I am looking at a 70 Rallye 350. Everything on the car looks great with the exception of the quarter repairs. For those that do body work, would you have put a new skin on or just replaced the wheel lip. To me it looks like they cut 4 inches back and 4 inches above the wheel opneing and welded in a patch - it is like this on both sides.

 

I would suspect a ton of filler to be in the area of that weld. Without some sort of body line to firm up the sheetmetal warping is all but guaranteed..

It is also likely there are more patches throughout the car.. you never see rust in the 1/4s like that without rust elsewhere. Unless it was a collision repair, which is unlikely given the same problem on the other side.

 

I don't know maybe it's me, but that looks like a good repair compared to what I have seen. I cant speak to how well it may hold up, but I suspect the car looks perfect from exterior. Figuring museum piece price vs driver price is the rationalizer.

 

My concern would be with the outside edge area of the wheelhouse. Where the flange of the QP spot welds to the flange of the wheelhouse. If the QP was rusted, it is highly likely that the flange of the wheelhouse was just as rusty. Take a small mirror and a light and look over that area closely. Long thread, but you may find value in a quick skim through it.

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I also found that the lower fenders just aft of the wheels were rusted away, and had been fiberglassed in. Use a magnet to check those areas and see if there is steel behind the paint. A little plastic body filler to blend in a welded steel patch is to be expected, but a fiberglass patch to take the place of steel is not something I can live with.

 

It's too bad about the quarters. The underside of the car is spotless and the level of detail on the rest of the car is amazing

 

Just sayin, I bought a 68 S that needed the bird's nest areas redone. My paint guy took care of it and you could not tell they were there after the fact. That was the only area on the car that needed attention as far as rust. Please keep in mind these cars are driven on sunny days and not as a daily. They never see bad weather. Those quarters will never rust again at least they didn't on mine. I had it nearly 15 years, no issues with the repairs. May be a good way to get into something that would otherwise be out of your budget.

 

For 40K + I was hoping for something without patches like that. The video of the underside looks extremely clean and well detailed

 

Not necessarily a bad repair. Someone appeared to make an effort at replacing rusted steel with a partial new steel patch. If it removed and replaced all of the rotted sheetmetal, then it would be an OK repair. If I had to guess what happened, it would be that the flange area of the wheelhouse was also rotted away, and not replaced, as that is difficult to do without removing the full QP (or making the QP patch much larger) to get good working access. When I look at one of your pics, there looks to be an adhesive or other type of bridge from the wheelhouse to the QP. It may last a long time the way it is. I wouldn’t rule out the car the way it is. But it is certainly a bargaining chip in your favor. If you look at the inside edge of the wheel arc area, where the SS trim screws on to the car, you should be able to see two layers of metal. If you just see one, then somebody used a “creative” way to attach QP to wheelhouse. Adhesives of one sort or another. Just my thoughts from miles away.

 

Agreed. That's pretty steep. Mine was just north of 20k. You get into the 40s you better have your act together.

 

Post pics of the outside wheel areas as well as the whole car. That repair may well be just fine, as stated, look between the wheel well lip and outer wheel housing to see if was done well. Hell most of these cars have all had rust repair done.. the key is if it’s done well.

 

My guy hid the front fender repair in a shadow on the lower fender. Hard to explain but it sure was cool what he did. You could not see it. As I stated above, The car was then driven on sunny days only for the 15 years by me. The repair was never in jeopardy. Hopefully this car acts the same way.

 

Looks like a decent, appropriate repair to me. Yes, woulda been nice if they ground the weld a bit smoother and skim coated the repair before spatter painting. If the outside looks good and car will be a fair weather flyer, I wouldn’t sweat it. Use it as a negotiating point. At the risk of being a dick, it’s a Rally, not a concourse W30 convertible.

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Personally, I would rather have as much OEM metal as possible - those imported partial quarters are crap and frankly the joints that most people make are not best practice. Unfortunately without removing all the paint and taking the car to bare metal, there is no way to know how good a job was done. From the little we can see, the repairs don't look bad. And a skilled welder using TIG with proper patch panel fitment and weld planishing will remove all warpage. Unfortunately most people use MIG with gaps that are far too large, resulting in the need for a lot of filler.

 

This is true, original metal needs to stay, only replace whats needed. Tig welding is an art and often times you cannot get to tight areas. I use a mig but spend a good amount of time make sure my patch has minimal gap to minimize warpage. If you take your time it doesn’t warp bad at all. However even grinding down the weld if not dine slowly will cause panels to warp.

 

Thanks guys for all the feedback... I think the seam sealer portion can be fixed and repainted. It is the big neads of foam between the quarter and wheel well that concern me the most. The car is 8 hours away and don't feel like driving only to find out it is garbage. I have a video of the underside but it won't let me post here. It looks like a new floor pan or a very solid original. Every nut and bolt on the underside is detailed - this was the only thing that bothered me

 

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You did well to investigate. One other thing I thought of, was to ask the Seller to remove the door jamb vent and take a picture of the wheelhouse and QP interaction on the front side. If nothing else, it will help Seller realize that a visible compromise was likely used in the repair, and that will affect selling price.

I am not so sure that personally I would not buy that car, just not at that price.

steve

 

@Vintage Chief thanks for the idea. Below is a video of the underside

 

That's the way to do it. Good job.

 

So why would the quarters be so bad when the underside is so clean

 

The floor pan looks like it's been replaced. It looks like a lap seam at the 0:41 mark of the video. That's pretty common. Most people doing a non-concourse restoration aren't going to butt weld floor pans.

The quarter panel repair is decent. Just because they didn't completely back-grind (or bondo) the inside of the trunk isn't the end of the world. When I did mine I only back ground what I could get to. Unless you burn every spot weld and disassemble the car, there are always repair areas that are blind and you don't have access to anyway

Now-a-days they glue everything with panel bond and smooth it out with filler. In my mind that's not a viable "forever" solution. At some point moisture is going to get in the seam.

I'm not sure why you think the quarters are "bad". Even dry desert cars get rust in places and have to be repaired. It's 50 something years old.

And for $40k you're looking at way better than an amateur restoration. For everything perfect you'd probably be North of $100k

 

Mike is right about the lap joint on floor. Again, could have been finished better, but not bad.

OldGreen made a good suggestion, pull the jamb vents and get a look see at the wheelhouse, rocker & quarter.

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Excellent response, 100% agree. To many want perfect concourse , unless your looking for a show car then be willing to pay that price..

 

If he would let you use a mill thickness gauge and it doesn’t have much filler it should be fine. If you do decide to make the 8 hour trip don’t pressure yourself into buying it if it looks worse in person.
Dustin

 

It looked like a can of worms to me for 42K. Someone else ended up buying it. Thank you all for your feedback.