Just had the vinyl top removed on my 1971 Cutlass Supreme,knew there was rust but the filler panel seems to have been worked on but the top looked original. Anyone ever seen this before ?

 

If you are talking about the panel between the back window and the trunklid, rust there is common. There's a repro panel available.

 

No rust but it looks like half of it horizontially was replaced,bad job. It just all looked original.

 

JH-
I had a similiar find on my 70 cutlass.The deck panel was an ueven mess.Started to sand etc and found 2 horizontal patches at each corner of deck.I filled and sculpted with short strand fibreglass and eventually got it back to original specs, so the back window will fit and drain water properly-not into car!.A little 2-stage sanding and primer and sand and primer and ready for paint !I also unplugged drain holes that were filled with 40 years of crud!
Here are some pics-not the greatest but gives you an idea

Ted

 

do you have any pictures? i have removed vinyl tops on 4 cars and all of them were unfinished where the quarter meats the top. not sure if that is what you are talking about.

 

Looking good Ted. Get a real camera next time instead of your phone
Haven't met one of these cars yet where the water didn't drain into the car at the bottom corners. Probably a cheap design that GM didn't figure it was worth fixing. Don't forget that back in the day, most people only kept their car for 3-5 years before trading it in.

 

I think this is what JH is talking about...was not sure
Those pics I posted suck!That was not my cell phone, must have had camera in the wrong setting.I will ask my 13 yr old son to take them next time