Crack in body near driprail/top area

[Wahoo]

What do I do about this? Does this mean my car was a race car lol

 

[Wahoo]

It's on the passenger side of the car above the rear of the door window / drip rail.

Seems like there's some filler on the underside of the drip rail near this area, which is on both sides of the car but this crack in the actual body of the car is only on the passenger side.

 

[Wahoo]

 

[Steve V]

Nope, pretty common is all gbodies for our era. Get it welded up and install all the braces you can. Then it will still come back

 

[Wahoo]

Nope, pretty common is all gbodies for our era. Get it welded up and install all the braces you can. Then it will still come back

I have been welding patch panels in the car so I think I should be able to weld it just fine, but I'm a little worried about if I blew a hole in that area lol

How thick is the metal there, is it hard to weld it back up?

 

[TurboTGuy]

Nope, pretty common is all gbodies for our era. Get it welded up and install all the braces you can. Then it will still come back

So true! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

 

[Steve V]

I am not a body man. Mine welded it up and it was back even before I started beating on the car. I have rear seat braces, front frame braces.

 

[Wahoo]

So there's no way around it?

 

[deezdad]

My 2 cents all available braces as mentioned above, all new body bushings including gnx bushing, New springs and Bilsteins all around would assist in keeping things "straight".

 

[Wahoo]

So has anyone welded them up before?

 

[Wahoo]

Ok I tried to weld it up and it seems like it has lead or some type of body solder that was used previously because it just melts and sizzles when I try to weld it, welder on lowest voltage and wire speed reduced to the point the wire just melts and pops.

You can see I did fix some of it, but I think If I keep trying it will only get worse, I might have to see if I can have a friend give me a hand, he was an autobody master tech, and has done restorations, so we will see.

 

[BEATAV8]

My body man fixed mine back in 2002. He really went at it! Ground out all the lead and reinforced the area with plate steel. The cracks never came back even though I race the snot out of it.

 

[RUDE DOG]

Ok I tried to weld it up and it seems like it has lead or some type of body solder that was used previously because it just melts and sizzles when I try to weld it, welder on lowest voltage and wire speed reduced to the point the wire just melts and pops.

You can see I did fix some of it, but I think If I keep trying it will only get worse, I might have to see if I can have a friend give me a hand, he was an autobody master tech, and has done restorations, so we will see.

Thats where the roof skin meets the quarter panel skin.The seam is lead filled from the factory.

 

[WildGS]

That seam is full of lead

 

[2QUICK2B6]

adds caracter

 

[2QUICK2B6]

my car has cracks no big deal

 

[Wahoo]

Is there a filler that can be used? Kevin Tetz said there's one with aluminum strands?

 

[WildGS]

All metal

 

[Wahoo]

So I was told on an autobody forum that the all metal will probably crack, but I do't know what else to use besides that or duraglass, anyone fix this themselves?

I'm not grinding out all the lead to weld in a plate, its not worth investing that much into it when its common with all of these cars.

 

[captndave737]

lead is more flexible and holds up better than filler. Before I had my car painted 18 years ago I did some lead work on it. I had never done it before but had a body work book that showed how to do it. It took a little practice but it worked. I built it up a little high and then used a longboard to sand it down.