Hey Guys,

Need some advice as up till now, all my attention has been under the hood but now it's time to start addressing body issues.

I've attached some pics but long story short, I'm the 2nd owner, car has been sitting for quite a while unprotected before I got it and damage has been done. Hood is bubbling and rusting by head light bezels. Qtrs and fenders all show signs of rust around wheel lips, rocker arms, etc. Seems to be all the common places as OPGI and YearOne all sell patch panels for the exact places I'm rusting at.

Where do I start? Patch panels or replacing complete panels? Patch for quarters and fenders are affordable while full quarters and replacement fenders are pricey plus freight costs. I'd like to keep the original equip but I'm not even wanting to know labor costs involved as I know it will be high. I don't have tools or space to do this work myself, nor do I have the know-how so anyone know a shop in South Jersey they could recommend? Each time I look at the car to do another item, I'm noticing the rust just getting worse and it's killing me.

 

From the pictures it doesn't look that bad. The problem is until you dig into it you really don't know how far the rust goes. The hood probably has a lot of rust on the inside structure from what I see in the picture. That might be a simple case of finding a new rust fee hood and doing little body work and paint. The fenders don't look bad, mostly surface rust. How do the heals look? The quarters, again don't look too bad, but that is where you run into more then meets the eye. I now have a set of outer wheel wheels and repop quarters for my 71 and haven't took the leap yet to fix them. Again mine are really bad but once I realized that the rust was not into the rockers or the truck hang downs I knew it was just remove and weld in new. Being that I am not skilled in this field I haven't attempted any thing more then small cuts along the openings to expose the damage. I opened up my quarters above the wheel well about 6 inches and drilled out the spots on the trunk hang downs and up the trunk line about half way. I didn't take anything near where the new quarter would need to butt weld in. I then cut out the whole quarter leaving about 6 inches all the way around to make sure not to remove any metal needed. At that point i could see everything. i cleaned up the wheel houses and decided on new outers. This is where i stopped. I thought patches were options but now need new quarters and outers. Rust sucks.

 

Really hard to say by those pics. What folks need to know is whether that's surface rust or if it's rusted through. Some of the areas look like they could be patched. Find out the extent of the rust first, then get back on here?

Your car is a 70 so the front fenders are relatively unique if the upper parts are in good shape. You don't want to replace them unless you absolutely have to if the goal is to keep it as original as possible.

If you need OEM metal, there are 2 guys in IN who might be able to help you with metal from cars they have parted out.
Scott - oldspackrat (Indianapolis IN)
Eric - Jensenracing77 (Brazil IN)

 

I hate rust..hope someone on CO can suggest a shop, looks like your quarter panels need either replacement or a lot of work. Sometimes it's more cost effective to replace fenders and doors, if rust free parts are available.

 

I would start with the hood, pull the trim and see if that was caused by rusting from inside out or if it had a rock chip that started rusting could be a easy fix.
Fender I agree it don't look to bad I would pull the fender trim as well or the whole fender and see how bad it is

That rear quarter don't look to bad, but this is the area that has a lot more to it. metal over laps from panel to panel but like what's been suggest above pull trim grind some of the rust and see how bad it is. It's either coming from inside out or from around the trim area.
Unless you have a lot if cash to spend body work is expensive. I would do as much as you can or replace what you can before taking it it

I know this thread is a different year but you can see how involved it may

" body repair tips 64/65 more ?"
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums/showthread.php?p=640637#post640637