Moving forward on the quarterpanel, the rocker at the bottom pinch weld was loose, Many of the spot welds along the rocker were broken like they were never solid, no rust or damage to speak of almost like they were never welded. I also ran into some rust and another plastering of filler. Not only did they cave in the rusty areas and a crappy patch to fill with bondo but the assembly line welded the quarter panel on so poorly that it had a bulge of about 1/4" behind the leaded seam. These Bozos decided to use body filler from the center of the rocker to the wheel opening to make it "straight" and they removed all the trim studs while doing so. Just adds hours to the bill which is just the reason why flat rates are rarely offered. The additional items that were not in the expected scope of work is being covered with an hourly rate, Otherwise I'd be kicking myself.

Section removed, will be doing clean up to the inner panel, even with relief cuts you can see the bulge in the panel. My straight edge is pushing in the panel where it will be welded. Even had to cut the door corner as it is proud of the door too. Lots of these small things add up to a car that is restored better than stock but has to be done make it right.

The Door is not aligned yet for those wondering

Decided to move to the same area on the passenger side to see what we have there. In between I spent a few moments fixing a tiny crack in the rear valance, little things add up but are necessary.

passenger side WORSE Bad Patch warped the [censored] out of the panel, Again they had tons of filler to make it SEEM straight.
hard to make out in the pic but the warp is about 5/16 to 3/8 at its worst. welded and plastered over Just so bothersome.

I am looking for a partial quarter skin, a few inches below the beltline from the door to the wheelwell. if anyone has this either OG or repop Plase PM me here.

All the top surfaces were blocked down to the high-build primer that was on the car prior to the last two paint jobs, the few places that I blocked through showed an etch primer under it, I know there is minimal mil thickness. To seal all that has been done I covered in PPG black epoxy. I did two wet coats with 20 min flash. Did a third coat in key areas and the over-spray gave the entire area a dry appearance.

Within the window for chem adhesion I went ahead and did the first coat of 2K. This will allow me to continue with all the other fab and repair needed elsewhere on the car. With a 120 scuff and a clean surface, the filler I use will have an excellent adhesion and the layers below my work are sealed.

Cant see in these pics but I masked off the areas that still need fab. The trunk jamb, Dutchman, Sail panels and Tail panel will only need blocking before final prime/seal.

Dutchman to quarter panel seam and drip rail, corner detail, trunk jamb all worked and good to go. Just the beginning of knocking areas off the "Things To Do" list

Coming along nicely - hopefully the customer is pleased that you've corrected so much hack work.
A few years a go we stripped a car done by Restorations By Julius because the paint was cracking.
Filled at least 3 5-gallon buckets with material before getting to bare metal, and had to repair a lot of hammer-hits...like ball-peen hits.

Thanks Topside, I know the old way of "fixing" these old cars was done everywhere but now it is all considered HACK jobs. Im doing my best to fix what was done so poorly.

My next step was to remove the door and block it down, when it is off I will address the inner door and the jamb. Cant wait to find whats waiting for me The door blocked out pretty well with just a nickel size ding on the body line and a small patch lower front corner, it too was partially welded and sunk in about 1/8" and filled to be smooth, not flat.

you never know whats hiding behind the paint

Along the jamb at the front of the sill below the hinges was the next surprise. Yes it had some rot but is not totally compromised. a couple patches and as good as new

The bondo lumps are just part of the game. the cowl side has been stripped of paint and ready for sanding once the lower rear rocker damage is repaired.

Well that's not what you wanted to see. Good that you found it though.

Back to the rear of the driver rocker, not photographed but I cleaned up the inner structure by grinding the thin metal away from the rust holes and sandblasting the area then treating it with ospho and good coat of rust inhibiting paint. Prepped my fabricated patch panel with the same paint and weldthrough primer on the edges and flange.

My patch panel was made in two pieces to be able and create the drain slot on the pinch weld and achieve a great fitment over the area. I also welded a bead along the sill where the factory lead filler would normally be.

There is limited access to the backside of the is area, so welding the diagonal seam was a bit of a challenge to not let it sink in since I wont be able to hammer it flat. Some wedges from behind and off dolly slapping and my stud gun did the trick. little time consuming to get flat and straight. I am NOT a metal shaper by trade but its with in my tolerance of 1/32". You can see the weld bead below where the inner rocker structure makes access impossible. I also drilled divots over the factory trim stud locations to either re-weld studs or to use screws depending on the trim clips that are available.

few more pics of the area

Onto driver door...ISSUES with cars that have been passed around and mistreated I chose not to chem strip the door jam on the car or the door. Just counteracting the chemical plus cleanup and the shear mess it would make inside the door made me choose scraping all the paint off, It all gets sanded anyway so it is a lesser of two evils

Issues that you find as you look at the parts on a small scale, you focus on the little things instead of as a whole, that is one reason I like doing 1 or 2 sections or parts at a time. The lower front glass channel slider had broken at some point, and slid down to the bottom of the run, this in turn would not let the glass roll all the way down to allow access to the front mounting bolt through the rectangular window. I assume this led the asshats to literally tear apart the door frame and completely beat the inner door and window regulator mounting to FIX it. They did not!

Another small item is the outer door handle was pushed in enough to split the door frame. I had to put three little stitches into the crack and tweak the area flat so there will not need any filler in this area.

Door sanded, and DP40 epoxy primed. I scraped away every bit of 5 layers of paint poorly adhered to the factory green. In its existence it had been painted Burnt Orange, then Blue then Primed then Blue and Primed again.

Car Jamb sanded and Primed