Doesnt pay to dig! Had a large dent in the rear quarter of my ponti that the previous owner had nicely prepped and painted over. Finally got sick of looking at it, so decided to fix it. BAD move, the whole panel was oil canned, felt around the inside of the panel and thought how bad could it be, last time I thought that on this car i found over half an inch of filler over a pop riveted lower panel in the drivers door. So removed the trim, very deep hole behind trim, hmm not good. start digging, 1/4 inch oops, half inch not good, inch, damn! Stripped the whole rear quarter, found the wheel arch was tacked in with filler over it just underneath about 3/8 of lead that was ground out to tack the panel in. Pan up to the fuel door, a two inch hole had been cut out possibly for a gas filler?? Obviously decided it was a bad idea as the po belted it in then fitted a patch panel with a smear of filler then alot more filler over the top. Ive taken the lead out, found a nice hole, lead out of the top revealed a nice long scrape. Is it just me or does this happen way too much....... Got the worst of it out, template made up for the replacement patch, I'll have it fixed this weekend, i hope, not a good way to get the car ready for chopped in 7 weeks! I think my car doesnt like newstead! Whats the best plan of attack here? get all the damage smoothed out then weld in the patch, normally i would think so, but its a hell of a hole! Any advice????? The po's effort on the door after it started to crack and ooze rusty water.
My fleetline is so bad in spots I'm seriously afraid to dig into it like that. The right quarter bulge is patched with a whole donor quarter - apparently cut out of a 4-door judging by the 3 inch gap where the door seam would be, filled with an assortment of lead and bondo, over the original quarter.
Looking for a silver lining? Your gas mileage issuer to improve with that much less weight to drag around! Sorry dude, I feel your pain.
I wish I was closer to help you Fitzy. I have faith in your ability, seven weeks is heaps of time for a man like you. If all else fails bring it in raw metal and we will send you home all fixed up.
The lead was probably done in the 1950's B.B. (before bondo ) Probably not, but 2" hole= police type whip antenna.
Funny, had the same land speed record comment today about all the weight im taking out of it. All beer and giggles, the Chopped thrash I wasnt gonna do this year, got all new stuff to put on the car and some heavy paintin to do, I found a silver lining, oh hang on, it was lead Cheers wardog, may swing by yours to catch up in the days before chopped got to go to moama to visit mum. May not get a 5 speed into the car but new screen, rubbers, and a few extras to go. Gettin all tubbys spares to go in and I have spares without filler to go on the car post chopped and cruise season build up I think. Fun times!
How to fix that big hole, cut a piece that fits it nearly perfect and hammer weld it in. A little at a time, move around, keep it shaped as you go. As much as I sudder to think of it, you can even mig the thing in with a bit of help. Someone good with a hammer standing by to gently stretch every spot you weld. Looks like about a 2hr repair for that hole, but I might be inclined to get the rest fixed 1st. The stronger the panel is, the more surface tension on it, the less likely it could be to warp out of control. Then again, more tension could make it worse, but it's an "outty" instead of an "inny" and looks to be pretty stout. That's a long winded version of go for it...
Yeah, I'm gonna do some beatin on it in the morning, run the shrinking disc over it get the panel nice and tight before I start welding, mig'n slow and easy. Got a fender skirt to get the wheel opening shape right. The morale of the story I guess is as bad as you think it is when you first look it could be worse............... Some people just shouldnt fix cars, and shade cloth is not a suitable sub structure for body repairs
You sound like you know what your talking about, experienced, knowledgeable.... some hack got you to buy the shade cloth bondo bucket so it can't be that bad of a material to use
Well Ive lost a couple of days at it, cut the wheel well out, shrunk the area behind it to some semblance of normality, not done yet and not really happy with it so far. Had to cut and reweld the inner panels as well, they had been put over all the rusty holey metal inside the wheel arch. the rear quarter is looking okay but it is severely scarred from the experience (lots of counselling required). Made up the new wheel arch to fit the fender skirt. Pissed i cant get behind the wheel arch patch to hammer and dolly it, had a little shrinkage, more from grinding down the welds, but just have to take it as it comes some times. The beating will continue this weekend hopefully get it filled and painted so I can get back on track in the preparations for chopped. 6 WEEKS TO GO
I guess I was an optimist when I bought the car, I thought I know it has filler, how bad could it be!
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