I just welded a pair of AMD quarter panels to my '69 Coronet. I spot welded the part of the quarter that meets the rocker below the corner of the doors. Should I also run a full bead of weld along the edge of the new querter panel where it lays on top of the rocker where the factory had previously covered it with lead? I can't remember how it was when I removed them. Thax, Steve

I'm not sure what the factory did, but I do know that if you have a seam that is to be covered with bondo you have to weld it 100% or it will crack and show. Good luck!

They were spot welded then leaded at the factory. I think it makes sense to weld the entire seam in this case and coat with a quality filler rather than lead. The solid weld will help prevent moisture from getting between the panel and filler and hopefully somewhat reduce body flex. Although if if it does flexes, the filler will probably crack.

Maybe a bump shop pro will chime in and give us their opinion.

I'm no pro, but I've done a fair amount of body work over the years. Never have had any cracks if its welded 100%, and I've stressed out more than a couple of these cars on the track.

I do alot of them and like alot of areas the rockers being one of them the factory mig welded along with spot welds. You see it alot at the sail panel (roof to 1/4) rear floor pan centers just to name a few. I spot weld then seam weld long beads just to be over kill at the rocker and it can be without solid welds as long as you weld around 75% of the seam . I never had problems with body work cracking and have done them like that with no issues for years. See sheet metal being undrill and re-welded on my video's section of my web site www.Jaycuda.com I put alot of cars in metal work on the site.

I agree with the above. I like to weld those areas solid, just keep the heat down so as not to buckle the area as you do so (especially the roof).
We lead our joints, but you can use a good quality filler & shouldn't have any problems.

Mr. Jaycuda, What do you make your spot welds with? Saw the back of the green hemi car they look very nice.

I will take some pix of the unit and post them along with model info. We upgraded this spring to the water cooled machine. Like most of the bigger units it has a dubble side head with an assortment of changable weld tongs for different reach areas and the single sided gun for some of the areas that are to hard to reach. To get the spot welds to look correct size per area I custome grind the electrode tip or in some cases turn the setting current, thickness,# of sheets of metal, head type exc It has lots of tunning on the panel bord and this helps tune the burn look as well as get the weld penetration needed.

Spot welder pix

Single side pic and one of the longer reach tong sets. The tongs have removable tips so I grind them for larger or smaller spot weld look. The single sided is controled more by setting and being sure the ground is on the correct piece of sheet metal on the correct side. That is everything on sinle sided welding or you will have what most people talk about as ending up with, a weld that will not hold or look correct. Hope this will give everyone a better idea of the unit Jay. www.jaycuda.com

last pic

Thanks Jaycuda That thing does a nice job

My car has the same cracking too. The last guy who owned it did the body work and filled in the seams on the trunk panel behind the rear window and the seams where the rockers meet the quarters. Of course they cracked, they always do. Well I could see it holding up just fine if they were welded but seems that never occurs to these guys.

Quoted from Resto Rick's website:

The other place I insist on using lead is on the roof seams and rocker panel to quarter joints. These seams are vulnerable to “telegraphing”. A condition where the seam becomes visible in the hot sun. It’s caused by differences in expansion of the different metal thicknesses and stress differences of the panels. Use of any plastic based filler will not stop it!...This includes All Metal, Metal-To-Metal, Tiger Hair, DuraGlas, any ‘glass strand fillers, etc. The only cure I’ve had success with is to lead the seam.

I leaded my quarter panels on. While some believe lead work isn't a necessity; I've been thru the band aid effect before when my car was black. The lead kits today are high solder content making it a little easier to apply. Here's a pic where I leaded the lower rocker. Almost upside down when I did it.

I had never heard of telegraphing up until about 2 weeks ago watching an episode of Stacy Davids Gearz. He is a tig weld guy because it minimizes this. Very interesting as I thought mig welded and bondoed up was as good as it got.

Doing leadwork isn't as hard as some imagine. With the higer amount of solder now, it's not as much of a health risk either. I would recommend doing it outside if possible. E bodies have such a large visible sail panel; I would advise leadwork over filler based on my past experiences of telegraphing.