This is Tacky!

My '65 Coronet is on a rotis'. Looking at the "joint" of the rear quarters on the lower kick panel, the factory overlap is pretty tacky. While it is spot welded at the factory, I'm not happy with the misalignment of the two panels.

Is it not correct in welding this "seam" maybe a little ALL METAL over the weld before body filler? In my own mind, I'm thinking, just a layer of filler, built slowly, will certainly crack sometime down the road. I'd not noticed this when the car was level, but when I see it on it's side, in my mind, this has got to be fixed...!

http://www.shoalwaterbay.com/temp/40.jpg

http://www.shoalwaterbay.com/temp/43.jpg

Even Ma Mopar wasn't perfect.

One of the risks here with welding it solid is you set yourself up for stress cracking around the joint. The good old unibody design can flex around a series of spot welds but will stress more rapidly around the immediate area of solid weld as the metal surrounding the weld is annealed. Ma Mopar leaded these and sail panel joints and the lead would allow slight movement as it is a soft compound. If you have subconnected the frame or stiffened up the body you can get away with it. Building up the area with All Metal or plain body filler could lead to problems with cracking as they have no strength. Products like Dura Glass which is a short strand water proof filler would be a better base if the joint is prepped thoroughly and should be used over all welded joints prior to body filler being used regardless. Its a tuff call on these rocker or sail panel joints, if we weld them solid we stiffen them too much, if we fill over them with plastic materials we risk cracking especially with a high hp motor. Less risk if we stiffen the foundation of the car and take the stress away from these lap joints!

Todays manufaturers will arc braze these joints which nullifies the stress/annealing issues I identified earlier as brass is softer than steel, however your joint will be contaminated with lead and brazing the joint is out of the question unless your car was acid dipped. The lap will be full of lead due to the cappilary action of the material during factory application.

Wow...that was an excellent explanation on what to do and what NOT to do. I thank you very much for the details and the time you put into your reply.

After much consideration and reading your reply several times, and while I have installed frame connectors, I'm inclined to leave the joint as Mother Mopar intended. I do not want to look at it a year or two down the road and see cracking on my new paint. Thanks again, you comments are appreciated.

Bob

You're welcome. This area was originally filled with lead right? If you're sub frame connected, epoxy the area, allow to cure, scuff thoroughly with 80/100 grit without going through the epoxy, then Dura glass (shortstrand) fiberglass body filler the area, followed by conventional body fillers. Safer than leading!

No, this seam was not filled with lead. This is the way the car was built as far as I know. The quarter panels are actually "lapped" over the lower kick panel. I have only removed the original paint, so I am going to suggest, this is the way the factory released the car.

Thats gonna be one nice car when your done. Good luck!