First off, let me say that the guy who sold me this car and told me it was original is a complete ass. This is what I found behind the paint....and shit loads of bondo!!! There was so much is threw off the chrome trim so it never matched up. Where i stopped wire wheeling the paint/bondo off is where the bondo stopped! I am scared about the other side of the car!!
I found something similar on a car I bought...they'd actually riveted a new piece of metal over the rusty piece and bondo'd the hell out of it.
that doesn't look all that bad! that is a "state of the art" repair up till the 80's! the alternative to brazing would be to gas weld it and warp the fuck out of it. i was expecting chicken wire and paper mache. judging only from the pics, that repair could be a couple of decades old.
Yeah, To be honest with you that is how it was done prior to mig or tig welding. I know pictures can be deceiving but that doesn't look all that bad for the era it was done.
It's hard to say from the pics but I don't see any cancer so that's what I would do. The metal actually looks salvageable and workable.
This repair would be considered as period correct. You could leave it as is. I remember that some of my first rust or crunch repairs during my shop internship had this same look.
So who is the ass? If the trim was off, it should have been a warning sign. Now you know. Chalk it up to learning. I have seen a LOT worse.
I would HAPPILY trade you for what I have!! That isn't "that bad" there have been a lot worse around!!!
You know its not that its bad. Trust me I know bad. I restore old italian vintage scooters. Its that after I got the car I started to hear things about the guy I got it from and 9 out of 10 people said he wasnt truthful about his dealings. Ehh Im just gunna clean it all up and forget about it.
Cripes! I thought that was an after shot showing the repair you made to his mess ... As has been said, that's not bad at all... it just makes me feel better about my patch jobs.
That's the same technique I used on my 54 Dodge. I used a flanging punch. You use one side of the tool to punch holes into the body, and the other side to flange the patch panel. The difference being, that I just Mig'ed the holes up. Then slathered on the bondo to hide the seams. I'm no Chip Foose, I admit...
If you want you can mig those holes up. If you do that make sure to keep the heat down. Stitch welding is an art in itself. PATIENCE! I would weld up the whole panel along that seam so you don't have to worry about rust sooner than necessary. Rotsa Ruck.
looks like you got some booger welds, pop rivets, an overlapped joint, brazing and too much mud. all that is missing is 200 holes from a slide hammer and you'd have all the poor bodywork techniques all in one repair.
Im no body guy, so Im gunna leave this up to my friend. He has worked some miricales so this will be nothing for him.Plus he uses lead. Think I should keep the chrome side trim off??
I'm sure your friend is an artist, but I wish you could have seen the 1950's repair on my old 39 Willys sedan. Once we melted out the lead that was slathered all over the RR quarter, it unveiled some ungodly joints where a piece of a 1/4 panel was scabbed onto the body. It wasn't even close, but it was done in lead!!!
It took me a long time to accept that a proper bondo job ain't so bad....I just had my 54 re painted and the owner said the work done around the tail light looked great. He was already redoing some patch pannels around the wheels..... so re -patch and enjoy !!
I tried welding over a brazed joint once. Just once. Had to cut all the contaminated metal out and replace anything with brass on it.
That's not the worst I've seen. Back in my high school days ('67) someone was trying to sell a '57 Bel Air 2dr which had some "minor" work on the driver's rear quarter. It had rusted thru in about a foot square area. The body men had stuffed newspapers in from behind and covered over the entire hole with plaster. I think they did get the correct color of stock '57 pink to blend it in. That made all the difference!
Was that car a staff car for the militry? Looks allot like what we did for repairs when I was a civil servant for the Air Force back in the 80's and early 90's.
To telly ou the truth....I dont know. When i bought the car I was told it was a dealers car. And only had one owner. The car was all original and was being sold on consignment. Then I go to a show and find out it was owned by another guy who took the original engine out and replaced it. Which I find is true cause its a 54 flathead block. All i know is that its my car now. Im gunna take her down to bare metal and repaint her in Toreador Red on the body and Black on the roof. Think I should replace the chrome side trim with scalops?
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