I melted off the lead on the A-pillar/upper cowl joint and I find these strange welds. I'm actually surprised they didn't blow right through the panels given the size of the bead !!

I give credit to the guys who did the lead work back then - it had to have been 1/4" thick in some areas. How would they have applied that much lead in the door area and finished it for the proper gap without the door installed? They couldn't have done the lead with the door in place but the gaps were good.

those welds look good compared to what was under the lead on my 33 dodge humpback. the lead was also 1/4-5/16" thick. there may have been some kind of template-on-a-stick [for lack of a better descriptive term] used by the workers to get the contours needed for reasonable gaps and body shapes. other thoughts ?

One of my bother in laws that did production welding for years was looking at the torque box welding on my '67. I asked him why the welds looked so crappy. His thought was big wire, lots of current, fast travel speed. On the line I guess time is everything.

I worked with a guy who lived in Detroit and worked for GM in the 1970s. He was on the assembly line and at times they would have him fill in on other jobs. He told me they sent him to do leading on roof seams, something he never did before. He did it for an eight hour shift. The guys in finishing and body work complained that he was putting too much lead on, and it was taking them too long to grind it all down. I wonder how many cars that day were made with a guy who had no idea what he was doing. These factories would just have you fill in when someone called in sick, etc. I know someone who bought a 1972 Duster 340 brand new. Many years later he went to have the car repainted and discovered the side stripe must have been damaged at the factory. Their answer for repair? They put another stripe right over the old one!

I've owned my '69 RR since '73. 3rd owner. When I pulled the door panel off I found a plastic baseball bat lying in the bottom of the door.

The K member welds look like they were done by a rookie his first day on the job - with no previous welding experience.

My e-brake has a broken stop tab and a note in pencil on the part that reads "bad break" - I know this is original because the paint and undercoating was still intact on the nuts on the firewall

Cold Fusion.