 2 or 3, (I can't recall which exactly since I'm not at home right now, but I think it's Vol 3) and the procedure is clearly outlined. HTH
Robert

ChasNMe

i wish i would have posted this a few weeks ago when it happened. i hate dealing with insurance companies.

as far as "jamisons" goes, he does know a lot about vettes, but he wants it perfect, actaually he wants it better than it came from the factory. at the factory the quarter panel goes on before the top so no biggie for them. he said he only did this once before (C5), they do total restorations and anything in between, but probably 3/4 of their work is on the older stuff. what you posted about chopping off the quarter panel and notching the new one is his prefered method without ripping off the top. i would have thought it easier to drill the holes and go that route. why will it be visible after a few months. is fiberglass "bondo" not good to paint on?

thanks for your help guys. i appreciate it. this forum has helped me a bunch over the years. jake

runamuk

I strongly disagree, I have an 03 shop manual that specifically states to cut the roof panel off just forward of the halo bar and then to remove both pieces which literally destroys the roof panel.

Patches

That's strange becuse I'm looking at both the 2000 and 2003 manuals I have and they are both identical and both instruct you to cut the quarter panel off, leaving the roof intact. They detail where and how to cut the panel to gain access to the two hidden screws. The illustration of the replacement panel shows two slots where theose screws are slid in when the panel is replaced as mentioned above.

I can email the procedure if you're interested.

Z06ufgrad2002

My service manual states the same thing.

ChasNMe

i finally found my shop manuals, mine also say to cut off the old and notch the new. maybe jamisons has the version you do (runamuk). mine are on pages 8-1540 through 8-1548. thanks again for everyones help. jake

SpeedyZ

You only have to remove the top to replace the tub and/or tub top, and of course the top itself (or frame work under it). Factory says to remove the top you cut it into small parts, you don't have to do that. It can be removed if you take your time, and a lot of time, it will come off! And for $3,000 for a top I took my time! To remove a rear fender on a hard top you only have to remove the rear cover. Don't have to touch the top or deck lid. Factory says to cut the fender up to replace it. Again, it can be done without damaging the fender if you take your time, assuming they are factory notched which my 2001 and 2003 were (earlier models may not be notched). But if your fender is already damaged and has to be replace you should just cut it off like the shop manual show and not risk damaging anything else. If you cut the fender it should be quite easy to replace. You have to watch the top front of the rear fenders, they hook in behind the top of the door sills in a glob of glue/sealer (hard gooey rubber). Trust me on this, I know what I'm talking about! As you can see from my car, I have took one of these apart before!


I still can't believe GM would build a car like this with 5 (3 right and 2 left) hidden screws where you have to cut the fenders just to remove them! Way to go GM and that American engineering!

Gordy M

Several years ago, I ripped up the Right rear quarter panel in an off track spin. My dealer fixed the crack, used a heat gun and remolded the rest of the panel and back bumper, paint, braces, etc. It stayed like that until the next owner did a serious off road spin. During those two years, the Z06 was an autocross, HPDE car only and run about 45 weekends a year. A quality repair might be the way to go.

LoneStarFRC

Is that a procedure for the coupe? Keep looking, I'm sure you'll see the same info that Patches found in his 2003 manual and that I found in my 1999 manual.