74Dusted
Stock Piler of 340's
Ever have one of those moments? I'm having one right now.
When I bought my '74 there was a new front lower quarter welded in on the passenger side, and a skim of body filler on the driver's side. having gone over most of the car with a magnet, i overlooked the driver's front lower quarter since the car had been a work in progress project when I bought it. (in the previous owner's defense, I don't think they knew what I'm about to tell you either. it was old old repair work)
I had been about 16 at the time and was anxious to drive it, so i sanded till i saw "original" paint, then wet sanded and threw a single stage paint job on the car.
Fast Forward to now (little over 6 years later) I'm getting ready to repaint my car in a more quality job. Figured I'd take the car to bare metal and start fresh, The first thing that catches my eye is a few bubbles on the lower rear quarter. No big deal, I sand it down to find some soft spots in the metal, An easy fix to weld in new metal
I get to the front lower quarter and something seems wrong. I sand through the "original" Frost Mint Green to find body filler under the skim coat... There's no bottom to this filler, I keep wailing on it with a 40 Grit "Annihilator" and I'm pretty sure I'll hit the passenger side tire soon (from the driver's side) when I finally find a spot of metal. Ok i'm thinking it's dented in and can be pulled out and fixed... No! that was just a high spot.
I keep at it, and this is going on up past the lower body line, by this point I can fit my fist between the door & crushed in door jamb/quarter :banghead: :violent1: It looks like the car had been hit hard on the driver's side lower quarter in the 70's, slapped with 60 tons of body filler and repainted in the original color. Other than this surprise damage, the rest of the car is straight as an arrow.
In the morning I'm going to call one of my local friends who's big into A-bodies and see if he happens to have a chunk of quarter panel laying around that I can graft in on my car. there's no saving that section of metal with the way it's crushed in.
When I bought my '74 there was a new front lower quarter welded in on the passenger side, and a skim of body filler on the driver's side. having gone over most of the car with a magnet, i overlooked the driver's front lower quarter since the car had been a work in progress project when I bought it. (in the previous owner's defense, I don't think they knew what I'm about to tell you either. it was old old repair work)
I had been about 16 at the time and was anxious to drive it, so i sanded till i saw "original" paint, then wet sanded and threw a single stage paint job on the car.
Fast Forward to now (little over 6 years later) I'm getting ready to repaint my car in a more quality job. Figured I'd take the car to bare metal and start fresh, The first thing that catches my eye is a few bubbles on the lower rear quarter. No big deal, I sand it down to find some soft spots in the metal, An easy fix to weld in new metal
I get to the front lower quarter and something seems wrong. I sand through the "original" Frost Mint Green to find body filler under the skim coat... There's no bottom to this filler, I keep wailing on it with a 40 Grit "Annihilator" and I'm pretty sure I'll hit the passenger side tire soon (from the driver's side) when I finally find a spot of metal. Ok i'm thinking it's dented in and can be pulled out and fixed... No! that was just a high spot.
I keep at it, and this is going on up past the lower body line, by this point I can fit my fist between the door & crushed in door jamb/quarter :banghead: :violent1: It looks like the car had been hit hard on the driver's side lower quarter in the 70's, slapped with 60 tons of body filler and repainted in the original color. Other than this surprise damage, the rest of the car is straight as an arrow.
In the morning I'm going to call one of my local friends who's big into A-bodies and see if he happens to have a chunk of quarter panel laying around that I can graft in on my car. there's no saving that section of metal with the way it's crushed in.
ops: 
