EMS Patch Panels

[Rideau 500]

Pictures of EMS patch panel. Two show an old panel I had laid over a new EMS panel. The profile of the old one fits the car well. I didn't want to use it because the flange on the bottom is not as wide as it should be and it does not go all the way around to the tail panel. As you can see when the panels are matched from the wheelwell back the front of the EMS panel is about an inch lower. The other two show the trunk floor brace. EMS does not have a picture of it in their catalogue, I guess they don't want you to see how different it is.

[Alex L.]

the difference is pretty glaring, Is there any patch panels for the rear quarter which don't have this problem other that your "old" one?

[Frankenstein57]

Is the last picture a floor brace?

[rmk57]

Our local restoration shop owner says always, always try and get original sheetmetal or try and save your old stuff.

[Rideau 500]

If you look in the review section I go into more detail. I added this because with my computer illiteracy I couldn't figure out how to ad pictures there

[Alex L.]

Really what i am asking is: Are there any rear quarter patch panels that are regularly available that actually fit?

[Rideau 500]

None that I know of. Most people on this site feel EMS make the best panels so I was hoping that would be the solution.  I may have just gotten a bad one, have to see if anyone else has the same problem.

[Alex L.]

i looked around, yours is not the only issue. I find it hard to imagine that a steel panel could be "mis-stamped", so if there is a problem with yours there is a fundamental problem.

[Partsman]

In the gallery section under constuction Jim Nolan had both front and rear 1/4 panels replaced with EMS and they look good. Perhaps he could tell us if his bodyman had thiese problems.  I also have fit EMS panels to my Ranchero and there is not the problem you are showing in your photos.

[RICH MUISE]

If you also have the front quarter panel section, it would be interesting to see if fender skirts fit. something doesn't seem right with your particular problem...it seems to me if the wheel opening was to low,everyone would have had that problem...wheel openings wouldn't have lined up with the flange on the inner wheel wells, and anyone who used them, and I would have to think it would be hundreds, wouldn't be able to use fender skirts..and that's a problem I haven't heard of. Posibly you may have a bad panel...and yes that's posible...alot of these panels require multiple hits and multiple dies to finish them and it's posible one may have been misstamped...I can't remember if you had both sides and if they were the same.
Is it posible your car had been repaired in the past and the quarters not placed correctly?

[RICH MUISE]

on rethinking this...the wheel opening is pretty much what will locate the quarter, so what you need to check, is how much the rest of the fender is off when you locate the opening in the correct position. where the bottom of the fender behind the opening ends up has more flexibility than the wheel opening but it is also located by the inner rear quarter panel.
Someone else a month or two ago also posted a problem with the rear quarters.

[Rideau 500]

I only have the one side and yes there was a previous repair but the inner quarter is original and the existing repair panel lines up OK. If I line the new panel up with the wheel opening the back corner is about an inch too low. I took the panel over to a friends place who has a couple of untouched 57s and the same problem exists. He also has original Ford fender skirts and they do not fit the panel well. Needless to say I was not instilled with a lot of confidence when the guy at EMS said it didn't fit because my Meteor had a Mercury body. I would like to hear more experiences, good or bad, because I'm a little leery about shelling out another $155 and maybe getting stuck with another bad one.

[OUTLAW]

What I would like to see is a 300 panel #179 and a 500 panel #186 side by side. Could be interesting.

[RICH MUISE]

Being a meteor, it sure would be nice to get Canadian Ranchero's input on this. I'd try sending him an email at 57meteor@gmail.com., or a pm. Gary's new job keeps him away from his computer most of the time, but maybe you'll luck out.
I'm guessing you have the meteor equivalent of the fairlane 500?? when I did my rear quarters on my 2dr custom(front and back, both sides)I used non ems panels that I had purchased at classicautoparts years back. They were the very first parts I had bought for the '57 and knew nothing about '57 ford part manufacturers whatsoever. I had the same problem I think you were talking about with the old panels you have that you didn't want to use..the underside flange areas were all way to short. The flange around the wheel opening was less than 1/2". To resolve the problem,before installation, I welded a 1" strip of 18ga. all the way around and trimmed off what ended up as excess after it was installed on the car. My panels did come all the way around to the seam under the tailight though.
If it were me, I'd use the old panels you have and add material as needed at the flanges and rear seam. compared to the labor to install the rear quarters, the adding on of material isn't that big a deal.  Rich

[RICH MUISE]

It's coming back slowly but I'm remembering the panels I used had "made in Dayton" stickers on them, and the right rear panel had an additional problem...the large radius on the very back lower corner was formed with a 2" diamater instead of the correct 4" diameter leaving a "sharper" corner.  oddly enough, the left panel was formed correctly, and I purchased both at the same time. I didn't even notice it until I decided to roll my back pan and had 2 different radii. I had to pie cut the corner and reform it. I had noticed the panel was not conforming to the same shape as the inner quarter panel at that corner, but I eroniously contributed that to the fact I had used a '58 donor inner panel on the right side. Rich