# 69 GTO rear quarter panel body work



## 69GTOAK (Jun 8, 2021)

Just got the body of my car blasted and found where someone had replaced the rear quarter panels sometime and did a pretty crappy job. My question is how would you guys attack this mess. I thought about cutting that seam out and doing welding it up as a butt joint if possible. I had a body guy look at it and he said he would fill and fair with lead( real old school body guy). Or should I get 2 rear panel and replace them all the way. Any help from the experts here would be great.
Thanks Troy


----------



## armyadarkness (Dec 7, 2020)

Assuming that the faces and rest of the panels was sound, I'd prime, re-putty, and be on my way.

Bondo and other fillers are not bad... they're bad when misused. Im a welder and welding panels like that is no cake walk. Warping and fitment is murder... looks like someone else took their time and did a lot of prep and finish work there, so I wouldnt open that can of worms.


----------



## armyadarkness (Dec 7, 2020)

And for the record... I cant tell for sure from your pictures, but that gauge looks heavier than most of the repo stuff, so that could be a very old repair, using GM panels. In any event, if you have an old skool body guy, Id take his advice.


----------



## Sick467 (Oct 29, 2019)

Although your quarter replacements were not top notch, I would not call them "crappy". They look solid and with minimal warpage, if any. If you wanted to take an extra step in lieu of full replacement, I would consider adding the spot welds in between the skips that are already there. I'm no expert, but I have done my fair share of panel replacements and would never leave the joints with skips in them. That will be a lot of work, but nothing compared to cutting them off and putting on new. My thought on this is it would seal the lap joint which eliminates mico-movement between the two and keeps moisture from creeping into it and causing corrosion down the road.

One more thing, how are the door to quarter gaps? When quarters are overlapped like that, it can make the door fit poorly and rocker to quarter misalignments. It's basically the thickness of the sheet metal, but if you intent on the gaps being near perfect...it's something you need to consider.


----------



## Drewm (Jul 27, 2021)

Just a thought, assuming the panels are not in need of replacement otherwise (rust, dents, etc), what about cutting along the overlap line with a thin disc and reweld with the 2 pieces of metal parallel with each other, rather than overlapping? Im not a welding expert by any means, but that might eliminate some of the filler you would need to make those panels look good.


----------



## 1969GPSJ (Feb 26, 2020)

I am with Army old skool body man , the repairs that have been done are not that hateful


----------



## Autie1969GTO (Mar 5, 2019)

I always use to cut out the bad section or quarters out and then recess the cut lip on the veh. I would drill holes along the edges of the replacement metal and then I would lay the new panel/quarter edge into the recessed (cut) opening and spot weld each of the drilled holes onto the original panel/body part. A skim of filler and voila! I try to stay away from "butt joint/stitch weld" whenever I can. My first thought on your pics is, did they just lay replacement panels over the original damaged or rusted quarters and if so, what is lurking underneath? If they cut the old quarters completely off, how far is the "Newer" panels overlapping the originals? Do the "newer" panels go all the way to the bottom and to the door edge? Have you looked in the trunk on the sides to see if there is a horizontal seam from the old quarter to the new or some bondo covering the seam together? You could be opening a can of worms that you might not want to get into with so many factors unk and might want to "let a sleeping dog lay". Your experienced body guy should be able to answer some of these questions. >>>IF<<< it were mine and there was enough overlap from the "new" over the old quarter, I would R and R the panels and start fresh *using the same replacement quarters* with the process explained above (and a lot of bracing trunk/door jamb area), which is countless hours of labor and $$$$$ if you do not do it yourself. As Army said, probably an older repair which means thicker gauge metal. If it is an older repair that was prior to repops, they might have even used quarters from a donor car(?). On the other side of the coin, if you have a Old School body man experienced in lead, I have seen them blend in lead repaired panels and with no primer/just bare metal, you couldn't tell where the repair work was even done.


----------



## Sick467 (Oct 29, 2019)

Autie, That's a great point about just overlapping the the panels. That would take the repair beyond "crappy". That type of work will rust out in record time.

Definitely check the inner seams and make sure the old panel was cut out, not overlaid.


----------



## Scott06 (May 6, 2020)

Depends on what you are looking for, if its just a driver maybe weld them up more and refill use all metal or long and strong on areas where it is thicker. 

Best bet in my opinion get full factory quarters and go back to the factory seams. If you are doing a full off resto this makes sense. 

When I did my 65 Convertible in the early 90's I patched the qtrs that were there vs spending $2k on desert wrecking yard qtrs. I've always regretted not doing that while I had the car apart and down to bare metal...


----------



## PontiacJim (Dec 29, 2012)

69GTOAK said:


> Just got the body of my car blasted and found where someone had replaced the rear quarter panels sometime and did a pretty crappy job. My question is how would you guys attack this mess. I thought about cutting that seam out and doing welding it up as a butt joint if possible. I had a body guy look at it and he said he would fill and fair with lead( real old school body guy). Or should I get 2 rear panel and replace them all the way. Any help from the experts here would be great.
> Thanks Troy


How much time, effort, & money do you want to spend and when do you want to be driving it?

It appears that the old quarters were cut off allowing an overlap of the new replacment panel. It looks like the front/back/wheel well arches are attached/welded and not overlapped. The panel is stitch welded with a mig welder, so it is not going anywhere.

I don't see any signs of rust/heavy pitting in the photos, so it was most likely prepped correctly. I would keep what is there and work with it. Modern cars glue panels on.

If you attempt to cut and butt-weld at the seam, how good a welder are you and how good a metal man? You will get warping from the heat - period. Then you will have to straighten the panel and STILL have to bondo over the butt weld. So what did you gain? 

Use the plasitc bondo or the fiberglass bondo. Something like this is what I would use, very good brand stuff:

Evercoat®


----------



## 69GTOAK (Jun 8, 2021)

Guys thanks for all your help as soon as I get it back from the blasting guy I’m going to look at it and see if I can just put filler over it if there is nothing else wrong with the patches. Yes it will be a driver doing a Resto mod on it because when they did the panel work they also replaced the motor and transmission so it’s not a matching numbers. Have a 461 motor kit coming from Butler that will be pushing 500 hp. Changing all the brakes to wilwood disc breaks and have a stage 5 handling kit from UMI coming. Putting a Tremec TKX 5 speed transmission in. Basically replacing everything if it needs going back to a green interior from Legendary with Limelight green exterior. Found her sitting in a front yard up here for the last 20 years so she needs a lot of work. Supposed to snow and rain here for the next week so I wont take her back till we get below 20 so the roads aren’t a mess. 
Thanks again for all your help will start posting updates and I’m sure a lot more questions 
Troy


----------



## armyadarkness (Dec 7, 2020)

PontiacJim said:


> How much time, effort, & money do you want to spend and when do you want to be driving it?
> 
> It appears that the old quarters were cut off allowing an overlap of the new replacment panel. It looks like the front/back/wheel well arches are attached/welded and not overlapped. The panel is stitch welded with a mig welder, so it is not going anywhere.
> 
> ...


@PontiacJim points are extremely solid. I've been a welder for more than 35 years and done many GTO's. I mentioned early in the thread that from what I saw, it looked fine. A professional welder took a lot of time to do that and then grind the welds and seam down to a blend. It is indeed now more solid that an oem, spot-welded panel. Stitch welding is an exhausting, time consuming process, which even I have no patience for.

That job took many days to complete properly and it was a filthy, meticulous process. I know a handful of welders who could weld that much without warping the panels, and none of them would ever touch a job like that, because no one could afford anyone with that level of skill. 30 years ago, we did stuff like that for fun on weekends... now I need a day planner to schedule when Im going to shave.

Yes, a butt joint or flange joint would be nicer, but both would require the same amount of finishing, and they would easily quadruple the work and price, so as Jim mentioned, unless this car is going to the Pontiac Museum to be inspected, then it's simply not worth it. 

I would charge $2500 to weld on quarters like that, and probably not touch the job at all if they wanted a butt weld... and I wouldn't even consider taking the job unless it was a friend from here, who had a ton of alcohol, and dancing girls... who were going to assist in their bikini's.

Cars have adhesive and bondo all over them, right from the factory. There are "better products" now than there were 20 years ago. It's no longer a curse to use filler. And for the record... Im sure that 68 GTO which Motley Crue is raffling off, has much worse work than this on it.

Everyone here had solid ideas, especially the old-skool body man, but things always flow in the course of least resistance, for a reason.


----------



## armyadarkness (Dec 7, 2020)

BTW... I have been using fiberglass resin gel for about 20 years now. It handles like polyester resin, but it finishes like plastic, and it's available with or without glass fiber.


----------

