Hey guys, so I picked up this Type-S about 6 months ago from a friend who crashed it and didn't want to spend money on fixing the damage.

The car is pretty mint other than the damage: 1 owner for 10 years before him, 119,000 miles, new tires, brakes, and fairly well taken care of.

I changed the oil, belt, and put in a fresh set of plugs when I bought it ,thinking i'd fix the body damage temporarily, and just drive it until I had enough downtime to rip it all apart and weld in a new quarter panel.

Now, I only paid $1500 for the car because it would have cost my friend $5,000 to fix it through the body shop, and he originally paid $8,000 back in 2013.

Now that I've had the car for a while, welding in that new quarter panel is starting to feel like more and more of a huge ******* hassle.

I'm good mechanically, and have an Associates degree in Automotive, as well as handful of ASE certifications, however I've never been properly trained to do body work.

I've sourced a panel for $350, and the local Honda body shop quoted me $750 to paint both quarter panels once the car is fixed, however I'm worried about undertaking this job and ******* it up somehow. I know I can do it, however I'm wondering about things like current value, the resale value once fixed, and wether it's even worth repairing the car.

Here are some pictures of the damage before and after repair:

DISCLAIMER: I ******* suck at body work (skills of a 3 year old) had VERY limited amount of time and like NO money, and used a bunch of left over fiberglass and filler that sat in my garage for over a year.

I know the repair job looks like ****, however I didn't want to put a ton of effort into it knowing it was all getting ripped out anyway, it just had to be "good enough" not to look like it was totalled.

 

mmm......I'd say do it. Just don't rush it.

 

Yeah, I'm working on getting the ***** to cut my car up, haha, because once I buy that rear quarter panel, I feel like there is no going back.

 

Why replace the whole panels?
You got the shape right. All you need to do is hammer down the high spots fill with filler and block the crap out of it and use a guide coat.

How did you pull the rear of the panels?

 

I used the wooden handle and a sledge hammer, as well as one of the ratchet straps and a tree to pull it back out. I grew up with drift cars, so half *** fixing body damage and bolting on over fenders has been the norm.