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1970 GTX quarter panel crack

Kris70gtx

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Hey guys, I wanted to see if any of you have seen this kind of cracking? It's on the top of the quarter panel corner behind the driver side door. Any idea for repairs? As always, thanks for the help!

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Yep. Mine had the same thing. I think its typical for these b bodies. My body guy welded it before paint.
 
mine looked like that in 1985.......... weld 'er up
 
Good deal, happy to hear i'm not the only one. Thanks for the quick reply guys!
 
Did that repair on a 70 RR. It wasn't visible when the car was prepped for paint. It showed up two weeks after the car was finished. Everyone is right weld it up. It's common, caused by the body twist from to many days of getting rode hard and put up wet. It's now something I check on all 68-70 B bodies before I go to far in the restoration.
 
back when.. it was used and abused at some point in time .. and the metal flexes most at the weakest point. then it cracks.. I owned a 68 Camaro at one point.. not only did it have cracks like that.. the inner rear tubs seperated from the trunk floor pan..
 
Wow that's some pretty serious flex lol would you guys suggest frame connectors and torque boxes or are those over rated?
 
Wow that's some pretty serious flex lol would you guys suggest frame connectors and torque boxes or are those over rated?

You need to make choices based on what the car will be used for.. The cars that cracked were usually beaten pretty hard, and these days making serious horsepower is easier than ever so anything you can do to strengthen the chassis is probably a good thing... On the other side there are collector types who never want the car altered so if you have a rare & valuable car you might want to leave it as is...

Oh, yeah, my Coronet had the same crack...
 
My car with 383 automatic was cracked on the passenger side when I got it in 1977. It didn't pull very hard with the original combo either.
 
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The "Crack" is caused from slamming the Driver's door a lot. That's why it usually doesn't happen on the passenger
side. Happens on ALL of the B bodies weather they have a 383 or a 505 with slicks! Just another weak spot in the
engineers bag of tricks.
 
I don't think twisting and torque causes these cracks (my opinion, could be wrong) .......I wonder if they occur on post cars?
 
I don't think twisting and torque causes these cracks (my opinion, could be wrong) .......I wonder if they occur on post cars?
Not saying it can't happen, but I have never seen this on a post car. As an added note on the 66-67 cars these cracks first appear in the driver's side front cowl at the corner of the windshield. This is a leaded area on these cars and is actually an easier fix.
 
Funny you should mention the crack on the cowl, my car has that too lol hopefully it's not too complex of a fix. I also noticed part of the trunk floor over where the right rear leaf spring mounts is pushed up a little bit, could be due to my trunk floor being rusted out aswell.

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Funny you should mention the crack on the cowl, my car has that too lol hopefully it's not too complex of a fix. I also noticed part of the trunk floor over where the right rear leaf spring mounts is pushed up a little bit, could be due to my trunk floor being rusted out aswell.

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What I did on one of mine is remove the windshield trim, strip the paint at the affected area and heat the leaded area. When the lead started to flow I did a little wiping. As I am not good at lead work I just made sure that the lead sealed the crack and was in the general shape needed. Then I finished up with a little bondo. Paint work is minimal as the cowl is the only thing requiring paint as it doesn't carry over into the other body panels. You mask the A pillar off at the trim so that you don't have to carry the paint work on to the roof.
 
there is usually rust happening under the lead when it starts lifting like that....... with a respirator on, you may be able to use a small grinding tool and dig it back to a non-rusted area, without tearing (or melting) out all of the lead
 
Wow that's some pretty serious flex lol would you guys suggest frame connectors and torque boxes or are those over rated?
Nope , not over rated . They work. Should have come from the factory with them.
 
The "Crack" is caused from slamming the Driver's door a lot. That's why it usually doesn't happen on the passenger
side. Happens on ALL of the B bodies weather they have a 383 or a 505 with slicks! Just another weak spot in the
engineers bag of tricks.
Yep, my (once upon a time original) 318 car had those cracks on both sides...the one under the windshield is typically from body twist. (Yaay unibody!)
 
Wow, I come from mostly a chevy background and I hadn't seen anything like this on what I had, I feel better now knowing those cracks are pretty typical. Luckily it's not as bad as 58 bel air I had, the frame cracked out so bad at the steering box just turning the wheel twisted that section of frame
 
Wow, I come from mostly a chevy background and I hadn't seen anything like this on what I had, I feel better now knowing those cracks are pretty typical. Luckily it's not as bad as 58 bel air I had, the frame cracked out so bad at the steering box just turning the wheel twisted that section of frame
Yeah, don't sweat it. Weld it up and you're good, like the guys say. What you don't want to do is leave it alone and then expose it to water...it'll run along the inside of the quarter and cause rust.
 
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