wjburken
Supporting Member
My son works at a local body shop and they will tell you the same thing.I may try that. I just got a quote from a shop, unsure if its the most expensive shop but $4603.68. Basically replace the entire rear qtr. Not going to happen lol. The guy was pretty honest about it and from the others I talked to on the phone they only replace entire "skins" as well.
An entire rear qtr for some bubbles is overkill. Not sure what Ill do but its not getting a 4600$ repair.
From what I can gather, it’s for a couple of reasons.
1) they want to get the edge of the repair to a point where it’s easier to blend in like factory seams/joints or in a door jamb. Creates a better look and less complaints from customers.
2) the actual size of the rust spot on the backside is usually 10x what you can see on the outside once it bubbles through from the back side so by the time they get the bad section cut out to clean borders, you’re left replacing a rather large piece anyways so they might as well just do the full skin.
They can certainly sand the bubbles area and paint it, but you will be back in a year or two with the same issue or worse.