I know you have to do what you have to when you have not got the $$ for a professional , but.. Some folk shouldn’t be allowed near old cars or filler. I wondered why the new brookville trunk lid was too big for the opening. All the sins now uncovered. The green tape should’ve been the same height as the orange but 1/2” of filler made it level. Tacked in Rebar to bridge a gap.the first two pics are of the underside of the rear quarters by the trunk rain gutter.
Did the guy who owned it & sold it make out/ enjoy the transaction , did the buyer have his eyes open when he bought it ,did anyone hold a gun to anyone's head ? Buyer beware .
Most any time you buy something old , you don’t know what you really have , till you get her home and look it over real close !!!
They did just that , build it up with copious filler of different colours. I am not holding anyone accountable , just thats how it goes sometimes. I dug the hole ,so have to keep on climbing out.
If the "hack" wouldn't have done his work, the car might not have been around for you to "fix". None of the stuff I have would be here today if I would not have "saved it". You can ***** me out for my hacking as you "fix it", but remember, I saved it from the crusher, it would not be here for you to fix if I hadn't stepped in. I've provided a vision for you to "fix" your way. And no, I had nothing to do with this car. General statement.
This is why I bring a magnet/bore scope/mirrors with me when I look at a car.............just saying.......
Ouch! My Brookville trunk lid was too small for the opening but I remedied that by adding metal (not rebar) to the lower edge of the trunk lid. Very little filler and a nice even gap now. If only the Howell's inner panel would fit right I'd be in fat city...
Plastic body filler hides a lot of sins. Think how much this car would have weighed if lead was used as the filler material.
2 months ago had a guy bring me a 65 coronet, decent looking car until you looked inside. It had a vinyl top when new and the roof rusted out until there were small holes all over the roof, down the sail panels and started down into the quarters. Well 15 yrs ago the old woman he bought the car from took it to be "fixed", what did they do? Pulled the rotted vinyl off, then went to screwing 12x24 inch panels all over the roof and sail panels then top coating it all with 1/4" of bondo along with a nice paint job on top of that. The guy had no idea until he pulled the rotted headliner down and found the bottom of the roof looked like a porcupine with about 50 or more 1-1/2" screws sticking thru the roof every where ! I about laughed my a$$ off when I seen it. It had rusted thru into the lower structure of the sail panels and the back gl***/trunk filler panel. He wanted me to "just cut the top off and replace it" I said it was to far gone for me to wanna deal with. Told him take it back to the old lady and get his money back, he wouldn't do it as she was 85 and he figured she had no idea how "they fixed it" which was probably true... ..
Nope he had no idea he just enjoyed it for what it was and going fast with his hot flatheads. He did repaint it to one even colour. he just described it correctly as an old car. This 32 has been built almost entirely from HAMB sourced parts.
There is a YT video I saw recently, body work on an OT car. It was a Nissan of some sort and the rear quarter behind the rear door was caved in. The hack filled the major part of the void with BRICKS and mortar. At the end it seemed to have a decent paint job... buyer or owner beware.
A lot of mid 70's "I got six weeks before the big rod run and I want to go with it painted" going on there. American Grafitti premiered on August 2, 1973, and by The end of the year a lot of those guys who gave you a ratio of **** for having a lowered Merc or a hot rod of any kind were looking at their belly ****on super cars a little different and out looking for an old coupe or roadster to build their own hot rod. You saw a lot of suspect body work and the supply houses sold a lot of gallons of Bondo. Most of it was just flat not knowing better. Guys were pretty high zoot then if they had both a stick welder and a torch setup. No migs, no tigs and no you tube videos to study. I'd say that that coupe is an example of some of that but I Know that it won't be that way when done, it will just take a bunch more work to be right. I'm not making any excuses as I am guilty of spreading a bit more filler and not working out a fender as I should have in 1973 when I was thrashing to get my 48 ready for paint before the 73 Street rod Nationals in Tulsa. I'd paid my entry fee and put in for vacation time before I ever got started good on the truck. No one showed up with a ragged *** rig calling it a patina car in those days. They might look a lot better than they actually were.
I am having trouble just really making out what is there. But…..in some pictures I actually see metal welded to metal….and the welds , while may not p*** x-ray inspection, they do look like they will hold! Metal “ filler” is way better than huge amounts of bondo. I understand this is not world cl*** work…….but I have seen worse! Like bondo actually “ holding” the car together! Bones
When I first started working at a body shop at 15, we were redoing a lot of lead work plastered over steel wool used to fill rust holes. So plastic body filler was just a simpler way to do a hack job. The 3M rep came around with silver aluminum tape, to tape over missing metal before slathering on the filler to cover it all up. It would last about 6 months before it would start to bubble. Good enough for used cars.
The Jalopy Journal
