I have a 69 Cutlass i am getting ready to put quarters on. The rust thats there is not too bad so I dont have to go up to the top of the quarter skins. I was thinking of keeping the repair low but then i run the risk of seeing the flanged edge in the trunk. Which leads me to my next question... how do we feel about flanged edges then welding? It would all be sealed up nicely but i want to ask what you all think.. With my luck if i butt welded them together it would turn into a big giant gapped nightmare.. Thoughts? Attached are a few pics of the car.
Generally, a flanged repair will be easier to do than a butt weld. However, the possibility of the flanged seam rusting over the years is far more likely given the overlapped panels. Most of the guys I know change only as much metal as needed, and try to preserve as much of the original panel as possible. I might recommend a You Tube search for "quarter panel". Do a search for some of the stuff from V8 TV.com. They did full and partial quarters on several cars, including a 71 Cutlass. I think it was the "S71" project, and they did just the lower on that car. Also, I recently ran across Muscle Car Restorations in WI. Check out their website, as they have thousands of photos of restorations on the site, and you can see what those guys do in pro restos. You will be amazed at the effort put into saving some of these cars. Good luck, RudyE.
I did my GS 20 years ago with flanged welds.....use weld-thru primer and you will be fine.....use Cleco pins to hold the panel in place while you skip around welding........to this day, no rust problems with my GS!
