The Dart Im looking at possibly buying was originally a vinyl top. It was taken off and top painted at some point. From what I understand, they used bondo at the seam on vinyl top cars, and lead on others.
Well the bondo on this car looks to be seperating and causing dime to quarter sized bubbles on both sides. From what I can tell, this is the only problem area. All glass channels are clean and rust free. I have seen and heard about this before so I know its fairly common. But I have to admit that I am not a body guy. So is this a relatively easy fix? Or is it something that should cause me to reconsider getting the car?
Btw, car will be used as a weekend cruiser. No show. Maybe strip once to see what it can do.
Thnx for the help.

The lead or filler could be lifting due to rust in the joint. To fix it means paint and body work. You remove the lead or filler take care of rust then you can use USC all metal filler to fill the majority of the seam then a high quality filler to fair the seam out. Then paint.

There is no cheap fix unless you do the work yourself. The sail panel joints will have to be stripped out on both sides of the roof down to bare metal and start over. You will wind up having to repaint the roof and both quarter panels if there is no moulding to give you a break point. another option rather than that would be to fix the joints and put a vinyl roof back on it. If you buy it try to find out what type and brand of paint is on the car. Use the same if at all possible to avoid any problems. Good luck.

Furystump & mgoblue9798 are giving outstanding advice & I'm dealing with a similar situation on another car. I'm sure that surface rust underneath is important, but that area is also an area of "stress/twist". To 100% eliminate that, I think you'd have the seam removed & weld in some custom fabricated patches. Redoing it every 8-10 yrs. "as is" is an option too for that matter.

Putting the vinyl roof back on would be my pick. Just do some good quality rust removal, fill (steel fill sounds good), touch up paint to seal it & put a new vinyl roof on...looks cool....no vehicle repaint. my 2-cents

Good info guys. Spoke with a coworker who used to be a body guy and he said the same thing. No easy fix.
I was on the fence about the car cuz the motor needs a rebuild which is fine. But the seller is asking to much as is. Now since this is a "bigger" deal than I originally thought, I think its best to pass and keep looking.
Thanks for the heads up guys!

Any time you repair a seam or over a weld the best stuff I've found is USC Duraglas. This stuff won't bubble later and holds up VERY well., been using it for many years with great results.

Another option is to use a body filler called all metal. There are a few different brands. If the surface is prepped properly and sprayed with a rust converter this stuff will last. The factory started using regular bondo instead of lead in the 60's and even it lasted for 30 years on most cars. It is all about the prep. Any rust or moisture left will cause problems and make the filler fail.