C pillar gouge

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Joined
Sep 24, 2012
Messages
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Location
Leesburg, VA
My Car
1971 Mustang Coupe
So I've start poking around some of the cracks in the paint on my car and I "unearthed" this gouge in the "C" pillar you can see in the picture. I had always thought this part of the sheet metal was one piece. But I can clearly see an overlap in the gouge. Any way to fix this other than just bondo it back over? Just worried it'll bubble up again in a couple years. I'm certainly not skilled enough to cut it out and replace it.

IMG_7799.JPG

 
It's the roof-to-quarter seam, which is leaded over from the factory.

It is not uncommon for badly-prepped examples to rust underneath the lead, causing the lead to split apart as on your '71. Granted, I cannot tell if your car has factory lead, or if someone went over it later on with a sealer. Either way, there appears to be quite a bit of rust at that seam, which will continue to give you problems if you simply try to skim it over.

Since your '71 is partially disassembled, I'd suggest that you clean the entire area until it is rust free (pull the rear window if you have to), then follow Q's suggestions in his recent roof seam video/thread:

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-video-resto-tips?highlight=roof

Check the other side too - if you do pull the rear window, you might as well fix whatever the PO or Ford screwed up.

-Kurt

 
Kurt, thank you so much. That was a great video to send my way! Complements to Qcode351mach as well! It gives me a little more hope that I can actually do this myself. I'm finding a lot more rust on this thing than I first thought...


Speaking of more rust... Found this as well. I'm wondering if I have any metal at all from the side light down on the rear quarter... :(

IMG_7805.JPG

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Speaking of more rust... Found this as well. I'm wondering if I have any metal at all from the side light down on the rear quarter... :(
Just be glad that it looks as if you may only need to chop up a couple of repop quarter panel donors (or use the entire panel if you so choose) at the beltline or lower - I have to contend with replacing an entire quarter panel right up the C-pillar on my Mach 1. Not easy.

-Kurt

 
Mister 4x4, you give me hope for the future! haha I'm assuming you've have some shop knowledge. I may have to follow SM3570's and pay for the privilege myself! Or at least somewhere in between. Not going to let this car beat me though.

So if they filled the roof to quarter seam with lead and some is left over I'm going to get lead dust in my garage? You guys do anything to combat that?

 
Yeah, I had somewhat better than basic shop knowledge - but nothing like I needed as I went along - I learned the things I've done so far pretty much on the fly. The big thing is to not be afraid of messing it up. Of course, on a project like mine that's not really a problem - nowhere to go but up. LOL

Definitely wear a dust mask when grinding/sanding on the leaded areas, then make sure to clean it up after. Can't really get away from having to do something with it. If you're really worried about it and will be repainting the whole car, you might consider removing all of the lead in the roof seams on the other side, and on both A-pillars (which is what I'll be doing to mine, since I'll be taking the body down to nothing anyway). If the other spots are in good shape, I'd leave 'em alone and just fix the one you showed.

 
Yeah, I had somewhat better than basic shop knowledge - but nothing like I needed as I went along - I learned the things I've done so far pretty much on the fly. The big thing is to not be afraid of messing it up. Of course, on a project like mine that's not really a problem - nowhere to go but up. LOL

Definitely wear a dust mask when grinding/sanding on the leaded areas, then make sure to clean it up after. Can't really get away from having to do something with it. If you're really worried about it and will be repainting the whole car, you might consider removing all of the lead in the roof seams on the other side, and on both A-pillars (which is what I'll be doing to mine, since I'll be taking the body down to nothing anyway). If the other spots are in good shape, I'd leave 'em alone and just fix the one you showed.
Yeah I'm going to take it all down to bare metal I think. It's been painted 4 times from what I can tell. Red, white, red, gray; so I've got a good amount to take off. And the paint is cracked on the other seam so I'm assuming I've got some rust on that side as well.

What's the name of the epoxy primer you're using on your body? I started doing my apron with roller bar chassis paint but I don't want to use that on the body itself. So I'm just using a sandable primer. Just curious if I should be using something better. I'm not trying to paint the car myself just prep it to make it easier for a paint shop.

 
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