Hey,
I just removed the rear window of my 71 cutlass S and discovered a huge amount of rust underneath the trim and the vinyl top. I don't believe that there's only surface rust. Looks pretty bad. So I think I have to replace the sheet metall. Unfortunately there only are aftermarket quarter panels that go to the bottom end of the B-pillar and living in Germany there's no chance of getting that piece from a donor car.
On German TV there was a guy who tacked a piece of sheet metall on top of the rusty fender wells of a dodge truck, heated it up with a blowtorch and hammered it in shape. Is that a technique I can apply for my issue?
Thanks,
Julian

 

That rust is unfortunately common on these cars. The correct way to repair it is to form a replacement channel using a shrinker/stretcher that will allow you to make a channel that matches the curved contour of the pinchweld area. Frankly, anything else will not look that nice. There is a full replacement roof panel now available, but it only goes to the top of the pillars. By the way, the pillars on either side of the rear windows are the C-pillar. The ones on the windshield are the A-pillars, and the ones at the back of the doors are the B-pillars. A hardtop doesn't have B-pillars, but a post car does.

 

Julian, can you post pictures of the area your describing? I'm thinking you can fabricate the top of the roof if needed. I'm not finding it right now, but there's another member in Europe that used a roof panel from a Mercedes on his 4 door hardtop restoration. Then if you only need the panels between the roof and quarter panel it may be possible to ship used ones to you.... without it costs a ton of money! John

 

Thanks joe_padavano and 2blu442!
I will post pictures soon. Shouldn't be a problem to get Mercedes parts here in Germany .

 

Hey.
Finallly got the pictures. Seems like I HAVE to replace the whole area. So if anybody is able to get hold of some patch panels for the B pillar and wouldn't mind shipping them to Germany I would be very thankful. Maybe there's also a way to send them to a buddy of mine in California.

 

You can also try Arizona Wholesale Classics.
www.arizonawholesaleclassics.com
They may be able to find the part, and ship it to you.
I could not get their website to load down, here is their phone # 480.330.1495

As for the shrinker/stretcher, try Eastwood.
http://search.eastwood.com/search?as...&p=Q&ts=custom
I am sure this will cost much, much less, maybe you can make some extra Euro's once you get good with it.
Good luck
Jim

 

Thanks for the advice! I actually got the eastwood shrinker/stretcher now and I'll give it a try. What thickness of sheet metall would you recommend to make the patches?

 

I just built an entire rear window channel for a 71 442. I used a bench vise and a foot operated shrinker/stretcher and it came out great. 18-20 gauge should work well, I used 18. I tried to upload pics of the patch panels but they kept failing during the upload. Check in my album in the next few days if you like. 1971 442 Restoration

 

Thanks I would be very happy about seeing some photos! Did you experience that the horizontal part of the channel right where the roof panel starts has a slightly different profile than at the C-Pillar? How did you achieve a fluent blending?

 

I wish I had seen this earlier, because I have a rust-free (in that area) body standing around that you could either fetch or I could cut and send to you, which would be very cheap from Denmark.

 

That's a shame! That could have been too easy! I got myself all those tools now. What price would you ask for the window channel? I wanted to fabricate it myself as a low budget solution.

 

I have no idea, but off-hand I'd say shipping+handling+€150? Before I say more, I think I should find pictures of said window channel, which won't happen for another two weeks.

 

That's reasonable thank you. I'm very interested. Seems to be a better solution than fabricating it. Btw do you have some other parts such as the area where the trunk lock is sitting. I'm talking about the part above the bumper, not the trunk lid.

 

It was crushed from being rear-ended in that area, but I'll take pictures of that as well. Just remind me in two weeks, either by posting here or messaging me. You have two weeks to come up with more stuff that you need as well. :P

 

Got it. Thanks again

 

No problem.

 

I was just wondering cause I realised you got two notchbacks. The parts car is a "fastback" though right?

 

Well, that was silly of me not to notice. No, the parts car is a notchback as well. You'll have to wait for the experts to tell you if one can be used to fix the other.

 

Yes I guess I gotta wait for the experts. Unfortunately I can't find any good pics of that area. On top of that most supremes have a vinyl top where you can't really see the contour:-/. I could imagine that I could use the horizontal part but I'm not too sure.

 

The easiest way to find out would be to ask if a notchback rear window fits in a fastback body.

 

OPGI offers two different types of rear windows so I guess it doesn't fit. I will get back at you for that trunk lock section though. Maybe the area I need is not affected by the accident.

 

Sure thing.

 

I believe you are referring to the corners of the rear glass channel? I posted a couple pics in the album 1971 442 Restoration of the corners. To achieve what will become a fluent blend with a little more work, I fabricated the channel in 3 pieces. The upper piece across the roof line slightly overlaps the channels on each side. I welded the seam and ground it down. As you can see in the pictures it needs a little more weld to fill the lows. The horizontal part of the channel I left longer and once I had the pieces tack welded in place I shape the radius with a cut off wheel and grinder. Check out my album, let me know if you have any questions. After playing with my shrinker/stretcher for a bit, building the pieces was pretty simple, tedious but simple.

 

Good job! I think I'm gonna do it the same way. I planned to fabricate it in 4 pieces because the leaf brake I'm using is not long enough for that part across the the roof line. How did you achieve such a radius with the bench vise?
Btw I couldn't really tell from the pictures but did you replace the entire C-pillar skin? I probably need to do that including the curved back part of the side window. I saw you got some rust issues there as well.

 

I actually used a piece of angle iron mounted into the vice. I would clamp the sheet metal to the angle iron and form a 90 degree bend with a hammer. The metal had to be clamped very securely every couple inches or else it would start to warp. As far as the c-pillar goes, I haven't replaced that area yet. I have an english wheel but I don't have the correct dies for it. I'm just looking for a piece to replace it with.

 

I'm pretty much done with the driver side area of the rear window frame. Looks pretty much like kkrawczyk's job. I was just wondering if I can get rid of those fasteners that can be seen on the pic. Are they just for the vinyl top?