Using lead for body work

[BRIAN]

Repairing it is a free try so I would go for it. I have done worse. Putting a skin will use just as much plastic. Do not mig weld any holes until you get it bumped out as mig weld is not workable. After it is straight close the holes and give first wipe of Kitty Hair, then proceed with poly plastic. That is heavy sheetmetal and is workable with the right amount of patience. If you do not have the skills changing the 1/4 will cause even larger mess.

[rockdogz]

The metal is very thin around the holes. It sounds to me like cutting out the bad area, flanging the existing metal, and then welding a patch on would produce a better result. I haven't done either type of repair before though so I'm not sure. Why do you say that a patch will require just as much plastic?

[68protouring454]

it will use just as much filler cause you will have a huge weld seamon a 80% 1/4, if you did a complete 1/4, you would use barely any, but the 80% will have a 4-5 ft seam that you will need to weld solid, taking your time, not to heat it up too much, i would weld an inch or so at a time going back and forth to each end, i would take a whole day top weld it at least, just inbetween welding work on another area of the car.
but like you said if you do not do the whole thing, buy the 80% 1/4 then cut a patch out of it you need, i would splice right under the belt line about an inch,ack to say an inch off the tail panel, and then probaly an inch or so off the wheel well, make the new patch over lap by way of flanging, and tack weld up, then tack away until its solid welded, grind, check for pin holes, touch up, then fill away, using a fiber resin bondo first if you wish, but if it is no more than a 1/16th or an 1/8 i would put a good quality filler to it, goodluck
jake

[trapin]

Tom...patch panel, then fill in with Evercoat Everglass and skim with Evercoat Rage. Just make sure it's thin. You should be fine.

[Duesey]

Definetely don't lead it. You would have clean every square inch of the metal removing every divit of bondo out of there. The heat would probably warp the heck out of the panel and it would cost more than 80 dollars in lead pieces. Lead doesn't go very far and it goes alot less on vertical surfaces since a lot of it will be on the floor. I'd suck it up and quarter it. Your gonna have trouble with paint shrinking in that area and unless you get some of the AFS sanders it's probably gonna be really wavy.

[BRIAN]

Hey cut it off send it to me and I will send it back straight and you can weld back on.

[rockdogz]

Heh, if I cut it off, I would just weld a new one on.
Now what would it take to get you to come out and fix it up on the car??

[rockdogz]

I am just about ready to start in on this - I bought the 80% panel from Classic. When I started looking at it though, now I'm thinking it over again and have thoughts of doing the whole quarter. There is still a good bit of damage that the 80% piece won't cover. Anyone have any advice on the whole quarter replacement? The area around the door looks easy enough, but I'm trying to figure out how it attaches to the rocker panel and the outer wheelwell. Also, how do you separate the sail panel seam - I heard you just heat up the lead? I think this quarter has been replaced before, so I'm not sure what I'll find.

[68protouring454]

what you do is cut out old 1/4 about 1/2 inch from rocker seam, wheel well, and tail panel, thenm you can access the spot welds to drill them out, this goes for all three spots, then clean the flange up, as for sail panel heat led up tilit melts and scrape it away, you will then see the overalpped part and you will be able to drill/grind etc, alot of times you will have to do an outer wheel house as they do not fit good everytime and you end up fighting with it, this is easy to remove if 1/4 is off, then mock up 1/4, make sure to have door properly aligned before cutting old 1/4 off, then triple check all gaps before welding, once welded install outer wheel house, modify as needed, i would rather have a modified wheel house than a modified 1/4,
why doesn't the 80% cover your damage, usually the 80% go from door jamb all the way to tail panel, then they go to bottom of sail panel?
jake

[Duesey]

You will have to heat the body hot enough to tin the area your leading. Then you will heat the body in order to spread the lead in a semi liquid state. It's a nice repair with lead, but inexperience on a side panel like that will cause more of a mess than a lot of metal finishing and a skim of mud.

[Camaro Zach]

If your going to do the whole quarter do as 68protouring454 said and cut 1/2" around everything. I heated up the lead and scraped it away with a wire brush. Right there where the quarter meets the sail panel can be a PITA because of all the spot welds. There are alot underneath the lead but thats not all of them. you will have to get inside the car and drill out 3 or 4 more from the inside. It took me quite a bit of time to do all that but the finished product looks factory. And yea triple check all your gaps before doing your final welding. I even had a member come over and check out my car to get a second opinion before i welded it all up.
Good luck Tom just take your time and you'll get it right

[rockdogz]

Crap I went and returned the 80% quarter I got from classic and they don't have any full quarters. They said that they were re-doing the tooling because of fitment problems. I guess I'm better off - would hate to get one and not have it fit. I checked out where to get a goodmark quarter because people have said they fit well, but I don't think there's a place to get them locally and they want $150 truck freight to ship it. Dang it!! I should have kept the 80% and gave it a try - the worst thing that could happen would be that I would need to replace the whole thing anyway. Well, I picked up some door skins so that should keep me busy, and I will probably end up going back to get the 80%...again. Makes me want to just

[rockdogz]

Aha.. you know what I was wrong. I didn't get an 80% quarter - it was just a skin. I saw a pic of the 80% on mattsclassicbowties.com and it would definitely be better for me since I need to replace some of the tail pan extension area. Now I just have to find a place local for that! Shipping from Rick's was going to be like $175!!

[68protouring454]

look into a goodmark 80% 1/4 panel, it will have what you need for material, and is a decent price, try national parts depot, they have a 100 dollar flate rate up to 300lbs truck freight deal, i just ordered some 67 mustang stuff from them, i ordered from michigan
jake

[Camaro Zach]

i'd go with the goodmark i have had good luck. And if you order more stuff they'll throw it in the box with the quarter and not charge you extra freight. Just an FYI

[rockdogz]

For the 80%, should I butt weld it on, or flange, punch holes, and plug weld it on?

[68protouring454]

tom , i would flange the new 80% and slip it under where you cut the car, and then stich weld the seam, skipping around until its solid, i would take your time and take a whole day to do it, maybe only an hr of welding but let stuff cool, do not squelch it with water, it will only warp worse
i would use whole window channel area, then splice down into trunk, butt weld when it goes into trunk jamb area, the overlap will help with warping as well with laying down nice spotwelds as you will have 2 layers of metal to weld, get heat right so both peices melt into each other with little build up, goodluck

jake

[rockdogz]

I don't have a flange tool - do you recommend the manual one or the pneumatic one?

[68protouring454]

i have never used a manual one, go for the air flange tool, easier and should make a better flange, goodluck
jake

[blackwidow]

just use some all-metal and thin coat of filler mike