1971 Chevelle repair

[Too Many Projects]

I have made more progress over the past couple weeks. After the door pillar and roof seam were where they needed to be, I finished welding the window channel and flange to the extension panel in the trunk.








Then final fit, prep and install of the trunk extension to lower quarter.








Then the messy piece, welding the outer wheel house section and grinding. Lots of spatter while in the wheel house to weld and covered in grinding grit while cleaning up the welds.







At this point, the entire left side of the car has been rebuilt from the damage...
I then started on repairing rust on the right side. I cut out the wheel arch of the quarter and the inner wheel house.








I got patch panels for the arch and rear quarter and cut out what I needed for the arch and attached with drill screws to prevent it from moving during welding.





Not the best pic, but the screws pull the 2 panels together tightly to keep the skim coat of filler to blend as thin as possible.








I had 3 layers where the 2 patches met with the quarter, so I cut the arch patch 2.5 inches up from there for a butt weld to remove that layer and keep it uniform at 2.











Very pleased that I was able to pull the patches tight enough to keep the gap tight in the trunk too. ALL the gaps are much tighter than the original panels were. I will cover the seams with a skim of seam sealer and once the trunk is sprayed with proper textured paint, the seams should hide nicely.