I recently bought a '30/1 Coupe that was chopped in the '60s and was filled with lead in a few spots. Now that I started working on it. I've melted the lead out because it was loose. Turns out behind any lead there is pretty much no steel. But a rust hole. Im just curious if this is normal? Or if someone filled it wrong? I would like to refill thing with lead eventually Thanks.
When applying lead, the entire area needs to be tinned. If there are spots that won't tin properly, the lead can be "floated" over those bad spots, but it leaves the solder acid trapped, and that causes rust. If everything is spotless clean, and tinned properly, it will last a long time.
the tinning ****er has an acid in it and if it is not cleaned off before the lead is applied it can corrode the metal. A lot of the cars from the 60's and 50's lead was just like bondo a lot of skilled craftsman with a lead stick could hide a lot of damaged areas and file the lead out to hide some imperfections in the car.
that is something I have noticed many times, it was and is a very common end result.....even on factory produced lead joints you often see that.
That explains a lot. Thanks for fast response guy. I guess I'll continue to look for chop cutouts to replace a few of the bad areas
I'v been in the body business for 47 years and never had any problems with lead. (i used it once and left the shavings on the floor for a week so that my customers could see it)
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