body work on my 69 / she's finished!/ *UPDATE 5/25 * PICS*

[CB]

quarter fitting

[CB]

1/4is on, itstartsto look like a car again !

[CB]

Doc will tell you guys a bit more about the project.
1 thing is clear: he has the skills and know what he's doing!

Time to think about a flashy color for painting
Suggestions?

[Charger4404spd]

Lookin good CB. You supplying Doc beer

[Doc74]

I'm so glad  I don't have dial up   

Next week we can finish off all the welding and we'll sandblast as much as we can with the small hand blaster to get the gunk out so I can grind the welds without ruining the grinder discs touching that muck .
Better yet...I should have my buddy do it...

The patches available for this repair are two quarter patches, a front floorpan and two trunk extensions so lots of patch making was in order, the ones in the pics are not all of them by the way 

The front needed the pan and as can be seen a small patch above it, no biggie really but as some may know it means the inner fender splash shields are toast, so if someone can help CB with a new or good used set, these are really not worth the repair.
The front crossmember had a booboo at some point and was bent backwards about 3 inches ripping the floorpan here and there, it's straigthened and the floorpan fits quite nicely, no complaints.

The rear had some serious issues, the most amazing part really is the good condition of the center trunk, just about everything around it was rot but not that !
We cut off the edges where the extensions meet and welded on a strengthened edge, no more flexing on that floor now, it felt a bit like a trampoline before.Same will be done to the underside of the wheelwells where they meet the extensions and quarters, they were a bit mooshy .Patches are ready to go in and are made from preformed Mercedes parts so it stays in the family !     
Because it's very costly to buy and ship a rear valance, crossmember and the likes to Belgium we decided to patch it up as best we could and altough it still looks messy it's getting ready to rock&roll again.
The left quarter still needs to be welded to the extension, it's just tacked now and I have to say they didn't line up very well without mods.
We held them together before any trimming and well it's not too great but a bit of hammer and dolly work does wonders so they line up perfectly now.
The rights side is prepped and ready to weld in next week.
The quarter patches are not too bad but the top line curves a lot where as the original fender is fairly flat, this can give some problems since the curve will want to pull on the cut fender and warp it when you weld, patience is key here, so is plenty fitting before you weld anything. Make sure all lines up perfectly so you don't have to hammer that new patch and ruin it . Btw we weld edge to edge .
The quarters are very accessible from the inside in case a dent needs to be hit out so it looks real good and it's damn strong now.It does show some metal fatigue on the long panels and a lot of bondo has been used on it at one stage so we are trying to remove as much as possible and fix the metal itself but we'll see in a week or two to what end it will be resolved, right now it needs it's butt closed up !

After all the prep work the insides will be cleaned, grinded, sanded, etched, primered and a good sound deadener applied. Flexible joint sealer will be used on all non visible welds on floors,and insides.
Meet the new muck, same as the old muck ! But fresher 

Since we can only work saturday's on it, updates will also be a week apart but I'll check when I can if someone has questions....or comment...

[Nacho-RT74]

It looks all around the world we use same body techniques when cut and weld. Right now only difference I noticed that panels overlap was from interior and here mostly of people do it on exterior side.

dial up here but a worthly try

thanks for share.

[Doc74]

It looks all around the world we use same body techniques when cut and weld. Right now only difference I noticed that panels overlap was from interior and here mostly of people do it on exterior side.

dial up here but wothly

thanks for share.

Yeah the same techniques can be found everywhere.
We didn't overlap anything. There's a pic where you see the new edge on the extension, at that point it still needed to be cut, it's welded edge to edge.
Nothing wrong with overlapping or flanging, each his own prefference. Glad to hear dial uppers can see this 

[moparguy01]

Doc you dont know what the hell your talking about















just kidding buddy, looks good.

[Nacho-RT74]

Yeah the same techniques can be found everywhere.
We didn't overlap anything. There's a pic where you see the new edge on the extension, at that point it still needed to be cut, it's welded edge to edge.
Nothing wrong with overlapping or flanging, each his own prefference. Glad to hear dial uppers can see this

Ok now I'm jelous... I would wish My body man would put some extra effort on that... but money talks and I didn't have to much to make it on that way... maybe next time

[mally69]

looking good
what color are you going to paint it

[nh_mopar_fan]

Nice work!

[CB]

more 

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[CB]

damn cold is keeping the guys from painting,gotta wait till it warms up a bit...
update follows

[tan top]

good job  :

[Johnny SixPack]

Looks great CB!

Doc, you got the skillz, man!

[CB]

yep, Doc is the man 

[six-tee-nine]

Hey CB perhaps if you give Doc a "witteke" now and then he won't catch a flu in there.......

Looking very nice tough and i can't wait to meet you guys somewhere, maybe perhaps during this summer Mopar season.....



.......perhaps if yo can translate if anyone asks because i have no idea what a "witteke" or "Jenever" means in English.....

[CB]

''Gin and its Lowlands cousin Genever (Jenever in Belgium) are white spirits that are flavored with juniper berries and so-called botanicals (a varied assortment of herbs and spices).''

heh heh 

[mister bungle]

Goe bezig manne, houwe zo

Good job guys, keep it that way.

[Doc74]

Next update

Me and my colleague who you can see in the first pic are fully on the job again.
We're both very busy, at this time each doing about 3 cars and bikes and doing the charger together
so the last few weeks have been very hectic and work didn't progress as we both have liked it to but you know life, something always comes up you need to take care of first.The weather isn't helping us much either, yesterday it was barely in the positives and our heating is a joke.
Dang those quarters were cold....
As it sits now all that's left to be done welding wise is the rear valance corners, they're weak to say the least so I will cut them up, realign them and make sure they got their strength back.Just as we did in the trunk floor which by the way can hold 4 bodies again safely 
The right quarter needs some small dents removed above the line but nothing major and finish off welding the underside and wheelwell patch.
From there on we're ready for prep so by that time CB you'll have to drop by and tell us what to do with the wavy doors and fenders.
I'd like to strip them and start from the ground up but I can't tell you what I'll find under the bondo, but I can guess...
I took some pics of the drivers side where the quarter meets the rocker...it's gone...
The rocker on the inside has holes too just like the outside, I need to patch that, no way around it but the thing is, there's More bondo on that one spot, than on most complete cars. I'll have to remove it and either save it or just cut it all up towards the bottom bodyline, make a big one piece patch and get that in.
Both quarters had a lot of work done to them prior and it showed, tons of bondo, nasty creases and dents and a missing bottom half...
After some beating and shrinking they're as strong as ever now and straight again, just as we like it.
We're closing in on prepping so I'd like to see some sun and feel some heat now so I can primer this beast.
I'll keep you posted.

Pic 1 has my collegue checking the tension on the panel making sure the strong weld line doesn'tflip outwards creating a line we really don't want, and he digood btw 

Pic 2 shows a black guidecoat out of a spraycan, it's very light to spray and washes of with degreaser so you don't have to miond overspray yet.
It's a very simple and effective way to check for any irregularities in the panel, as it saits now you can just run over with a longblock and you know where you stand, apart from some tiny parking dents this quarter is not bad, not the backside anyway 

Pic 3 and 4 show the bottom of the quarter atached to the extension with screws, these have a small drill on the tip which makes it very easy to get one through two panels, not by hand though, we're not that nuts.
By doing this instead of tackwelding it is that we can get them out and move them around a bit, you can manipulate the extension quite easily using some force, this way we can move it aeround till we're satisfied without having to weld and cut all the time.The resulting holes later are so tiny you can weld them shut in a second.
When all is welded in plqace the botom edges will be trimmed to match the rear valance and be equal all around.
You can see in pic 3 how rough the extensions were made, those flaps are really appaling, luckily all you need to make it purdy is some steel cutters, a hammer and dolly and a welder !