Topic: Wheel Well Pinch Weld Clean-up

[67gtasanjose]

I finished all my media-blasting of the unibody over the weekend and now moving into metal repair.
I am fortunate to have a So.Calif. body so things are no where near as bad as other posts I have read on this subect but I do have a few minor areas of rust to deal with, particularly around the lower areas of the wheel house.

I am wanting to ensure I do NOT have any rust show back up so is there a good way to address this issue?

The most invasive way I can think of would be to try and drop the outer wheel house out, but to do this I would have to probably cut off the pinch weld of the quarter panel.

Basically, am I over-thinkung this? I cannot see any rust over the top of the wheel house, only a very small anmounts of rust-through very low, a little on the rocker side and a little below the trunk floor drop-offs.

I feel others may have had this same issue and would like to hear your techniques and results.

Standing by with spot-weld drill, cut-off wheel and mini air saws-all in hand

Richard

[Bob Gaines]

I finished all my media-blasting of the unibody over the weekend and now moving into metal repair.
I am fortunate to have a So.Calif. body so things are no where near as bad as other posts I have read on this subect but I do have a few minor areas of rust to deal with, particularly around the lower areas of the wheel house.

I am wanting to ensure I do NOT have any rust show back up so is there a good way to address this issue?

The most invasive way I can think of would be to try and drop the outer wheel house out, but to do this I would have to probably cut off the pinch weld of the quarter panel.

Basically, am I over-thinkung this? I cannot see any rust over the top of the wheel house, only a very small anmounts of rust-through very low, a little on the rocker side and a little below the trunk floor drop-offs.

I feel others may have had this same issue and would like to hear your techniques and results.

Standing by with spot-weld drill, cut-off wheel and mini air saws-all in hand

Richard

I don't want to sound negative on purpose but visible rust is like a iceberg floating in the ocean ,there is typically substantially more below the surface.

[67gtasanjose]

I don't want to sound negative on purpose but visible rust is like a iceberg floating in the ocean ,there is typically substantially more below the surface.

I completely understand, and why I am going in after it. I did cut a small section out of the Left Side inner wheel house at the rocker panel, the rust was isolated to the immediate area only, it will be an easy fix. This hole gives me access to the whole inside of that rocker panel, front to rear, to clean the crud out and to shoot some rust converter plus some of Eastwoods "Internal Frame Coating". I'm not sure yet if I will do the exact same on the right side too, it will depend a lot on whether or not I get a good used donor panel section. The rust repair panels I see are for 67-68's and the shape of the 68's are different, not just the "lack of a louver" different, so a repair panel designed to fit BOTH years will be off a whole lot for my area of concern.

More on the right side...I think I will try and change out the quarter panel section between the door and the wheel well, below the louvers... it was damaged in an accident before anyways ~I'm still looking for confirmation of a donor panel before proceeding with that side.

I believe my best alternative for the rear areas of the quarters, in the drop-off areas, is to simply buy rust-repair panels and keep snipping the rusted quarter panel off till I find no rust anymore.

[SamG]

Here's a few pics of a similar repair I made on an early 65 convertible.  It had a little accident damage plus some pinhole rust. 

I cut up an aftermarket full quarter for my patch panel.  I had purchased it damaged at a swap meet for $40.  In my experience that's a better option than small patch panels because of fit issues (No guarantees though)

-SamG

[67gtasanjose]

Thank you SamG for the pictures and ideas, they are a lot along the area of my larger need as well.

The "accident damage" I need to work on was a sideswipe damage that occurred before I purchased my car and resulted in a replacement door, fender and a repair to the same area of the quarter panel you have pictured. On my example, the sideswipe damage grabbed the "peak" of the lower body line and drove it back about an inch or so, creating a huge cave-in at that point, without caving in the "B" pillar and without making it's way rearwards into the wheel housing area at all. I do notice a little damage I'll need to work on in the lower hinge area of the "A" pillar, but it was insignificant enough that the hinge adjustment had the door fit and close good for over 20 years.

This quarter panel damaged area however, was pushed back as good as we could get it in 1978 (my 17-year old brother and my 16-year old self) but today needs to be done better so last night I went "INVASIVE".

I cut out some areas of the front wheel house and opened up the end of the rocker panels (removed more mouse nesting from inside the rocker panel) but the access hole gave me a chance to straighten things like I was never able to before. I also cut a slit where the section of quarter panel wraps onto the "B" pillar to relieve some of the wrinkles still in the metal. Using a 1/2" thick by 3" flat bar, I ironed out most of the wrinkling.

I will likely update this a bit more later, but at this time, I might be using most of my original metal pieces I cut out over again! I tentatively have located a replacement "original" section for the accident damage, should I wish to go ahead and replace that like I was seriously thinking I might yesterday...but things are looking better after a few hours of chopping, sawing, drilling, pounding and grinding yesterday!  There are only a few areas of "rusted away" metal, and the "iceberg" Bob spoke about wasn't any where near as big as what sunk the Titanic! (thank God!) The rust was truly isolated to within an inch or so of the visible areas seen on the outside.