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Old 01-14-2018, 01:03 PM
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Default 1964 Pontiac GTO repairs

Now that I've gone through the work I performed on the '52 Dodge pickup thread, I'll switch to a more "regular" type restoration on a '64 GTO that is currently in the shop.

This first post will focus around the fabrication and replacement of a large portion of the driver's door skin.

Unfortunately another employee of ours started the repairs on the door and uncovered severe damage to the skin and some decent damage to the front of the door shell. The exterior of the door had 62 holes punched in from previous "slide hammer" repairs. These were just filled over and not welded. He initially started trying to repair the original skin (nothing available for aftermarket replacements) part way through we decided it was a wasted effort and it would be best to fab a new skin. I say "unfortunately started" only in the regards I don't have the "start" pictures on my phone or computer to share here......only the pictures from when I took over the task of the door.

(descriptions below each picture)

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Here I've already rough shaped the new skin. This was done after making a couple test "strips" to get the correct bend layout and radius / crowns to the panel.

The main body lines were done on the metal brake, followed up with a little work in the English wheel to add crown to the panel and to help "blend" in the curves to the body lines.

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This side view shows a test fit lightly clamped into position, checking fit on the shell for the bodylines.

Note: The bottom edge had a 90 deg. flange that was hemmed over eventually since the fit to the rocker was real nice. The front and back edge were "edge welded". This was done to maintain the factory looking hem and spot welds on the inside of the shell and also each edge needed gap refinements anyways.

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Here the skin was removed (edges ground off to ease through factory hem edge) Front door shell damage was repaired at this point (and test fit again) followed up by sandblasting inside and out and epoxy primer on the inside where inaccessible later.

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Test fit the door skin on one last time to scribe along the top to do the final trim. (temporarily screwed along front and rear edges)

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Tack welded along the top seam. Rear edge has already been edge welded and initially gapped.

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TIG welded upper seam full length of door.

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Weld seam ground and initial metalwork / planishing performed.

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My youngest son checking the work and giving it the "thumbs up" go ahead!

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Front edge welded and gapped.
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  #2  
Old 01-15-2018, 12:50 AM
Peter Tommasini Peter Tommasini is offline
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Well done!
Peter
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Old 01-15-2018, 02:53 AM
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Gojeep Gojeep is offline
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Would be better than any replacement panel anyway.
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Old 01-15-2018, 08:42 AM
Larry4406 Larry4406 is offline
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Nice job!

In the 2nd picture, what is that cool pickup/truck with a club cab and dual axles?
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Old 01-15-2018, 10:20 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry4406 View Post
Nice job!

In the 2nd picture, what is that cool pickup/truck with a club cab and dual axles?

Well that is our elephant in the room!haha. No it’s actually my father’s very long term personal build. However, you know how that goes....you never get time to work on your own projects.

It started life out as a 1956 Ford “Big Job” COE. He added a second cab to make it a crew cab and basically changed everything else on it as well. It was / is always intended to pull his 5th wheel camper.
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Old 01-15-2018, 01:21 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gojeep View Post
Would be better than any replacement panel anyway.
Isn’t that the truth!ha. I always say I wish I was in the aftermarket parts business....you don’t have to worry about fit or quality at all!
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Old 01-15-2018, 10:16 PM
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After the driver's door I moved onto some needed repairs on the passenger quarter panel.

We could see from inside the trunk that the quarter panel had been replaced as we could see the overlapping seam going the full length of the car and could see some damage right behind the door.

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(BEFORE PIC) Once some of the paint was removed at the front of the quarter we could see the original edge of the quarter panel with a replacement panel slid behind it and lap welded. (Nothing like trimming it in a nice straight line at least!ha)

Note the missing areas of metal that were just filled over with body filler.

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(BEFORE PIC) A closer view below the body line and how the separation joint between the quarter panel and rocker panel was welded over for a larger portion of it.

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(BEFORE PIC) A view of just the rocker seam, with more of the seam welded towards the rear wheel opening area.

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Here I've trimmed out the majority of the damaged and poorly repaired area.

I actually used one of my "test" pieces from forming the door skin since I had it and it worked out pretty good, thus why it's a bit too short to go all the way to the top. I'll did portion a bit later.

I've also trimmed it back about an 1/8" from the jamb edge as I wanted to maintain the factor seam in the jamb and it was an easy quick spot to butt weld to in this case.

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To fix the split seam on the rocker panel I decided to replace the full length of it. I bent up a sharp 90 deg, trimmed it to fit the inner structure in a few spots, and punched some holes to plug weld it to the top of the rocker. If you look close at the quarter you can see I trimmed the bottom of the quarter away and cleaned up the previous welds.

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Here's a picture inside the quarter panel looking down at the 90 deg piece and the holes for plug welding it to the rocker. The gold color is weld-thru-primer.

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Here is the patch tacked in. Again as I mentioned this was a scrap "test" piece from making the door skin....repurposed here to save some time and effort.

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Patch and lower patch for rocker fully welded, ground and planished.

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Another view of the repair

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Now to fix the upper portion that that patch was too small to cover. Notice how non-existent the body line that flows into the door is.

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Cut the area out that I needed to shape a patch for.

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New patch shaped up and welded in.

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Now the next issue to address was the lap weld / joint that was going the full length of the quarterpanel.

I trimmed up from the weld as high as I could so I could work with better "unground" metal (it was ground so thin in spots) Basically I took a thin cut-off wheel and cut through both layers of metal (did this in about 10" -12" lengths roughly) clamped them together and welded like a normal butt joint.

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Here you can see an example of splitting a portion of the seam. The amount of "trash" and rust between the two panels was amazing.

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An example of the end results. I eventually worked my way to the rear of the quarter panel until it was all cut and butt welded.
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  #8  
Old 01-15-2018, 10:25 PM
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MP&C MP&C is offline
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Nice job on the repair!
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  #9  
Old 01-16-2018, 05:01 AM
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Amazing what some people think is a good repair. Not going to get any better with some of these network youtube TV type shows which show them doing it exactly the way this old repair was done!
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  #10  
Old 01-16-2018, 08:21 AM
StingRay StingRay is offline
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Everybody that repairs cars starts somewhere. That kind of bodywork was pretty common years ago. It doesn't make it any more desirable today. We need to remember when some of these repairs were done these cars were not nearly as valuable. It's because of these repairs that these cars are still with us today such that they can be made right. That car otherwise back in the day may have ended up at the crusher.
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