Working my way back to front on the right side, I’m going to work next on the rear quarter. The area between the rear wheel arch and the door opening has some bondo there, and the B-pillar and outer rocker panel have rust problems. Hopefully not as bad as on the other side.
I got some help here - my nephew, daughter, and wife pitched in. They like to destroy stuff:
The bondo is thicker here than I anticipated. Once it is off, I can see why:
This part of the panel is pretty beat up as you can see. It has some rust through down low where it meets the outer rocker too. Tape guides my cuts to remove it.
Due to the curvature of the panel, I can’t get my spot weld cutter inside, and I could not see all of the welds anyway. Here I’ve used my panel nibbler to cut across the bottom of the panel.
I also have one of Johnny Wood’s B-pillar cosmetic repair panels, so I decided to take these two off together. No need wasting time separating them.
With that out of the way, more rust is exposed:
Here I have brushed off the worst of the crud, and can see the flange area. You can see these were not spot welded, but were tacked every 2 to 3 inches:
Now it is easy to remove, and reveals more rust between the flange and the outer rocker:
This section of the outer rocker has to be removed to get at the bottom of the B-pillar:
Not quite as bad as the driver’s side, but still bad:
Parts of the outer rocker that were behind the quarter panel here have to be replaced, due to rust:
Now to cut away the rusted bottom portion of the B-pillar:
Behind it, part of the mid rocker is rusted too much to weld on, and has to be cut away also:
Here you can see that rust has even perforated the inner rocker, near the seat belt reel reinforcement. This will be easier to fix from inside the cockpit:
Grinding off the surface rust and spot weld nubs, I am almost done cutting out the bits that can’t be saved.
Next episode, I’ll start shaping new metal and welding it back up. Stay tuned!