Miata body repair panels?

I see that there a couple of places that sell rear quarter panels for Miatas. Now that I've decided to keep my 2000 for at least another year, I'd like to address a couple of small areas of corrosion. Yes...I know that I could be opening up a big can of worms here, but I'd like to tackle this head on.

There are some compound curves involved, so making my own panels doesn't seem like the best approach. The panels are cheap enough that I can afford to buy a full panel and cut it down to replace what I need to.

I know from my years restoring Mustangs that some manufacturers of patch panels are much better than others. Is there any one brand of Miata repair panels that is better than the others?

Passenger's side:

Driver's side:

BTDTRacing. My body guy thought they were amazing. Plus, he's one of us!

kylini wrote: BTDTRacing. My body guy thought they were amazing. Plus, he's one of us!

I bought my parts from them for the reason he is one of us.

But when they were delivered, they came from KeyParts. I could have saved money and time by just getting them direct.

The panels seem to be quite good, BTW.

Easy enough repair if you can weld.

I cant recall if you were in the recent thread where I posted what is behind that sill. Be prepared to cut up to the rock guard line.

I have done a similar repair on MGBs numerous times. A trick is to cut the repair panel down such that you do not mess with the door B-post. It makes for a much better and invisible repair.

Metal stamping isn't cheap--so don't be surprised if everybody is getting them from a single source. I think these are the guys that are making most of them--well, this is the US distributor: http://www.klokkerholmusa.com/miata/

Per Schroeder wrote: Metal stamping isn't cheap--so don't be surprised if everybody is getting them from a single source. I think these are the guys that are making most of them--well, this is the US distributor: http://www.klokkerholmusa.com/miata/

They are the actual makers?

The page it takes you to is identical to the KeyParts page. So this would one fewer middle person. Good to know.

I ended up picking up mine from an ebay site, but I, too, suspect they are pretty much all coming from the same source. I looked at several sources and pretty much everyone was using the exact same stock image of the panels. My body guy really liked them, said they matched up pretty well to the curves of the car and even the pre-drilled holes (for fender liners and, later, splash guards) lined up. Seems like I paid about 150 a side.

I believe Klokkerholm is the primary producer of those pieces.

Where is gets confusing is that while a company might be the producer of a part (that is, they own the dies), they may have multiple stampers they use--so you can find a part that's made in Germany, Poland or China…and then they could sell it to a variety of vendors--including certain Factory "vintage" arms… For some portions of the industry, you almost have to look at it from a sku by sku basis.

I just ends up coming back if you keep the car in the same environment, ie New England.

In reply to NOHOME:

The part that I'm most nervous about is the top of the wheel arch. The lower leading fender is gone, but looking from behind, most of the major damage is the outer skin. But until I get the panel off the car, I can't see what is under the arch top very well.

One of these days, I'm going to start the work.

In reply to alfadriver: When my body guy started working on mine, he found the wheel arch was pretty rotten on the inside. The patch panel we used included the wheel arch as well as the lower fender, so he just cut back the arch until he got good metal, then blended the new arch and solid part of the original fender. IIRC, he ended up using about 3 inches up from the "lip" of the wheel arch all around to be sure he had good metal.

In reply to kazoospec:

You are making me nervous. Gotta get it started, someday. Then I'll see.

alfadriver wrote: In reply to NOHOME: The part that I'm most nervous about is the top of the wheel arch. The lower leading fender is gone, but looking from behind, most of the major damage is the outer skin. But until I get the panel off the car, I can't see what is under the arch top very well. One of these days, I'm going to start the work.

You need to get yourself to HF or Eastwood and get a shrinker stretcher set. Piece of cake from there on.

And a video to explain what it is all about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jGCt-CtrxY

FYI This is the inner fender structure that you will be dealing with if you need to rebuild it. I have marked in red the cuts and spots you would have to deal with for the lower repair.

The good news is that the inner wheel-tub is rather generic and can be harvested of a multitude of cars in the scrapyard if you have a battery powered sawzall.

Also, another FYI: Harvesting the intact rear quarter off of a Miata is a major PITFA and not something I ever want to do again.