Martinsr, I am ready to replace the 1/4s of my 68 velle. I am no stranger to a mig welder or body work, but a novice to this particular indeavor. What would be your advice?, to attempt to butt weld or lap joint? Do you have any faith in weld trough primer? and what about gluing the wheel well area in lieu of plug welding?. I need the advice of an experienced person as I want to do this ony once.

i will ask before he does 1/4 skins? or full 1/4s

These will be 3/4 skins (no sail panels).

Experiance, but more over just opinion. smile.gif And on this subject you will get some heated debates.

Here it is in a nutshell as far as I am concerned. The ENTIRE car is held to together with lap and pinch welds. There is not one single butt weld from the factory on 99.9% of any car made on earth. Yes, there are some European cars with panels made from multiple pieces, I am talkiing 99.9% don't have a single butt weld on them.

However, a butt weld done properly is much better in making a flawless repair. IF you are replacing a section of a part where there was no seam before. Obviously a butt weld finished off on both sides is far superior. A butt weld down the length of a 68 Chevelle is going to be challenging to say the least. I would think about it long and hard, practice a little on some junk, before I tried it. You can practice right now on the quarters that you are going to cut off. Cut a large section off with a sawzall or something that won't distort the metal. Then trim it nice with tin snips (you want left and righthand to get real nice straight lines, and buy NEW, quality ones). Then lay the piece up on the remainder of the quarter, and scrib a line. Trim that line as will with the tin snips so you have a perfect seam when you place the "patch" up to it. Now clamp it in place and weld it.

See how you go. Then understand, making a five foot long seam on a very cumbersome, flimsy piece of sheet metal will be MUCH harder than that practice piece.

If you decide to lap weld it, on the Chevelle there is a natureal place (for that matter it is perfect for butt welding as well). Make the seam right up at the body line, just about one inch below. That way, you would have to stick your head up inside the quarter to see it. Plus, you use the factory body line to give some rigidity to your work.

The weld thru primer is fine, you only put it on the lap area that will be hidden when the metal is layed and welded.

Glueing the wheel well, you bet I would do that. However, when you are using repro metal, all bets are off. You may need to do some serious "massaging" of that area to get it close. It may not leave you with a tight enough fit for gluing.

Thank you MartinSr for your input. Your are correct in what you say about the amount of lap joints in a car.