UNIBODY REPAIR

Well, would you look at that rust hole. An easy way out is to grind, bondo and forget. Unfortunately the previous owner had the privilege to do that and his repair has not lasted and actually has made the area worse. This area of the quarter panel is an interesting design based on cheapness. The quarter panel wraps around the rocker and allows water and debris to accumulate and destroy the area. This approach is unlike Ford / GM where the rocker panel went the entire length of the vehicle and the quarter panel adjoined on the top of it. Not everything Mopar did was sane. If you walk through a Mopar junkyard and see a 67 - 69 cuda with some rust, 8 out of 10 are rotted through in this area.

A closer look. Being that this is a convertible I must investigate further as excessive rot in a convertible can render the vehicle unsafe. Further probing indicates that the lower 4" of the quarter panel is junk along with dangerous erosion through the outside part of the inner rocker panel.

Measure twice cut once. To get at the inner rocker rust I had to cut off the lower part of the outside quarter panel. The lower quarter panel I removed to gain access was just bondo and rust. With this section cut out you can see the rest of the rocker panel tapering inwards in this area. Interesting note, the remaining quarter panel section that seems good is actually thin metal and needed another cut about 3" higher from this initial cut so my replacement panel is a bit larger than planned.
Back to the rocker repair. The rocker below the lower corner of the door was the weakest part. You could easily punch a screwdriver through the metal. I noticed when I first owned the car that there were weird vibrations in the chassis and I assume this rot had something to do with it. This is just another reason why every 30 year old car should have subframe connectors installed. Who knows what is below the paint or sheetmetal as cars tend to rust from the inside out.

After having the car sandblasted I made a cover patch panel for the rotted area with some 16 gauge metal. This "L" shaped patch will cover the rocker from the sides to underneath for maximum strength. I drilled holes in the panel for plug welds to initially tackweld the panel in place before I ran a full bead around the perimeter.

The final patch successfully installed before a little paint. This is an excellent area to apply those expensive rust proofing coating such as POR15 or Corroless. The next step is to install our patch panel, which can be found at my Front Quarter Repair section.

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