I am just stripping a fender on my 1972 Vista Cruiser which I believe to be the original one. It had some minimal body filler on the top even though there were no obvious dents or accident damage. Also, deep scratch marks as if someone ground across the sheet metal with a grinder and 40 grit. Is it possible that these were the "touch-ups" that they did when the paint shop came across a fender that was wavy or maybe had some waviness from the stamping process? Also, we know they used lead to fill some of the body seams on the outside of the car. Did they also use plastic body filler by the 70s?

I also had one small rust through at the bottom of the fender. I welded up
the inner brace, but had to make a patch for the lower skin. Not much longer before I turn the car around in my carport so I can get to finish the other side. Tailgate and left doors are already painted...

Thanks, Tom

 

I know my dad used to do body repairs for the dealership across the street when they get a vehicle delivered with a dent or paint issue. Or if it fell off the carrier.. That was in the 70's. and a Pontiac dealership.. No idea why the work was not done in their own body shop but there had to be a reason for it. Only thing we ever could think of is no record of the dealership "fixing " it..

 

No plastic body filler at Framingham in 1972. All the seams were done with lead, and a thin finishing glaze over it for final prep. The nastiest job in the plant, if not the world.

True story: In 1973, the new design B-O-P cars came out. Buick, Olds and Pontiac all had a different rear quarter window that was very different. I saw a car come down the line to the finish area (painted and almost complete) with an Olds quarter panel on one side and a Pontiac quarter panel on the other. The quarter windows were as different as a pig from a cow......

The car was pulled off the line, and the wrong quarter panel was cut off and replaced by hand. The car was then partially painted and sent out the door. It was a quick "hack" job.

These cars were slapped together and shipped out, 60 cars per hour come hell or high water.

 

I lived in the SF Bay Area in Calif. in the 60's and thru rocks at the GM cars on the tracks going bye and they even stopped the train and ran after us but we had bikes and got away. So yes some dents in cars back then but now they have a shield to protect them. Look back at that what dumb asses we were.

 

It sounds like you were bored!

 

My 70 Supreme had a small spot of filler on the top of the passenger fender that was applied before any primer or paint, so Ive always guessed it was a factory fix to save an otherwise good fender. Car is a Lansing built car.

 

Looks like a stamping department correction to me. You can have pimples (get ground down), dimples (get hammered out and then ground down if you over do it), tears (gets welded and ground down) and I am sure there are others, but, generally, you grind it down if possible before chucking the panel.

 

Thanks for all the good comments. Koda, I agree that's what the scratches could be from, but if they were ground down course like that, what was used to even it all out? Just a skim coat of some kind of glazing putty? Did they have 2K back then? I'm just curious. It looks like I will just use a skim coat of Dolphin glaze over my epoxy primer. (I love SPI by the way)....

 

Great Story!

 

I worked at GM starting in '75. We didn't build "a" bodys at my first plant. What I did see was, before paint all dings were repaired with lead or metal finishing techniques only. After paint if something was missed or damaged somewhere in the assembly process repairs were done with plastic filler, after all, they didn't want to use a torch and lead on an assembled car.
BTW, I saw several station wagons come down the line with a Buick or Oldsmobile 1/4 panel on one side and a Chevrolet on the other, but I never saw them get past final body inspection, they never made it to be fully assembled (as far as I know).
One night after the paint department was "computerized" we had a very bad electrical storm, somehow the lighning messed up the computers and caused them to change colors as the cars were going through the paint department. There were several cars that were partially painted several different colors. They sat out behind the body shop for while before they were scrapped.