replacing quarter panel

[Romax55]

Its looking great man. You've done a wonderful job. I'm also a fan of slick sand. It fills and sands so easy. I was going to start a thread about it. Just to let people know how great I think it is.

Damn , I like that 55 dash in your pickup ; did you have to narrow it ? Be safe...Bob.

[BAM55]

Damn , I like that 55 dash in your pickup ; did you have to narrow it ? Be safe...Bob.

No narrowing was needed but a lot of slicing and dicing to make it flow.

[Rick_L]

Picker, back to your original question, I just did a Sherman quarter panel on my 55. Butt welded everything. I can't imagine straightening or hammering lap welded joints. If any end up high, you'll have a difficult time hammer and dollying them down. I had to hammer and dolly just about 100% of the welds. The only exception was the joint along the top of the quarter - it didn't requre much. But if you lap welded that, I'd be afraid of the whole seam being too high or too low with no recourse, because once you flange that, you're stuck wih what you flanged.

The Sherman quarter is a hardtop quarter, and you have to do what Cnut described at the belt line dip. A wagon doesn't have one, and a sedan's is further back than a ht.

Your best bet may be a quarter made by Gold Star. Resto World sells them. They are true sedan quarters. The only deal on it vs. the 55 Sherman quarter are how they stamp and shape the wheel cutout and rocker area. I can tell you that on a 55 Sherman panel the wheel cutout is not as crisp as original and the rocker is not bent far enough. From what I've read on the "other site" those areas are not right on the Gold Star 55 sedan panel either, just different. I was able to work through the issues on the Sherman panel. I have no idea what the issues are on 57 panels, but I'm sure there is something.

One more thing, and this may be worth thinking about. There are two ways to do a lap joint. The one most used is to use a flanging tool. But there is another way, and it may turn out better. Rather than flanging the panel, use a separate piece as a backup. In other words, you have a separate piece of sheet metal 1" wide or so under the seam. That eliminates distortion from a flanging tool, but the joint is still stiff and can't be hammer and dollied. With either the backup sheetmetal or a flange, you're going to be tempted to weld a continuous bead and that's going to be a warpage problem.

[picker45]

Thanks guys for your comments. Now the rest of the story. I've a friend who had his convertible restored by Patricks Classy Chevy in Phoenix who has the record at Barrett Jackson for restored convertibles of 55-57, his resto mod 57 conv this year hit $245,000 and guess what? he lap joints all his panels. That's where I got the idea from. I agree with all but how do you hammer the weld on the ridge of the quarter. You cant get to it. I don't know how otherwise without the lap joint. You've got the inner fender well blocking you from getting to it. YOu would need two people to hammer and dolly that. I thought you all would like to know that the guy who holds the record, lap joints and bondo. His comment was, these are show cars and won't be in rain. They won't wash them?
Dropped off 283 motor to have it bored to 4". Guess where I'm headed with that puppy? Later BH

[Rick_L]

You can get to virtually all of that joint on a 55-56. Much of that joint is covered by the crown molding on the fin on a 57.

The hardest area to get to for me to access for hammering the weld was the seam at the front door jamb. Since I have a sedan and the quarter is for a hardtop, I made the seam about 3/4" back of the door opening, keeping the oriiginal jamb.

I won't argue with a man that can lap joint quarter panels and get $200k + for a car. Still doesn't change my mind.

Also, there are two ways to do lap joints. One is to flange one of the panels. The chance of distorted metal is high before you even get the welder plugged in. Another way is to fabricate a strip, say 1" wide, that goes under what would otherwise be a butt welded joint.

[chevynut]

I wonder if the buyer knew the joints were lap welded. You can hide just about anything with bondo...for a while. I'd be pissed if I found out.

What made the car worth $245K? Got any pics?

[BAM55]

I wonder if the buyer knew the joints were lap welded. You can hide just about anything with bondo...for a while. I'd be pissed if I found out.

I would also be pissed on a car of that magnitude, but they may never find out as often as those show cars change hands. Now a car I buy on the street I expect and seen awful things but a car that is work 245,000 It better look good in bare metal.

Personally I've never seen a car I thought was worth 245,000 no matter how good it looks. I know there are a few that sale with that price tag, but man that is a lot of money to pay for a car lap welds or no lap welds. I saw some very famous car builders rides up close and personal and I was not impressed the body work and I've seen some garage built rides that were straight as an arrow. All I'm saying is quality of work is not always reflected in that price tag.

Not only speaking in general terms I have not seen this 245,000 dollar car.

[Rick_L]

There's an awful lot of cars from "name shops" that have a LOT of bondo, some with a butter coat over the whole car. You can level it with block sanding but will it stay that way?

One of the things I'd fear about a lap weld would be thermal expansion. Will there be a witness line if the car sits in the sun all day?

[BAM55]

There's an awful lot of cars from "name shops" that have a LOT of bondo, some with a butter coat over the whole car. You can level it with block sanding but will it stay that way?

One of the things I'd fear about a lap weld would be thermal expansion. Will there be a witness line if the car sits in the sun all day?

Yes I agree totally.

[Tabasco]

I found a picture of the $240,000 car. Here is a link to their website http://patricksclassycars.com/ They have pictures of several high dollar cars.