Mountain Man Trails: 1967 Pontiac Lemans #2 - budget build - episode four, rust repair installment one

Thursday, October 31, 2024

1967 Pontiac Lemans #2 - budget build - episode four, rust repair installment one

October 5th, 2024:

October 6th, 2024:

Episode one here.

Episode two here.

Episode three here.

Episode four here.

10/30/24 There are four rust repairs to make:

Both lower rear quarters
Wheel opening lips, both quarters
Rear window gutter
Passenger front toe panel

For most of these repairs I will use replacement patch panels. I purchased left and right lower rear quarter patches ($191.98 for the pair) from Jeg's, the left and right side wheel lip patches for $84.97 for the pair from Amazon, and the rear deck panel ($89.98) from Jeg's. The toe panel, however, will be repaired with some scrap sheetmetal I have laying around, so that means total expenditure for all the rust repair is $366.93 plus my labor, which is free to me.

I'll cover the first two repairs in this episode, and the other two in the next.

Lower Rear Quarters

Here's what I started with:

The opening was crudely radiused by a prior owner to make room for these big ugly tires, which included destroying the wheel house inner flange. So I will be working on both the wheel house and the quarter lip.

The lower rear of the quarter was filled with bondo:

These repairs are first, because the quarter panel lip position is set by the position of the patch panel.

These are what Jeg's sent me:

They are actually pretty heavy, and preliminary test fitting is encouraging.

Before I can install them I need to fix a problem. The front of the passenger side wheelhouse is fine:

But the back:

This is what was under a layer of stranded fiberglass resin. Someone had simply glassed right over the hole, rust and all. In fact, this industrious person "fixed" all of the rust in the car by covering it with either fiberglass or bondo, sometimes measuring inches in thickness.

The lower quarter, the hole in the wheel house, and the flange for the wheel house opening, all sort of come together at once. The lower quarter patch needs to be located so that the wheelhouse rust repair can be located so that the wheel house flange can be located.

First, the wheel house rust. I cut out the rust, wire brushed everything, painted on some POR15 on the interior surfaces, and fashioned a patch out of some scrap:

It needs to align with the eventual wheel house flange. After stitch welding the piece in place I needed to trim it, so I made a cardboard template and cut the patch to the shape of the lower quarter. Here the finished repair:

You can see I've already started to install the lower rear quarter patch. You can also see the first piece of the wheel house flange (top center.)

So let's go ahead and cover the lower quarter panel patch. I made a cut just below the character line:

The actual seam, however, will end up being above the character line. I cut it here because the best chance for avoiding warpage (besides using good welding technique) is to be close to a ridge in the metal. The stiffness of the ridge helps minimize warpage.

I wire brushed the trunk drop area, ground and prepped the lower flange, welded up a few rust pinholes, and gave everything a coat of POR15. I overlaid the patch panel to check for interference and alignment. Looks really good. I drilled a few holes along the lower and front edges for spotwelds. After checking and rechecking the fit, I clamped it along the lower edge. I also put in a couple of zip screws on the top edge.

Now it's time to cut and butt. If you followed the previous Lemans build you would remember that I touted a youtuber named Fitzee. His cut and butt technique is as simple as it is effective. This is why I laid the patch panel over the damaged area. The idea is to double cut through both panels about 8 or so inches at a time. The patch, which of course is on top, can then be pushed even with the original metal and spot welded into place. This process is repeated until the entire distance has been covered. Then the spotwelds can be filled in until it's a solid weld, ground smooth, and prepped for paint.

Here's a closer view:

There's still a lot to do here, but it lines up well and will be easy to finish.

Quarter Panel Wheel Opening

As mentioned, Some prior "customizer" did violence to both wheel lips to make room for some monster sized truck tires. Now, I admit I couldn't find anyone who made the repair panel for the Lemans/GTO. So I bought a pair for the same year Chevelle. I was hoping they were close enough so that I could modify them. I reasoned that it's a case of either spending oodles on new quarters (been there, done that, out of the question) and spend weeks or months installing them, or adapt. I choose to adapt. The risk is I may have made a mistake, but it's only an $85 mistake.

And actually, when they came in the mail I was pleasantly surprised. The wheel opening was pretty close to the same contour. But they are too short, so it's time to cut and stretch them.

Since the half way point of the opening is sort of flat, that's where I made my cut:

I made a zig-zag cut because I figured that a straight seam would be weaker. You can also see that I marked out a couple of cuts on the front lower portion. This is where the Chevelle character line is, so i don't needed it because it's higher than the Lemans. Whatever damage the patch panel won't cover at the front edge I'll have make myself. Fortunately, this area is not complicated, and the back area was covered by the lower quarter patch panel.

I cut the quarter panel about two inches around the perimeter to get rid of the radiused wheel lip, then drew a level line below the belt line and test fitted the divided panel. I brought the two pieces up to my level line I zip screwed them in place:

Each end seems to match up with the existing lip pretty well. And the curve is a perfect match. I just need to fill in the gap.

First I shimmed out the two pieces until they were aligned, then welded a piece of scrap in the middle, above the wheel lip area. I didn't go fill it to the top because I am going to use only the bottom three or so inches of the panel.

I then welded in the flange, the part that will spot weld to the wheel house flange. That left the peaked character line area to fill, which needed a bend. Over to the vice for a little bending and shaping, then grinding.

So it took a total of three pieces. Here's how it looks:

I am very happy with this. It fits perfectly.

Now it's time to reconstruct the wheelhouse flange. As mentioned above, I had already put in the first piece of flange when I was fixing the rear wheel house.

In order for everything to line up correctly, I repositioned the patch panel and got some thin strips of sheetmetal from the scrap bin. I positioned the first one inside the wheel lip, and it went from the previously installed piece at the back all the way up and over to within eight or so inches of the front area. This was pretty much a straight shot.

I cut and fit the last piece to the curve of the front of the quarter, then clamped everything onto the patch panel. Now I needed a way to keep it in place because I needed to remove the patch panel to weld everything.

So I cut up some clothes hanger wire, spaced the pieces along the gap, and welded them into place:

I actually thought this was pretty clever. Having endured a painful (and less than successful) recreation of this flange with the prior Lemans, getting this part to line up exactly right was my highest priority.

Front: