One of the most challenging parts of the car to patch is the rocker and rear quarter panel between the door and the rear wheel opening. In this area, the rear quarter panel was originally spot welded in place covering the rocker panels aft of the door. This left an exposed body seam at the aft lower edge of the door opening that I intended to duplicate. This repair also includes replicating the wheel opening lip, so a lot of thought was put into how to make the repair with metal, not bondo. I decided to use my remaining rocker patch panels from the sedan to patch this area.

The new patch was cut oversized and the old metal cut undersized so the areas could be test fit, marked off, trimmed, and mated together. A lot of time was spent using the air cut off tool to carefully trim the new and old metal for a good fit.

Figure 1

The bottom of the patch was drilled for the plug welds to mate with the bottom edge of the "middle" rocker and inner rocker. This made a nice 3 ply sandwich that replicated the original to my great satisfaction. The top edge was cut to butt weld against the old quarter panel. The forward upper end of patch was tricky as it folded up and over the bottom door opening lip, in an attempt to duplicate the original. The lap seam on the forward end with the rocker panel was drilled for some plug welds to secure the panels together. The extra metal into the wheel opening was left attached for now. Clamped and welded, here it is.

Figure 2

The area above the patch inside the rear wheel opening was not sound. It is always easier to patch between two good panels so I finished the lower patch before cutting away this rust. The inner rear fender was also rusted away in this area so it too was cut out. This picture shows the satisfactory repair of the rocker area with all the layers neatly mating together. (figure 3)

Figure 3

Once welded shut, only I know what’s in there, but it’s good to know Barney is properly repaired.

Figure 4